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Why didn’t Roman stop me? He moved aside deliberately. Like he’d seen my escape route before I took it. He could’ve blocked me, grabbed me, forced me to fight them both. I would have. Gods, I wanted to. And the boy. The young prince stuck to the armoire by my dagger like a forgotten trinket. The king knew I wouldn’t kill him.
I came here to bargain. Instead, I walked out bleeding with answers I never wanted, truths of my fucked-up life. And worse, I may have lost Maddoc forever. He’s in Magda now, in Silas’s hands. Surely he’s being tortured, waiting for me to come back. He went there in hopes of seeing me, making the fatal mistake of giving his heart to someone who never truly deserved it. He must have spoken to someone in Shoreline Village. The king had a hand in this, in getting him to turn back for Magda. Maddoc was nothing but a pawn on the chessboard to them. But to me? My heart feels like it’s snapping in half. He’s my safety blanket. One that wraps around me when I need a break from this cruel, cold world.
By the time I reach Magda, Silas will have narrowed my world to a single choice, my hand delivering the final blow to end Maddoc’s pain. And with it, whatever remains of my humanity. I hate that he might succeed.
Chapter twelve
A Week It Is
The night is mine. The sky cracks open as my wings beat against it, crimson feathers tearing through the clouds. Each gust of salty wind bites at me, urging me to fly faster.
Maddoc’s voice bleeds through the dark. “A week it is, Nes.” Gods, the way he said it like a promise. I never would have thought he’d be torn from my grip. I never thought he could be taken from me. I believed I could control everything: my world, my fate, the people I love. I believed I was untouchable.
I was wrong.
Two of the most powerful men on this side of the world stepped into my life and crushed it without mercy, threatening everything I have ever fought to protect. Now I know the truth.
I am not always in control. After what I just learned, I wonder, Was I ever?
For their arrogance, I will rip their throats out and watch their empires bleed.
The anger strikes again at the mention of the twelve they tricked me into slaughtering. Young. Blood-soaked. Screams crack like glass inside my skull. My wings falter half a beat, almost losing complete control, before I catch myself. Plummeting into the ocean right now would not help anyone.
No. Not now. Focus. The memories of what they made me do stalk me like shadows I can never outfly. I couldn’t control the creature they forged me into. But one thing I remember is Zorren’s face. Saving him, saving me. Finding a piece of myself again in the ruins. Seeing Zorren shattered everything the king and Silas were working toward.
Then Maddoc surges back into my mind like a rising tide, swelling my chest with guilt and longing. The first night he sat across from me, shirt torn by my nails, smiling lazily and recklessly. Sent to strike a deal, to play politics. But we were young, and the connection was magnetic. He always came back. Week after week. Even sick, even tired, he came. He was a constant I took for granted. He was intel and betrayal, warmth and home. He was the one thing that ever felt like mine. The one that constantly chose me over everything.
The wind howls, and I push harder. Tears slowly start to line the bottom of my raven eyes. I push them back and hear Maddoc’s laugh cut through the storm. Low, warm, smooth as bourbon. The thought of him in Silas’s hands, broken, bloody, begging… My chest tightens until my feathers rattle in the storm. I know what Silas is capable of, the pain he can inflict. Maddoc will not go down easily, and for that Silas will push him even further. Anger bubbles up inside me, desperate to be released.
Below, the sea churns, endless and merciless. Like it can feel my emotions and match them. An amethyst-colored fin breaks the surface, slicing the water like a blade. Beautiful and deadly, so huge it could take over islands. It’s very odd to see a sea creature of this size in Jasper’s Ocean. Most sea creatures live in Sapphire’s Ocean, the protected ocean of immortal beings.
A day and a half in the air. A day and a half of storms lashing, wings burning, bones cracking under the weight of the shift. The magic that courses through my veins, my bones, my entire being, drains me of every little bit of energy I have left. Higher, faster, above the clouds, until the air thins to knives in my lungs. I manage to cut half a day from the journey and still, it feels endless. Like I am trapped inside my mind, stuck between the memories of the worst things I have ever done and the one thing I wanted to save.
But then, Magda. Her outline is dark against the horizon. My world, my curse, my battlefield. Exhaustion drags through me, but it doesn't matter. Because somewhere in Magda, Maddoc Brine is waiting.
Alive or half-dead, I don’t know. But I know one thing with every beat of my wings—Silas has left him for me. The final blow is mine to strike.
The shoreline pulls me like a hook through flesh, dragging me down to where something floats at the seam of black sand and saltwater. The sunset bleeds over the beach in streaks of pink and orange, painting death in beautiful colors.
I bank hard, wings straining, and drop low into the cover of the trees. Branches claw at me as I land, shifting back into my skin, every bone aching from the flight.
I start praying to all the gods that I can think of that it’s just some drunken pirate, drowned in his own stupidity, cast up by the tide. That it’s anyone else.
But I smell the blood first. Thick. Metallic. Heavy on the air, choking me before I even step out of the brush.
“No…” My voice breaks. I stumble forward, the sand shifting under my boots.
No.
No.
No.
The scent hits me like a wave, pine and salt beneath the stench of blood. Maddoc. His body lies broken where the tide meets the sand, skin torn, ribs jutting out sharp as snapped blades. His chest rises once, with a laborious breath. He’s barely alive.
Chapter thirteen
My Love
