“Maerinys hasrisen, Jenli,” Jak chimed in as he leaned against the wall. He nodded to Esmyra with his chin. “Listen to her.”
Draevyn watched Jenli as her eyes went wide, her mouth opening slightly before she took a single step back. Her gaze drifted from Esmyra’s face to her body and back up again. And then her expression slackened, her focus seeming to blur as if she were looking through Esmyra entirely.
“No,” she whispered. “That’s… impossible.”
Draevyn’s brows furrowed. “Believe me, we thought so too.”
Esmyra snorted. “Everyone believed the goddesses were long dead or lost. Me included. Meanwhile, I’ve had one living inside me the last thousand years.”
Esmyra went into detail of everything they had endured over the last several months, bringing in bits of her childhood and past aboardThe Night Wraithto try and help Jenli understand. Draevyn couldn’t help but notice her leaving out the specifics of what happened between them thanks to Syrena. All she said of her sister was they were no longer on speaking terms, and she wasn’t to be trusted.
Draevyn was desperate to know what happened between them, desperate to know what her sister could’ve done that was so terrible that it had brought her back to him. Neither of them had wanted to talk about what they had been through. Not after they discovered what Atlas had done.
They spent their nights holding each other in silence. And when she would finally fall asleep in his arms, he would lay awake, staring at her perfect face as his heart twisted a thousand ways, knowing they could very well be on borrowed time.
“Well, first things first,” Jenli started. “We have to get it out.” She was moving a moment later, her hands a flurry of motion as she ran to a long, rectangular table in the far corner of the room, sweeping aside jars and scrolls, sending them all crashing to the floor.
“Wait, what?” Jak asked, brows furrowing. “You meannow? We need a plan first.”
“It’s in herspine,” Draevyn growled, watching her. “You can’t just rip it out like a fucking splinter!”
“If we wait too long, it won’t matter. It’ll take root, if it hasn’t already.” Jenli turned, dragging the heavy wooden table to the center of the room with a grunt. “The longer it stays in her, the more it merges with her body. And even then, I don’t think it would be enough.”
Esmyra didn’t move. She just stared at the table with her teeth caught on her bottom lip.
Something’s wrong.
Draevyn stepped up beside her, his hand instinctively brushing her lower back, just below the cursed markings. “What is it?”
“Jenli’s right.” Her voice was quiet. “I don’t know if anything you do will work.”
The room went still.
“What do you mean?” Jak asked warily, his brows knitting.
Esmyra inhaled sharply, eyes flicking between them. “There’s something I haven’t told you. Truthfully, I was just hoping that if I ignored it, it would go away. But it seems I was only drawing out the inevitable.”
Her gaze halted on Draevyn and dread swirled in his gut. Heknewshe had been keeping something from him.
She swallowed. “When I fled Lephyrin after Draevyn helped me escape, I didn’t survive it alone. The velsinyte could’ve killed me then. Or turned me into whatever kind of wraith I’m becoming now.” She gestured to herself.
“Esmyra, stop it.” The words left Draevyn in a whisper.
She whirled on him, her lip curling back. “Stop it? Stopwhat, Drae?! This is the reality of what’s happening. I’m dying. Or my body is. I see it. Iknowyou see it, and I’m shocked the crew has been silent regarding it. It’s plain as day, and we can’t keep pretending that’s not exactly what’s going to happen.”
Draevyn stiffened, his heart ready to erupt. “If you had no trust in being able to be healed, then why are we here, Esmyra?” He couldn’t help the sharpness in his tone.
Her nostrils flared, but her eyes softened a moment later. “All of Rymelle is after us. I had to get you all some place safe, at least until we could form a better plan. And if the two of you”—she gestured to Draevyn and Jak—“believed that coming here could also help me, then I knew I had to play into it.”
Jak stepped forward, hurt evident in his eyes. “Why do you think it’s not possible? Let’s start there.”
Draevyn watched Esmyra as she searched for what to say, and when she lifted a shaky wrist, her eyes fell to the mark she refused to talk about on the ship.
“I had managed to carve the bullets out of my wounds, but I didn’t know how to get the poison out. When I finally made it back to Maerinys, I collapsed.” She let out a shuddering breath. “I woke up in the healers’ wing of the castle, and Syrena and Azarian were there.”
Draevyn’s stare darted back and forth between hers and the twin serpents on her wrist. “What the fuck did they do to you?”
The veins in Esmyra’s neck strained, her eyes turning glassy as if she were holding back tears. But after a long moment of silence, she shrugged, and that look of terror was gone as quickly as it came. “They healed me.”
