Page 101

Draevyn

T he throne room was unnervingly silent except for the occasional shuffle of boots on the stone floor. The air was thick with tension as Draevyn and Atlas stood side by side, waiting for their father’s arrival.

Samwell and his men had stayed back on his ship, watching the crew of The Night Wraith before they were turned in, and Draevyn’s mind raced regarding how he would help them escape when the time came.

When the heavy doors creaked open, every muscle in his body tightened.

The king strode in and his plump face was already drawn with irritation as his regal cloak dragged on the floor behind him.

He ascended the dais with slow, deliberate steps, likely trying to instill fear into his two sons just as he had when they were boys, before dropping onto the throne.

His gaze was sharp and unforgiving as it settled on them.

“You have a great deal to explain,” King Rowe said, his voice a low growl. His eyes locked onto Atlas, who stood tall. “You disobeyed direct orders. Left the capital. Took a ship without permission.”

Draevyn’s fists clenched. “Wonderful to see you too, Father.”

The king only grumbled in response.

Atlas spoke up calmly, though his tone carried an edge. “I did what had to be done. He’s your son , just as much as I am. Drae is your blood—your heir , if I am to ever meet an early end, and you abandoned him. Left him at the hands of our world’s most brutal criminals.”

The king slammed his fist on the armrest, the sound echoing through the chamber. “Draevyn would’ve been just fine.” He pointed to his chest. “I made a deal, ensuring his life wouldn’t be forfeited.”

Atlas stepped forward, his voice rising. “Once again, you put your faith in pirates . You willingly allowed your son to be taken and held by the most untrustworthy of men. And for what? To find evidence of treasure from a kingdom lost?”

“I don’t need you to remind me of my own godsdamn choices, boy,” King Rowe interrupted, his voice thunderous. “You undermined me.”

Draevyn glanced at his brother, noting the determined set of his jaw, the shadows swirling in his eyes. Atlas had always been the only one to defend him, but he was done putting up with his father’s abuse. No longer could he leave for months at a time at sea to avoid their wretched king.

Too much was at stake now— she was at stake.

Something inside of Draevyn shifted, and he stepped forward. “ Enough . I need to speak.”

The king’s sharp gaze snapped to him, laced with warning. Atlas fell silent.

“By all the wretched fucking gods, you haven’t listened to me or given a damn about what I’ve had to say the entirety of my life, but you will listen to me here and now.

” Draevyn’s voice was low, the promise of violence lingering beneath it.

He could tell the king sensed it by the way his body stiffened, but their eyes remained locked.

“I understand what you think of me,” he continued, “but this isn’t about me, or the greed of what you sought. This is about what’s now coming.”

The room was deathly silent, the weight of his words pressing down on them all. The king studied him before he finally said, “What are you stammering on about, Draevyn? ”

Draevyn squared his shoulders. “Perhaps you’d like to hear about the kingdom beneath the waves.”

The king’s eyes widened as he leaned forward in his throne. “You found it?”

Draevyn stepped forward, his jaw tight as he held his father’s disbelieving stare. “Maerinys survived the sinking. And it plans to rise. We have to be ready for what we may face.”

The king’s expression flickered, a wicked grin creeping up his face. And that was when Draevyn knew he wasn’t listening—at least not to the parts that mattered.

“Father, if we don’t act, it will bring war unlike anything we’ve faced.

This isn’t a petty rebellion or some distant skirmish.

This is power beyond imagining. The lost goddesses.

They’re not lost at all. They’re trapped with their people and found a way to return to the surface. It’s only a matter of time.”

Draevyn didn’t dare mention that Esmyra was the cause.

“Both of you are dismissed,” the king said to his sons, but neither moved.

“You don’t believe me,” Draevyn began, his voice laced with fury. “You’re just going to dismiss this? Dismiss us ?” He gestured to himself and Atlas. “You had me searching for proof of Maerinys’ existence for years , and now that you have it, all you still only care about is potential gold?”

The king’s gaze was cold, his fingers drumming impatiently on the arm of his throne.

“Why shouldn’t I? If it exists, the wealth of an entire kingdom lies below the waves.

That treasure would secure our future. Your tales of magic and goddesses are just that— stories .

Why should I believe you? You’ve always been a liar, Draevyn. A violent, no good waste .”

Draevyn’s fists clenched at his sides, and then fire burst brightly in every torch that lined the chamber’s walls.

“There isn’t even gold down there!” he bellowed, putting the guards around the room on edge as he stepped closer.

“It’s power. Ancient power that you can’t even begin to understand.

You’re being ignorant and letting your greed run you, as you always have. ”

The king scoffed, leaning back in his chair. “You sound like a frightened child. If this power is as great as you claim, then it’s all the more reason to take it. We can control it. Bend it to our will.”

“You can’t control it!” Draevyn snapped, his voice echoing through the hall.

His chest heaved with barely restrained rage as he continued.

“You don’t understand what you’re dealing with.

