Page 144 of A Storm in Every Heart
He blinks at me again, dazedly as I grip his arm and try to haul him away from the strange girl. Except he won’t budge, not even an inch, and he’s far too big for me to drag.
“Kastian!” I say again, sharper this time, sinking my nails into his forearm. I want to cry with frustration. “I said, it’s important.” My voice cracks. “If you ever trusted me, please?—”
And then the world explodes around me.
A blast thunders from the direction of the bow, rattling the entire ship. Kastian nearly topples into me, and I instinctively grab onto the railing, anchoring us both as a flicker of green and gold light bursts overhead.
For half a second, I think it’s an attack, or a signal, but then the next explosion is followed by a thousand gasps.
Fireworks.
People swarm to the rails, necks craned, faces tipped up to the sky. They push and shove to get the best view, and in the mayhem I lose my grip on Kastian and in a split second he disappears, swallowed up by the shoving crowd.
A lump rises in my throat and my eyes burn—more out of frustration than anything else.
I lurch back through the mass of people, elbowing aside a pair of tipsy noblewomen who shriek in delight at the fireworks and in disgust at my shoving. I scan faces, desperate, searching for his eyes behind every black mask.
Finally, I spot him for a second time—he's reached the far end of the ship, still weaving unsteadily with each step.
I break into a run, but my foot catches on the hem of my elaborate gown, nearly sending me sprawling.
Suddenly, a pair of masked courtiers sweep in front of me, laughing and tossing handfuls of confetti. The glitter blinds me; I cough and frantically wave the sparkling cloud away, but as my vision clears, my heart sinks.
Kastian stands against the railing, alone for the briefest instant, before a masked figure emerges from the shadows behind a stack of empty crates. The man is tall and broad-shouldered, his mask a wickedly grinning fox, golden in the spray of fireworks.
I can’t tell whether it’s Magnus or someone else, but it hardly matters as the next moments unfold with a sickening slowness: the man lunges, grabs Kastian by the back of the collar, and wrenches him against the rail. Still unsteady on his feet, Kastian’s arms pinwheel, his mouth opens in a silent cry—but the music and the fireworks swallow every sound.
He falls backwards and disappears over the edge of the ship, plummeting down toward the dark water. I scream his name, but no one hears it over the booms echoing over the water.
I don’t think, don’t hesitate. I sprint.
My body moves before my brain has finished processing what just happened.
I reach the rail and, without breaking stride, vault onto it, barely gripping the slick, salt-sticky wood as I throw myself over the edge.
There’s a single heartbeat of freefall. The sound of fireworks and laughter and music all vanishes, replaced by the roar of blood in my ears and the whistling of wind past my face.
Then, I hit the water. The cold air is gone in an instant, and the ocean embraces me.
KASTIAN, PRESENT
Lyra doesn’t come back, and the next time I wake up, I wonder if she was ever really here at all.
Magnus returns, and there are more sedatives; more knives; more pain.
Sometimes I think I hear footsteps, hushed whispers, but then they fade into the rest of my fever dreams: Odessa laughing in a rowboat. Odessa lying by the lake; and again and again, we're on the beach and she’s crying.
Once, I catch the scent of salt water, and for a brief, delirious second, I’m back on my ship and Dessa is asking me why I don’t want to be the king—but by the time I blink, she and the ship are gone, dissolved into the shadows.
At least the pain is consistent—burning, stabbing, blinding.
Maybe that’s why the next time I open my eyes and the pain feels slightly less extreme, I think I must be dead.
I blink up at the stone ceiling above me, my eyes suspiciously clear for the first time in…days, I think?
I try to sit up and can’t, which sends my mind reeling. If I were dead, surely I wouldn’t still be bound to this table.
I blink again, harder.
