Lapidary

The next morning, when I woke, I sent my sister a text saying that I hoped she has a good day. I got dressed in boots suitable for running or walking on rough terrain, with jeans and shirt that covered Artemis’s feather and the shell necklace resting between my breasts, as well as my gloves. I took the letter, which I had stolen from Artemis, and placed it in my jeans pocket.

It was late afternoon, and yet, I was early. I spent my time making lunch and ate all of it. When I departed, Sachiel was in the garden. I waved at her, and she waved back before being wracked by a coughing fit. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to make her this weak. The angels’ power was fading, thanks to their being on Testatha for too long, but there was something else wrong with her.

For the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel groggy. I had gotten up with meaning and purpose today. It was time for Devton to take me to Shark Bay so that I could confront Lakelyn about the letter. I headed toward the beach and found Devton gazing at the waves.

“Afternoon,” I said, and he gave me an answering smile.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked.

I didn’t see a taxi, ferry, or anything in the water. “That depends on whether or not we are swimming.”

The island was way too far for a human to swim to. If I attempted it, I’d drown, and he knew that. I doubted he’d be able to swim all the way, either, despite his daimon blood. Who was the daimon, his mother or his father? And what was the other? He could be a crossbreed of anything. I don’t ask because it was impolite.

“We’re not swimming,” he said.

I realized something else – salt, including seawater, was poison to full-blooded daimons. It also had an effect on half-blooded daimons – although it might not kill them, it would certainly burn them. Yet, I’d caught Devton on his way to surf, in the salty ocean, before. Which meant he must possess a unicorn’s horn that protected him. I skimmed my gaze over him, but I didn’t see it.

“We’re flying to Shark Bay Prison,” he said.

I frowned, and before I could ask, he removed his shirt. I couldn’t help but admire his abs, which he noticed, offering me a grin. I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t realize you were an aspiring stripper,” I said. “We don’t have time for it now.”

He laughed, and then something unexpected happened: the winged tattoos on his back folded outward, into real bat-like, daimon wings. He stretched them wide, and I marveled at his wingspan.

“You’re beautiful,” I said and then bit my tongue. Devton looked truly surprised, as if no one had ever given him such a compliment before. “What? You must hear it all the time.”

“Of course not,” he said. “I’m a half-daimon. People judge me before they meet me. The only things I ever hear is that I’m evil or a monster.”

“I know what it’s like to be judged for what you are,” I whispered.

Our eyes met, and a moment of understanding, of connection passed between us. People feared him because he had daimon blood. People thought I was weaker because I was human.

“Are you ready to fly?” he asked.

I instantly stepped backward and thought of how far Ryker had fallen to his death. How broken he had been, lying splattered on the pavement. I couldn’t fly. Even if we didn’t fly super high, I couldn’t do it.

“I’ve never dropped anyone before,” Devton assured me, clearly misreading my reservations.

“I’m not flying,” I said.

“It’s the fastest way,” he said.

“Is it the only way?” I asked.

He hesitated, as if contemplating whether he should lie to me. “No,” he said at last.

“Then we get there some other way,” I said.

He met my determined eyes and wisely didn’t try to persuade me otherwise. I watched as he tucked in his mighty wings, and they became one with his back in the form of tattoos. I couldn’t help but stare, until he covered them with his shirt.

Devton went closer to the water, and his eyes turned golden. I didn’t know what I expected to happen, but him chanting in some ancient daimon language wasn’t it. I couldn’t make sense of anything he said. Moments later, he stopped chanting, and his eyes returned to their blue color.

A ripple formed in the water and then another and another. I couldn’t stop myself from stepping back, as a large scaly head of a sea serpent appeared. She had short, stocky horns on her head and big, orb-like eyes. A forked tongue flickered in and out of her long, sword-like toothed mouth. She had a long, powerful body, like a snake, and there was no doubt in my mind that this was a creature from the Netherworld that had come through the rift that Duras had opened with the White Crystal.

“Are you crazy?” I whispered to Devton, eyeing those sharp teeth.

He grinned at me. “And here I was thinking you’re not scared of anything. Now, hop on.”

