Another strike of her sword sent Theo’s teeth chattering, but he kept up his guard, breathing through the trembling in his arm from the wound still dripping blood. His knee ached as his feet shifted back and forth.
He needed to get back on the offense, but his mind reeled. Betrayed again. How many more friends would he bury? How many more deaths would be on his hands?
“The realm is changing.”
Theo couldn’t believe what was coming from her mouth. “Sephardi, please tell me you haven’t sided with Deavopan.”
“They’re willing to do what must be done.”
“This is madness!”
She lunged, swiping a gash into his thigh. He didn’t wince, but she forced him back, moving with speed. She was older, wiser, quick with her sword. Years of training and fighting were at her back, but Theo had his strength and his will.
“No, what’s crazy is trusting a woman you found in the middle of a forest, covered in blood,” Sephardi rattled on.
Theo forced the pain growing in his body back and sucked in a breath. He needed to disarm her. She was skilled and deadly with her blade, but he couldn’t kill her. She was his friend.
Sephardi didn’t let up on her attack. Her breaths were even, and her footing was solid. She wasn’t tiring, but Theo felt the fatigue riddling through him. He couldn’t keep up.
“Who else wants her dead?” he yelled.
“Not everyone sees what I do.”
Theo felt disgraceful for having any bit of relief. She’d acted alone, but why at all? None of it made sense.
With his rambling mind, Sephardi twirled her blade, sliding downhis and ripping the hilt from his grasp. She kicked his chest, sending him backward against the deck. She straddled him, pinning his arms to the ground. Her fingers pressed against his wound and a gasp escaped him. The pain in his arm spread up his neck. The cold barrel of one of her pistols pressed against his temple. Now, he really hated guns.
“I don’t want to kill you.”
“How long?” he gasped.
“You don’t know her, Theo. None of us do—what she is.”
What she is?What did Amaris have to do with siding with Deavopan? “Amaris is a mystique. She’s saved countless lives. She isn’t a threat.”
Theo let out a cry as Sephardi further pressed her fingers into his wound. To keep his tunneling vision clear, he puffed out short breaths.
“Is she?” Sephardi slid her gun to Theo’s jaw, slowly forcing his chin up. A clap of thunder overhead had her grimacing, and her hand trembled. She shook, the muscles in her arms flexing. She didn’t want to kill him. Theo saw it in her eyes. She held back.
“Sephardi, put down the pistol,” he panted. “We can go inside—”
“Quiet!”
Theo writhed beneath her as her fingers dug into his shoulder. He was going to black out, or Sephardi would shoot him. He wouldn’t know if Amaris got Esaias off the ship. He wouldn’t live to see Adelaide grow into the woman she was becoming. She would marry the prince, because Luther would never stand up for her. Amaris would be carted off to the dungeons, even after what she’d done, the people she’d saved.
He cheated death during the war. He should’ve died in Rongstad with the torture he’d endured, the amount of blood he’d lost. The river should’ve taken him. Once Sephardi pulled the trigger, he would stand before Kedes, but he knew After didn’t wait for him. He would be swallowed into the cracks of the realm to be eaten by the burning fires within.
Chapter 43
Amaris
As the rainpoured down on them, Amaris took in the sight unraveling around her. Adelaide stood by Theodoric’s side as they faced Sephardi. Amaris sat in disbelief. Sephardi had freed her from the dungeon and attempted to shield her against Bennet.
What changed?
Pulled from her internal struggle, she bent over Esaias and assessed his state. Luckily, he was still breathing. She attempted to rouse him, rubbing her knuckles against his sternum, but he only breathed deeper. If she were home, she’d start an intravenous line and give him medication to get his sugar up, but she wasn’t in her world. She didn’t have her drug box, her ambulance, or even Charlie. But she was more than her tools.
Esaias was her patient. She’d get him off the ship and find Onika. Hopefully, she had an herb or something. With Onika’s expertise, she’d get him talking and joking again. She didn’t want to think of what Luana Bay would be like without Esaias, without any of them. For weeks, she’d learned the routine of the mystique, sat with them at dinner, walked the halls with Theodoric, but in all of it, she’d felt freer than she ever had.
