Draevyn didn’t respond. He only held his ground, flames flickering in his hands, eyes boring into hers as his chest rose and fell.
Esmyra’s lips pulled back, exposing her canines. “You won’t even try?” Her breaths came sharp through her teeth. “You’repathetic.”
Draevyn’s gold-flecked eyes met hers, dark with something unreadable. “I won’t fight you.”
The words had her rage swallowingher whole.
“You don’t get to choose that!” She wouldn’t allow him to rob her of anything else.
Her magic swarmed up from the floor, circling and encasing his body like she had with Atlas. Only Draevyn remained entirely still.
“Are you here to kill me, Wildfire?” Fire spiraled in gold ribbons around Draevyn’s arms, turning the water to steam that should’ve melted flesh from bone.
Esmyra’s jaw ticked, averting her gaze to the floor.
“Look at me!” Draevyn demanded, and she loathed that she instantly obeyed. “A part of me already died that day beneath the sea. The day I saw it in your eyes that I lost you.”
Her pulse thundered, her vision swimming with fury and grief.
“You don’t get to say that, Phoenix,” she bellowed, the echo of her voice shaking the room. Lightning danced along her arms, waiting to strike.
“Tell me the lies she told you!” Draevyn boomed. “Tell me what Syrena claimed happened that day.”
Her chest seized, hands shaking at her sides. “She didn’t need to tell me anything! I saw it with my own eyes. I saw how your hands were on her. Heard my sister’s whimpering moans as your lips were all over her, still swollen from kissing my own!”
She could still see them in the back of her mind no matter how much she tried to will the image away. His hands tracing the same curving paths of Syrena’s body they’d once traced on her.
Every breath felt heavy, searing her throat as she held back tears. “And then youleft!”
Esmyra’s eyes slammed shut, and the water wavered, rippling with her heartache as the visions kept flashing in her mind. She barely realized her power released Atlas’s throat as his body tumbled to the floor below.
“Don’t be weak. Don’t falter now,” Kaelypso begged.
Her jaw locked as she finally forced herself to meet his stare again. “And yes, Draevyn. That’sexactlywhy I'm here…” Esmyra’s head tilted to the side as she steadied her racing heart. “To kill you.”
Her hands shot out, and a spear of seawater surged toward Draevyn’s chest, sharp as a harpoon.
And then—BANG.
Pain tore through her arm.
The force spun her body, the deadly strike aimed for Draevyn veering off course. It slammed into the structure behind him, shattering the stone and sending cracks splintering up the walls.
Esmyra hissed, clutching her arm where the bullet grazed her skin. Blood trickled between her fingers, the lightning in her veins sputtering out.
“What the fuck?” she whispered, eyes wide as she stared at her wound. A bullet had grazed her, somehow tearing through her skin. And then several tiny web-like black markings formed before dissolving.
Velsinyte.
“Atlas, no!” Draevyn’s voice echoed.
Esmyra’s gaze snapped toward the prince, who was still sprawled on the ground, a pistol aimed at her in hand as smoke evaporated before its barrel.
For a moment, everything stilled.Her vision blurred at the edges as something dangerously close to doubt crept in. Pain raged through her body, burning through every nerve and breath as her godly power channeled all its energy to healing.
Her eyes widened as she watched the wound expel the onyx curse from her veins and quickly mend itself closed.
That’s new.
