The fees to anchor the Lioness in the port of Aazor were much heftier for the most hated man on Valorian. How unfortunate the Captain managed to alienate everyone on land and the seas equally.
We weren't allowed to perform any of the healing rituals in the port city since a huge portion of the land belonged to the Vlachy, and performing it aboard the Lioness was as challenging as navigating through the acid rains Salacia had sent our way.
I hardly recognized the pallid figure propped against the hull, his once sallow cheeks now showing a hint of color. When Edward and I stepped back aboard the Lioness, the sight of my brother, Areilycus, sitting up and alert was so startling that for a moment I doubted my own eyes.
"Well look at that," Edward murmured, his voice tinged with relief as he nodded toward where Bonnie stood, a small, knowing smile on her lips.
"Indeed, your brother woke with the dawn," Bonnie said, her eyes crinkling with mirth. "Now, he's busy sipping fish guts soup. Swears by it."
The concoction in question, a murky broth that emitted a briny stench, sat clutched in Ari's trembling grasp. Yet it was not the strange remedy that gave me pause, but the vigor with which he ingested it. A wave of surprise washed over me, followed swiftly by an engulfing tide of joy.
Without hesitation, I rushed to his side, nearly tripping over the hem of my skirts in my haste. Throwing my arms around him, I hugged him close, feeling the warmth of life in his body. My lips found his hair, now damp with perspiration but no longer cold and clammy as death.
"Mila!" Areilycus laughed, his voice rusty but rich with affection. He wrapped his arms around me, returning the embrace with a strength I hadn't felt in weeks. "What in the name of the stars are we doing on Valorian?"
"Ari," I began, pulling back just enough to meet his eyes, "the Diamond Storm on Tripolis took its toll on you. You were... fluctuating. We had to get you away from there."
"Fluctuating?" His brow furrowed, and I could see the pieces falling into place behind those stormy gray eyes. Horror seeped into his expression, replacing the initial lightheartedness. "Mila, we must return immediately! Without me, Tripolis will die."
"Return?" I shook my head, the weight of my decision heavy on my shoulders. "We cannot. I left without the Assigner's permission, Ari. To go back now would mean…"
"Stars, what have you done?"
I led him back to bed, catching Edward's smirk.
***
I couldn't believe he woke up, that the fever burning him inside and out had eased. Now that I knew there was a dragon's heart somewhere aboard the Lioness, there was no more doubt in my heart that Vectra didn't lead me astray into certain death.
The heart would cure Ari, stabilize him.
Not that his well-being was his priority. That selfless nature of his, to his detriment, couldn't stop blabbering about Tripolis and how the age of cold while the people his underground would leave the system exposed to attacks.
"What was I supposed to do? You were dying. And he …he left. Deliberately exposed you and then left. It's another one of his games, I wasn't going to abide by it."
Ari pulled me close to him, my feet dangling off the Captain's makeshift bed. "You cannot keep defying him."
"Of course I can," I protested bitterly. I felt his half-smile against the coolness of my forehead. "We don't have to live by his rules, keep tolerating his tyranny."
"Mila, he is our Creator. It's his prerogative. We wouldn't be alive without him. Wouldn't have a purpose. We wouldn't have …"
"What?"
"Found each other," he stuttered. His voice gained a hoarse quality to it, the radiation from the storm damaging the melodic, soothing light inside him. "Be family."
I propped myself up on my elbow and tried to assess where this sudden loyalty was coming from. Sure, Ari wasn't Chaos, he wasn't … me, no matter how much the Assigner insisted we were two sides of the same star. The core and its outer layer. But he never deliberately argued with me for the Assigner. If anything, his lack of vocality against my rebellion was what must have landed him in the position.
"He is a liar, Ari," I sneered. "You have no idea what I've learned since I brought us here."
"And what is that?"
The oval eyes of Rhona followed me around, constantly flashing in front of me. Her flames and her conviction of that which she claimed me to be.
Her blood.
"I've met Nomads on my journey to heal you. And they claim I am of their descent."
Ari snorted. "Human witches are manipulative. You are a Sensitive. A Celestial being."
"What if I'm not? The White Snake refuses to tell me what I am made of."
"You are my other half. You are made of me."
