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I meet Kyldare’s eyes once more. “Done.”

“Madinia!” Daharak roars.

“Tell your soldiers to leave,” I continue.

Kyldare’s eyes light with triumph before narrowing—likely at my easy compliance. “You try anything, and she’s dead. Her mother is dead. Everyone on this ship is dead.”

I narrow my eyes and scan him from his face to his gleaming boots. It’s a look I perfected while growing up at court. The kind of look that makes a man feel small. Irrelevant. Humiliated.

Kyldare is no exception. His cheeks flush.

“They leave now, or I’m not going anywhere.”

He sneers at me. “You don’t have a choice.”

When he glances at the soldier holding Carosa, I know what he’s planning.

Men are predictable. And when bad men are embarrassed, they have a tendency to lash out. It’s a compulsion they’re unable to ignore.

Carosa screams. She knows what’s coming.

I raise my blade, positioning it at my own throat. Kyldare goes still, holding up a hand.

No one moves.

“You wouldn’t,” he breathes.

“I wouldn’t declineyourcompany?” I sneer at him. “Easiest choice of my life.”

He takes a single step forward, and I wedge the blade closer to the thick artery at the side of my neck.

There are worse deaths. And I would gladly die rather than allow his power-hungry queen to get her hands on—

“Fine.” Kyldare’s eyes burn with retribution, but this time he nods at the soldier. The brute frees Carosa, who darts across the deck, scampering up the nearest rope and climbing high above us, away from the soldiers.

Clever girl.

Slowly, one by one, Kyldare’s soldiers remove themselves from Daharak’s ship.

Her face is bloodless as she walks toward me. “If you go with him, this was all for nothing. Their deaths mean nothing.”

I barely suppress a flinch. Daharak knows me too well. She knows exactly where to strike.

Lightning pierces the sky, followed immediately by thunder.

“I need you to trust me,” I say.

She shakes her head, reaching out to grab my hand. When she squeezes tight, the lump in my throat becomes a throbbing ache. I should have known. The moments of happiness I had with these people were too intense for the joy to last.

“Look after them,” I whisper.

“Don’t let him break you,” she whispers back. “I’ll find you. Somehow, I’ll find you.”

The last soldier steps off the ship, and the true destruction becomes evident. They don’t bother taking their comrades’ bodies, and I watch as the pirates begin heaving them overboard.

The sharks will dine well tonight.

Kyldare holds out his hand. “Well?”