“What?” I croaked.

The serpent lowered her head to the sand, and Devton hopped on gracefully. I remind myself why I was doing this, to discover what had happened to Ryker. So, I took Devton’s outstretched hand, and he pulled me onto the serpent’s head. I had to bend my knees and stand with my feet apart to maintain my balance. The serpent slithered deeper into the ocean and began swimming, with her head sticking out of the water. Devton has an otherworldly grace and stood as still on her head as if he were on solid ground. To prevent myself from stumbling, I gripped his arm.

“You look like you might faint,” Devton told me.

“Distract me,” I said.

“Did you know that there are several places in Vesea where the veil between our world and others are thin?”

“No. I thought it was only thin at Heaven’s Window.”

Devton shook his head. “It’s by far the thinnest there – which is why it was such a disaster when Duras opened a rift, a rift which was too big and out of control. After he tore the veil apart, several new places became thin in Vesea – and it took quite a while for everyone to realize.”

“Where are the other places?” I wonder.

“In the center of Shark Bay Prison, on the north side of Bareband, on the south-east side of Butterfish Chain and somewhere in the ocean east of the lower fin of Ocelos.”

I pictured all those places on the map and realized that if you connected them, they formed an X on Heaven’s Window – where the veil was the thinnest.

“Have any of them ever opened into a rift?” I wondered.

“No,” he said. “Because the White Crystal was believed to be lost – until recently.”

I looked away from Devton and toward Shark Bay Prison. The island had a huge stone wall around it with five prominent lookout points. On these points stood brown- and grey-winged angels, in their Sky Watch uniforms. Behind this wall were the buildings that housed the prisoners.

We reached the wall, and the serpent lifted her head out of the water. We went up and up as if riding in an elevator. I grasp Devton’s arm tighter, and together we stepped onto the stone wall. I couldn’t stop myself from trembling. The serpent sank back into the ocean and disappeared as if she had never been there. I gripped Devton’s arm as we walked on the wall toward the stairs.

“I’ll catch you if you fall,” Devton whispered.

Of course, the wall was wide and chances of falling off were slim. I appreciated him trying to comfort me. We descended the stairs, and I finally felt comfortable enough to let go of his arm. The Sky Watch paid us little attention, and I assumed Volgrun has arranged for us to come. Did Rhinsel know that the leader of The Risen held so much power in his city?

The prison was not built for beauty – it didn’t have the elegant windows of Ocelos, or the different colors of paint. The walls were built of gray stone and there were bars on several windows. We kept next to the wall, to the north side of the island, where we entered a tunnel. On the side of the tunnel were several cells, separated by thick, iron bars. Inside were different prisoners dressed in the yellow prison uniform. What had they done to end up here?

I saw fae, with their beautiful faces covered in dirt; a vampire whose front canines had been removed; and humans, chained to the floor. I trembled and followed Devton to the end of the hall, where a solid iron door was situated. He pushed it open, as if it was made of twigs, and we went in. Inside, were bars around a small pond, twice the size of a bathtub. It was deep enough to just cover a mermaid’s tail. Of course, they gave Lakelyn a cell with water – without water her scales would dry out, and they would be replaced by legs, permanently.

She lay in the water as if lounging in a bed and watched us. Her eyes narrowed when she saw me, and I remembered what it felt like to almost drown. I clenched my fists and stepped closer to the bars of her cell, determined not to show any fear.

She closed her eyes and swished her tail, creating waves that splashed against the ends of her man-made pool. “What do you want?”

There was no point in wasting time, as I was not in the mood to play games, and I didn’t want to be here any longer than I had to. “I want you to tell me about the White Crystal.”

Her eyes snapped open, and her tail stilled then started moving again. “The White Crystal was given to Duras Foreswift by Ayana, goddess of the elves—”

“Save us the bullshit,” Devton interrupted. “We know you found the White Crystal in Deftones Deep.”

She moved her tail faster, making me think she was panicking, despite her placid expression. “What makes you think that?”

I pulled the letter from my jeans and held it up for her to see. “The letter you wrote Ryker.”

