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CHAPTER TWO

ZéLIE

M Y GODS.

Blood pounds between my ears. I don’t know what to think. What to feel. A part of me wants to wrap a chain around Inan’s neck. Another part of me can’t believe that he’s here.

The last time I saw Inan, we were in the palace cellars. The Iyika razed the royal throne to the ground. As the palace fell, I chased Inan down. He was my final target.

I went in for the kill.

“You’re alive.” The familiar scratch of his voice is like a chain pulling me back in time. In an instant, I’m thrown back into our fight.

The moment before we were knocked unconscious by the thick cloud of white…

There are nights when you visit my dreams. Nights where I can forget. When I wake, I drive myself insane thinking of what could’ve been.

I don’t know what comes next, but I know it’s time for this reign to end. But should our paths collide again, I will not raise my sword.

I am ready to end my life at your hand.

My own hands shake as I stare at him, remembering that fateful night. Inan vowed to dissolve the monarchy. He vowed to destroy his own birthright.

After every broken promise between us, I didn’t allow myself to believe another lie. From the moment we met, the crown was everything to Inan—worthy of every sacrifice. Or?sha’s throne was the very thing he lived to protect.

It didn’t matter who else had to die.

But that night, Inan went through with his plan. Despite everything against him, he ended his family’s long reign. When I faced him in the underground cellars, he never put up a fight.

He shared the monarchy’s secrets with me as I ripped away his life.

Staring at Inan now, my mind races. A full moon at sea has taken its toll on his sturdy frame.

This long below deck, his cinnamon skin has gone pale, creating a stark canvas for the fresh and faded bruises traveling down his back.

His movements are sharp. Almost feral. Something about him feels more animal than man.

But entire oceans span between our past and our present. Old fury wars with relief. I feel the guarded div?ner I was when we first met. The sting of the venom from the brooding little prince. The force of his sword against my staff. The brush of his lips against my neck.

I see the boy who told me we could build a new Or?sha.

The boy who tore my heart in half.

But what does that mean when we’re both trapped in here?

What does that mean when the Skulls are closing in?

“Your hair,” Inan croaks.

I lift my fingers to my bare scalp, and my cheeks burn. I’ve been alone for so long.

No one else has seen what the Skulls have done.

“There was a man.…” My voice trails off as I remember his shadowy figure. “His mask gleamed in silver.”

“The captain of the ship?” Inan asks.

I nod. “The other Skulls listened to him. He must have been.”

I try to continue, but the words disappear. The memories strike like the tides. Slowly, I’m brought back to the way the Silver Skull loomed over me. I feel the sweat that dripped down my skin.

Two Skulls held me down the first night they locked me in here. Another took hot shears to my scalp. The Silver Skull raised the twisted majacite crown in his hands.

The world darkened when I realized his plan.

I thrashed as the Silver Skull shoved the poisonous metal into my temple. The searing alloy steamed as it merged with my skin. When I passed out on the rusted floor, tears streamed down my face.

I begged for death’s embrace.

With the majacite welded to my temple, I don’t know if I’ll be able to access my gifts again.

“I’ll kill them,” Inan almost growls. Nothing soft lies in his amber eyes. His conviction makes my throat tight. It stirs the feelings I’ve tried to bury deep inside.

“I know I’ve hurt you.” Inan averts his gaze. “I know I’ve let you down more times than I can count. But I need you to trust me.”

“ Trust you?” I scoff.

“If the two of us can bring down a kingdom, we have to be capable of bringing down a single ship.”

Though everything in me wants to keep Inan at bay, the threat of the Skulls takes that choice away. For the first time since being locked in this hold, I have an ally.

I have a chance to escape.

I force myself to reach deep down, past every single betrayal, past every fallen tear. I have to trust him.

At least until we’re out of here.

“What can we do?” I ask.

Inan rips a strip of cloth from his dirt-stained pants and ties the strip around his bleeding hand. His swinging cage creaks as he paces the small perimeter. He tests the iron bars’ strength.

“How long have you been locked in this hold?” he questions.

“Half a moon.”

“Do you still have your magic?”

I shake my head. “Every night…”

Inan extends his neck to the rays of moonlight, illuminating the puncture wounds along his throat that mirror my own.

“I know about the liquid majacite,” Inan says. “If we could stop it somehow… disrupt their supply—”

“There’s no guarantee our magic would return.” I look down at my empty palms, wishing I could stir the ashê that used to lie within my blood. “Our powers come from our land. We might not be able to restore them unless we return home.”

“Then we need to overwhelm them.” Inan grabs the iron bars as he thinks. “Break free at once. The others have been working on a plan.”

“What do they need to escape?”

“A distraction. A way to get close to the Skulls without them realizing what’s going on. But we can’t think about that now. We need to get you out of this hold.”

The seas push against our damp walls, making our hanging cages creak. Inan runs his hands up and down the bars, likely searching for a place where the metal is weak.

“Why’d they take you?” he continues. “Why’d they separate you from the others?”

I stop and think back to the day. So much of my time in this cage has passed in a haze. Moments spent waiting for the Skulls to descend. Hours spent in agony after they inject the majacite into my neck.

“They lined us all up. Every girl, one level above.” I close my eyes until I see it—the Silver Skull fills the blackness of my mind.

I hear the creaking floorboards under his approaching boots.

I feel the warmth of the girls’ shaking bodies, pressed tight against mine.

“The Silver Skull separated us with some kind of compass—”

“What did it look like?” Inan asks.

I focus, trying to remember exactly what I saw. “Bronze. Hexagon-shaped. A triple arrowhead painted in blood…”

The terror that gripped me that day returns like the rain. I see the compass’s thick red dial. I hear the way it hummed as it spun. I could barely survive waiting with the others in chains. I didn’t realize how much worse it’d be to be taken away.

“Did it react to others?” Inan continues.

“A few.” I nod. “They took me and three other girls. A Lighter from Ibadan. A girl from Zaria’s coast. A Healer from the sand huts of Ibeji.”

I think of the Healer’s round face, the lilt in her voice, her kind beauty, her grace. I recall the ways she collected rainwater and instructed us to dress our wounds, caring for us all, despite the pain she faced.

“Where are they now?” Inan pushes. A crease forms above his thick brows and I look down at the rusted floor. The empty cages answer in my silence.

“We have to get you off this ship.” Inan’s pacing quickens. His eyes dart around the hold. “We don’t have time to wait for the others. We need to find a new way to escape.”

The way Inan moves makes my stomach clench. There’s something he holds back.

“What is it?” I press. “What do you know?”

Inan stops and holds my gaze.

“These men aren’t just searching for maji, Zélie. They’re searching for you.”