An Infinite Pull by Taylor Simonds

Author:Taylor Simonds [Simonds, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-18T18:10:41+00:00

Chapter 23

Aren

I don’t notice the bathtub is overflowing until water hits my feet.

I don’t even remember filling it. I remember being herded into my room with orders to don’t let it concern you, darling and maybe get yourself cleaned up, hmm? and then I remember the door shutting behind me, leaving me drenched and bleeding all over my rug. All of the moments in between were done by a sleepwalker.

I look down at my rippling, bloody reflection in the bathwater. I think about undressing, about how many individual movements it will take to handle buttons and clasps and cloth, then clamber right in with my clothes still on and sink down to my neck. I force myself to stare at the ceiling and practice a shaky inhale.

The gash through my chest is a black spot. Why was it so important to give the Shadow another title—bloodstalker? “Shadow” was enough. Bloodstalker draws an invisible chain between us that it’s going to follow until it finds me.

This must be how Nym feels all the time.

Nym. Everything in me begs to run back to the hold, to not waste another second in finding her again. But if I go traipsing around the ship covered in gore, people are going to have questions I’m not sure I’m allowed to answer. I just need to soak myself out of looking like a walking corpse, and then we’ll go figure out how to deal with the fact that we’re both being hunted by the same monster now.

“Were you going to tell me when to stop hiding at any point, or am I meant to stay invisible forever?”

I swear, if the layer of dried blood coating me were a second skin, I might jump right out of it. Instead, I flounder beneath the water and resurface sputtering, nose full of soap. She’s here, hanging off my ceiling like a silvery moth emerging from a cocoon. “Nym, for the love of—”

“You left.” She crosses her arms upside-down. “I was scared you’d forget about me.”

“I think you’d have to surgically remove my brain for me to forget about you.” Even though I’m still coughing soap out of my esophagus, just the fact that she’s here is the emotional equivalent of dropping a magnet into a bowl of nails. All my loud, jumbled, fearful thoughts find their anchor and settle. “Were you with me the whole time?”

“Yes.” Nym flips right-side-up and lowers herself onto the other end of the tub sheepishly. “Your mother is… formidable.”

The pit of my stomach contorts. “I’m sorry. I never wanted to lie to you, I just thought… I thought it would change everything, if you knew who I was.”

“What would it have changed?” She’s so gentle with it. Like she’s not upset, just curious. It makes me feel worse.

“I don’t know.” I spool water over the back of my neck. “Yes, I do. Look, the first thing anyone ever knows about me is that I’m Captain Valyra Vanthal’s son. They expect me to be exactly like her, and then they’re disappointed when I’m not.

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