Page 47

Esmyra

E smyra stirred as darkness draped over her mind.

The first thing she became aware of was the soft crackling of embers, their warmth crawling across her skin.

Then came the dull ache that seemed to weigh her whole body down, muscles sore and bruised from the attack she and Draevyn had barely escaped, but she knew her body had likely healed most of her wounds.

Eyes fluttering open, her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths as she tried to make sense of where she was.

Esmyra turned her head, and her gaze landed on him.

Leaning against a boulder, Draevyn’s gaze remained fixed on the fire he conjured.

The flames danced and flickered, their warmth and light fueled solely by his magic with nothing beneath it but damp stone.

The firelight cast sharp shadows on his face, illuminating the tick in his jaw and the intensity of his whiskey-hued eyes.

He hadn’t noticed her wake yet, or maybe he simply didn’t care. Either way, the tense silence between them remained unbroken.

The memory of the krechuums they fought came flooding back—nightmarish beasts from the darkest depths of the earth, all claws and teeth.

Everything slammed into her at once. She remembered the ferocity with which they’d fought together, an alliance forged by necessity between two enemies.

Now he was freed, his flames roaring between them, yet he didn’t move to attack her.

She was shocked he didn’t kill her to find an escape route for himself.

Or perhaps he had and discovered that entering the cave was a death sentence for them both.

“You’re awake.” His voice echoed through the space between them.

She slowly sat up, her body protesting, but she refused to let herself look any weaker than the collapse already had.

That had never happened to her before…not in nearly a thousand years.

But she’d never had to work so hard to conjure her power from nothing—pulling every drop of water through each crack and crevice in that gods-forsaken tunnel until it nearly ran dry.

“How long was I out?” she asked warily, loathing that she was at his disposal.

“A few hours, perhaps,” he said, watching her with an intensity she couldn’t place. “Though it’s difficult to tell time when you’re miles beneath the realm’s soil.”

“Aye,” she answered softly, her eyes wandering.

Endless questions swarmed her, and she thought her mind would explode. Why did she collapse? Why had she run out of power? And where in all gods were they?

Esmyra’s magic ached at the edge of her fingertips, easing some of her panic.

Though the sudden loss of it before she’d gone unconscious made her skin crawl.

Twice now, in a matter of weeks, she’d come across things that weakened her power and made it cower within her.

Centuries she’d lived unscathed, feeling every bit invincible, yet now she felt closer to mortal than ever before.

She knew one thing with certainty in her very bones—she couldn’t let Draevyn know these thoughts plagued her.

Quickly glancing down at her sides, she realized she didn’t have the velsinyte cuffs on hand, yet they didn’t encircle her wrists.

Either they lost the one thing powerful enough to contain their magic, or he was holding them to place on her at the most opportune moment.

Was he trying to see if she would attack?

Or perhaps he thought she lost her power when she collapsed.

The markings on her arms were teal once more, yet she remembered them burning their fiery red right before she fell.

Countless unknowns kept pouring into her mind, and she doubted any answers would present themselves. So, she opted to just blatantly ask. “Where are the cuffs?”

Draevyn barked out a laugh, his head flying back in amusement. “You can’t be serious.”

Esmyra’s lip curled. “Well, they’re not on your wrists.”

His head cocked to the side, a crease forming in his brow. “What do you remember?”

“Everything,” she hissed. “Just wasn’t sure if one of us was smart enough to grab the cuffs once I freed you.”

Another laugh erupted from him, and annoyance surged within her. “You,” he pointed to her, “didn’t free me. I freed myself after grabbing the key from your pocket.”

“Because I allowed you to do so.”

“Because you would’ve been krechuum food if you hadn’t.”

Esmyra’s eyes narrowed on him. “Aye, but as would you.”

She hated that she didn’t know if he had them in his possession and was toying with her.

Draevyn sighed, shaking his head. “I don’t have the cuffs. I dropped them. And I won’t lie…I didn’t even think of grabbing them once I was freed. I was too concerned with getting you out.”

This time, it was Esmyra’s turn to lift a brow. Why would he care about getting her out?

He cleared his throat. “I was too concerned with escaping,” he corrected himself. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” she rushed out, averting her gaze from his. “Never been better.”

A deep chuckle rumbled from him. “You don’t have to lie. You reached your well. Has that never happened to you before?”

Esmyra tilted her head in confusion. “Well?”

“The end of your magic. ”

“My magic knows no end,” she stated with no room for argument. It was the truth…at least, until today.

A smirk played on Draevyn’s lips in the firelight. “Everyone’s magic has an end. I’m surprised you reached yours so soon.”

She blinked, her mind racing with what this could all mean. When she spoke next, her voice was soft. “I cannot conjure water—only manipulate what’s already there.”

“Interesting,” he said.

“Glad you think so.” A roll of her eyes earned her another grin. She extended her arm and gestured to him, her talons slipping out with the movement. “It appears your magic doesn’t work the same as mine.”

“All that’s needed for fire is air. Luckily, we haven’t run out of that down here.” He paused. “Yet.”

“And how am I to trust that you won’t roast me alive the moment I turn my back?”

Draevyn shrugged. “If I planned to, it would’ve been much simpler to achieve when you were unconscious.

” Her jaw locked at his words. “And it appears whatever magic lurks down here reacts to your touch. Each new cavern you unlock seems to reveal a more dangerous threat than the last. You might be my only escape from this nightmare.”

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Esmyra huffed out a breath. “So, I would assume you’ve already explored down here while I lay unconscious. Is this another cavern?”

His back straightened. “For the record, I caught you. You didn’t collapse to the ground.

I placed you where you sit now.” Her eyes scanned their surroundings as he spoke, and Draevyn mimicked her, glancing around the space.

