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She was going to die,but it was worth it.

A wild laugh bubbled from her lips as the king of Methi glared at her with blood running down his neck. She’d almost slit his throat. Only a few more seconds beneath her shell blade, and he would have been dead.

As dead as Ream—the husband he’d stolen from her.

She licked her lips and continued to fight the warriors that held her. The dowager queen stepped away from her son, her lip curled in distaste. The queen mother had been smart, siccing female warriors on Mer. The Lure didn’t work quite as well with them. She glanced at the two women, noting they were mirrors of each other. Same long curly brown hair, same metallic bronze eyes, a sprinkle of freckles across their noses, and warm umber skin.

Twins. How quaint.

Mer dismissed them and locked gazes with the dowager queen. She bared her teeth at the queen mother in a victorious smile. His dear mother didn’t like that.

Mer had planned to ruin the king’s life, but when she saw him on the dock, something snapped inside her that she couldn’t control. The look of horror on his face when he shook off the Lure was enough to satisfy the fire of hate that raged inside her.

Just a little bit.

Mer licked the saltwater off her lips and shuddered. It tasted nothing like home, less salty and more like algae. Goosebumps ran up and down her arms as shivers wracked her body. Swimming in the ocean one last time, even if it wasn’t home, had been worth it. She’d sung the hunt song with the leviathans, glimpsed the kelp forests with their waving scarlet fronds, and experienced the serenity of the water.

It was the perfect goodbye to this world.

The rain pelted them as the wind and waves battered the dock. The storm was worsening.

Her body wanted to hunch over to conserve heat, but Mer held her head up high. She wouldn’t cower in her last moments. The warrior to the right clipped a set of manacles too tightly around her left wrist, breaking the skin before they clasped her right. The pain was momentary.

Plus, they’d made a mistake. They’d cuffed her hands in front of her. The warriors had given her a weapon with which to strangle the king.

He had recovered, his expression turning from infatuated to frosty.

She smiled at him and winked, watching his expression harden further.

Good. She wanted him as angry as she was.

He pulled a black kerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his nose and mouth. The king had learned his lesson, it seemed. Raziel stalked down the dock. There wasn’t another word for the way he moved. It was predatory, and it called to the darkest part of Mer.

The warrior to her right kicked Mer’s legs out from beneath her, and her knees hit the wet, rough wooden deck. Pain ricocheted up her thighs, but she ignored it.

“You will kneel before your king.”

“He is not my king,” she snapped, staring down Raziel, the Methian King.

Death was prowling her way, and she didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

He paused before her, and she had to tip her head back to meet his glare from over the edge of the kerchief. Mer blinked the rain out of her eyes. His dark red hair hung around his face in ropes, looking like rivulets of rich Aermian wine. His eyes were like the fine edge of a blade as he stared down at her. Sharp and piercing. Deadly.

Was this how he looked before he cut Ream down?

A wave of grief, rage, and hate crashed over her.

Mer lunged for him, managing to get to her feet. He caught her by the throat, his calloused palm abrading her sensitive gills. She snapped her teeth in his face and sank her nails into his forearm.

Two could play that game.

He lifted until her toes scrambled for purchase on the slick wooden deck. Time slowed as she stared up into the fierce eyes of the one person who’d taken her world from her. A deranged laugh gurgled in the back of her throat as she fought to breathe.

“Do it,” she challenged.

King Raziel cocked his head. “What?”

“Kill me.” It was a dare and a plea. She was so bloody tired of the nightmares, of the sleepless nights, of the world and its pain.