In one breath, he transported her back to her body on theMekaisa. Back to her bed.
Her mind reeled from the sudden change. Blinking and shaking her head to clear the dizziness, she gasped to find Rynn standing over her, Sebastian’s bottle of blood clenched in his fingers and rage boiling over his face.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Isla
Sheyelpedhisname.“You scared me! What are you doing here?” Isla sat up and jumped backward when Rynn’s hand came down to grasp her arm, keeping her in place.
“What is this?” he asked coldly, holding out the vial. The quiet rage oozing from him was terrifying, the kind that made the hair rise on the back of her neck as she waited for the sky to fall.
She’d never seen him this angry.
Isla scrambled for an answer. So many words rested on the tip of her tongue, refusing to come out. His fingers dug into her forearm with a crushing grip. She tried to pull away, but his hold only tightened. “Rynn, you’re hurting me, please—”
“Answer me!” he bellowed, and she flinched. A tremor ran through the bed, and the furniture in the room vibrated. “This is ancient blood magic. Who did you get this from? Are you working withhim?”
“Rynn, I—I wanted to see my family—” Her stammered lie was cut off by the door swinging open and two figures rushing in. Rynn released her, and she instantly flew backward, putting distance between herself and the elemental. Kai and Aidan stared between them with wide eyes.
“Calm down, brother. What’s going on?” Aidan strode to Rynn’s side with his hands up in a sign of peace. Kai made her way to where Isla sat on the far side of the bed, her arms pulling her knees close to her chest.
Everything was happening so fast. Isla didn’t know how to explain what she’d done, what she’d discovered. It would unravel the secrets she’d been keeping from them for over a week. And Rynn…he looked like he wanted to rip the ship apart.
He hadhurther.
“Ask her,” Rynn said coldly. Tears sprung to Isla’s eyes at the callousness of his tone, aimed at her. He thought she was betraying them…and perhaps, in a way, she was. The thought struck her like an icy dagger.
“I saw her leave the main deck looking upset. I followed to see what was wrong and entered the room to find her unconscious. She would not wake when I shook her. I thought—” Rynn’s voice broke, but the fury still shone on his face. “Then I sawthis,” he hissed and shook the vial, “and had a suspicion of what had happened. I have not seen this kind of blood magic in millennia. Is this from the king? When did you get this?”
Kai looked from Rynn to Isla, her eyes hardening slightly when they landed on the latter. “He gave it to you when you met with him in Lockhurt, didn’t he?” Kai asked.
Isla swallowed and nodded. “He said to use it to communicate with him when I had the dagger. I didn’t want to tell anyone because I thought—I thought it might be a way to see my family, and that you would take it from me. But I’m not working with him. I wouldn’t betray you!” It was the partial truth, at least.
“Isla, do you understand how dangerous this is?” Kai said, the anger in her question barely contained. “This kind of magic binds your spirit to his. If a connection is formed on both ends, he could use it to summon you at will, or keep your mind captive inside your own body, making you his prisoner. Once you drank his blood, youacceptedthat connection. He could do anything to you now!”
Isla’s heart faltered, but she stayed silent. Sebastian hadn’t told her these key pieces about the magic, although hehadwarned her not to use the blood too often. The first time she’d visited him had been days ago—and he hadn’t tried to use this connection at all since then. If it had been a trap, wouldn’t he have made his move by now?
Rynn’s eyes narrowed. “You do not look surprised. Did you know this?”
Isla hesitated, then nodded. “He told me it bound our spirits.”
“Andstillyou took the chance to see him? Without any thought to the consequences?”
Frustration bubbled in her. No matter how reckless it may have been to keep this from them, they didn’t understand the love for and desperation to save her family. And they didn’t know the truths about Sebastian she’d uncovered.
“Look, it was the only way to see my father and Arden. I will doanythingto protect my family, and I’m sorry if you don’t know what that’s like,” Isla seethed, a hint of shame pushing on her stomach when Kai flinched. “This time, I may have gotten some information that will—”
“This time?” Rynn’s eyes widened, and she realized her mistake. “Does that mean you have gone to him before now? Isla, how could you have been so foolish?” He was practically roaring, and Isla struggled to maintain a hold of her emotions. This had all gone horribly wrong. They would never trust her again.
But that didn’t give him the right to yell at her, to hurt her, to demean her.
She yanked herself off the mattress and rounded the bed so she stood facing Rynn. His gray eyes were like a storm, ready to wipe out everything in its path. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the blood. All of you. But I won’t apologize for the decisions I made to go see him. None of you will keep me from doing what I have to do to make sure my family comes home again. I should’ve told you beforehand, but what’s done is done. We need to move on and figure out what to do from here.” Isla paused, knowing what came next was not going to be accepted easily. “Listen, I think there’s something else behind all of this. Sebastian isn’t fully in control of himself. There’s another force we don’t know about yet that’s—”
Rynn scoffed and turned his back to her, throwing his hands in the air. “Of course, he would want you to believe something like that. Isla, it’s transparent. Did it simply take his handsome face and pretty words to make you fall into this trap? Whatever he said, he’s lying to you andusingyou.”
Isla’s fingers shook and red crept into the edges of her vision. “I don’t have to listen to this.” She stormed to the door in a blind rage and threw it open before jerking her head back to face Rynn. “All I wanted was for you to listen to me. You’re letting your pride and ego get in the way of seeing the truth and saving lives.”
She stepped outside the door, ready to slam it in their faces when she remembered the most urgent information she’d gathered in her visit with Sebastian. Letting out a frustrated groan and turning back once again, she looked at Kai and said, “He’s coming after us. Sebastian must’ve seen where we are because he’s on a ship in the Wyndsor Sea. He said he’s gaining on us.”