“Yes, I think it’s a cavern. Only this is significantly different from any other place we’ve come across so far. ”

Esmyra’s brow furrowed. She lay on cold, uneven ground, propped against what looked like the remains of an ancient stone pillar. The fire cast long shadows across the cavern, but in its glow, she could see they were no longer in any ordinary cave.

“What?” she whispered to herself. Pushing herself to her feet, her neck craned upward, taking in the sight of everything the firelight provided as Draevyn watched her.

They stood in a vast, temple-like space, hidden deep within the earth.

The ceiling soared high above, lost in shadow, while the walls were layered with crystallized minerals.

They shimmered in the subtle light, mimicking her scales—the opalescent blues and greens blended with the soft whites of calcified shells that had become one with the stone.

Esmyra nearly smiled, feeling an odd warmth in her chest at the sight of it. Her eyes shifted, their glow lighting up the space before them while Draevyn held a ball of flame over his palm.

Scattered about their surroundings, remnants of architecture jutted from the rock, half-buried and ancient pillars encrusted with barnacles, coral-like carvings wound their way up them like underwater vines.

“We found it,” Esmyra whispered, her lips parting.

She turned to Draevyn.

“It appears that we did,” he answered.

The warmth in her chest started as a subtle caress of comfort and nearly burst into a roaring inferno at his confirmation, feeling a sense of home—similar to how she felt in the sea, yet somehow so much more.

“You found me in the kingdom of the sea and lied about it my entire life. Why would you even lie?! You stole me. Didn’t you?” The last words she screamed in her father’s face aboard their ship roared in her ears.

There was a reason this underwater, forgotten trove had a familiar feeling.

The entire cavern hummed with a quiet magic, as if it were holding its breath, waiting for someone to awaken the kingdom that had been lost to the ocean’s depths—now entombed within the realm’s heart.

“This place,” she muttered, her voice rough, “has been forgotten by most, if not all. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

She turned to him and found his expression unreadable .

“Perhaps it’s not so much forgotten as it is lost.” Their eyes roamed while he spoke. “Because that’s what it is, Esmyra. Lost . Just as we are. And we will likely die down here just as they had nine centuries ago.”

Her heart thudded painfully at his words, not due to them being lost—but the kingdom. What had once been grand was now reduced to echoes in the darkest of depths. She wondered how much history had been buried here—how many stories, lives, and families lost in the collapse.

Families . Had hers perished? They must have. And the guilt of it weighed on her.

And now, like the remnants of the once great kingdom around them, she and her enemy were trapped together. Though the more she looked around, the more she didn’t feel trapped at all.

Esmyra’s gaze fell upon a dry fountain-like basin in the center of the cavern and made her way to it. She halted at its edge, frowning as her fingers grazed a series of those same strange symbols carved into its stone.

“Easy with the touching things,” Draevyn called as he followed her.

She didn’t respond immediately. The deeper they traveled, the more the foreign symbols seemed…familiar. And not because her flesh bore them, but more as a whisper tugging at the edge of her memory.

One specific symbol caught her eye over all others—it lay carved in the center of the fountain’s bowl.

Several half circles with lines, dots, and symbols resembling arrows protruding from all sides.

She knew that mark—it matched the largest of her brands that ran along her spine, appearing as a compass.

Bring us home , the voice whispered in her mind.

Without thinking, she pressed her palm into the center of the carvings, answering its call once more—and then her body was no longer hers.

The last thing to reach Esmyra’s ears was her name bellowed from the man behind her. It felt as if he were begging—a plea screamed from her enemy’s lips. However, she couldn’t resist the urge, her body having a mind of its own .

Her breath caught in her lungs, vision bursting into a blinding white light.

The ringing in her ears was deafening as a rush of energy pulsed through her hand, pulling her into a vision with a dizzying force.

The surrounding air shifted, no longer the stuffy dampness of the cave but the fresh air rolling off the waves of the sea.

Esmyra stood within the once great kingdom of Maerinys—not the empty, ruined place she uncovered, but a city on the brink of collapse.

As her vision cleared, everything around her seemed to shimmer and distort, creating a surreal, mirage-like effect, as if she were standing in a living memory.

A memory of the day Maerinys fell.

The sky was as dark as midnight, heavy with clouds that mirrored the restless sea crashing against the kingdom’s walls.

The wind screamed through the narrow alleyways, carrying with it the cries of the people.

She could feel their terror, a sharp emotion that pierced her like cold steel.

Her chest rose and fell rapidly in panicked breaths.

A palace towered above the city, perched on a cliff overlooking that and the bay. It was grand, built of pale stone that was glowing even under the darkened sky. Cracks splintered across the foundation of the buildings surrounding her as creatures she had never seen ran for their lives.

With a boom, the barrier walls of Maerinys collapsed, the waves cascading in torrents over their edges, no longer contained.

The ground beneath her feet shifted as water filled her boots, and she realized the entire city was tilting, the foundations of the earth giving way to the relentless force of the ocean.

Esmyra couldn’t catch her breath as she turned in circles, frantically looking in all directions as the shadowy, distorted figures ran by her from all sides.

The wind screamed in her ears, and she watched helplessly as buildings collapsed, streets split apart, and the people—mortals, mer, and creatures of all kinds—were swallowed by the sea.

Esmyra turned to face the palace once more and was forced to shield her eyes as a light, bright and blinding, erupted from one of the castle spires.

She was there, in the midst of the chaos, the cold water climbing her legs, waist, and chest.

Just when Esmyra thought she would be lost forever with the kingdom, her vision burst again, and she was abruptly pulled back into her body, greeted by the sight of a deadly spear aimed mere inches from her face.