The fees to anchor the Lioness in the port of Aazor were extortionate—higher still when the harbormaster recognized Captain Edward Kinsley, the most hated man on Valorian. He had a talent for offending both land and sea. A gift, really.
We were forbidden to perform any healing rituals inside the city proper; too much of the land belonged to the Vlachy, and their rules were iron. Doing the work aboard the Lioness was no easier. The swells in the harbor pitched the ship like a toy, and Salacia's acid rains prowled the horizon, threatening to eat through wood and flesh alike.
I barely noticed the danger. All I saw was my brother.
Areilycus sat propped against the hull, color warming his cheeks. For a heartbeat, I doubted my eyes. Only hours ago, his light had flickered like a candle drowning in wax.
"Well, look at that," Edward said softly behind me, surprise softening his roughened voice.
Bonnie stood nearby, a small, knowing smile on her lips. "Your brother woke with the dawn," she said. "Now he's busy sipping fish-guts soup. Swears by it."
The concoction was as unholy as it sounded, but Ari drank with steady hands and eager appetite. Joy flooded me. I crossed the deck in three clumsy steps, skirts tangling my legs, and fell to my knees beside him. My arms closed around his shoulders, the warmth of his body as miraculous as a second sunrise. I kissed his damp hair and felt life pulsing under my palms.
"Mila!" Ari laughed, his voice still ragged but rich with love. He hugged me back with a strength I had not felt in weeks. "By all the stars—what are we doing on Valorian?"
"The Diamond Storm on Tripolis nearly killed you," I said, pulling back to read his gray eyes. "You were fluctuating. We had to leave."
"Fluctuating?" His brows drew tight. Horror chased the light from his face. "Mila, we must return immediately! Without me, Tripolis will die."
"We cannot," I said, the words heavier than iron. "I left without the Assigner's permission. To go back now would mean—"
"W-what have you done?"
He tried to rise, but weakness stole his balance. I guided him gently back to the Captain's bunk, feeling Edward's cool smirk on my back as I did.
***
I still could hardly believe Ari was awake, the fever broken. Knowing there was a dragon's heart hidden somewhere aboard the Lioness no longer felt like a madwoman's hope. Vectra had not misled me.
But Ari's first concern was not for himself. Even wan and half-healed, he fretted over the systems he kept alive. "Tripolis will slip into the age of cold," he murmured. "Without me, our enemies will see the opening and attack. You know Hunatans."
"What was I supposed to do?" I shot back. "He left you to die. It was another of his games, and I will not play them."
"You cannot keep defying Him," Ari said, drawing me down until my forehead rested against his.
"Of course I can," I whispered bitterly.
He gave a faint, rueful smile. "He is our Creator. It is His prerogative. We would not exist without Him. Wouldn't have…" His voice caught, hoarse from the radiation that had scoured his light. "Wouldn't have found each other."
I searched his face. Ari rarely defended the Assigner. His silence had always been my secret ally. Now, for the first time, he argued for obedience.
"He is a liar," I said. "You have no idea what I have learned since bringing us here."
"And what is that?"
The witch Rhona's flame-lit eyes flashed in my memory. The blood of the Vlachy runs thick within you.
"I met the Nomads," I said quietly. "They claim I am of their descent."
Ari snorted. "Human witches are manipulative. You are a Sensitive—a Celestial."
"What if I'm not? The White Snake refuses to tell me what I am made of."
"You are my other half," he said simply. "You are made of me."
He set his palm over my heart, and the quasar-core beneath it answered with a deep, secret thrum.
A star inside me, compressed and alive. I felt it contract and flare in rhythm with his, two suns pulling at the same invisible tide.
This was what we were.
Born of stardust, carrying in our chests the tiny gravity wells of quasars—cores that bent the very air when our emotions surged.
Our blood, golden plasma threaded with cosmic isotopes, carried that power outward; when the skin broke, it shone and released neutrinos that glittered like fallen constellations. Edward had glimpsed it once, when the bullet only grazed Ari and the cabin lit with quiet lightning.
