Page 71 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)
KASTIAN, PRESENT
“ M aybe you should take it easy for a minute,” Jett says, without even a hint of his usual smile.
I’ve been awake for barely five minutes, and already the pain of the last several days is starting to feel like a distant memory. Like a nightmare that happened to someone else, rather than the thing that nearly killed me.
The thing that did kill me-—at least, I think it did. I don’t know what else it could mean that my heart felt as if it stopped beating.
“You nearly died,” Jett adds, clearly thinking along the same lines that I am. “Just wait a second before you run off and try to die again.”
His eyes widen and he seems to remember at the same time as I do that’s not going to happen. I’m not going to die again…ever.
Thinking about it is too much, so I don’t. I shove the idea to the back of my mind and turn to look around the dungeon. “Where are we?”
“Under the castle,” Jett answers.
“I knew it. But then, how did you find me?”
“That woman came and found us.”
“Lyra?”
“Yeah,” Jett says, still frowning. I’m not sure if his expression is due to worry over me, or something to do with Lyra.
“I thought she was mad,” Connell interjects. “If it had been up to me we wouldn’t have come after you…no offense, mate.”
I look over, narrowing my eyes at the pirate, who is leaning against the wall looking slightly winded. As I watch, he slides down the dark stone wall to sit on the floor, and I notice for the first time that he’s not bound with the belt anymore. When did that happen?
I turn to Jett. “You let him go?”
Jett shakes his head. “Not exactly, but we’ve come to an understanding.”
My brow furrows, but I don’t ask. There are more pressing questions on my mind. “So Lyra found you? I can’t believe she cared. Why did you trust her?”
Jett digs in his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper, thrusting it at me. “She had this letter that Dessa must have written—or been forced to write—to Daemon and Alix. She refers to Magnus as ‘just as wonderful a ruler as King Thorne.’”
I take it and scan it quickly. It’s exactly as he said, Odessa was trying to write something that Magnus would allow to be sent to Daemon that would still alert him she was in trouble. It’s so smart, and so very her. “Where is Odessa now?”
“She’s in the castle,” Jett answers.
“I have to go get her.”
“Obviously,” Jett agrees, a hint of his usual smile returning. “But you won’t be able to do anything for Dessa if you collapse. At least have some water. When was the last time you ate?”
“ I’m fine ,” I say again, more pointedly.
Actually, “Fine” doesn’t even begin to explain it. I feel entirely reborn. Alive. Perhaps better than I ever have before…although, all my sudden energy seems to have come at a cost.
“Are you alright?” I ask, glancing back at Connell.
The pirate looks up, and flashes a shaky grin. “I’m better than fine. Right as bloody rain, don’t worry.”
Jett and I exchange dubious glances. There wasn’t a lot of time for Connell to explain exactly what I agreed to, and I’m not sure if my life comes at the expense of his, or if he’s merely weakened by the ordeal.
As callous as it is, I’m not entirely sure I want to know right now. I don’t want to think about what I might have done to myself, I want to go find Odessa. If I can’t get to her, then what was the fucking point?
I take another large step toward the door. “I’m going to find her.”
Connell looks up at me, and winces slightly. “You two go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”
Jett glances at the pirate again, and looks more conflicted than I would have expected, before turning back to me. “Fine. We’ll come back for him later. You and I have a wedding to crash.”
I take the lead, running out of the dungeon and into the long corridor outside.
We run down the rough-walled hallway to a door at the end and shove it open, stepping through, I stop short, taking in the familiar white stone hallway. My heart pangs and my stomach turns uncomfortably.
“What’s wrong?” Jett hisses, skidding to a stop before he runs into me.
“Nothing,” I mutter, shaking my head. “I just didn’t expect to care.”
“Care about what?”
“This was where I lived. It’s just familiar, that’s all.”
“That’s a good thing if you ask me. If you didn’t know where we were going we’d be fucked. This place is huge.”
I nod and sprint down another white-walled corridor, then another. We reach a winding set of white marble stairs, and run up them, two at a time.
“He doesn’t post a lot of guards,” I comment. “Maybe they’re all posted outside the wedding.”
“There were guards on our way in here,” Jett says, panting a little from all the running. “That woman from before?—”
“Lyra?”
“Yeah. She turned into someone who must have been important, because she just kept telling the guards she was bringing Connell and me down to the dungeon as prisoners and no one looked twice at her.”
