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“Unless you’re found guilty and sentenced again to eternal reincarnation,” Hugo added.
I turned around to face the king.
“Can you tell me about the Trials?” I asked. “It’s a blood trial, isn’t it? Is it the same ritual Henrik did on me the first time? Because even though it wasn’t that bad, it was still quite uncomfortable—”
The king raised his hand to stop me, matting his eyebrows. “What do you mean, the first time? Who’s Henrik?”
I looked at Luc and Jacques momentarily. Jacques had one eye squinted, as if he was somehow suspicious and confused at the same time. Luc chewed his lip and turned his head away before I could see his full expression.
“H-he’s the first mate of the ship, Your Majesty,” I replied, suddenly nervous. “The reason I was brought aboard the ship was to point them toward the Eros. They slit my arm to open the spiritual world and take them to…well, here.”
I showed him the faint scar on my arm from where Henrik had cut me open so many months ago. The king touched myarm with a soft, gentle hand, looking at the mark with alarm. He motioned for Jacques to come and look as well.
“What do you see?” the king asked him.
Jacques stared at my arm for a long moment, eventually shaking his head.
“Nothing,” he said. “Her blood has been sacrificed, but I can’t see any of her marks until after the Trials in the spiritual realm.”
I stared at both of them blankly. “Um…I’m sorry?”
Jacques ignored me and raised his head to turn to Luc.
“Luc,” he commanded. “Explain this to me.”
Luc gave a calculated exhale, licking his lips before speaking.
“Captain Adrian’s heart was set on finding the Eros,” Luc said. “And his brother, Henrik, is an astrologer who figured out that the way to reopen the spiritual world again was to sacrifice the blood of a descendant of one of the Guardians.”
I still didn’t understand some of that, but I didn’t interrupt.
“The Guardians were released from their duties nearly three hundred years ago,” the king said. “That must have been quite a task to track down.”
Luc glanced at me before shaking his head. “It wasn’t difficult. I already had found Esmeralda by the time we started to set sail.”
I blinked at him, not understanding. “What do you mean…youfound me?”
He paused, starting to speak, but pausing again before he actually did so.
“I was the one who traced your lineage,” Luc said. “I knew the spiritual realm had been divided for too long, and I wanted to help put it together again. So I tracked you down and gave that information to the captain as insurance to be brought aboard with the rest of the crew.”
“Clever,” Jacques commented. “I’m sure your charmspeak helped as well?”
Luc nodded. “I was able to convince them not to hurt Esmeralda for her blood, but I hadn’t expected the captain to take her hostage. I suppose I should have stayed with him for the mission, but how could a cook ask to tag alongside the captain? When they brought her aboard, I was able to convince Adrian to make Esmeralda my assistant, so at least I could keep my eye on her.”
I was hearing the words, but nothing was processing.
“I didn’t realize she was an incarnate right away,” Luc continued. “Not until she refused to respond to my charmspeak. Henrik resisted at first, too—due to his background in astrology and alchemy, I suppose—so I thought it was simply another challenge for my power.”
“Get to the point,” Jacques said. “What’s the deal with this scar?”
“It isn’t difficult,” Hugo interjected, causing us all to face him. “Her human body is a bloodline descendant of one of the Guardians, while her spirit is an incarnate of one of our sirens.”
“What a fantastically miraculous coincidence!” Vito added.
“Miraculous indeed,” the king agreed, smiling in satisfaction. “If it wasn’t for Luc, you might have never known who you were, Esmeralda.”
I glanced at Luc, but he looked away.
