Page 35 of Godsbane
“And I’m just, what, supposed to trust that? You’re asking me to blindly trust that your loyalty is truly with me and not your warlord, based on some vague story about protecting someone you love and nothing else. What good is the word of a stranger?”
Cal stares at me with a growing intensity as my questions linger in the night air. Flames dance in his gray eyes as he closes the distance between us. My magic jumps frantically at his proximity, subdued only by the stubborn anger that rages within me.
“I will never lie to you.” He grabs my arm, hauling my heaving chest to his. “And we both know we’re more than strangers.”
I pull away from him, eager to put the only thing that can calm my magic between us: distance. Cal’s forceful grip tightens, stopping me in my tracks.
“Let me go,” I demand through clenched teeth.
“Look at me,” he says, yanking my arm. “Ivy, look at me.”
My traitorous heart does somersaults at the possessive way my name rolls off his tongue. A chilly breeze stirs around us, shadows dancing in the corners of my vision. I whip my head towards him, fire burning in my eyes as I meet his.
“You can deny it all you want, but denial can’t change destiny. I’ll tell you everything … just as soon as you decide you’re done fighting the inevitable.”
“Fuck you,” I seethe, wrenching my arm from his grasp.
“Whenever you want, princess,” Cal says with a chuckle as he steps back into the shadows. “Just say the word.”
The first rays of light dance across the waves that lap gently against the port’s seawalls. Horses neigh and tradespeople shout as day breaks in the capital city. I peer over the large crates that block me from view of the palace guards, the men dressed in Corinthian gray and gold that pace in front of the iron gates. Shadows surround me, further shrouding my black-clad body until the clock tower strikes six o’clock. Magic blazes through my body, sending me into full alert.
Something is wrong.
The tugging in my gut urges me to the water's edge. I start to creep but the tug becomes a sharp pull, forcing me to the dock’s edge at breakneck speed. The end of the wooden plank is approaching quickly, but my feet don’t stop their hurried sprint.
A guttural scream pierces the air as my body surges into the icy ocean below. I call to my magic and summon vine after vine in a fruitless attempt to grab hold to the edge of the dock before I’m sucked into the watery depths.
Further I fall, much further than should be possible. Bloody skin, now exposed through deep cuts in my pants, stings in the salty water. Desperately, I swim upwards, silently begging whatever god will listen to grant me breath again. My head breaks the surface only for a moment before my eyes latch ontothe black beast cresting in the waves ahead of me. A dark swish between the white caps floods my system with a panic so deep that my limbs no longer work.
Another primal scream breaks my lips, but it’s not for me. Something inside me in the core of my being rips. My very soul splintered into two. One name forces its way into my head, my heart, and my throat before the world goes black.
Cal.
The night air rushes back into my lungs in heaving gasps. It’s too damn stuffy here. Using the edge of the blanket, I wipe the sweat from my slicked brow as I try and fail to steady my racing heart. There’s no moonlight in the tent to help me mark the passage of time, no indication if I’ve slept long enough that the brothers have changed watch shifts. But I’m willing to risk another encounter with Cal for the cool, crispness of the night air.
“You okay?” Henry’s deep voice carries low across the flames as I take an unsteady seat on the fallen log in front of the campfire.
“Just cold,” I lie.
A flash of something silver catches my eye. Marianne’s flute rests in the lieutenant’s hand, a soft polishing cloth clutched in the other. The tenderness of the act stark against the large calluses that decorate his palms. Hands capable of both delicate and deadly things.
A common familial trait, it would seem.
I want to ask about the flute, about the should-have-been Sapphire heir. It’s been years since she was permitted to attend a summit. A decade since all the heirs and spares to each region’s ruling families congregated in hopes we might naturally form alliances or proposals while our parents decided the future of Corinth.
A decade since everything changed.
“We’re soldiers, Ivy. I’ve seen more than my share of men who are haunted by their dreams.” Henry’s eyes never leave the instrument in his hand but see into my soul all the same.
“What about premonitions? Seen many men haunted by those?”
“Just one.”
He doesn’t elaborate. He doesn’t have to. The implication isn’t subtle, it’s crystal clear. Premonitions of death must be a side effect of encounters with the dark creature of the deep. Marked by the sea beast and forever unable to get a good night’s sleep again.
We fall into a revered silence, neither acknowledging the stop in conversation. It’s only a matter of time before Cal finds out about my dreams, if he doesn’t already suspect. And I guess it was only a matter of time before I discovered his, too. Traveling in close proximity to someone doesn’t exactly afford anyone a lot of privacy. At least this saves us from what was sure to be an uncomfortable conversation.
“Oh, by the way, Captain, we’re both going to die at the end of this journey.”
