Thirteen
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Samkiel
I blinked, slowly regaining consciousness. I felt the tug on my arm,
strong hands dragging my body through the fine-grained sand. My
vision swam, and my head throbbed, but I saw her. A goddess pulled me farther from the lapping waves. Had Oceanuna found me lost and adrift? I saw her lithe form, the large gash on her back slowly healing. Her dark, wet hair clung in a tangled mass to her shoulders and back. My body hit the ground with a thud, and my throat burned as I spit up thick, heavy salt water, my chest heaving and my vision blurry as I came to. Red eyes stared down at me. Not Oceanuna. Not a goddess. An Ig’Morruthen. My
Ig’Morruthen.
“Dianna?”
As soon as I spoke, she was gone. Her form returned to the dark as if it owned her, and a part of me feared it might.
“Y ou look rough ,” V incent quipped as I entered the main building back in Silver City. We were several floors up, and I’d hobbled through drenched in seawater, my shoes squeaking an ungodly amount. I had not gone unnoticed. “I’m starting to believe every time you leave that you will come back in disarray.”
“No more televised interviews. I want my face completely erased from the past ones. If the mortals wish to hear words of affirmation, you will do
it, Vincent.”
“O-okay,” he stammered.
Dianna’s words rang through my skull once more. How careless and stupid was I not to realize how that would sting? I put my title, my job, before her.
I shook my head, ignoring the celestials gawking at me.
My wounds had healed, but my clothes remained slashed and tattered. I looked like I had fought off a wild beast, and some would say I had, but she was mine, and she held a part of me no one had touched before. My heart ached far more than the soreness now ebbing from my body.
Vincent strode next to me, a worried expression on his face. “Do you
want to talk about it?”
“No.”
He grunted. “And I am assuming the ship is no more?”
“It’s currently at the bottom of the ocean. In pieces.”
“Santiago?”
“Dead.”
He shook his head. “She really is killing everyone involved.”
“It wasn’t her.”
We reached an elevator, and Vincent leaned forward to press the button.
“You did it?”
“Santiago was one of the lowest of the low. No one will miss him, and I do not take kindly to those who attack me,” I said, my voice deepening to a
low growl.
Or her.
Vincent nodded. “I am very well aware I just assumed we would hold him longer for information. Unfortunately, we still have nothing.”
The elevator door opened up, and we stepped inside. Information? All he’d given me were stories I assumed were wrong. Azrael still alive?
Alistair on Rashearim when it fell. Stories. They had to be. I would know. I
would have felt it.
“Did you hear me?”
My head snapped toward him. “Hmm?”
“When will we speak to The Council of Hadrameil?”
“When it’s time.”
The numbers danced across a small screen high above. Vincent chewed the inside of his cheek but nodded. I knew he wanted action. He wanted The Hand here. He wanted battles as we’d fought so long ago. To him, she was just another Ig’Morruthen causing mayhem and destruction. He believed she needed to be put down like a rabid beast. I felt his eyes on me, but I did not know what to say. I’d failed, like so many times before. So, I didn’t tell him what I’d learned. I didn’t tell him how Dianna nearly bested me in a fight, how she moved like me, how maybe I’d trained her too well in Zarall.
Nor did I tell him how utterly dangerous that made her.
“Where’s Logan?” My question seemed to startle him. I had not realized
how quiet it had become.
“Out searching for Neverra.”
I nodded. Logan had been looking for her non-stop since this had begun, which I did not mind, but he wasn’t bringing a team with him. I worried for him as I worried for her. We had spent weeks looking with no lead. Dianna was the closest thing to an informant we had when it came to the Otherworld, but she currently wished me dead.
“Did he take a team?”
The elevator door slid open to a large lobby. Several long benches took up the hallway with potted plants in between. The images carved into the walls were reminders of the past, depicting battles I’d rather forget but that the younger generation loved. No one was on this floor at this time of night, most having gone home hours ago. Only a skeleton crew, as Vincent called
them, remained.
