Page 91 of Virelai's Hoard
It rested at the top of a throne-like scepter made of stone.
The Heart was just like in the sketches, and also entirely different. Small enough to fit in Riley’s palm, lit veins splitting the length of it–a pulsing core of light and shadow. It looked… alive.
Riley approached it, cautious and in awe. If she listened closely enough, she could hear it whispering to her, making promises so grand as to make her head swirl.
This was it. This was what Calla had dragged them here for.
And it was Riley’s to take.
Calla
Calla didn’t need to reach the end of the path to know this was it. This was the place she’d been looking for. It was like a rope tethered to the center of her being andpulledher towards it. Her steps were automatic, inevitable. When she reached the center of the cave, she already knew what she would find, as if she’d been there before already. As if this all had played out before, and she was replaying the beats of it through the haze of a dream.
Riley stood there, just a step from the Heart of the Abyss, and Calla knew what would come next, knew she could do nothing to stop it. Riley would reach out for the Heart, and Calla would bear the consequences. It was already played out. Inevitable.
It is not. You can stop this. Kill her. She is nothing.
“No,” Calla whispered.
And she knew, then, her thoughts had not been her own.
If the only way to save herself was to doom someone else–even someone as reckless and infuriating as Riley–then she did not want it. She would bear the consequences when they came. The gold would be enough to safe-guard her crew, and if it wasn’t, Sable would rise to the challenge. She had to. But she would not kill Riley for this. She could not.
The haze that had been plaguing her extinguished with a final whisper.
Fool.
Sable tried to rush past her, but Calla grabbed her arm, tethering her.
“Wait,” she said. Her voice sounded like it was miles away. Calla could not feel her own body, but for the hand tethering Sable in place.
Sable twisted to look at her, baffled. “She’s about to do somethingstupid.”
Calla knew, and yet she kept watching, feet rooted to the sand beneath her feet.
Riley closed the distance between herself and the Heart with a torturously slow step.
Riley
“Riley!”
Riley flinched, looking over her shoulder. She met Sable’s eyes, wide and pleading, then Calla’s, sharp and focused. Something in her chest shifted, slow and painful. They were too far away to do anything about this. The Heart lay just a breath away from her fingertips.
She was just about to touch it when Calla’s voice rang out throughout the chamber. “Let her,” she said. “She’s only out for herself,” she said. “She always has been.” Calla’s eyes met hers, then, daring Riley to contradict her.
The chill of that gaze settled into her bones. A flash of anger sparked in Riley’s chest. “You won’t eventryto stop me?” the words spilled out of her.
At her back, the Heart of the Abyss pulsed in delight.
Calla’s lips spread in a smile, as if Riley had said somethingfunny. “No,” she said simply. “You must want something pretty important if you’d go to these lengths to get it. So go ahead. Take it.” She gestured toward Riley and the Heart, watching as if this had nothing to do with her. As if Calla hadn’t gone togreaterlengths to get here.
What was she playing at?
Sable, looking as confused as Riley felt, just stood there, glancing between Riley and Calla. Calla wasn’t holding her anymore. She could rush to Riley’s side if she wanted to. She didn’t.
Riley was alone. Completely and utterlyalone. She’d fucked everything, hadn’t she?
More uncertain than before, she reached towards the Heart, its pull strong and undeniable.
