Page 49 of Claimed By the Depths

“Opinions?” Her bite was evident as she craned her head to the side like a predator assessing its prey. “Good thing they aren’t such.”

The heir’s jaw flexed at her challenge. “I suppose it is time for me to pose the questions I had before our arrangement, unless you’ve… forgotten them?”

“Do not demean me as if I am a fool, Kaelivan. Everything I said in the ballroom is true, as there is no time for misleading information.” Lifting her arm, she turned it over before extending it. Fingertips curling upward, dark talons replaced her nails, and an iridescent sheen armored her flesh. “While our discussion may have been interrupted, all I wished to disclose surrounded the prophecy. So, to provide an answer to what remains unsolved, no, I am not from this realm.”

My breath hitched as I blinked, trying to make sense of her insinuation. “W-What are you?”

Lorelie spun toward me, settling her palms against my cheeks. “I will be able to tell you one day. One day, when Sorva does not harbor the ability to crush my trachea whenever I speak my truth. But for now, please know that all I have done is try to protect you,” she brushed her thumb along my bottom lip, “which is why I need you to trust me a little longer. I may not share any lineage tied to Wraelira, but my heart resides here with you. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Sapphira Maris, and once these lands are free, I plan to enlighten you of everything I have been forbidden to share.”

My throat bobbed with my emotion, but as Syoran melted with Kael’s presence, I did the same with her. With a sigh, I leaned forward to rest my forehead against hers. “Okay.”

Her touch trailed down my jaw before she settled two fingers under my chin. Drawing my attention to meet hers, she offered me a soft smile before grazing her nose against mine, and in the next breath, she stole the air from my lungs.

Mouth welcoming mine in a tantalizing kiss, she swept her tongue along my teeth. I groaned at the notion, opening wider for her indulgence, and she responded in kind. Devouring more and more of my essence with a hunger she seemed to have never learned to curb around me, her lips continued to mesh with mine. The proximity allowed me to greedily inhale her dangerous yet refreshing scent, like the tinge of smoke after a rainstorm, and I drank it in as if it were a freshly opened bottle of rum.

Drawing back, her hesitation became apparent as she graced me with one more fleeting kiss. With an exhale, her lids fluttered as she held my stare, palms still cupping my face. “I need you to go with them to the docks.”

Unwilling to argue with her, I simply dipped my chin in agreement.

Hand slipping around the back of my neck, she pulled me toward her to press her lips against the crown of my head. As if savoring my scent as I had hers, she lingered, but not long enough. With her touch slipping from me, she squeezed my shoulder once before glancing at Kael and Syoran.

“If you wish to know more about the prophecy and all that awaits this realm, then you take her with you, and you do not allow anything to happen to her. I may be an extension of Ellira’s love for Rohen, but I yearn for Sapphira, and if she falls because of your negligence, my kindness will expire just as quickly.”

They looked at one another, seafoam blue meshing with inky brown, two colors many would deem unfit at first glance. But the longer I stared, the deeper the longing became. It was dangerous, but prominent, an unfurling of something just as beautiful as it was deadly.

Syoran caught my analytical gaze, his scowl reforming as he muttered, “Fine. Whatever.”

Lorelie smiled and nodded before nudging me toward them. “Thank you.” Squeezing my hand once, she paused briefly as I moved toward them, but then her utterance came with a weight I did not wish to consider. “Oh, and also, if Rohen and I are not back before chaos ensues, as it will, because you are passing off a god-blessed relic to another Divari, then I need you to leave. Set sail and do not look back.”

Opening my mouth to argue, a gentle breeze swept through the forest, and with it, she vanished. Yet, in the rustle of the trees, I swore I could hear her voice, her vow.

“I promise I will find you. This is not goodbye.”

CHAPTER 27

Predator and Prey

CASPIAN

The rocky terrain and the fog-drenched skies of Hollowmere would never prevent me from finding her. Nothing would. And if anyone were foolish enough to try, my wrath would swallow them whole, just as I planned to devour her.

Feeling Sorva’s violation pulsing beneath my skin, I pressed a hand to my chest. Thumb brushing over the royal crest responsible for marring my flesh, the veins beneath the split branches of lightning throbbed.

The day I’d noticed the blackening of my lineage was the day ink was etched along the entire left side of my body. It served as another cloak for my truth, another layer over the mounting secrets I harbored. But most of all, it displayed my desire to cling to the fractured remnants of my humanity, to hide the monster that lurked beneath the surface—the vessel of possession for the malevolent entity working to snuff out Wraelira and its people.

“Aw. Are you pouting?” Sorva mewled in the back of my mind, taking my father’s place. “I am quite honored you made such a permanent decision, for when you are free of my clutches, that tattoo will only serve as a reminder of my presence and all you did for me without batting an eye. Such a good, dedicated boy.”

My jaw tightened at her utterance, words that proved I was far too pitiful to be anything other than her puppet. “As if you would ever grant me such a luxury.”

“That is where you are wrong, Caspian Vayne. Your essence is souring, and you’re becoming bitter, an empty husk. Soon enough, there will be nothing left of you for me to feast on, and I will move on to a far more… satiable soul.”

“Can’t wait,” I spat, training my focus on the steady drum of my footsteps against the cobblestone streets.

Expecting her retaliation in the form of sharpened syllables and heightened timbre, or a spike of anguish that would send me to my knees, I couldn’t help but loosen a breath when her looming proximity vanished. In her absence, I dragged the bottom of my tongue across my canine, seeking comfort from the god whom I could no longer hear.

Elaros had fallen silent as soon as my knees had collided with the weather-soaked deck on Malrik’s ship. Ever since my life force had spilled from my lips, only stillness had welcomed me. That was, unless Sorva lingered in the shadows of my subconscious, ready to remind me of the leash she’d wrapped around my neck.

Cursing under my breath, I rounded the corner of the Hollow Lantern, a frequented tavern whenever I bothered to stop by the mysterious village. My shoulder brushed the edge of the structure, the rustle of my clothes concealing the soft shing of metal as the sharpened point of steel settled against my pulse point.