39. Jasper

Chapter thirty-nine

Jasper

D usk falls, turning the thinning mist purple as we sail away from the wretched bastard's island. We can hear Al'shan'hai'goi laying waste to what's left of Vansen's kingdom.

Good riddance.

My people are secure in the hold, along with several grumpy eksteinvas. When the creatures realized they couldn't escape the island without help, they offered Alejandra a crystal, much like the ones they gave us, to barter passage. Who knows where to. The creatures don't speak any language I know.

But my father and sister weren't among those rescued. I haven't had time to speak with my mother besides the tearful reunion, so I'm uncertain of their fate. Could they have escaped? Could they still be alive, out there somewhere?

I hold Reina close under the blanket Alejandra provided as we stare out at the darkening sea. It's easier to navigate the pillars of stone without the mist, and so the helm is manned by the captain's second while she speaks with my mother and the Illyan woman in her cabin.

"We almost died," Reina says, looking down at the pink scars twisting along her arms.

My mother and Alejandra were able to heal us further, but the wounds were so deep it was too late to prevent scarring. She and I wear the same brand now, and something about that feels undeniably good. We destroyed a monster to earn these scars.

"Almost," I say, kissing her temple.

"She's not gone," Reina says after a breath of silence. "I can feel her, like a looming shadow."

"You don't have to fear her. Shadows can be defeated by light," I say.

She hums. "So poetic. You're quite amicable when you're being tender, you know that?"

"Do you miss my sharp edges?" I growl quietly against her ear.

She giggles, her fingers threading through mine. "Maybe."

My heart feels lighter in the presence of her love. I want to wait, but I know I can't any longer. We're alone enough here on the deck with no one hovering and a blanket to obscure us.

"It means, ‘the soul's other half,'" I say.

She looks up at me until our lips are so close it's tempting to silence the oncoming question with a kiss. "What?"

I shrug. "It's as close of a translation as it gets, I'm afraid. It means the gods split our souls in half when we were born and gave the other half to each other. We're only whole when together."

She takes a deep breath and looks out at the water. "I see."

There's something about her brevity that urges me to go on, to keep talking so the silence doesn't eat me up. "It's why I couldn't stop getting erections around you. When you were, eh, fertile…I would go into heat. It happened about two weeks before your bleeding."

"So, you couldn't control your dick because the gods gave me half your soul?" The harsh way she says it, emotionless and yet loaded with anger, has my stomach flipping upside down.

"No, that's not…" I growl in frustration. "Reina, you're fire. You're light and warmth and scalding fury. You're so desirable to me, I would split my chest open and hand you my heart if you asked for it."

She says nothing.

"It isn't that the gods ordained us to be together…it's you. It's everything that you are. My feisty, fearless flame. You don't let anything stop you, and you're so eager to achieve not for your own benefit, but to be selfless. To give and see the prosperity of others. You are brilliance."

Another quiet beat passes between us. My entire being seems to hold its breath, as if the world waits for her reply.

She looks over her shoulder with a broad, impish grin. "Is that all?"

I grip her chin and hold her still. "You want me to lavish you with words of affection, sunshine?"

"Maybe," she says in a breathy whisper.

"Well, which is it that you want? My sharp edges, or my soft ones?"

Her eyes sparkle with desire. "I want all of you, Ohksano'amai."

I nibble her ear with a needy groan. "I knew this conversation should've waited until we were completely alone."

"Luvine!" Alejandra's voice snaps through the air like a whip.

I half turn, hoping my glare looks scathing enough to tell her the interruption was—once again—very poorly timed. "Yes?"

"We need to speak with you both," she says, and then turns away.

"Ooh, we're in trouble," Reina whispers in a singsong way that makes me snicker.

Honestly, I'm eager to be in the same room with my mother again. I'm aching to hug her, to ask her about my father and sister, to apologize on my knees over and over for how fucking long it took me to get to her.

So long. Too long.

"Hey, it's going to be all right," Reina says as she pushes my hair from my eyes.

I nod, despite feeling like I might vomit from all the emotion coursing through me.

