Draevyn began mapping out the halls of the castle in his mind, already picturing the guards at their posts, imagining how he would slip past them and make his way back down to the dungeons undetected. The tithe would be the perfect day to break out the crew.
Atlas and Elowynne likely thought he would play along and be patient, but he had no intention of waiting.
Somethingwas coming. Whether it was Esmyra or Kaelypso, he wasn’t sure. Regardless, he knew it was deadly. And Draevyn prayedto all those wretched gods he wasn’t too late to reach her and make her realize the truth.
Three days.
Three days to prepare.
Three days until he set everything in motion.
CHAPTER 8
Esmyra
The Night Wraithgroaned like a dying beast, its splintered onyx timbers creaking as they shifted against the rolling waves. It should’ve been at the bottom of the sea still, rotting away beneath the pressure of the water, but Esmyra hadwilledit back.
She dragged her ship up from the abyss like a ghost of vengeance. No wind filled its shredded sails, and no hands guided its wheel. It was only her power, coiling through the sea, that carried it forward.
She stood at the bow, her fingers curling over the splintered railing as the wind howled around her. The ruined ship cut through the water like a phantom, moving with unnatural grace despite the gaping holes in its hull and the jagged remains of its masts. It was dead, yet it sailed, mimicking the name it had always borne:The Night Wraith.
Esmyra felt similar to the vessel—like something torn between life and death, something hollowed out and rebuilt with nothing but sharp, jagged edges.
Her gaze burned toward the horizon, toward the kingdom that had taken everything from her. Her father’s blood had been spilled on Lephyrin’s soil, and their king’s hands were stained red with crimes he thought would go unpunished.
Esmyrawantedthem to see her coming. Not only that, but shewanted to make a statement with the ghost of Blackwood’s ship while she was at it.
She imagined them all standing on the cliffs and the harbor walls, watching in dread asThe Night Wraithcut through the waves. She craved their panicked shouts, the sharp clang of bells ringing through the port as they realized what was approaching. No flag, no oars dipping into the water, no living crew standing at the helm.
Only the wreck of a ship and the god who had raised it from the grave.
“You’re shaking,” Kaelypso said, her voice slithering through Esmyra’s mind. “Your heart beats like prey.”
“Because Draevyn broke my trust,” Esmyra whispered aloud, her voice trembling.
“Love is the sharpest of blades,” Kaelypso said. “It seems both Irah and his heir know exactly where to place its edge.”
Esmyra let out a hate-filled laugh that more resembled a huff. “How fucking poetic.”
Silence stretched for several moments before the goddess continued, “What is the outcome you wish for?You’re already what he made you, as I am what Irah made me. They carved out our hearts and left us bleeding on stone floors.”
Esmyra’s jaw clenched. “I want justice for what’s been done.I want?—”
“No,” Kaelypso cut her off. “I know your heart. I’ve seen what lies in your soul.”
“And what’s that?” Esmyra’s lip curled in irritation.
“You want vengeance. You want them to suffer just as you have,” Kaelypso said simply.
Esmyra’s lips parted, loathing how easily the goddess read her. “And you don’t?”
“I want them toremember,” she admitted. “We will make them all pay for what they’ve done. For what they’ve forced the realm to forget. And if we burn, we burn together. They will answer to the Goddesses of the Depths.”
Goddesses. A sharp grin curled at the edges of her lips.
A thick mist unfurled around her, spilling out like grasping fingers as it bled into the sea. Esmyra felt betrayed in every sense of the word, and now the world would answer to Kaelypso. And, together, they would show them what it meant to truly drown.
After three long days at sea, Lephyrin came into view. Esmyra listened for the echoes, expecting the kingdom to be alive with the hum of merchants and nobles alike as it always was. But it was quiet.
