Chapter 16

                                    

                                          
I'm left for the better part of two days at sea inside my cell – with no interaction whatsoever. I'm thirsty. I'm hungry. I'm exhausted. Sleep? Impossible. In hours of silence, there would be screaming and blood dripping through the deck, and I knew they were slaughtering whoever they came across at sea.
I have come to recognise the sounds of them jumping off the ship, and a few moments ago I just happened to hear the splash of water as they all go hunting in the Deep.
I breathe in deeply, getting ready to exhale – when a door above creaks open.
A surge of anxiety floods me, and I immediately pull myself to my feet and lean back into the corner of my cage, holding it within my fingers to help me stand.
I had mastered that at least – standing.
I look through the iron cell to see the giant figure in shadow, with those beautiful locks draped down over his chest.
Ezra walks down the stairs in a slow waltz, side to side his hair swings, before he jumps off the bottom step and walks straight to my cell.
"We are alone now," Ezra sing-songs deeply, looking into my cage, "Where is my princess..." his eyes hold mine through the cell door, as he leans his face into the bars. He leans off the door and uses a key to open it, pushing it aside.
Now, I smell something distinct on the air.
He's been drinking.
Did he need liquid courage to approach me?
It brings me some small confidence to hold myself together.
I had already tried to rationalise he would not kill his mate. But the more my mind circled around that belief, the more I distrusted the logic.
It was just something about Erebos that couldn't be trusted.
And he was just a pure Erebos killing-machine now.
There was no sweet boy left in him.
Holding the door wide open, Ezzy waits for me to exit.
I do not move.
So Ezra swings the door shut, "Do you prefer this?" he looks me up and down, asking me the question quietly.
"Talk to me when the drink fades," I whisper.
"I filled myself on spirit so the bloodlust... goes away... or, it rather dampens..." he is staring at my face a little too hard now, his words bordering on the edge of lies. I suck in a breath as he opens the door once again, but this time he comes into my cell.
I freeze, as Ezra walks over and his eyes haunt mine.
They are so beautiful they are hypnotising.
I smartly look away, and before he can reach me, I walk past him quickly.
He follows while I find my feet and look back at his chest, not his eyes, as I hold out a hand – hoping he takes it.
Ezra's hand seems to move toward it, but it's just his new distinctive gait. He brushes past me and ignores my sweetly offered palm, as he leads the way to the deck instead.
I follow him up the stairs, to an anchored down ship in the shallows.
Ezra doesn't have to show me what is waiting, I can already see it. Toward the sunset, is a small Island. On the Island is a table and chairs, wine and a seafood feast. Candles and lanterns are lit everywhere.
I walk with Ezra to the side of the ship, my exhausted eyes are now alight with romance.
It was for us. How lovely of him. Maybe I had been wrong in my assumptions?