Page 187 of Black Sea

“Mother?” I whispered.

She stared at the four archers with those blue-green eyes of hers, capable of intimidating anyone who dared to meet her gaze. In fact, they immediately lowered their weapons and bowed their heads, taking a step back.

She looked down at me.

I let go of the lid and watched her, confused. Fearing she had come to persuade me to return.

Instead, her expression softened. “Be happy, fire of our hearts,” she said.

Emotion clenched my throat so fiercely that I almost felt like I couldn’t breathe. Mother blew me a kiss with her hand, and with that same hand, she signaled me to go.

I wasn’t sure if my father had told her to come and help me. If he had finally understood that I couldn’t live without Amlach.

But I chose to believe so.

I chose to believe that he and Araton would always love me, even after what I had done.

So, I thanked my mother with a bow, tears streaming down my cheeks. I offered her a smile, then ran toward the end of the dock and dove into the rippling sea. Amlach had already moved quite a distance from the coast. Still, it took me a few seconds to reach the boat.

He had just finished washing his hands and face. I clung to the gunwale, but at the last moment, I hesitated to hoist myself onboard, my senses on high alert.

Amlach loomed over me in all his grandeur. Even though he no longer had magic, he now seemed more unstoppable than ever.

And from his expression, it seemed like he wanted to eat me alive.

We stayed in that stalemate for what felt like forever. Finally, Amlach gave me that smirk and bent down, reaching out his hand to me.

And just as I had quickly pulled him up the tree moments before the flood struck him, he pulled me onto the boat.

We stared at each other, with saltwater dripping from our faces, so eager to leap at one another and tear through flesh with our nails and teeth, joining together in a bloodbath.

So eager to be back being us.

Slowly, Amlach sat down on the bench in the middle of the boat. Without breaking eye contact, I took my place at the stern seat.

“You know that one day I’ll return to get my powers back,” he said after a long, suffocating silence. “And when I do, I will exterminate your race.”

Prey of his dark gaze, I countered, “Then I will spend my entire existence stopping you.”

Smirking smugly, Amlach grabbed the oars. “I’m counting on it, Elf,” he replied, and began rowing northwest.

Toward our island.

Epilogue

The sailboat entered the lagoon as the sun was already setting beyond the horizon, casting a deep orange hue over the sea while the clouds turned grayish purple. I got up from the table on the porch, where I was peeling and cutting fruit for dinner, and leaned my shoulder against the column of the roof covered with large fig leaves.

Reaching the shore, Amlach jumped down and grabbed the bow line. I watched him with a greedy gaze as he dragged the boat across the sand and secured it to the pole in the ground with the same focus and strength he had used to tie me to our bed’s headboard last night.

But then his attention turned back to the open sea.

Toward the Lands of the East.

Toward the Crystal.

There wasn’t a single moment when darkness didn’t call him; I was fully aware of that. Because it called me, too.

Always. Violently.