Her eyes were red-rimmed and her lips were so far cracked, she was past the point of dehydration.
It was how all Dahes’ prisoners in his castle were—barely alive.
I wanted to fill the deafening silence. I wanted to ask Dahes what was about to happen and why he needed another prisoner, but I didn’t. I held my tongue, forcing myself to hold back my burning questions,and focused on my breathing while I watched the waves churn over the castle floor.
A single fish swam beneath us, caught between the massive ocean and the ruined stones. So close to freedom, but trapped by its own damnation. It felt symbolic.
“You’re fidgeting,”Dahes’ voice filled my head. I turned to find him already staring at me, assessing, watching.
I swallowed, trying to think over how I was expected to respond. I couldn’t calm myself down. I felt myself spiraling on the inside, my lungs and heart in a silent battle for which organ could pound against my chest the hardest, and it was slowly creeping outside my body. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I couldn’t make myself numb, couldn’t hide the sheer terror that was bubbling inside me.
An image flicked between us, saving me from responding. A projection—that must have been why he brought the prisoner. Realization dawned on me—she was a Wielder.
“Always so bright,”he murmured, my mind still open to him.“Now watch.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Duty
HAEL
It had taken everything in me not to have sex with Magnolia in the cabin. Every instinct, every fiber of my body screamed at me to finalize our bond. I planned to tell her about it, needing her to know everything before she agreed to take things further.
An Eclipsis bond was for life, just like a Vinculum was. I wasn’t entirely sure what it would do, but if it was similar to the bond with dragons, I knew it would connect us to the point where we couldn’t take it back.
And I wanted it. Wanted her. All of her.
I just needed her sober to do it, needed to make completely sure she actually wanted it, but the moment I woke up in my cabin, I was alone.
She was fucking gone.
Fear ignited a hole in my chest that was ripping me apart from the inside out as I searched the entire stretch of beach along the Drattini coast. Aura found me not long after, immediately knowing what was wrong. We flew over every fucking inch of Viven multiple times, and I still couldn’t find a trace of her.
I even had Jaxs look into the oceans—both the Drattini and the Triovian—with his Caerulus, terrified that maybe she was dragged outto sea, even though I felt in my bones she was still alive. The strings were tugging at me, I just couldn’t fucking figure out where.
I was going insane, but I didn’t care. Nothing else mattered except for her?—
“Elion demanded your presence in the throne room,” Jaxs said as he met me by the border of Inyaerille.
“I don’t fucking care?—”
“Hael, you need to care. You’re going to get yourself killed if you keep ignoring him.”
“I can’t find her,” I said, my voice rising. “It’s been five days and?—”
“I know,” he cut me off, his gaze softening to sympathy which I fucking hated. “I’ll keep looking for her,” Jaxs said. “This doesn’t mean we’ll stop, but you need to go.”
I hesitated, still not convinced to stop. Aura and I hadn’t slept, hadn’t stopped flying, just kept searching every inch of land to no avail. We even flew over the Valdern and Black Sands, but still I found nothing.
“Hael, you can’t help her if you’re dead, and if you keep ignoring your duties, Elion is going to kill you.”
I grunted, frustration coursing through me as I felt so fucking helpless. I brought her to the cabin to protect her…
“I’ll look for her while you’re gone, then after you find out what Elion wants, we can search together.”
“Okay,” I said, hating myself for it. Elion could go to fucking hell for all I cared, but Jaxs was right. He was going to kill me if I ignored his call.
Fuck, I hated him.