Are you truly delusional enough to believe you’re stronger than gods ?

Do you believe you can outwit ancient beings who forged our very realm? !”

The king’s face darkened, and he rose to his feet, his figure casting a shadow over the stairs of the dais. “Enough!” he barked, his cheeks flushing. “You’ll watch your tone when you speak to your king. Your warnings are nothing but the ramblings of a desperate man trying to save face.”

“Desperate?” Draevyn echoed with a bitter laugh. “You’re right—I am desperate. Desperate to stop you from making a mistake that will cost us all in your fucking greed.”

Desperate to save her .

“But don’t mistake desperation for weakness,” Draevyn finished.

The room fell into a tense silence. The king’s jaw tightened, and for a moment, it seemed like he might respond.

But instead, he sank back into his throne, waving a dismissive hand.

“Where is the lovely woman I sent on this quest to begin with? If she thinks I will just be dropping Blackwood off to her, she’s even more of a fool than you are. ”

Draevyn tried to reel in his temper, realizing it would get him nowhere, but then Atlas stepped forward and spoke for him. “She’s still there—trapped with those he speaks of. She could be dead for all we know. Drae nearly was when we found him.”

Draevyn’s breath caught in his throat, his chest tightening at what Atlas revealed. He didn’t want their father to know she was still there.

A slow, cruel smile spread across the king’s face. “Well, isn’t that interesting?”

Draevyn’s panic threatened to consume him as he stepped forward, his voice urgent. “She’s not dead.”

But the king wasn’t listening. He straightened, his eyes gleaming with malice. “Well, she isn’t here to report her findings, so it appears the deal we made is off.”

“What deal?” Draevyn demanded, his blood running cold.

The king’s smirk deepened. “You foolish boy. You think I’d truly let you stay in her grasp without ensuring I had leverage?”

It was in that moment he knew what the king planned to do.

Draevyn never told his father that he knew all he was to Esmyra was leverage—until he wasn’t, and that was when everything changed.

But he could never let him know that, never let him know he cared so deeply for someone, knowing he would only hold it against him. Hold her against him.

For the Phoenix finally had a weakness, and it was his Wildfire—not the one that surged through his veins, but seared herself into his heart.

“The deal was simple,” the king continued. “Her captain rots in my cells, untouched, until she returns you to me, also untouched, with proof of Maerinys. But now? Oh, now I think it’s time to rid myself of that nuisance.”

Atlas’s eyes flared, meeting Draevyn’s as his panic erupted into rage. “You can’t! She’ll still come for him?—”

“Well, she isn’t here now. So the bargain is broken,” King Rowe snapped, cutting him off.

Without another word, the king descended from his throne, striding past his two sons as if the matter was already decided.

His laughter, cold and triumphant, caused Draevyn’s thoughts to spiral into chaos, and before he could stop himself, he sent up a violent wall of flame before his father. The fire stemmed from the floor and licked up at the vaulted ceilings, and gasps rang out from all sides.

The king whipped around, rage etched into every feature of his plump face as he bellowed, “Drop the wall, Draevyn, before I have them drop you .”

He barely heard the words.

Guards rushed Draevyn then, unsheathing their swords and aiming them at his throat .

The king isn’t going after her captain —he’s going after her father .

Draevyn knew Cyrus couldn’t die—not in the way mortals did, but every day on land, the man likely prayed for death. The curse that bound him to the sea made that clear. But Draevyn knew in his soul that if harm came to Blackwood in any way, Esmyra would seek vengeance.

The heartbreak in her eyes when Draevyn snapped from Syrena’s trance—it was unbearable. But he knew her fury would know no bounds if something happened to her father under his watch.

It would be the ultimate betrayal.

If Esmyra returned to find her father harmed, the fragile tether holding her together could snap. And if that happened, Draevyn knew she would let that rage consume her entirely.

What if I just became the monster they all fear me to be , Esmyra’s voice drifted through his mind.

One of the guards placed the edge of his blade at the base of Draevyn’s throat, shaking in fear beneath the Phoenix’s gaze, but holding steady for his brutal king.

“Drae!” Atlas gasped out. “Drop the wall, brother. This isn’t going to end well for anyone if you don’t fucking yield. He’s still your king.”

Atlas looked panicked for him, and when his eyes found the king, he saw the unrelenting hatred and anger in his eyes.

Draevyn’s jaw tightened, and a moment after the flames dissipated, the king and his guards stalked through the door. “I’ll deal with you later, boy ,” he spat over his shoulder.

His stomach churned with guilt. He’d failed to protect her, and now he failed to protect what mattered to her most.

Draevyn knew he had to get ahead of this and find a way to stop the king before it was too late. If he couldn’t…if her father was harmed, the consequences would be more than he could bear.

His Wildfire would burn the world to ash to make them pay. And if she did, he wasn’t sure he’d even try to stop her.

In fact, Draevyn may even offer to be the match that lit the spark.