Just when I was about to protest, to shut down his assumptions and his unwillingness to even consider the Assigner was lying to us, Edward interrupted us with his insidious sneer and half-raised eyebrows.
The door creaked open, and Captain Kinsley's formidable frame filled the entryway, the brash clink of his buckles sounding like a challenge in the quiet sickroom. His gaze fixed firmly on Areilycus, as if appraising a prized stallion rather than a man just risen from the brink of death.
"Lord of Light," he addressed Ari with a curt nod, "you and your sister stay aboard the Lioness until she's seen through her bargain."
I stiffened, the warmth of my brother's recovery quickly chilled by Kinsley's authoritative tone. "Captain, I appreciate your concern for our agreement," I said, finding my voice steady despite the tremor of uncertainty within me. "But let's not forget that Ari's newfound vigor is but a fragile spark amidst a sea of tinder. He needs more time to heal."
Kinsley's eyes narrowed slightly, studying me with an unreadable expression. The silence stretched taut between us, as if waiting for someone to concede or break.
"Time is a luxury we're short on, Mila," he finally said, the edge of impatience honing his words. "Your end of the deal was clear, and it didn't include nursing pauses for every ebb in the tide."
"True," I conceded with a reluctant tilt of my head, "but my brother's health isn't subject to negotiation. I will honor our arrangement, as long as you uphold yours.."
Ari watched the exchange with a mix of confusion and dawning understanding, his fingers tightening around mine. I squeezed back, offering silent reassurance. Whatever lay ahead, we would face it together.
"What arrangement? What did you promise him?"
"There is a dragon aboard this ship," I whispered lest anyone from the crew heard me. "Vectra told me in order to heal you I must gain the heart of the last living dragon. There are no such creatures anywhere on Tripolis or the adjacent systems left. At least according to Vectra."
"And then what? You are going to slain an innocent creature, the last of its kind, to cure me?"
"Not just to cure you," the Captain said, "there is a man who is in a dire need of resurrection."
I cringed, the inside of my skin crawling with disapproval even as Edward said it. Which he shouldn't have, certainly not in front of the most vocal champion of balance in nature except for perhaps myself.
"We are not resurrecting anybody," Ari said. The deep timber of his voice so imposing I saw Edward shudder.
"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. Exactly what I have been looking for to bring back Neptune."
Ari immediately clocked my discomfort and forced my shoulders to turn toward him.
"You cannot be serious. Only the Creator can grant life."
"Those days are behind us, Areilycus," Captain said. "You are weak, dying, and if this sudden spurt of energy is a testament to anything, it's a testament to the dragon's power. We are sailing to the resting place of Neptune and if your sister still wishes to save your life, she will grant Neptune his."
Areilycus then tried to get up and chase after the Captain, full of unprecedented fury I had never seen rise in him like a high tide of these treacherous seas.
As soon as he plunged forth, vertigo claimed him and I had to help him back to bed.
"We can't hurt him," I reminded him. If there was a sin the Assigner was more likely to forgive it was that of giving life instead of taking it.
"I wouldn't hurt him, I wanted to talk to him. To see reason," Ari's labored breathing heaved his chest in erratic impulses of constant inhale-exhale, inhale-exhale.
"He cannot see reason," I said, patting a pillow under Ari's 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, once so proud and steady, became a mere plaything for the storm.
The wind screamed like a thousand banshees as the rain lashed at us, each drop a needle against my exposed skin. The crew scrambled, their shouts barely audible over the roar of nature's wrath. Then, amidst the chaos, a chorus rose—a melody so hauntingly beautiful it could only belong to the sirens.
Their song wove through the gale, commanding the very tides that began to tug and pull at the Lioness with unrelenting force.
The ship shuddered violently, timber groaning in protest as we crashed into something unseen beneath the frothing surface of the bay. As I clung to the railings, drenched to the bone, I realized the expected frenzy of sharks did not come. Instead, they hovered around us, dark silhouettes against the deep, their lifeless eyes watching, waiting.
"Captain!" I yelled through the tumult, desperate for an explanation.
Kinsley, gripping the wheel with a steadfast resolve, turned to me, his voice cutting clear through the turmoil.
"The Gollian Bay is no longer under the domain of the Twelve Sea kingdom. Neptune himself has severed their chains, granting them liberty in exchange for their defiance against the siren's will."
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?