He turns to me, water dripping down his face. “You said you trust me, Briar.”
I grab his wrist, yelling over the crashing waves against the side of the boat. “How can I hold on to that trust when you haven’t been honest with me since the moment you brought me to the underworld?”
“Have you been honest with me?” he asks accusingly.
He can’t know about my plan to kill him. Kane would never have allowed me to live this long if he did. He’s referring to something else, then.
“You shut me out, Briar. I can reach out and touch you, but you’re still so far away. There are walls built up where there were none before.”
My voice lowers and I release him. “I’m scared.”
“I don’t expect you to be fearless,” he says.
I shake my head, tears fighting to come through, but I hold them back. “That’s what hurts the most. It’s bad enough that I know how useless I am in all of this, but knowing that you see it too is worse. You don’t expect me to be fearless, but you don’t expect me to be brave either.”
He shakes his head, matching my tone of voice. “But you are brave.”
I snort humorlessly and shake my head. “No. I’m not.”
He put his hands on both sides of my face. “How many mortals can stand up to a Nephilim and say they’ve lived? How many ladies of noble bloodlines have slept in seedy hovels and killed demons? You are so brave, Briar. Only someone as brave as you can sleep next to Death himself with a smile curling on your lips.”
I open my mouth to speak, but Willem’s voice shouts from the sky. “We’re coming up on land soon. We should drop anchor and take the smaller boats to shore.”
Kane nods, dropping his hands, and looks out at the water. I follow his gaze.
Archech Island is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Actually, it’s more like a feeling more than a sight. A sensation that alerts you that danger is near. But not any danger, a dark evil that exists only between the pages of books. Seeing Kane so rattled from the fight against the Leviathan brings back memories of seeing him beaten by the Nephilim. He’s here and he’s alive. I can feel the flex of his forearm beneath my hand, but when I close my eyes -even if only for a second- I see him lying dead somewhere I can’t reach him.
I thought I could heal his wing and prove to myself that I’m not helpless in all of this. I’m not just a pawn in someone else’s game. But I’m foolish to think I’m more than what I’ve always been. Kane’s arm comes around me as my knees collapse. I shouldn’t be here. Only the thought of leaving him to Willem’s treachery keeps me from suggesting we give up on this ridiculous mission.
Kane drops anchor and lifts me up, carrying me all the way down the ladder and into the small boat below. We row toward the shore. I insist on helping so I don’t feel so pitiful. I see the way they look at me. Kane sees me as something fragile and Willem sees me as a burden. Both of them are right, but it still wounds my fractured pride. When we reach the island, I can’t help the instinctive way my body recoils.
Kane helps me from the boat. My feet sink into the blackest of sands. And that’s all the island is really, black sands and shards that look sharp enough to cut just by looking at them for too long. Like a million obsidian knives. When the sun disappears behind the clouds, it feels as though we’re standing inside of a bottomless hole but we never actually fall. Only when the light returns can we see the ground. It’s as if even illumination is afraid to stay here long.
We walk along the shore and the feeling of unease worsens. I feel it in my blood, my bones, and in my heart. Even Kane’s shadow does little to bring me comfort. I’m not safe here. I don’t belong on this island where no one returns. Both Kane and Willem appear as though they know something I don’t. They share their usual secretive glances, but there’s something else behind their eyes that makes me want to run and hide.
My betrothed tips my head back and points to a large structure at the heart of the island. “That is Drogaem’s tomb.”
I swallow hard trying to muster my courage, but it fails me. “W-we’re going there?”
“It’s the only way,” Kane says.
He reaches down and curls our fingers together, but I feel pain. My head begins to pound. It feels like a smoldering blade is slicing through my brain. Kane catches me before I hit the sand. He lifts me into his arms and my eyes squeeze shut. His cold fingers cover my throat as he instructs me to do something...but what is it? What is he saying? I can’t hear him. My eyes open to read his lips, but my vision blurs along the edges.
What am I supposed to do?
How do I eliminate this fire in my chest?
“Breathe!” He shouts. The sound pierces my ears, causing them to twitch. “In and out. Come on, Briar! Take a deep breath...that’s it. Hold it. Good. Now release. Not so fast. Slowly. That’s it. Do it again. Good girl. Come on. Just a few more times.”
The deep rumble of his voice is tinged with worry. My vision clears with each pull of air into my lungs. Kane kisses the back of my hand. It keeps me grounded, holding me to this world while the island beckons me further. It’s been waiting for me all along. I shouldn’t be here. The thought keeps playing in my mind like a record on a loop.
“Kane...take me home. I want to go home.” Tears pour from my eyes and he catches them with his thumb, swiping them away.
“Not
