“Marcus had a vision and pulled Kallie and me into it,” I said, rubbing my head. The dizziness quickly passed.
“What did you learn?” Ava asked.
“I remember now,” Kallie said. “Amalie and Dante were sailing to Darke Island with the key. She asked her shipmate to wipe her memory. He was a vampire named Erasmus Morelli. The rest of the crew died, but Erasmus could’ve made it, because a sinking ship wouldn’t kill a vampire. We didn’t find any records of Erasmus in death row, so he could’ve escaped the authorities before Amalie and Dante were caught. They would’ve assumed him dead with the rest of the crew. But before he left, he swore to protect the key and agreed to wipe Dante and Amalie’s minds, in case they were tortured for information.”
“That must be why I can’t access my past memories,” Marcus mused.
“But Amalie knew she’d come back, because the fae believe in reincarnation,” Kallie continued. “So she left clues behind. First, inThe Assassin’s Destinystory. Then she made the map. But… from what I remember, the map wasn’t for the demigods, like the story was. It was forher, in case she managed to get a pardon, so she could go back to Darke Island and rescue Dante. Erasmus must’ve left behind what memories he could, so that she wouldn’t forget her lover. The map doesn’t lead to the key at all… it was a map back to Dante.”
I groaned as I got to my feet and dusted the dirt off my pants. “Great. Another dead end. All this time we thought we were looking for clues to the merfolk key, and the map just marked where she’d find Dante— either alive in death row, or dead on prison grounds. No wonder we didn’t find anything in the lake. She’d marked it because that’s where they throw dead inmates, and she figured Dante might end up there, in the chance she didn’t return quickly enough to rescue him.”
“But it didn’t matter, because they executed Amalie before she ever got the opportunity to attempt a rescue,” Kallie added.
“We learnedsomething, though,” Marcus said. “Dante hid the key before their ship crashed on Darke Island. Erasmus was a vampire, which means he could still be alive today. He swore to protect the key, so he might know where to find it.”
“And I suppose you just expect him to hand the information over,” I said.
“He will if we can convince him of who we were in a past life,” Marcus replied.
“Marcus is right,” Ava agreed. “Erasmus should know what he wiped from their memories. I say we try to figure out where he is and go from there.”
We agreed that was the only logical course of action. Kallie got a head-start leading Ava back through the trees, while Marcus and I reburied Dante’s body. The bones sank deep into the earth with my magic. I didn’t need Marcus’s help, so I didn’t know why he’d hung back.
He spread his hands over the grave, making the earth even again. “Icantalk to the dead, you know,” he blurted. “I didn’t mess up this time.”
“I know,” I said. “I wasn’t judging. I’m sure it’s harder to contact people the longer they’ve been gone.”
“I just didn’t want you to think I couldn’t… help,” Marcus said timidly. “Because if you want to talk to anyone in the afterlife, I’m here.”
My form stiffened and went rigid. He was serious. Marcus was offering me a way to talk to the people that I’d lost.
It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about asking him to connect me with someone on the other side. I could talk to my mother, or to Marty. Before, I wasn’t sure Marcus could actually do it, but his powers were growing. I was sure he could figure it out if I asked.
Marty was the first one I considered speaking to, but I didn’t want to go there. He probably regretted being my friend. After all, he’d been shot because I was around. He might still be here if he hadn’t chosen to help me out, and I was too cowardly to face him. I feared he might blame me for his death, because I definitely know I did, and hearing the truth out loud from my dead best friend that I’d had a hand in killing him wasn’t something I thought I could handle.
Speaking to my mother would be even worse. It was hard, because I missed her, even though I couldn’t remember anything about her. She was an absent piece in my life that nobody was able to fill. It was easier before I knew about the magical world, because I’d assumed there was no such thing as the afterlife, so I didn’t have any fear that my mother would be ashamed of me for the choices I’d made.
Now I knew that our souls went on after death. That meant admitting to myself my mother was out there somewhere, and she probably knew about everything terrible that I’d ever done. She might’ve been watching over me all this time, observing as I stole from people, hurt others, and made mistake after mistake.
I bet my mom hated me. No one wanted their son to turn out like I had.
She probably didn’t love me anymore. I bet anything she cursed the fact she’d risked her life to give birth to a useless fuck-up like me. Back when I was born, it was still illegal to have a child that was bred from two different elemental Houses, and she’d been executed for it. And though I was a grown man, inside of me, there was still a little boy that just wanted his mom. That little boy wouldn’t survive if she turned away from him.
I was already in pain, and thinking about my mother made that pain worse, so I just shut it off.
“It won’t necessarily beclearcommunication,” Marcus babbled. “But I mean, we could at least try—”
“Okay,” I said, just to get him to stop talking. “Sometime, I guess.”
“All right, well, um…” Marcus stammered. “Let me know when you’re ready.”
It felt weird to think about. For the longest time, I believed that when someone died, that was it. You never got another chance to say what you wanted to. I hadn’t thought about what I might say to the people who weren’t here anymore. It wasn’t exactly a chance you got every day, and if I was ever brave enough to face Marty or my mother again, I wanted to make it count.
Though I doubted I’d ever have the nerve to go through with it.
We finished burying the body, then made our way through the trees until we caught up with Kallie and Ava.
“We need to keep searching,” Ava insisted, though her voice was tired. I felt through our bond that she was clearly exhausted.
