Blood Runner: Book Three of the Empress Saga

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The climb down to the shoreline was treacherous. The hexagonal basalt columns were deceptively slippery and didn't provide good footing or handholds. Josy gave up on being graceful and let herself drop the final twenty feet. As she fell, she assumed an osteoform over her legs. The bone plates began as spurs that grew out from between the loose lacings up the sides of her leggings. The plates widened to encase her limbs and absorbed most of the impact.

That trick was one of Dashar's, and Josy was pleased with herself for learning a similar osteoform. Like Jin, Dashar rarely utilized his elder magic. When he had, though, he used it in clever ways that left Josy Algara in amazement.

Dashar and Jin, of all Josy's relations, she tried to emulate them the most. Tried and failed. They always kept so calm, so stoic. That was something Josy couldn't match. Wild, Uncle Gain called her. Unrestrained, when he was feeling generous. Feral, when he wasn't.

"Don't try to be something you aren't," her father always told her. Once, Josy took comfort from those words. Upon learning who her father truly was— who he served— those words of comfort turned to ash. "You will be a weapon for our house, my daughter. My fierce berserker."

Josy grit her teeth as she waited for Maya to join her on the shoreline. She didn't want to be a weapon. Not anymore.

I just want my family back.

No one ever got everything they wanted. Josy knew in her heart that whatever world could overcome this demonic doom, her father couldn't be a part of it. He'd chosen his side, and Josy knew it to be the wrong one.

I wish I would've just stayed in Ecclesia with Jin, she thought miserably. I made everything so much worse. Maya might never forgive me for lying to her.

She hadn't been herself. Who could be after suffering domination as she had? The touch of Garret's magic still lingered within her, just as she could still feel the caress of his fingers on her skin. Josy felt her heart beat faster and her muscles tense up. Her breaths became labored as they came out between clenched teeth.

Domination offered a surrender. Everything that plagued her had been replaced with the will of another. There was something of a release to what Garret did to her. No thought but for Garret. No purpose but his. No desire except to please him. It made Josy sick to remember what it felt like.

She'd been overjoyed when she learned that Master Deveaux wasn't part of the group Elise sent to Sholis. That meant she wouldn't have to face him again. Be confronted by how she had disappointed him. Yearn for his magic to touch her again even as she feared it. A part of her would always belong to him, the part of her he'd stolen, and she didn't know if she could ever get it back.

Josy hated herself for missing him.

I deserve it after what I did. If there's any hope for absolution, it's in stopping my father.

She'd gotten control of her breathing and calmed herself when Maya's boots crunched in the volcanic sand next to her. Maya didn't waste any time and strode towards their destination.

A thin cleft in the basalt rocks led into a darkened sea cave. A narrow ledge lined the cleft's wall, just above the water's surface, and it was wide enough for a single person to traverse if they pressed up against the rocks. Maya led the way into the darkness.

"We're just scouting," Josy whispered as she stepped onto the ledge. "Once we get a count of who's in here, we should go back to the others."

Maya didn't respond.