We walk hand in hand toward the captain's chamber below the helm. Alejandra waits for us at the door, a severe expression pinching her brow. My mother and the Illyan woman sit at a navigation table that's been cleared of its maps, compass, and stamen.

My mother gives me a slight smile and it flips my fear on its head. I want to run to her, to hold her so close to my heart that she can feel how desperately I've missed her, but I maintain my composure. I take a seat beside her, and Reina comes to stand between us. She reaches out and takes my mother's hand, joining it with mine.

"Thank you, daughter from my son's love," my mother says and I translate.

Reina's eyes glimmer and she smiles, then moves to sit on the other side of me. Alejandra comes last, pushing her chair out of the way so she can loom over the table.

"We have a very serious matter at hand, but I believe some context first would help," she says in Fynish, looking at the Illyan woman. "Prophet Brunay? Care to fill them in?"

"Brunay? Is that a common last name in Illya?" Reina asks.

The woman chuckles. "It is, but I am who you think. And it's just Cora now," she says to Alejandra. "I haven't been a prophet for many years and you know that."

Alejandra rolls her eyes and turns toward a table laid out with wine and an assortment of food.

"Alastair spoke of you only once in my presence, but it was with much love. He misses you," Reina says to Cora.

"Alastair?" I ask, a tiny spark of jealousy blooming in my chest at the mention of another male's name.

Reina smiles at me. "Lily's personal bodyguard." Her smile vanishes in a blink, and she looks back at Cora. "Do you know if he's all right? If Lily is? What about Alyse?"

"Calm, princess," Cora says, holding up her hands. "I will tell you everything I know to be fact, and everything I have foreseen, past and future."

Alejandra brings a serving tray to the table with a variety of cheeses and crackers, then pours the wine. "I said this would be a story to have over drinks. It's going to be a long one, so pace yourselves."

I take a sip of the wine, though I've never been very fond of it, and settle in as Cora begins.

"The dark goddess Ashai and her sons were banished to the lowest level of hell eons ago for transgression against the Ten. Her motivations are not entirely known, but for the last five hundred years, she's been building her power here on Gaien, a between-realm from the Underworld and the Overworld.

"We know she wants to manifest a physical form here, but my visions have not shown me why, only that if she does, she will crumble the foundations of society, scar the land, and annihilate ninety-five percent of all living creatures. She will turn Gaien into a wasteland from which the goddess cannot recover."

Reina takes a deep breath. "And the physical form she wants to take is mine, isn't it?"

Cora nods gravely. "Yours, or one of your three sisters. For the transference of her accumulated power to work, the host must be a close blood relative. At least, that's the only way it's worked in the past."

"What do you mean?" I ask. There's so much I don't understand.

"The kingdom of Fynren has been ruled by Ashai for nearly three hundred years. She confiscated or destroyed all records of herself and of the magic her followers used to perform, and my visions did not reveal to me how she first came into the body she used to usurp the king and take control.

"Her son, Typhen, rules as the king, a subservient god of malice. Her son, Dimir, has not revealed himself to me, but from what Alejandra has reported, I have reason to believe he may have taken control of the kingdom of Wolfsheim."

"This is so much," Reina says, then takes a large drink of her wine. She winces, then keeps chugging until her cup is empty. "That is absolutely horrid," she says with disgust as she sets the cup down.

Alejandra laughs and pours her a refill. "It's sailor's wine, princess. What do you expect?"

"Fair," she says, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Cora pulls a weathered sheaf of parchment from under the table and begins opening the folds. "Ashai needs power to manifest her true form, which is locked in the ninth hell. When the mines in the Fynish territory ran dry, and there were no magus crystals left, she turned to another power source: people."

The paper unfolds completely, and Cora smooths her hands over it. It's a family tree showing the different marriages and sacrifices Ashai has progressed through.

"In all the pairings and offspring, Ashai has always selected the child with the strongest power. That's why she wants you, so she can burn the world and eat its power. If she were to discover you get your magic from the light of the sun—the most powerful celestial body in our heavens—she would be even more relentless. With you, she wouldn't need living sacrifices anymore. She would eat the sun. That much power would allow her to transcend Gaien and reach the Overworld."