Even our breath betrayed us. We drank light, exhaled a soft, radiant mist. Food and water were theater; starlight was our only true sustenance. Too long without it and we would fade, thin as smoke.
Ari's hand pressed more firmly, as if to seal us together. The pulse of his core merged with mine until I could no longer tell where his gravity ended and mine began.
And he wanted to squander this closeness, this merging of beings - for a father who did not love us.
The cabin door creaked open. Edward filled the frame, iron buckles clinking like a dare. He fixed Ari with a level gaze.
"Lord of Light," he said, voice curt as a command. "You and your sister stay aboard the Lioness until she fulfills her bargain."
I rose, the fragile warmth of reunion cooling to steel. "Captain, I will honor our agreement, but my brother has only just woken. He needs time."
"How much time?" he sneered. "The bargain was clear. No pauses for sentiment."
It was infuriating, this man. This gentle man who turned to stone as soon as someone threatened his goals.
"What bargain?" Ari demanded, his hand closing over mine.
I met his eyes. "Vectra told me a dragon's heart could heal you. The last living dragon is hidden aboard this ship. It's probably the reason you woke up. It's true, Ari. Vectra told the truth."
"And you mean to slay an innocent creature for me?" His voice boomed with sudden strength, and even Edward flinched.
"Not only for you," the captain said evenly. "There is a man who must be resurrected."
I stiffened at the word.
"We are not resurrecting anyone," Ari said.
"That is not up to you to decide, my lord," Edward kept his dignity if not his bravery. "Your supposed sister is a blood relative of Nomadic witches, as we have learned. Exactly what I have been looking for to bring back Neptune. A willing witch who has favors to trade."
Ari turned to me, reading the truth in my silence. "You cannot be serious. Only the Creator grants life."
"Those days are behind us," Edward said. "Your sudden burst of strength is proof of the dragon's power. We sail for Neptune's resting place. If your sister wants your life saved, she will help bring his back."
Ari tried to rise, fury surging like a storm tide, but vertigo sent him reeling. I eased him back against the pillows.
"We can't harm him," I said softly. "If there is any sin the Assigner forgives, it is the giving of life."
"I wouldn't harm him," Ari rasped. "I would reason with him."
"He cannot see reason," I murmured, tucking a pillow beneath his head. "He's in love."
***
As the Lioness cut through the waters, leaving the port of Aazor behind, I had no inkling of the tempest that was brewing just beyond the horizon. But within two hours, the skies betrayed us, a brooding overcast transformed into a howling fury. Our vessel became a mere plaything for the storm.
The wind screamed like a thousand banshees as the rain lashed at us.
I clung to the railings, soaked to the bone, waiting for the inevitable frenzy of sharks. But none came. Instead, dark shapes hovered in the deep, patient and watchful, their lifeless eyes reflecting lightning like pieces of black glass.
Then, amidst the chaos, a chorus rose—a melody.
The ship shuddered violently, timber groaning in protest as we crashed against something unseen beneath the frothing surface of the bay.
"Captain!" I shouted through the tumult, salt spray burning my throat. "What is happening?"
Edward Kinsley held the wheel as if he had nailed his own soul to it.
"The Gollian Bay is no longer under the Twelve Seas' dominion. Neptune freed Piscos long ago, and they keep his pact. They honor respect, not fear. Salacia cannot command them."
Below us the great bodies wheeled on, indifferent to the sirens whose screams grew ragged with rage.
"These are the Piscos who would allegedly eat our privates?"
I watched in awe as the sirens continued to screech their commands, their faces twisted in anger when the sharks refused to heed.
"Salacia has been trying to control the shark for thousands of years," Kinsley continued, his gaze fixed on the circling predators. "But they honor respect, not power. Neptune had plenty of respect for them while Salacia has none. They won't hurt us."
If the new queen was aware of the pact, then why did she steer us toward the bay?