My eyes narrow. “What do you mean she turned into someone important.”
“She’s a shapeshifter. Didn’t you know?”
I shake my head, pressing my lips together in a flat line.
Lyra Von Bargen is a doppler, and she just helped save my life—and Odessa’s life too, maybe. Of all the fucking shocking things that have happened today, that might be the most unbelievable.
We barrel down the corridor, sprinting through the castle until the white corridors bleed into each other, and the only marker I have left is the gathering sense of dread—the certainty that every second we spend running in place is another second Magnus is closing in around Odessa.
Lyra said they were keeping Dessa in the tower. There are a dozen fucking towers in this palace, but I have to assume—have to hope—she meant the tallest one. Otherwise, it might take hours to check every single turret, and by then, it might be too late.
I’m not worried about the wedding—not exactly.
There’s no legal wedding in Ellender that would supersede a soul-bond, and I’m positive that’s what Dessa and I have.
It’s not the wedding, it’s after. It’s what Magnus might do to her, or it’s her believing I’m not coming to rescue her and whatever reckless thing she might do to try and save herself.
“How long was I down there?” I ask Jett as we cross the entrance hall and I lead the way through a door and up more and more stairs.
“I don’t know exactly, why?”
“I remember Magnus coming to tell me he was going to force Dessa to marry him, but I don’t know if that was today or yesterday or if it even happened at all. I hallucinated all sorts of shit.”
Jett’s expression turns dark. “Fuck, man, I’m sorry.”
I blink at him, confused. It’s not his fault Magnus is a sadistic psychopath. He’s the one who came to help me, so why?—
All at once, I get it.
Jett is Daemon’s spymaster. It was an easy role for him to assume when all of us suddenly found ourselves helping to run Vernallis alongside Daemon and Alix. Jett is personable, a good liar, and great at getting out of tough situations…he’s also fairly good at torturing people.
None of us really know what his life was like before Dyaspora.
We’ve only ever heard the rose-colored stories, but I’m sure it wasn’t all so wonderful.
He was poor to the point of starving in a way that I never understood until these last few days.
He was sent to prison for life for stealing a single loaf of bread, and somewhere along the line he clearly learned how to hurt people who hurt him.
Now, I get the impression that he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop—for me to realize that what he does for Vernallis is too similar to what Magnus did to me.
“It’s not the same,” I say shortly.
Jett looks confused. “What do you mean?”
“Magnus likes causing pain. It’s different.”
His black eyes widen for a second then his face blanks, which for him means returning to his usual grin. He laughs. “I know that, of course. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get a chance to take a crack at old Magnus and we can find out who’s got a steadier hand.”
“Mmm,” I mumble, still not entirely sure he believes I don’t blame him for any of this. “So, what day is it? When did Magnus last visit?”
Jett shakes his head as if to clear it. “If he told you about the wedding, then that was earlier today,” he says, as he climbs the stairs behind me. “Lyra said Odessa was going along with it because Magnus told her he would kill you.”
“Dessa’s not stupid, she had to know he’d kill me anyway, eventually.”
Jett swallows thickly. “Yeah, she probably did know. I think she was holding out for her letter to get to Daemon, but obviously it never did.”
“It got to you,” I say roughly. “I’m only standing here because of you.”
Rather than smiling, his face falls slightly. “I don’t really know what Connell did to you; soon you might not be thanking me.”
“I agreed to it. It’s on me, and I don’t care what it was as long as I can get Odessa back from Magnus.”
“You love her, then?” he asks—though it’s more of a statement than a question. “What about your soul-bond?”
I open my mouth to tell him it’s her—it’s always been her, but then stop. That feels like the kind of thing I should say to Odessa before I say it to anyone else, and only once we’re safe. I won’t be able to breathe again until Magnus is dead and we’re miles away from Hydratta.
We reach the top of the tower and stop in front of the door.
Dread washes over me when I see that there are no guards posted here either.
If Dessa were truly inside, there should be soldiers stationed outside, even if most have abandoned their posts in the hallways, or sent elsewhere for some reason.
Jett strides up to the door, his boots thumping against the ground. With a swift, forceful kick, he sends the door swinging open.
We step inside and my eyes scan the room, frantic, mapping the overturned chair, the untouched platter of food, the window thrown wide.
She’s not here.