Maela’s desperate pleas and her wide whiskey eyes. The whites around them growing with each shriek.
The splash of the river water as her sister and the bags of stones sank. The water lapping Emmery’s chin and unyielding yank under the surface. Water invading, filling her lungs like a fishbowl fit to burst.
Ice cracking beneath her as she ran from the burning village and the unfathomably dark water below opening its mouth—
Destonne cleared his throat and drew her from the series of memories, the sickening, relentless slew of torment she would never escape. She’d been too caught up in her fear to notice his approach, and he now stood in front of her, his head cocked to the side.
She clamped her eyes shut so he couldn’t see the fear in them.
“I’m not sure about you but I’m spent,” he said. “Why don’t we call it a night and try again tomorrow. Yeah?”
“If you insist,” she managed to say, her voice weak.
Emmery wouldn’t admit she teetered at her limit and she also wouldn’t admit that Destonne saw her fear, and knew she needed reprieve before she voiced it. Before she recognized it herself.
And she didn’t know what that meant for them.
CHAPTER TWELVE
EMMERY
“Imiss him,” Briar said.
In Fionn’s room, Briar clutched her brother’s hand, while Emmery stroked Millie’s feathered head. After weeks spent at Fionn’s side, the serpent had thankfully stopped darting under the covers each time Emmery entered the room. But she could hardly blame the poor thing. Most days Millie just coiled around Fionn’s arm and pressed a disheartened hiss into his skin like it could reach him in his unconscious state.
Emmery eyed Aera snuggled at Fionn’s feet. Her soft snores filled the otherwise quiet room as she slept. Usually Emmery would find Brennen curled up at Fionn’s side with his head overhis heart, like the steady rhythm guided him, sustained him, but today he’d been otherwise occupied.
“I miss him too,” Emmery agreed. And she really did; she missed a lot of things about him. His silent laugh that shook his shoulders, his unfiltered quips that left her helplessly belly laughing until it hurt, and his otherwise quiet demeanour. They too shared an unexplained draw between them, like Briar and her had, where they justworked. Maybe, despite her stolen memories, her body remembered their past so their connection lived in her flesh.
Emmery’s eyes follow Briar’s finger as it traced along Fionn’s serpent tattoo. The dark ink coiled from his hand up the length of his left arm to his neck, and tapered at his temple like the worst of Briar’s visible burns.
Fionn’s frail body brought a fluttering concern to Emmery’s gut. The castle healer, a wrinkly man with a stout belly, had assured her Fionn received necessary nutrients with his daily injections. He’d always been thin, but this was a new extreme. She had tried to heal him with her silver threads, but evidently bone ash blocked magic, and while it swam in his bloodstream, her magic couldn’t touch him. It didn’t stop her from trying.
Briar whispered loudly into her brother’s ear, “If you can hear me Fifi, you should know I’m pissed at you for doing this to yourself. And a less than polite talking to is waiting for you the second you open your eyes.”
A smile tugged at Emmery’s lips. “At this rate he’ll never wake. Mostly to hide from your wrath, Bri.”
“This isn’t the first time he’s done this.” She patted Fionn’s hand before she dropped it onto the bed and flopped down beside him. “Alright so Vesper told me something happened between you and Fi beyond the gate. I’m afraid to ask but I feel I need to know.”
Emmery’s brow lifted. “Vesper told you?”
“Only that he went across before it was sealed and that he gave you that book you were carrying earlier. And that ring.” As Briar nodded at the oval blood ruby on Emmery’s third finger, she suppressed the urge to hide her hand under the quilt. “Now, I know my brother and that, all of it, doesn’t sound like him. Were you two … involved,or am I missing something?”
“No.No. He took care of me after my sister died. I was a wreck after Mae passed.” It was a gross understatement, because, really, he’d kept her alive. Emmery retrieved the black leather book from the side table and placed it in her lap. She opened the cover to flick through the pages yellowed by time. “Do you know anything about it? Zyphira claims it had to do with myimplexus.” Emmery bit her lip to suppress her blush. “I think he might have … written it for me.” It sounded insane, but the book had been handwritten by someone, and now that she had delved more into the story, the main character, Evryn, and his love for Nyssa, she did feel in her soul that maybe Shadehadwritten this book for her. But what it all meant, she wasn’t sure. This couldn’t be a real series of events. This was fiction. No one loved someone this much.
“Sounds romantic.” Briar winked then eyed the book. “I’ve never seen it before, but I know Fionn was always an enthusiastic reader. And blood rubies are only used for union jewelry. For avotai.So if Fionn gave that to you, then I would assume you were more than friends.” She batted her lashes. “I can hardly blame him for being in love with you. You’re sodreamy.”
Emmery snorted and tossed a pillow at her. Briar dodged and jostled Fionn as it landed with a plush thud on the floor. Emmery cringed. It was likely in poor taste to be tossing things over someone in a coma.
“You know, I would ask Fionn if he was madly in love with me, but it’s difficult to communicate with someone who won’teven offer a nod or a simple thumbs up.” It seemed she didn’t know a lot about him, including his drug use. Briar shared a bit about how he’d tried it when he was young and it got better every time, until it didn’t. And at that point, it was too late. She said it was around the time they’d been beckoned by the gods and completed their trial, but Fionn was left behind.
Emmery couldn’t imagine how irreparably separated from everyone he felt and she wished he’d wake up just so she could tell him it would be alright.
Not that it would bother him in this state, but Emmery brushed a strand of raven black hair back from Fionn’s face. As Emmery pulled away Briar hissed a curse under her breath. That’s when Emmery caught Briar studying her palm, and her stomach sank.
After Vesper’s tongue lashing about the pactum, she didn’t need it from Briar too. It was done, and couldn’t be undone.
“So you and Old Thorny really made a deal? Do you think that’s wise? BecauseI thought you were smarter than that.”