Page 92 of Virelai's Hoard
“Let me guess.” Calla’s voice drew her gaze again, and the captain tilted her head at her. “Moregold?”
Against the pile of gold already spilling at Riley’s feet, the question was pure mockery.
Anger twisted in her chest again, sharp-toothed and swirling.
Riley’s silence must’ve been taken as confirmation, because, nodding once to herself, Calla turned to Sable. “Come on. We’re done here.”
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
Calla was supposed to fight her. Sable was supposed to stop her. Someone was supposed to–
But they didn’t.
Calla just turned away, and Riley’s chest ached with something ugly and sharp.
She wasn’t even worth fighting for?
No. No, that wasn’t right. This wasn’t right.
Fix it.
The thought wasn’t hers, not entirely. But it was enough. Her fingers brushed the Heart.
Calla
Calla collapsed on her knees, pain unlike anything she’d ever felt before spreading through her limbs. She gasped in a breath, sharp and burning. Everything was agony. She braced herself on her hands, her vision blurry as her bones twisted. Not like breaking—breaking would be kinder. This was something else, something worse. Her body reshaped itself as though she were melting and reforging all at once.
Ahead of her, the sea lurched.
There was something lost. And something gained. Her skin shimmered in the dim light, salt and brine sinking into her veins.
Water lapped at her hands, soothing her. Saying farewell. And welcome. Claiming her as her own once more.
Sable
One moment, Sable witnessed the pain on Riley’s face as Calla turned to walk away, her disinterest like a slap in Riley’s face. Mocking. Daring Riley to prove her wrong, to prove that she was better than this. Riley hadn’t seen it, but Sable had. Calla wasn’t walking away. She was challenging Riley tostay.
But Riley didn’t know that.
One moment, everything was normal, if notfine. The next, the world tumbled in on itself.
Calla stumbled on her knees, gasping for breath, her skin rippling, flesh and bones shifting beneath.
Sable rushed to her side when a guttural cry of pain stopped her in her tracks. Her head snapped to where Riley had been standing just a moment before.
She wasn’t standing now, but floating inches above the ground. The Heart of the Abyss was gripped between her fingers, the only part of her that was still. The rest of her body was convulsing, pain written all over her face, eyes closed and teeth gritted, not quite holding her screams in. Darkened veins erupted from the Heart and up her arm. Where the veins reached, her body went weak–limp.
It was killing her. Whatever Riley had asked it for, the Heart of the Abyss was killing her to get it.
With no time to think, Sable rushed to Riley. She faltered for just a moment before reaching out. The moment her fingers closed around the Heart, pain tore through her–white-hot, searing, a scream curling in her throat, stuck like a fishhook. It wanted her gone. It wanted her dead.
This wasn’t just magic. It was hunger. Old and endless.
The others hadn’t felt it like this. They hadn’t realized–
This thing didn’t give. It took. It would always take.
She clenched her jaw, ground her teeth, forced her fingers to pull even though she could barely breathe through the fire in her blood. Whatever it was Riley wanted, whatever she wasgivingCalla, it wasn’t worth her life. Grunting from the effort, Sable reached out with her other hand and tore the Heart out of her grip.
