Page 84 of Artemysia
“Better it than us.” I toss an exceptionally silver rock I’d collected at the pools into the woodfire Ivy made, and the flames erupt to chest-height. The ivory sparks glitter as they whirl high into the upper corners of the cave ceiling before dropping back down.
“Pfft.”
“Maybe not everyone is worth saving, Delphine.”
Her eyes round. Formidable brown eyes that defy me. “You can’t possibly believe that.”
“I’m a vile creature. Heart of a Syf, probably.”
“NowthatI don’t believe.” She peels off her outer layers and crawls into the tent. When she turns around on her hands and knees and peers out the flap, her lopsided smile catches on my soul. She sits back on her heels to untie and shake out her long braid. “I need to sleep. Come keep me warm.”
And with those last four words, I eagerly leap to my feet and obey without a single protest.
This woman destroys me the way the silver-veined rocks explode in the flames.
An absolute and ruinous kind of destruction that burns to the very core of me, so that all my sins are turned to ash.
She is my ruination.
And yet…she is my salvation.
I lie awake, tangled around Delphine, who sleeps soundly in my arms. Her brown lashes contrast with her pale hair.
I worry over her words.How can we not know something like a Lindwyrm exists?
Why don’t we know more about Artemysia, why we lost communication with the other side and stopped trade with the Syf? All we know about the Syf is how to kill them.
Why did they become murderous after centuries of peace?
Someone somewhere has to know more. Perhaps they hide this knowledge. When I asked the king and the colonels for old maps of Artemysia and the surrounding areas from the days of trade, they couldn’t produce them.
Or wouldn’t? Lost, they said. Records were poor, they said.
This mission was never about following the colonels’ orders or even helping the king. Not for me, anyway. All I wanted was to escape to a new life. If I’m able to know more than they do, I could best them at their own game and leave behind a life I never wanted.
My instincts tell me there are dark secrets to be discovered and used to my advantage, and I vow to find them.
If not for myself, then perhaps for the world Delphine imagines. Perhaps it makes a difference in the world she wishes for in her dreams.
Her breathing deepens, and I draw her in close to keep her warm.
I don’t watch her sleep. Only psychopaths do that, I remind myself, because I’m dying to stare at her. I suppose that’s my answer—I’m fucking insane.
Instead, I watch the shadows on the cave wall through the tent door and wonder if the reason I feel like the world is always closing in on me is because I never had someone to push back against it for me, the way she does. The dream of escape—of running away—was the only solution I had to keep me going.
Until now.
“Stop saving everyone.” - Riev
The next morning, we pack up to leave our cave shelter. I don’t allow myself to act differently, even though part of me feels as if my entire world has shifted. I try to ignore the soreness between my legs from those wondrous swelling ridges.Deep breath. No one has to know what happened at the pools with Riev.
Throg, however, sniffs his bloodhound nose at me and winks a gleaming eye.
I love him to death, but I cast him a warning glance. I ball up a fist and indicate where it would land if he says a single word. He’s known me long enough to be able to read these kinds of telepathic messages clearly.
His face spreads into a grin. “Your secret is safe with me, Captain. But I’m going to need details at some point.”
I rub the sleep out of my eyes and holster my weapons. Kneeling to finish packing the tentandmy supplies,I let loose an exasperated groan.
