“I didn’t kill our parents, Artie. She did,” I whispered.
She was here. Eager to take what was promised.
Hungry.
The Twisted Ones scattered like roaches as she rose from the sea behind Arthur’s back, majestic and terrifying as a titan from the dawn of time.
I peeled my back from the door and walked to Arthur. He whipped his head from side to side, desperate to understand what was happening. Seemed like the superior senses gifted to him by the Renegade were useless now.
The undyne loomed behind him—a black pillar of churning water, coiling like a serpent crowned in foam. She dwarfed him.
For a moment, the boy I remembered resurfaced. The boy with one shoulder lower than the other, who played with me in the garden and rode the wooden horses Grandfather carved for him.
My eyes stung as years of torment melted away—leaving only a hollow, aching void where love had once lived.
With him, the last one of my family would be gone.
The undyne uncoiled like something made of storm. A goddess who swallowed ships and demanded human sacrifices, who filled the fishermen’s nets and dragged careless children into the deep.
“I came for what was promised.” Her voice thundered like the surf. A tentacle wider than the ship’s funnel snaked through the mist. It wrapped around Arthur and pulled him into the low mist.
Without making a sound, my brother, or whatever was left of him, was gone.
Guilt and pain tore at my chest like something sharp and tangled was lodged behind my ribs. How many times had I fantasized about my brother’s death in the last decade? In the beginning, I was planning to escape and tell Scotland Yard the truth about the Draymoore’s heir. Countless times I’d imagined him locked in a cell, paying for what he was doing to me.
That was all gone.
There was no triumph now when it was done. Replaced by some numbness, as if I’d just lost a limb, and the pain hadn’t struck yet.
No time for grief now. The black pillar of water drew closer.
“It’s time for the real treat now, Daphne,” the undyne thundered. I was next.
I dashed to the left, tripping over something lying on the deck. The Twisted Ones were regrouping, heading my way. They watched the undyne, baring their teeth.
I cursed. The choices I had were death by demons or drowning. Some dark, bitter humor bubbled inside me.
“You all want me?” I shouted. “Then fight for me!” I barked a bitter laugh. The sound was so out of place it startled even the undyne. “Did you hear me, monsters? Fight for me!”
Where the hell was Emrys?
The air shifted. A gust of warm wind brought the scent of crushed violets. The faint hum of wings slicing the air, followed by a thud.
My heart was in my throat. “Emrys?”
The strangest sound rippled through the mist—a female laughter. Soft and pleasant and out of place. “You’re totally crazy. I get what he sees in you.”
The mist parted like a stage curtain, and a woman stepped out, her dark, massive wings dragging behind her like a cloak. Her face…
Her beautiful, heart-shaped face seemed somewhat familiar.
The woman smirked. Waves of black hair cascaded down to her knees.
“Camille?” I whispered. “Camille Monfort?”
Was this another one of the Renegade’s tricks?
She smiled pleasantly as if we were drinking tea and gossiping. “You know me already. How nice. Sorry to crash that little party of yours, but I believe you’d rather be somewhere else.”
