Page 6 of Dark as the Cursed Abyss

What was worse—acting like a belligerent idiot, or passing out at the taverna and being hauled back to the castle? Farah was supposed to be one of the elite. A woman of the shadows trusted with the isle’s darkest secrets. An assassin with the skills to eliminate any adversary. Yet here she was, wallowing in pity because someone she never met or knew existed was killed by her father. Should she even be surprised? That her father who branded his own daughter and manipulated his son to the point of madness would slaughter an innocent for his own agenda? King Athanas was the very worst of them and Farah so desperately wished to be rid of the consequences of her father’s vicious path to peace.

“I’m not usually like this,” Farah said after moments of silence. The look Chloe gave in return was no softer than before, more acrid against her tongue than Cal’s concoction.

Rolling her eyes, Chloe let out a huff. “Are you not? Do you forget I was aboard The Nostos with you? You were at the gambling tables below deck every night, drinking rum as the stars came and went in the sky. Or what about Lesathos? You blatantly disregarded Leighton’s direct orders to stay aboard while we went to the safehouse. For a spy, you are quite lackadaisical with your activities.”

“I do not report to Leighton, I report to your father, and enjoying yourself amongst friends is not a crime, little wolf.”

“No one aboard The Nostos is your friend,” Chloe bit back.

Farah’s skull prickled at the words and her nose flared. “They are kinder to me than you, and you once called me a friend. Or have you forgotten?”

Chloe’s eyes glazed over as she averted her gaze. “That was a long time ago, Farah. You are not my enemy, but neither are you my friend anymore. I am simply indifferent.”

Grinding her teeth together, Farah attempted to relax her now clenched fists and stone her face. “Indifferent, you say? And yet, you didn’t leave me piss drunk in the village.”

“Because you were making a mockery of my isle, of my father and this crown,” Chloe snapped.

Farah slammed her now empty cup down. “Did you ever think to ask…why I was that way? Why I said to hell with traditions I have honored in the past? Why I would let myself go on the eve of such an important mission?”

The room heated to an unbearable temperature and black veins began to weave their way down Farah’s fingertips and over her arms. She needed air, fresh ocean air and to be anywhere but in the confines of stone and glass and other things she could break.

“I do not pretend to care about why you do anything anymore.”

Smoke curled Farah’s fingers and the scent of ash filled her nostrils. “I had an older sibling? Did you know that?”

Chloe scoffed. “Of course I know that, he broke my arm for Fates’ sake, Farah.”

“I am not talking about Kohl.” Her gaze travelled to the floor, fingers digging into the settee beneath her. “This morning your parents informed me that Avra and Khalid had a child. A child that was sacrificed for the two of them having not completed the marriage trials. It shouldn’t affect me, I never knew them, except they were my blood. I wonder if that is what jaded him—my father. If he never had to do something so horrific, he would’ve been a better father, a better leader.”

“Your father would be just as cruel.”

“Is that really all you have to say to me?” Farah questioned, her tone breathless from holding every bit of power inside her, pushing it down to the recesses of her mind so she didn’t explode.

For a moment, Chloe locked her gaze on Farah and her features softened. Then the young wolf rolled her lips between her teeth and scrunched her eyes shut. When her eyes opened, there was no emotion left. “Be at the docks at dawn. Hespali is not far, but we want to catch the early morning winds. Try not to fuck this up like everything before.”

“As you wish, Princess,” Farah replied, because Chloe’s words were not indifferent, and dismissive was so much worse.

Chapter Five

Chloe

Guilt was a snake writhing in the sand. A daimon clawing at your skin, working its way into your soul. Eating away at every good thought you ever had until you were nothing but a shell begging for a semblance of relief.

Guilt could not be dispelled through magic. No matter how long Chloe stared at her reflection in the wading pool.

Guilt was permanent—until you learned to forgive or your soul faded into the abyss of Aidesian.

Forgiveness was not one of Chloe’s strong suits, especially toward someone that slighted her in such a vulnerable state.

So death it would be, on the shores they soon sailed toward, or a thousand years from now. She would learn to carry that with her until the end.

Unless, of course, her seer saw otherwise.

Iris was a peculiar young girl, just on the cusp of her eighteenth birthday, though her lineage made her abilities shine well beyond her years. She was from the Melicachius family, which had worked for the Nexian court well before the Olympi perished. But something about Iris stood out more than her kin that came before. Most seers had visions of either the past, present, or future that was already woven into the tapestry of the Fates. She, however, saw the possibilities of the future—not bound by anything. An infinite number of possibilities with only one being the true path.

Without knocking, Chloe slipped into Iris’s room. The lanterns were dimmed down to barely a flame, causing her eyes to dilate and widen. On each of the four walls of the chambers were ancient runes scratched into the stone. Iris stood by the back wall, etching figures into the ebony stone with bronze talons that retracted from her knuckles. Her onyx hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, tiny pieces of it hanging in the front. Equally colorless eyes darted back and forth at a speed so fast Chloe could not discern where the girl was looking.

Perched on their shoulder was a neatly kept raven, its eyes devoid of white. Every few seconds the bird squawked, clapping its beak together before it flew off and landed on Chloe’s arm.