I grip Reina's hand tightly. "Well, it's a good thing Ashai will never have her. I'll keep her hidden away forever."

Cora shakes her head. "If she's not defeated now, there will never be another opportunity. Ashai has been patient for centuries. She will continue to be patient until she succeeds." She looks at Reina. "The one chance to send her back to hell is with you, and your sisters. The eight of you together will be able to overcome her."

"Eight?" Reina asks on a gasp. "Is Alyse still alive? Lily? And Belle? But what about the other three people?"

The words spill out of her at speed, and I calmly grip her hand. She swallows the next question and looks at me, her chest heaving as tears glisten in her eyes.

Cora nods. "Yes, all your sisters are alive—"

Reina croaks out a suppressed sob, squeezing my hand harder.

"And they all have formidable lovers, just as you do," Cora says, gesturing to me. "They have also amassed a powerful family who are ready to fight with them."

"All right, so we'll have the power and the numbers, but how do we fight her?" I ask.

Cora shakes her head, the beads in her braids clinking. "This I cannot say. Revealing the methods may unmake them."

I open my mouth to protest, but my mother pats my hand. "Listen to my friend, meihan. She is very wise."

"Your friend?" I ask in Illyan.

She dips her head in acknowledgement. "She warned me of the man who took us. She told me the only way we could survive was if you were not captured."

The mention of their capture has my anxiety back to peak. "Are Father and Maarie safe? I haven't seen them."

"They're safe," she says with a soft smile. "They were with me when we escorted Alejandra but went ahead to Cora's home to prepare for our arrival."

A deep-seated tension in my gut releases and I sink into my chair. "Thank the gods."

"What is it?" Reina asks.

I grab her hand and kiss it. "My family is all safe. You'll meet my father and sister when we arrive."

"I can't wait." She kisses my hand back with a teary grin.

We're quiet for a moment, and then Reina laughs. "Well, isn't that some shit. They're all safe and alive." She looks at Cora. "What do we do now?"

Cora folds the parchment up and pushes it across the table to us. "Now you go home."

"What about the selkies? Many of them are weak, and sick. They can't travel and I won't leave them behind," Reina says with fiery determination.

A swell of love and pride knocks the wind from my lungs. I squeeze her hand tightly to hold back my emotion.

"We're making preparations at my home for their recovery. When they're well, they will be able to join you," Cora says.

"But what if something happens? What if someone comes to take them? What if—"

Cora cuts her off. "No one will take them. I have the power of sight, my husband can control the sea, and my daughter is an expert bowman, among many other ways she excels at killing men and monsters alike."

Reina doesn't look satisfied. She takes a breath to keep protesting when my mother interjects.

"Don't fight each other," she says in Illyan, and I translate to Fynish. "Save the fight for Ashai."

Reina mashes her lips together and dips her head in resignation.

"I will send updates every week by bird," Cora says. "You'll have a day to recover with us, and then you will need to be on the road home. The journey to Fynren will take you two weeks by land with a pair of horses, perhaps a little less if you hurry, but—" She cuts herself short and shakes her head.

"But what?" I ask. "If there's going to be trouble, I want to know, your sight be damned."

Cora's eyes sparkle with amusement as she looks at me. "You will distract each other."

"Oh," Reina peeps a second after I register what Cora means.

I squeeze her fingers gently and smirk at her. "I'll try not to distract you too much."

Reina rolls her eyes. "Please, we all know I can keep my focus."

I hum in amusement and lean closer to her as I whisper, "Keep telling yourself lies and I'll have to punish you."

"This room is much too small for whispers, Jasper," Alejandra says, then takes a thick swig of her wine.

Reina's cheeks flush with blood, but Cora and I laugh. My mother looks on, a little confused, but happy that we're not fighting.

Alejandra claps once and then pours another round of wine for everyone at the table. "Right, now that we're all caught up on that, let me tell you the amazing tale of how I came to your rescue."