“I’d be lying if I said yes.”
I made a low, exasperated noise deep in my throat before stopping and turning to him with a sigh. “Go get some rest. There is nothing else to do tonight that I cannot take care of myself.”
Only more research, more looking for things I knew I would not find.
He leaned against the elevator wall, staring at me for a moment before pushing off. “I can help.”
I shook my head, my hand splaying over my midsection. A deep ache still throbbed where she had impaled me. “I just want to be alone.”
“I know, and that’s what worries me.”
He meant it. I knew they all worried. I’d noticed them watching me closer these last weeks, staying near me more, constantly checking in. They meant well, but I despised it. They could do nothing to fix it. Fix me.
“I’m going to shower and go to bed, Vincent. I do not think you’d wish to be around for that.”
He forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Well, you’ve got a point.”
I turned away from him, calling out, “Let Logan know that if he leaves once more without a team, he will find himself sitting in a holding cell for weeks.”
“Yes, sir.” I heard a soft chuckle, followed by the elevator door sliding closed.
I meant every word. I would not lose another person who meant something to me.
M y reflection stared back at me in the steam – filled mirror . L ong , dark strands curved above my brow. My hair was getting too long again, but I didn’t care. Muscles corded my body, but I didn’t feel strong. A thousand scars, representing a thousand different failures, decorated my chest, arms, legs, and back. I ran my hand across my abdomen, remembering how Dianna had rammed that blade through me so effortlessly, as if I meant nothing. A dark part of my brain thought that maybe Drake was wrong. She had said as much, but then she saved me, even if I hadn’t needed it.
Another dark thought crossed my mind. What if I could not reach her?
Would I have to put her down like all the beasts, creatures, and gods before?
Could I end that smile that had brought me peace at a time when I’d wanted nothing but to disappear? I pushed from the sink, and with a flick of my wrist, lounge pants the color of sand draped my lower half.
I walked into the bedroom, keeping the lights low. My rooms were at the top of the building. A large pane window allowed me to see the buildings far below and the clouds that danced in between them. It was a room built for a king, a god, but I didn’t feel worthy of either title.
Dressers stood against the walls next to the bathroom. A bed large enough for seven sat in the middle of the room, and a lounge area spread in front of the windows to my left. Ancient texts I had taken from the council on my last visit were piled in a heaping mess on the table. I plucked the
small strip of black and white photos off the table and turned toward the balcony.
Cool night air greeted me as I stepped over the threshold. The city below was quiet. Only the celestials were out, enforcing the curfew. I folded my arms in front of me and glanced at the photos. The corners of my eyes prickled as I ran my thumb across the images. Her favorite was the middle one, where she had to force me to look at the camera. She’d said it reminded her of how I never listen to her, but she was wrong. I listened to everything, every word, every breath. I listened.
I looked up at the night sky. Every star here looked like a dull mockery of what I knew existed. I sighed and did the one thing I had not done in so very long. I spoke to the old gods.
“I know when souls pass, even I cannot reach them. It is forbidden, but please, I beg you, if Gabriella is there, if she can hear me, let her help me.
Give me a sign that I am at least on the right path.”
I watched the sky, searching for any sign. I shook my head, realizing how idiotic this was. She could not reach out or hear me. I leaned back right as a star far off on my right twinkled. I turned toward it. It was located high above the others but a shade brighter. How had I not noticed it before?
“You may not have been as we are, Gabriella, but if you managed to help her before, it makes you stronger than even I. I’m scared I won’t reach her in time, absolutely terrified, and I’ve fought and have seen things that would make others pray for death.” The star did not so much as even flicker. Of course not. I blew a breath out and looked at the photos in my hand. “But I promise I won’t let her lose herself any further. Nor will I give up on her. You wouldn’t.”
I turned from the balcony, heading inside. As I lay down and tried to force myself to rest, I could have sworn that same star sparkled brighter than those around it. Then again, maybe I was just losing my mind, searching for signs that could not reach here. Yet still, that star flickers.
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