Well, therewasa way to stop him. She could use the dagger to take the elementals’ magic, and Sebastian wouldn’t be able to control her or them. But she knew better than to bring this solution up to Rynn again. His temper when it came to anything he didn’t agree with wasn’t something she wanted to deal with.
The more she thought about using the dagger, though, the more it frightened her. She didn’t know how any of their powers worked, and it was ludicrous to imagine herself withmagic. But that was only a small part of her fear. Deep down, she knew she didn’t want to fight the king after her growing doubts regarding his role in everything. If there was even a chance that he was being used and manipulated as she was, she couldn’t harm him. She needed to find a way tohelphim. The thought had been burrowing inside of her since she’d visited Sebastian in his palace, like an itch beneath her skin that she couldn’t scratch.
Isla sighed. “So many things could go wrong. I feel so…helpless. I don’t know what I’d do if something happens to one of you, or Bri, or Papa and Arden.”
Rynn’s hands moved to her arms, slowly sliding up and down. The action didn’t bring the comfort it once had. “I understand,” he said softly, his eyes locked onto the dark sea as if he were seeing something she couldn’t. A moment passed, and he looked back at her. “I feel that same helplessness with you, you know.”
He pulled her against him, and his arms circled her waist, his breath tickling the top of her head as he exhaled. The muscles in her arms and back tensed instead of molding to him. She didn’t know what was wrong with her—what stopped her from finding the warmth and peace she once did with him. Perhaps it was the heavy weight of anticipation smothering her, or the island full of secrets they were quickly approaching, or a pair of bright blue eyes.
As she leaned stiffly against his chest, she had a thought and peered up at him. “Rynn, what happened to that human from your past that Celesine mentioned? The one you lost?”The one you wouldn’t tell me about.
He didn’t immediately respond, but his jaw clenched and unclenched like it often did when he was having an internal debate. With a sigh that had his shoulders dropping an inch, he removed his arms from her waist and tugged on her hand. “Come with me,” he said, leading her off the main deck.
Isla’s eyebrows rose. Her curiosity was greatly piqued, and she followed silently behind him as he opened the door to the closest cabin they came across. It thunked closed behind her, and she peered over his shoulder at what she assumed was the officer’s cabin. Several bunk beds lined the side of the room, with a set of drawers built into the wall underneath a circular window overlooking the surface of the ocean.
“I have not told you because I didn’t want you to look at me any differently.” His eyes stayed fixed on the window. “Many centuries ago, I became good friends with a human…Keir.” He swallowed hard as he said the name.
“Keir was a lord in the king’s court at the time. King Elrich Vasileia, your ancestor.” Rynn’s voice tightened. “I served as an advisor to the king for several decades. Keir and I grew closer than brothers, closer than I had ever been with any of the elementals. He knew what I was, knew the mistakes I had made and the many faults I possessed, and he loved me anyway. I watched as he met and fell for a woman named Aerope. We stayed close, although perhaps not as close as we once were, especially once their son was born.” He smiled wistfully. “They were good people. You remind me of him, actually,” Rynn said, finally looking down at her and tapping her nose with his finger.
“Keir was very opinionated and too bold for his own good. He argued with King Elrich on almost every front and actively worked against his decrees. You see, Elrich was imposing laws that elevated the wealthy and oppressed the needy. It went against everything Keir stood for. He was one of the first mortals in a long time to voice his desire to see us—the elementals—overthrow the Vasileia and rule the kingdom. He thought we would be more just and would ensure the entire population prospered. It was years before the war, but Keir had a strong hand in resurrecting the ranks of people who wanted us in power. Whether or not Keir was in the right, it did not matter to Elrich—anyone who stood against the crown was a threat. And since he could not killus, thetruethreat…”
Rynn suddenly moved away from her. “I woke up one morning to the news that Keir and Aerope were dead.” His knuckles whitened as they clenched into fists. “They put their faith in me and, on Elrich’s command, were punished for it. So, I took his life.”
