Lyriana, she probably has more of this stuff.”
“Which means she could’ve built other bombs, right?” I asked.
“I shudder at the thought of taking another hit like this,” Nightmare grumbled.
Hunter checked the explosion site. Not much was left of the boats. Charred pieces of wood and bloodied chunks of Aeternae flesh floated in the green water, but he did manage to fish out a metal tube the size of his palm. Frowning, he checked it from top to bottom until he discovered a lid.
“What’s that?” I inquired, reaching him quickly.
“It opens,” he said, unscrewing the lid with careful movements of his fingers. Inside, there was a scroll. He plucked it out and handed it to me. My hands were still shaking, but I managed to unravel it.
Words had been scrawled in blood. At the bottom, a signature with swirly letters and a wax seal. It was a skull framed by a scythe blade. “This has to be the Darklings’ seal. It’s a little too on the nose, in my opinion, but it’s definitely them,” I replied.
“Is there a message? That thing must have been on the boat, protected by its metal tube,” Widow said, joining us.
I read the text aloud. It wasn’t much, only a couple of paragraphs, but each word drilled holes into my soul as I understood their weight and significance.
“‘Dear Whoever, if you have survived the explosion, congratulations. I doubt you’ll fare so well in the future, however, for I have made more than one Death Boom. Rest assured, all were designed specifically for you and your Reaper friends. Sooner or later, one of them will get the job done. Consider this message not a warning, but rather a promise. You will not kill me. You will not capture me. You will never outsmart me. I left the swamp a while ago, but if you still wish to search for me, by all means go right ahead. I doubt you’ll find much except for more Death Booms.’” I paused, scrunching my nose. “Okay, first of all, who calls a bomb ‘Death Boom’? What, is she in kindergarten or something? Second, holy crap, she rigged the entire mangrove village with bombs.”
“Keep reading,” Widow urged me.
“‘But if you do wish to find me, do not worry. I will find you first. I am Lyriana Amos, not the first nor the last of my dynasty to loyally serve the Darklings. And if it will be my turn to give my heart to the Spirit Bender before I can kill you all, I shall pass that sacred duty on to my other brothers and sisters in arms. They will gladly finish the job for me. If you think you have any chance of stopping the Spirit Bender’s return, think again. We’ve survived for millions of years. We shall prevail, and we shall dance on your graves. Yours truly, Lyriana.’”
“Ah, good to know that if Danika gets to her before she gets to us, she’ll send her sons to kill us.” Nightmare scoffed. “What a bunch of psychopaths!”
“Devoted psychopaths, and therein lies the problem,” I said. “Someone told her we were coming. The bomb wasn’t designed for just anyone who came to this shore, and Lyriana obviously expects Danika to get to her via other means; otherwise, this letter would’ve been worded differently.”
Hunter sighed. “Petra. She must’ve given Lyriana a heads-up, somehow.”
“If that’s the case, then Ridan’s team might be in danger,” I breathed, dread taking over once more. “We have to get to them… now!”
Dream pointed a thumb over her shoulder, toward the mangrove forest. “What about the bomb or bombs Lyriana hid in there?”
“We don’t have time to clean up after her,” Widow said. “Kailani is right. Ridan’s crew has yet to check in, and if Petra warned Ramus too, they might be in serious trouble.”
Nightmare gave Widow a perky smile. “Would you do the honors then, dear brother? I’d love to do a long-distance jump myself, but I’m slightly incapacitated at the moment. It’ll take a few hours for these injuries to heal, I’m afraid.”
“Take my hand,” Widow said.
Once we were all physically linked, the world warped around us and disappeared into a glimpse of utter darkness. As we drifted through the vacuum of nothingness, I felt my heart skipping beats in anticipation of what we might find on the other side. If Petra had been playing us from the very beginning, then she couldn’t be allowed to stay in Roano for another second.
I hadn’t trusted her from the very