“Did you do something to me?” The words slipped from her before she had the chance to stop them.
Her twin wouldn’t do something to her without her knowledge, would she?
Syrena hesitated, and the air grew heavy in the room as she looked to Azarian as ifhewas the one with the answers. Finally, her sister faced her once more. “Do you remember what I told you before you lost consciousness? About the cure for velsinyte?”
Esmyra’s eyes flared in confusion and alarm. “Your blood?”
“The blood of any god,” Azarian corrected. “But yes.”
Syrena nodded again, swallowing hard. “We assumed it would be able to neutralize the poison.”
“Assumed?” Esmyra rushed out, her pulse thrashing in her ears.
“But it didn’t work,” Syrena admitted, her voice breaking just a little. “The curse was rooted too deeply. We had waited too long for removal.”
Esmyra’s mind spun with a dizzying mix of hope and dread. Each word from Syrena felt like walking on a blade’s edge.
What could they have possibly done to me?
Syrena met her gaze. “So, we needed to try something else. Something more… desperate.”
“What do you mean?” Esmyra rushed out.
Syrena’s doe eyes softened, a storm of emotions swirling behind their depths. She took a shaky breath, as if what she was about to admit weighed heavily on her.
“I refused to lose you,” she said, her fingers trembling as they reached out to brush a stray lock of hair from Esmyra’s face. “Not again. After everything that’s happened… after all the pain and the darkness. I couldn’t imagine a life without you in it again.”
Her gaze flickered down for a moment, then back up, a raw kind of vulnerability shining through. “You were slipping away from us, and it was tearing me apart. And I knew I would do anything—anything—to keep you here, Esmi.”
A sob slipped from Syrena, a rush of tears falling past her cheeks. “I just got you back.”
Her hand lingered on Esmyra’s cheek, thumb tracing a gentle path as if to reassure both of them, but Esmyra found herself frozen in horror.
“But before I tell you what had to be done, I need you to know I wasn’t just fighting for you. But for the sea too. For everything we’ve lost, for the home we still have because you found your way back to us. Without you we could risk losing Maerinys again and our people.”
“Get up and leave. We must leave,” Kaelypso demanded, and Esmyra’s eyes widened as she pulled away from Syrena.
“No. I need to hear what she says.”
“If anything happens to either of us,” Syrena continued quietly, “this kingdom cannot fall. The sea cannot be left unguarded. We’re its guardians. Its breath and wrath.” She lowered herself to sit at Esmyra’sside on the bed, her gaze unwavering. “We’re gods, yes. But even gods bleed. We’ve seen it. We’vefeltit. Our blood has soaked the stones of this palace.”
“Justtellme,” Esmyra barked, her heart racing so violently she thought it might erupt.
“There’s an old rite. A sacrificial ritual that results in a tethering of lives, binding one’s fates.”
Silence filled Esmyra’s mind then. Even Kaelypso was speechless.
“Syrena, what have you done?”
Tears glimmered at the corners of her eyes. “I couldn’t stand the thought of losing you again. Not like this. So, I made a choice. Theonlychoice.”
Syrena swallowed hard, voice cracking. “When Azarian told me there was one last chance… one last desperate thing we could try, I didn’t hesitate. And now, should one of us fall, the other remains. But more than that: our power stays intact.Neitherof us would truly die but live on within the other. The surface and the depths would still be protected.”
Flashes of memories tore through Esmyra’s mind, fragmented and chaotic. She saw glimpses of flickering moonlight, a talon slicing through flesh as blood welled, and shadows moving just beyond her vision. But each image slipped away before she could grasp its meaning, leaving only horrified confusion in its wake.
Her breath hitched from both frustration and fear as the memories tormented her.
Esmyra blinked rapidly, desperate to hold on to something,anythingthat would make sense of the storm inside her mind. But the pieces refused to come together.