Isla gasped. “You murdered the king?”
His eyes turned to her. “I have never regretted what I did to him. He oppressed my people, put down anyone who dared to defy him, and left an innocent babe without a family.” He twisted off the gold ring that he always wore on his little finger. “This was Keir’s wedding ring. I took it from his body when he was laid to rest.
“Discovering that you are a Vasileia, descended from a man whose blood stains my hands, from a line of rulers we actively worked to dethrone…I did not know what you would think of me. I’ve convinced myself that this is why you have been slipping away from us. From me. Our history with your ancestors is not something we can wipe from our ledger, Isla, but it does not change the way I feel about you.”
Isla blinked at his confession, which was so much more than a simple tale of his past. She wasn’t ready for it. Not right now. Her feelings and opinions of the elementalshadslowly changed—she’d already acknowledged that. But the bonds she had formed with each of them—even Jade—reminded her of their humanity. Yet her mind was muddled with the image ofherelementals, her gentle, funny companions, who ate chocolate around a campfire and bickered like siblings—and the image of their past, of powerful beings who started wars among kingdoms. Who murdered out of anger and revenge.
Her heart ached for Rynn’s loss, for the death of innocent humans, and for the poor boy who had been orphaned, but it reminded her of what he had said that night she spent with him after their first kiss.
“I have cared deeply for very few people in my existence, and they often found themselves hurt, dead, or hating me.”
Isla swallowed, trying to find the words to respond. “I’m sorry about what happened to your friends. I wouldn’t wish that loss on anyone.” She closed her eyes. “And I’m sorry I’ve been distant. It’s not about your past and my ancestors, not fully. I just…I need time. I need to get through this whole mess and figure out who I am at the end of it. Getting my father and brother backhasto be my priority. If I lose them, it…that isn’t something I can come back from. I wish I could give you more than that, but I can’t.”
She opened her eyes and tried not to flinch as Rynn moved to her and placed a brief kiss on her temple. “We will save them and end this, I promise. And if time is what you need, I have plenty of it to give.” There was a ghost of a smile on his lips, but the light didn’t reach his eyes. He ran the back of his finger along the curve of her chin before slipping out the door and into the hallway.
Isla asked herself if she’d made a mistake, if she should have eased his worries of losing her and promised something more, if she should have shoved down her hesitancy toward him. But she felt empty as she watched him walk away. Not a cold emptiness of longing, but one of quiet relief. She supposed that was the most honest answer she could get.
Chapter Forty-Six
Isla
“Morefish,miss?”
Isla jolted as the crewman motioned to her half-eaten dinner plate. She’d been lost in her thoughts; her attention the last couple of days—since her conversation with Rynn—had turned to Iona and the dagger, since they were only a day or so away from the island.
“No, thank you,” she smiled kindly, trying to hide her grimace at the stench of fish and sludge-looking gray sauce coming from his pan.
He smiled and walked on, and her mind drifted back to the island kingdom. While it wasn’t her home, a growing flurry of excited nerves had popped up in her stomach as they drew closer. It may be an empty, isolated shell of what it used to be, but it held secrets and memories of her ancestors who lived on those shores, an entire history of her family—therulingfamily—that her mind begged to uncover.
And somewhere in these waters or on the island itself was, possibly, where she would find the Dagger of Volnus. This powerful, ancient weapon that could kill the elementals—the people she now called friends—and held some bond toherbloodline. Every day, she hoped and prayed the elementals would figure out a way to use the dagger on Sebastian and capture his power without using her. The looming pressure of rescuing her family, taking on the elementals’ magic, and facing the king herself if the others failed hung over her like a cloud.
And yet she would, if it came to that. She feared such a weapon falling into the hands of Sebastian—or whatever magic might be controlling him.
Isla got to her feet and steadied herself against the slow rocking of the ship. She lingered by the scullery after cleaning off her plate, entranced by the dark waves reflecting the stars from the black sky. This journey had been her first time on a ship, and it was like the night followed her, surrounding her, both above and below.
