I chuckle as the story comes back to me. All the eyes in the room give me an ‘of course that’s why you didn’t like it’ look, but my smile stays on my lips because I actually ended up loving it.
I can’t believe I forgot about it.
“Well, did she find him?” Riven asks as he gets himself comfortable on the floor beside me, causing Kyzen to chuckle.
“She did. After searching every island, she finally found a map to a rumored city beneath the sea. It was said that the city had jewels, gold, and treasures and everything that was lost to the sea came there. The plot twist was the pirate she fell in love with was an immortal who’d been tasked with watching over the sea.
“He was responsible for finding lost things and taking care of them until they were returned where they belonged. She wasn’t an object, though, she was human, so he had to return her to land, where she belonged. The only way she could stay with him was if she found her way back to him, then he never had to let her go. When she found him, though, she tried to attack him with her sword. She nearly fell off the cliff, and he caught her, told her she could be mad at him all she wanted, but he wasn’t letting her go again. It was so romantic.”
I sigh dreamily. This is probably a prime example of why I loved all things nonmagical so much. The mortals had a way of romanticizing everything and the works they wrote were so entertaining.
“Pull yourself out of dreamland and put the pieces together.”Seismet huffs and I tilt my head to the side.
“Put everything the Messenger gave you together, Thayla,”V adds, deepening my confusion.
The Messenger…
The images play across my mind again the second I think of the being.
It takes me a moment, but once it clicks, I suck in a sharp gasp and put a death grip on Riven’s arm.
“Oh my gods. There’s no way. That’s impossible.”
“What?” everyone barks.
“The Binding is in the Lost Sea.”
Their eyes cloud in disbelief, but the second the words come out of my mouth, I know it’s true. A…correctness settles across my mind like a thin blanket has been lifted. I didn’t notice it until now, but there had been a faint buzz in the air that’s completely gone now.
My head whips toward V, seeing if he did something weird, but the guys are all looking around as well.
“What was that?” I ask.
“Power receding from the Amethyst,” Amick states, picking up the stone I left on the bed. “The Messenger was with her that whole time, weren’t they, V?”
“Yes. They stayed until she fully understood their message.”
Holy shit.
“I thought you weren’t going to reach out to them?” Kyzen asks.
“Well…I didn’t really reach out, or at least I didn’t mean to. I kinda forgot my shit-talking has powers. A couple of times now, I may or may not have said something along the lines of some help would be nice. I just didn’t say it that nice.”
“Bad little burden. Talking shit to a being directly created from the Valories. You’re trying to get us killed.”
“I am not. How was I supposed to know they’d be listening or actually hear me?”
“I told you they would.”
Eh, V has a point.
“So they showed you the book to what? Connect the dots to the sea? What else did they show you?”
Both calculation and hesitation to believe this color Creed’s words and a sliver of doubt creeps its way inside of me. This is a big stretch of an assumption and if I’m wrong, then it not only puts us in danger, but also wastes a lot of time we don’t have.
“Gods,” Lambrit exclaims, suddenly pacing back and forth. “The map, Thay. The map she followed was drawn out in the book.”
My lips part, but Amick hums. “The likelihood of that map being a map we can read and follow is slim to none. You said this was a mortal love story.”
