“Andthisone,” the sorcerer purrs, “well she’s been my favorite. The best liar I’ve ever worked with.” He drags his nose up the column of Vesper’s neck, and she glances at me with wide, pleading eyes. “Tell her, Vesper. Tell her what you did.”
I thought I knew the whole of it—however, Vesper shakes her head wildly, and my chest contracts with the agonizing beats of a breaking heart. She won’t meet my gaze, and she doesn’t pull away from his touch.
“Vesper, it doesn’t matter. You did it for Eos, and I don’t blame you. I did theexactsame thing,” I say, because I can’t… I can’t suffer another betrayal. I can’t face my own consequences haunting me like a bloodthirsty poltergeist. She is my fault. Her pain. Her suffering. By saving myself—choosing myself—I ruined her life.
“I knew,” she whispers before I can finish. “I’m so sorry, Zephyra. I never—”
The sorcerer claps a hand over her mouth, and I lurch forward, desperate to protect her. “Do what he wants,” I say, voice cracking on a stifled sob. “It’s fine. I can handle it.”
A muscle feathers in the sorcerer’s jaw. He hates my compliance. He wants me scared. Doesn’t he see that Iam?
“More,” the sorcerer demands, grip hardening so that her skin darkens to plum purple from his touch. “Tell her thetruth.” He shoves her forward, and she just barely manages to catch herself from falling.
Vesper collapses on the granite, her tail flicking sadly, slowly, behind her. “I knew… about Gavriall. I knew about Amaya, and the death cult. I kneweverything. The sorcerer told me everything about you, Zephyra. I—I wasn’t sent to kill you or even retrieve you. I was sent to distract you.” Her tears collect in salty puddles beneath her. “I was pulling all the strings because he knew… I would be your weakness. He knew even if you didn’t bring the others, you wouldalways bring me.” She meets my eyes with a wince. “He knew you’d feel too guilty over Eos to do anything else.”
What’s left of me—of my composure—shatters. I threaten to crumble like weathered stone. However, I tear the veil away from my eyes instead. I rip the sleeves from my gown. I cannot let him see me break. “Congratulations,” I manage weakly. “You did it.”
Her betrayal—alltheir betrayals—should sting more. And they do, just not in the way the sorcerer intended. Because I know myself. I’ve lived with myself for over two decades. I was a horrible friend to Vesper. I’m the reason multiple people have died. I forgive them.
But I do not forgivehim.
He played us—allof us—like a fucking fiddle.
Vesper shakes her head. “After being in that castle… I believe you, Zephyra. About all of it. I wasn’t going to let him win, even if he vowed to bring Eos back—”
“Enough,” the sorcerer snaps. He claps his hand, and thunder booms. A bronze cage tethers itself to Vesper’s mouth. She can’t speak through it. She can’t cry or scream.
And I want to rend the sorcerer limb from limb. My chest heaves with righteous rage. My gaze blazes with heat. “You promised her Eos in exchange for me. So give Vesper her sister back. She did it, didn’t she? I’m right fucking here. Bring Eosback.”
“In exchange for you?” He clicks his tongue. “Dearest Zephyra, I could have plucked you from the sea anytime I wanted. No… this has nothing to do with you. Although, I suppose youarea player. Does that help? If I tell you that you’re important to this tale?”
“I couldn’t give afuckwhat you tell me, you lecherous prick.”
“Ever colorful with the insults, wife.” The sorcerer laughs, and the razor-sharp sound beads over my skin like ice.
I hate him. I hate him. I hate him.
Boiling over with wrath, I hiss, “One day, someone is going to slash your organs straight from your stomach. They are going to suffocate you with your lower intestine. And even if I’m dead, I’ll be there.Right thereto witness you screaming and begging for your life like the pathetic man you are.”
His gaze flares a bronze more molten than lava. He steps towardme, maneuvering around the bodies of his minions without a care. “That day will never come,” he says, dark and low and ominous. The hair on my arms rises, needling at my flesh. Warning me of imminent danger. “Retrieve the chest, Zephyra. Give me the heart.”
The world falls out from under me.
This has nothing to do with you.
The High Sorcerer of the Four Sea doesn’t want me. Not truly. He wants the heart of a death god. He wants immortality, infinite power…fuck. No. If he takes it, the entire world is damned. I glance to Arion, who stares helplessly back. Our cord is gone. My tether to him has disappeared. He’s as good as fucking dead, no reason as to why he’s still alive beyond the sorcerer in front of me, but I… I can’t do this on my own. I can’t defeat a man who alwayswins.
“You are dumber than a sturgeon if you think I would ever do your bidding.” I glare at the sorcerer, chin high. Fists clenched. Defiant until the moment he kills me. “Get it your fucking self.”
I expect an outburst of violence. I expect the whole temple to implode.
I do not expect the sorcerer to smile serenely and utter the one name that startedeverything. “Do you think Jacin was an accident, Zephyra?”
CHAPTER FORTY
ZEPHYRA
Jacin’s name crashes through me in a wave of dread.
