Last Shadow || Deception Book III

Chapter 22

A/N: First time writing with Alabaster's voice so...hope I don't screw this up too much lol. Kinda wanted to show a little of the aftermath of Rianna leaving and all so yeah. 

TW for suicidal ideation and emotional distress.  

Alabaster 

"What are you brooding over now?" Faint footsteps sounded from behind me as Nicole trudged out from the lounge onto the deck, joining me beside my silent vigil at the helm of the ship.

I sighed, my gaze drifting from the faint grey horizon—slowly brightening as dawn fast approached—to her. Nicole was also staring over the waves, her black hair tousled in the wind. She met my gaze, her eyes searching. So? You gonna tell me what's wrong or not?

"I'm not brooding over anything," I replied after a long moment, looking over the sea again. The waves were lapping rhythmically against the hull, a steady, indifferent beat that seemed to mock the sharp unease and chaos gnawing at my insides. "I just..."

"This about Rianna or...." her voice trailed off, but she didn't need to finish her sentence. We both knew what she was talking about. Nicole cleared her throat softly, looking away from me towards the horizon. "Have you been called for?"

I shook my head silently.

"Not even from Atlas or Krios?" she whispered, her voice dropping to a hush.

I shook my head again, that serpent of dread coiling tighter around my insides.

"It's been a day."

I know, I thought hollowly. I stared harder at the lapping waves against the ship as if they could reach up and tug me overboard, letting me sink into the waters where I could finally close my eyes and wake up from this nightmare.

This nightmare that my sister had left me in.

Just then, the breeze picked up, and I thought about how I could almost hear the gods laughing at me in the wind, some sick joke from Zephyros, taunting me with a freedom to fly away that I'd never have.

"Radio silence," I finally replied after a long moment, still looking at the ocean a mere few metres away.

Nicole dragged in a long, strangled breath. "Do you think–"

"No," I said dully before she could finish her sentence. "He's waiting."

Nicole didn't reply to that. How could she? I was right, and we both knew it. The silence from Kronos wasn't one of mercy. He was still recovering from whatever Rianna had done on that mountain, but it was only a matter of time before the backlash came.

When Kronos' scythe would finally fall, it would fall on me. I didn't think I'd be killed, but...the dread strangling me wouldn't go away.

I felt hollowed out, like someone—my sister—had taken a spoon and just scooped me inside out.

The heavy silence stretched ever longer, broken only by the consistent lapping of the waves against the cold metal of the ship, a rhythmic accompaniment to the aching in my chest. I couldn't tell if it was dread, grief, or just simple exhaustion, the type that urged me to throw myself off this ship into the heavy, cold waves and let the ocean drag me down into the depths.

I punched the railing in frustration, but there was no weight behind my movement. "Damnit," I said roughly, my words as hollow as the sound that had rung across the ship. "Why did you have to leave?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, letting my face fall against my forearms as I leaned against the railing, thinking back to yesterday in the Labyrinth when Rianna had told us all the truth. How she was a spy sent by the Olympians to infiltrate Kronos' army, all because Luke had stolen Zeus' bolt three years ago that winter solstice. My sister was a godsdamn spy from the Olympians.