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Her tone washed all the teasing and warm comfort of the morning from me. “What trouble?”
“Pirates sighted. They’re heading for the caves farther north, but they harass travelers at times.”
“Pirates.” The hallways sat in shadows, the white walls nearly gray. Then a thought hit me. “Jessamine.”
Could it be a coincidence? I didn’t know. But if she planned to dupe my team—or worse, harm them—I couldn’t let her reach the water. She far surpassed our abilities on the sea, and I’d never get those fucking heart stones back. Plus, Neia might need me. Fuck. I wasn’t even sure how long we’d been here in the sirens’ territory.
“Is everything all right?” Rainoe asked.
“No. I must leave; my team may need me.”
Her mouth gaped. “You haven’t fully recovered yet.”
“That’s a problem I’ll have to deal with later.” I touched the seam of the pants. “Where are my clothes?”
CHAPTERTHIRTY
NEIA
Orman surged forwardand slammed his shoulders into the bars of the cage for the hundredth time. It didn’t even shudder. “Fuck,” he growled. I could only see him because his eyes and zevar both glowed, the rest of the cavern remained intensely dark as slips of Orman’s light reflected on the bars. “Should have seen the fucking trap. I was too damn focused on finding the heart stones.” He clutched the pouch holding both of them. “Rookie ass move.” He raised his voice. “And may the devil have a bastard pirate’s soul.”
“It’s not your fault,” I said. Elisa clutched my fingers as she leaned up from the bars she rested against. We’d both given up attempting to escape. There wasn’t a lock on the cage for Elisa to pick. It worked on sheer size and weight. A crude but effective method. And if Orman couldn’t budge it, the two of us trying was hopeless.
The anxiety that had pooled in me throughout the long night seemed to escape in a rush, leaving me exhausted. I leaned my head back and stared at the bars at the top of the cage. I could only make out the sections where the light of Orman’s zevar reflected. Maybe Elisa could fit between those bars. She could climb out of the top.
What would Elisa do, though? Even if she escaped—and agreed to leave us which seemed unlikely—she might get caught trying to make it out. Damn, we’d followed Jessamine into a flawless trap, and it pissed me off on principle because we’d never been bested like this.
We couldn’t sit around and wait for Sai to stumble into her web as well. I had to come up with a plan. Right as I was about to suggest that Elisa should attempt to squeeze between the bars a sparkle of magic burst in front of her. I pulled a blade off my belt before I could blink. A thrush fluttered in front of her, and she snagged the letter it carried and peeled it open. “It’s Sai,” she whispered. “He’s heard we’re in trouble.”
I parted my lips to reply.
Oh good,I would have said.
Except Elisa whimpered and her voice cut off. The glimmer of light the thrush gave off illuminated the sharp edge of a blade under her jaw. It wasn’t held against her neck in an inexperienced manner, the kind where I could rush forward and knock the weapon free without hurting her.
The tip of the blade pressed against the artery under her jaw.
The same spot I’d kissed a thousand times and felt her heartbeat patter against my lips.
Horror rippled through me and froze my muscles. I’d spent the last five years fighting and working as hard as a human could to find the heart stones and become a fae so I could spend hundreds of years with Elisa. One slash of that knife and those plans were ash. I’d pushed us to continue helping Sai with that aim in mind. If it cost me Elisa, I’d never recover.
Orman released a hiss of a breath.
Jessamine stood outside the bars but had reached through them and jerked Elisa closer, slamming her head back against the metal. Elisa clenched her eyes shut. I jumped forward but stopped as Jessamine pressed the knife harder against her neck. “It’s time for you to listen to me carefully, Elisa.”
Orman’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a fucking Schattenwanderer.”
Jessamine didn’t respond to him, instead keeping her attention on me. She knew I would be the one who influenced the decision Elisa made.
I only knew what a Schattenwanderer—a shadow walker—was because Sai had once spent an entire monsoon season attempting to figure out that aspect of his Froh-inherited powers. It frustrated him to have so much access to shadow magic without the revered and rare ability to blend into shadows and travel undetected through them.
Now it made sense why Orman hadn’t seen her coming, and how Luz didn’t sense whatever happened to them. Jessamine could disappear into darkness and this cave was one enormous shadow.
I couldn’t think about that with the way Jessamine held Elisa, though. Her knife barely grazed her skin, but it would only take one swift jerk—a motion her muscled, trained arms could easily make—to brutally end her life.
“Write Sai back and tell him to follow my instructions,” Jessamine said, “and I’ll let you go, no harm done.”
Elisa looked at me, and my stomach dropped. Whatever instructions Jessamine wanted us to give would lead Sai into as crafty a trap as we’d come into.If you had to choose me or Sai, who would it be?Elisa’s words rang through my mind.