She stilled again as she realized there was no denying it. Devton eyed the letter. Although he had heard about it, he hadn’t seen it before. If this letter got out to, say Rhinsel, Lakelyn could be executed for not handing the White Crystal over to the authorities.

“That White Crystal has only ever caused death and destruction,” she said.

Her father, Tristen Shelby, had died during The Shaking. Of course, she hadn’t wanted another rift to open after that loss. “You wanted to give the crystal to Ryker so that he could take it away from Vesea, so that another rift couldn’t be opened.”

She nodded. “I did give it to him. He was supposed to throw it off The Edge, so that no one would ever be able to use it again. That was our agreement.”

I tensed. Ryker had asked me to marry him and had promised me our honeymoon would be at The Edge. I had thought he was being romantic, but he was being strategic. If he just left on a quest to the edge of the world, people would have wondered what was going on. But leaving for his honeymoon wasn’t suspicious. He had used me, and he had used our relationship. I couldn’t shake the feeling of betrayal while wondering if he would still have asked me to marry him if he hadn’t had the White Crystal.

I thought of Ryker coming to Vesea while I regarded the beautiful, desirable mermaid.

“So, you did give him the crystal?” Devton asked.

She nodded. “I did.”

“Do you have any idea where it is now?” I asked.

She smiled nastily. “If I did, I wouldn’t tell. I can’t let it end up in the hands of a daimon and risk another rift opening.”

“What if the rift is used to send the angels home?” I asked. I had Artemis in the back of my mind and considered of the deal we had made. Would he take back his feather if I couldn’t find out where the White Crystal was?

She shook her head. “The chance of another disaster is too great.”

So many lives had been lost during The Shaking, the world shaking as it was torn. I imagined the tsunami slamming Tristan’s body against the windows, the saltwater killing daimons, and the angels tumbling from the sky.

“Now, it’s my turn to ask questions.” Lakelyn sat upright and looked at me. “Do you believe Ryker killed himself?”

I shuddered. Either he had jumped, or someone had pushed him off the building. I didn’t know which was worse. For a long time, I’d been beating myself up over his death, thinking he had jumped because of me. But what if someone else was to blame? Ryker and I had been happy.

“I don’t believe he jumped.” I watched her face crumble. “What?”

“I was hoping he killed himself,” she mumbled, “because the alternative is that someone killed him for the White Crystal – which I gave him. Which means his death is my fault.”

I could relate to her guilt because for months I had blamed myself for his death. I had thought that maybe he couldn’t open up to me the way I had to him. Maybe if he had opened, I would have known he was planning to kill himself, and maybe I could have persuaded him otherwise.

“Who else knew about the White Crystal?” Devton asked.

“No one. I found it and told no one. I sent Ryker the letter and gave him the crystal.”

“Maybe Ryker told someone about it…” Devton said.

Ryker had never even told me about the crystal, and I hated to think that he had rather confided in someone else. I had believed we were close, that we trusted each other, but maybe it was all a lie.

Lakelyn’s eyes went to the letter I held. “I assume you’re going to hand that over to Rhinsel Grosstreet.”

I could hand it over and have her punished. A part of me was tempted to – especially after she had tried to drown me. She had wanted me dead because she was jealous that Ryker had loved me so much. Had Ryker loved her, and if he were alive, would he cry if she got hurt?

I ripped up the letter.

Devton tensed beside me. The document couldn’t be used as leverage anymore, and he used his hellfire to burn the scraps until only ashes remained. I turned to the door because we had obtained the information we came for – Lakelyn had given the crystal to Ryker, and now it was missing. We were no closer to finding it than before.

I stopped in the doorway and turned to ask the question that has been gnawing at my bones. “Were you fucking Ryker while he and I were together?”

Lakleyn glanced at the burnt letter, as if reminding herself that she owed me, even if she merely owed me honesty.

“No, we weren’t. He was always faithful to you,” she said.

I believed her and released the breath I had been holding. I turned to walk away while wondering if Ryker hadn’t been fucking her, why had he come to Vesea without telling me?