Page 56 of The Song of the Void

“That damn collar is still on her,” Vaetrik growled.

“I told you, you won’t have to worry about it for much longer…Don’t fucking shoot him again, Captain,” Shaddan replied.

The rest of Vaetrik’s pirate crew cocked their pistols and lifted their cutlasses at the source of the thud behind me, but Vaetrik raised his hand to stay their weapons. A triumphant smile spread across his face.

I lifted my head and my heart dropped like a stone in a pond.

Reiven released the rope he had used to alight on the ship railing, lazily pointing his sword at the pirates. He raised his free hand to his earring. “Do it, kid.”

I closed my eyes, but it couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds. And when I opened them again—the sky was dark. It had been just after sunrise a moment ago. But now stars sparkled in the sky, taunting me with their gentle glow. And as for the Maiden of Blue, she had disappeared. There wasn’t even a glimpse of her creamy sails on the horizon.

Vaetrik and Shaddan caught on a moment faster than I did. “Fucking Timebreaker,” Shaddan muttered.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared up at Reiven, now alone on a ship full of pirates who would kill him without a thought. The only thing keeping him alive was the lethal binding between us, and Vaetrik would only torture him until he figured out that Reiven couldn’t release it. Rei wasn’t a fool. He had to know that. But his face was set with determination and the complete lack of fear that was so characteristic of him. It bordered on madness.

“Rei…no,” I whispered.

“Sorry, Blue,” he said softly, tossing his cutlass overboard to splash into the inky waves below. “You’re stuck with me.” He raised his hands in surrender as Vaetrik nodded for some of his men to seize Reiven and bind his arms.

“Please, please just bring him back,” I whispered, staring blankly through the iron bars that caged me in the hold.

Vaetrik had redecorated the space since he first kidnapped me six years ago. It had been nothing but storage then, filled with barrels of rum and crates of supplies. He had kept me chained to the wall for the entire trip across the sea to Arvensis, though now he didn't chain me in that way. I was simply stuck in a cage.

I hadn't moved from my spot huddled on the floor in the back corner of my cell closest to Reiven's beside me. The manacles they used on him whenever they finally dragged him back dangled from the ceiling, breaking the crushing silence with metallic clinking. I wasn't exactly sure what they were doing when they took him for hours every day, but the lantern flickering on a barrel outside my cell allowed me to see the blood drying on his clothes, the bruises on his face. He was usually too exhausted and in pain to talk much before passing out. Meanwhile, I sat here uselessly, frustrated at my inability to do anything to help him, and thoroughly confused at Vaetrik's new obsession with torturing him.

Pain pulsed through my fist as I weakly slammed it into the floor, but I was glad just to feel something. We had only been aboard the End for two days, though it felt like years. Since I was mostly left in solitude, I had more than enough time to agonize over Ash and Calinia and the crew of the Maiden.

Calinia had reached out to me to let us know that the Maiden had taken some damage, but most of the crew was unharmed. She was unconscious for a day after Shaddan knocked her out with that cannonball. Ashkade had taken good care of her.

As for Ash…She said he was beside himself with worry. He was without his best friend and protector, and Rei was stuck here, tortured and beaten. From the snippets of their “conversations” Rei would tell me, it sounded a lot like Vaetrik intended to bind me to him, to keep me from ever escaping him again. Shaddan could probably manipulate the enchantment of the collar to do so, but they still needed Reiven to deactivate it first. Even worse, with the knowledge of the Voidtome’s location and a Siren who knew the Song, Vaetrik could probably steal the Tome out from under Shaddan’s nose.

The familiar clatter of the door made me jump, as the ugly, hawk-nosed pirate who guarded us hauled Reiven down the stairs and chained him back up in his cell, before locking it and throwing me a sneer. I hugged my knees and hid my face in my skirt until he left, keys jingling at his hip as he slammed the door behind him.

The moment he was gone, I strained uselessly through the bars that our cells shared. “Rei, please, try to come closer. I can take away the pain if you just⁠—”

He barely turned to face me, arms forced high above his head by the manacles. His dark hair appeared even darker. Wet, dripping onto his bruised face. He opened his mouth to speak, but only coughed and sputtered, unable to catch his breath. My heart sunk even further into the depths of the sea beneath the End.

They were drowning him.

Reiven finally caught his breath and managed a hoarse whisper. “Sorry, Blue. You know we can't reach each other.”

Of course I knew. We had attempted several times to touch each other through the bars, but with his arms chained so, he couldn’t move an inch. The hope that maybe this time it would work had me begging him to try every opportunity we had, and I was just about ready to dislocate my arm if it meant touching him. For now, I settled for leaning against the bars, scanning him for new injuries.

His lower lip was cracked and bloody, and the sight only reminded me how soft his lips were when he kissed my palm a few nights ago. The skin around his right eye was blackened, and the lacerations on his jaw, cheeks, and brow had started bright red, but faded into a sickly purple hue. His clothing had coppery-brown stains here and there where blood had dried.

But for some stupid reason, while I stared at him with worry and guilt, he gave me a weak smile. “You alright?” he asked.

“I haven't even seen Vaetrik. Nobody's touched me since we got here.”

“Don't sound so pissed off.”

My lips tightened into a thin line. I was what Vaetrik was after. I was his prize, so the fact that he took his time torturing Reiven, yes, pissed me off. Why couldn't he just go back to treating me as his pet and leave Reiven alone⁠—

A hint of an idea glimmered in that thought, but I filed it away for later. I wanted to focus on Reiven while I had him conscious. He still wore that idiotic smile, so I almost thought he had lost his mind from the torture.

“Ash spoke to me. Said they had the Maiden as repaired as they can get her, and that they’re trying to come up with a plan to come save us.” He devolved into a fresh coughing fit, and when he finally stopped, his breaths rattled in his chest. “I couldn’t respond to tell him not to. I was busy. Kid started getting emotional, saying he missed us and that I better make contact with him soon so he can stop worrying.”

Ashkade was probably afraid Reiven was dead, since he wasn’t getting a response. I shut my eyes tightly, trying to imagine never getting to see our sweet farm boy again. “I’m so sorry. I know he’s like your little brother. I can’t imagine how hard it is for you to be away from him.”