Then with another flick of my hand, I threw my silver blade, shattering the mirror with her in it.
Her mocking laughter filled the air. "Well played, Remi darling."
Chapter 45
Liketheshatteringofthe mirror, so did the spirit realm and I pried open my tired eyes one at a time, my salt crusted lashes stickily peeling from each other.
Three faces hovered above me like mourners over a dead body. "I am still alive right?" I lifted a sardonic brow, then noticed the rains had ceased, the vicious lurching of the ship had settled, and even though the clouds above were still thunderous, lighting up the sky with consistent flashes and crackles of light, they seemed content to not spread the vengeful wrath for now.
Thank the goddess.
Lir chuckled and rose, winking with a silver eye, banging his metal shovel once more. "Nay lass, ye aren’t dead yet. Cheers t’ the goddess for that."
I gave him a small smile and then huffed when Riella's tiny body fell on top of mine, her face burrowing into my neck. Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled us both into sitting, kissingher damp raven hair. "Hey, little chickadee." Hiding the hollowed feeling inside of me where Deirdre's final words echoed inside its cavernous hole.
Enjoy your shifter king…time…you never know how much you truly have left.
Over Riella's head, Emon's eyes met mine and even in their shades of gray they seethed, his nostrils flaring as if something disgusting had been shoved into his face, mouth thinning the longer we stared at one another.
Hiding my confusion, I kissed Riella one more time, tasting the ocean on my lips. "Riella, why don't you go see if Lir needs any assistance. I need to speak with your father for a moment."
Biting her lip, she nodded, reaching to touch my face tenderly. "I'm sorry, maedere."
"For what, little one?"
"For losing your shadows."
I swallowed the bitter pain and I cupped her hand with my own. "The hardest part about living isn't the burdens of our future, but the love we must leave behind. It is their time now to have peace, even if we must move on." Smiling softly, I tickled her, hearing the soft tinkling bells of her laughter, and then pushed her towards Lir, "go on now. See what stories that old sea king can tell you. I bet he knows a few secrets about Shen Shen. They did after all share an ocean once together.”
Her eyes widened. “So he really is the lost King of Atlantis?”
My lips twitched and I hummed, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
Her eyes suddenly became too large for her face, blazing with eagerness. My daughter most certainly shared her father's passion for storytelling. Unfortunately, Emon was in no such mood, his lips pressed together in barely restrained fury. When I looked up to meet his anger, his eyes narrowed before he titled his head behind him, indicating I follow him to the back of the ship.
Rising with a sigh, ice that had clung to me, fell off in glittering shards, crunching beneath my feet with each cautious step I took, trailing after a silent shifter.
When Lir and Riella disappeared out of sight, I took note that we were cruising slowly through a narrowed channel. Glinting in the continuous flashes of bright lightning, jagged rocks of deep blues and emerald greens contained us within the waterway we traveled. It seemed that one error within this rocky course couldpotentially be our last, and I found myself thankful for Lir’s assistance. Who knew what kind of instincts would have eventually guided me to this place if I had followed my father’s directions.
I gasped when my body was slammed harshly back into the ship's smoke stacks, my head cracking against the unforgiving metal, with Emon's wraith hand wrapped around my throat.
I blinked through my confusion before his ghostly lips crashed into mine, prying open my mouth with his fangs and tongue, delving deep, pouring out his anger with his violent kiss and despite my greater sensibilities, I kissed him back even harder.
His soul wraith form lacked the normal blazing inferno of his golden light yet despite that—he still made me burn, the flames of his passion licking up my body possessively. Whatever version of Emon I would get in this world, in this universe, it did not matter—he was mine and I would love this shifter with every fiber of my being, even if it burned me to ashes.
His other hand reached up into my hair, yanking my head back with a soft cry escaping my lips. Snarling and brushing his mouth against mine, his voice was brutal when he finally spoke. "You willnever, and I mean,never, ask me to do that again."
My breathing was rapid, and I frowned up at the cascade of light splintering across the sky.
His lips kissed upwards along my jaw. "You're confused." He paused, then growled deeply at the shell of my ear. "Your shadows, little umbra…I felt what it did to you as I killed them. One by one. I felt it carve out a piece of you that you will never get back. I was the knife, slicing out pieces of your soul, and watching you fucking bleed."
"Emon—" I attempted to explain, licking my lips and tasting blood where his fangs had nicked me.
"No," he commanded, his hands releasing me only to grip my chin tightly, forcing me to look at the anguish etched into his beautifully savage face. "No, not this time little umbra. You think that sacrificing yourself in the stead of others is honorable…that you are expendable." His teeth bared. "But you're not fucking expendable to me, Remnant Dark. The sacrifices you make…giving away pieces of yourself, like they are worth fuckingnothing—they are not yours to give anymore, they aremine. They belong to me, all of you belongs to me. Stop giving away what I own. They can't afford you and truthfully neither can I, but I at least know how to covet every beautiful dark piece of you and I'll never give it away."
Bright silver flashed next to my head, embedding a sharp metal object into the smoke stack I leaned against. Releasing it, his branded arms of ink rippled as he shoved away while his eyes trailing over every stunned inch of me.
I wasn't even fucking breathing.
