LYVIA
Empress…Empress… Empress…
– Hidden notes in Queen Antares’s secret alcove, Gilded Fortress
Lyvia – TheEvecta, Kayj
My fingernails dug into the eight-pointed stars on my sweaty palms as I paced in Isla’s small room below deck on board theEvecta. A spark flashed as Isla used an already lit taper to light a few others.
The ache forming behind my eyes grew, and I closed them, pressing the pads of my fingers into my lids. Sometime between jumping through the Vael Lacrima, my trip through hell, and returning to the Realm of Vael, I had undone the first transformation of my life. I’d spent my entire life as a human. And now, my entire body was different. My ears hurt, my eyes ached. My muscles moved too quickly.
And what was I doing here? The ship I’d learned to call home seemed to frost in my presence, the once warm, welcome space now foreign and unfamiliar.
“Sit down. You’re still in shock,” Isla ordered as she set down the smoking bud of incense on a blue plate. The dried lemongrass and lavender slipped into my nostrils, and I inhaled a deep breath without thinking.
My head shook, and I opened my eyes.
“We have too much to do,” I said, and my gaze shot from Isla’s amber eyes to her bare, bronze neck. She tracked the movement, noting my attention, and her eyes dropped. We’d been in this room just months ago after Dark King Daimos had used the Ramadiel Bone to wreak havoc on our group of fighters, forcing some of us to relive the lifetime of trauma our bodies had healed from.
Isla’s throat bobbed, and the image of those hand-shaped bruises flooded into my mind. A dullness entered my chest as guilt threatened to pounce.
“I left you. I’m so sorry?—”
Isla raised a hand and waved me off. “Stop. Don’t do that. I’m fine.” She cut me off in the lie. Isla was not fine. None of us were.
We stared at each other for a moment. I’d been back for one day, and though Nerissa had insisted on keeping our meetings short, the brief breaks in between were barely enough to keep me from floating away. When was the last time I had slept? There was no sleep in hell. I fell, and then I had landed. And months had passed…
I didn’t know where to look now. Who to sit by. Who to look at as I spoke. I shouldered the questions from some of the most powerful beings in the Realm of Vael and argued in favor of heeding the words of advice from a demon. From one of the very same creatures that threatened the Realm of Vael. The God of Death.An Embodied.
There was uncertainty among the group when I shared his warning about Sintarrak. What if following Tynan’s guidance was a trap?
And the revelations just kept coming.
There had been no sign of the Celestyn Bone, and everyone was frantic with the disappearance of the Aeterna Bone. Who would have taken it? The guards had been questioned endlessly, both claiming they had no memory of the night. Selvina and Nerissa had spent…timewith them… and felt they were telling the truth, which was enough for me without needing the details.
With Olienna’s death, Aquila’s memories had been restored. She’d taken them in those final moments before the shattering of the Vael. In the end, she had betrayed the Bellators of old. She’d always been after their powers, searching for ways to take them for herself. There would be no need for more cryptic dreams from Enya with the wealth of knowledge in Nerissa’s caeluma.
“If what Tynan told you is true, we need to get to the Arx,” Isla murmured, scattering my thoughts. She floated to the corner of the room, where she pulled out a foggy bottle of ridecus.
My stomach churned at the sight of it.
“If this ‘Sintarrak’ can jump from body to body and is seizing as much power as he can get, he’ll be indestructible in the body of a mystic or Bellator. We’ll need whatever weapons we can get our hands on. And if that’s in the Arx, we should leave soon,” she finished, grabbing the top of the ridecus cork with her teeth and unplugging it with a pop. Her nostrils flared as she lifted it, the ring on her nose shifting.
“And if it’s a trap, as Bayne expects?” I asked. My stomach pitched as I said his name. Something sharp and prickly had filled the space that time, and our actions had shoved between us.We needed to talk.
“Then we deal with it. I’m not letting you do this without me this time,” Isla answered, her hand gripping my arm and halting my pacing.
My heart squeezed at the pain in her eyes—at the unspoken trauma we’d both endured during our separation last year. My throat bobbed as emotion surged, and I gave her a firm nod.
“Speaking of Bayne,” she murmured, her dark brows pinching. “You two should probably talk.”
My throat constricted before I reached for the bottle in Isla’s hand and took a quick swig. Isla had a strange way of reading me. It’d become clear to me, even before I went through that gate, that my months away from Bayne had not only strained our relationship, but we’d both changed. I still cared for Bayne, but I stopped loving him long ago. And somewhere in the mess of the past year, I think he stopped loving me, too.
I’d never ended a relationship with a man, but thinking about it made me want to throw up. I savored the burn as the smooth liquid slid down my throat, false courage taking hold as the ridecus wrapped its calming hands around my mind.
My hand pausedas I reached for the ebony doors of the Onyx Tower throne room, which had become a mess hall of sorts. Whispers reached me through the wall, the words clearer and crisper than what I was used to.
I stilled as the voices hushed further, and I strained my new elven ears, testing their ability as Bayne’s voice carried farther than he realized.
