Page 34 of The Endless One

“Making up stories in your head for all the people surrounding you?” Elric’s voice broke through her thoughts.

She glanced to her left, not surprised to see he had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Making all the sailors start telling tales about old legends again?”

“Sailors work best when they are superstitious.” Her god walked up to her with his hands in his pockets, a stiff breeze ruffling his hair. He looked so handsome. The salty air tousled his dark locks in a way that made her want to run her fingers through them and make them even more messy.

“From what I’ve heard, the captain would prefer it if you didn’t do that to his sailors. They have a hard time focusing when you’re on deck.” She grinned. “I think if you give them a proper reason to believe you are a god, then they’ll be even harder to control.”

“I do believe you are a bad influence on me.”

“Ah, some people might say that. Others might claim I am simply providing you the outlet to be who you are na—natur—” She pressed her hand against her mouth, trying desperately to hold the vomit in before she spewed all the meager breakfast she’d managed to eat.

Elric immediately reached for her, pressing his cool hand against the back of her neck and steering her back to the edge of the ship. “Look at the land.”

“I’ve been looking at the land,” she grumbled before gagging over the side of the ship.

She would not lose all the food in her stomach. She wouldn’t. But it was so hard to do when the waves rolled the ship up and over them, and it felt like her stomach was already pressed into the back of her throat.

“Easy,” he murmured, rubbing her back with those cool hands. “It’s going to be fine, nightmare. We’re nearly there, anyway.”

“I think that’s part of the problem,” she whispered. “I don’t know what we’re going to find when we get there. What if there’s nothing left?”

Her entire life had been spent preparing to take over this kingdom and run it as her own. And then she’d died. Still, she hadn’t been willing to give up on the dream that this place would be hers, and she’d fought tooth and nail to get back to it. Jessamine had clawed her way out of her very grave to gain access to her throne once again, and now what?

Now she wasn’t even sure that would be possible. A kingdom was nothing but a hollow ground if there weren’t people in it to make it flourish.

Elric stared at Inverholm with her. Already they both could tell it wasn’t normal. There were no smokestacks from the Factory District, which always started first thing in the morning. The Water District was silent. Usually she’d be able to hear the churning sound of all the purification plants that turned the sea into drinking water.

It was like the entire city was holding its breath. As though it were waiting for her to return so that she could make the choice of what would happen to everyone within it.

“What happens if they’re all infected?” she asked. “What should we do if there isn’t a single person left in Inverholm that still has a soul to keep their body reasonable?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because that’s our reality, isn’t it?”

Elric nodded, his hand squeezing the back of her neck. “Most likely. I believe that Ajax’s spell was meant to take more souls. He’s likely torturing them even now.”

She steadied herself for what she was about to ask him. “When we first met, you made a deal with me, Deathless One. You said you would help me get my throne back in exchange for the destruction of my kingdom. Did you know this was going to happen?”

“I didn’t.”

“But you asked for me to destroy everything I loved in return for a throne.”

“At the time, I believed I was asking you to give up all your morals. You would have to become a witch, sacrifice many things to raise a deathless god, and then eventually learn how to love magic because you would need to be by my side always. I never thought it would come to this.” His hands left her neck, leaving a cool spot on her skin as he joined her, leaning against the side of the ship.

Elric’s hands dangled over the railing, and she couldn’t stop staring at his fingers. The thick veins on the back of them usually trapped her attention, but it was more than that now. It was the scars that decorated the tips. The choices he’d had to make that had marred his skin forever. What torture had he survived, trying to make the right, albeit hard, choices as a god?

“Jessamine?” he asked, his voice once again breaking through the thoughts that trapped her so easily.

She cleared her throat and shook her head. “We need to be in Inverholm. The coven is all we have left, and we cannot fight Leon in his own kingdom. He has too many opportunities to overtake us. We have to have a safe place to rest at night without constantly fearing we’ll be found.”

“I’d hazard a guess that you’re right. At least in Inverholm there is a much smaller risk that he will find us.” Elric tilted his head, cracking his neck. “But it is not impossible that Ajax will lead them here if we stay. He won’t want to give up that easily. If he has his eyes set on you to be the Huntress, then… well…”

“Why do you think he wants me specifically?” She had her own theories, but Elric was his brother.

He shrugged. “You have already dealt with gods. That makes you more susceptible to the magic that he’ll want to put inside of you. But I suspect it has to do with the fact that you beat him. You escaped, and he doesn’t like anything that makes his ego sting.”

That made sense. The God King was the embodiment of male pride, it seemed.