Page 12 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Selena

“ Y ou don’t cordae ,” I said, narrowing my gaze onto Pheolix. “Or you can’t ?”

He shifted closer to the shell wall, angling the tip of his knife against its smooth surface, and etched a small line. “What’s the difference?”

“I think the distinction is fairly clear.”

He didn’t answer. The scratch of his knife grated in my ears. “You shouldn’t carve on their walls. It’s disrespectful.”

“I’ll ask again. Do I seem respectful?”

“You asked if you were respectable, not respectful, you miscreant.”

“Gnat,” he corrected, shrugging one shoulder as though the words meant the same thing and crossing his first carved line with a second.

His rust hair shone almost lavender under the bioluminescent lights.

His half-bun had worked itself almost loose, the strands framing each side of his eyes, but the bun itself hung lazily from the back of his head.

I watched it, fighting to keep my mouth from flattening in agitation, and wondered if I’d ever met a more insufferable being.

As if he heard my thoughts, he paused. Then rotated enough to look at me from over his shoulder. And winked.

I leveled him with an unamused stare.

“Are you carving into our colony wall?”

I started at the voice in the doorway. Vouri stalked into the room, seizing Pheolix’s knife from his hand. “This is a prehistoric ammonite,” she shot at him .

He sat up slowly, unbothered by the hiss in her voice. “It’s beginning to decay.”

“What?”

“The tiny gray flecks in the shell. Calcium carbonate age spots. They need to be scraped off and sealed.”

Frowning, Vouri blinked at him then turned sharply to scrutinize the wall up close. He gave her an affectionate slap on the arm. She backed away a step, straightening. “Aegir is ready for you both.”

“Excellent.” Pheolix pushed to his feet and swiped his knife back, stepping toward the door. Behind him, Vouri sent me a look, eyes wide and accusing.

“I didn't pick him,” I huffed under my breath. Then stepped around her only to collide with Pheolix. I’d thought he’d already left the room, but there he stood, waiting for me only a mere foot away.

He steadied me by reflex, hands latching onto my arms before I fell.

The crash into his chest provoked a frustrated growl from mine. “Let go,” I forced through my teeth.

He leaned in, the corner of his mouth crooked, storm-gray eyes glinting something between a half-hearted apology and stark entertainment.

“I didn’t pick you either, heiress. You were a means to escape the mines and return to the palace.

You needed a disposable guard, and I’m the best drone Thaan has.

If you don’t want to run into me again, stay ahead of me rather than where I can’t see you. ”

“As though I would stab a guest of the colony in the back.” Vouri rolled her eyes. “And I’m not sure that a drone is the best at anything. That’s like saying a vagrant is the best at being poor.”

Pheolix’s smirk grew, though he didn’t look at her. Arrogance swathed him as easily as the silk cloak that hung from his shoulder, something about it just as transparent and fluid.

Try me , it said.

I relinquished the space between our bodies, shaking his hands off .

Vouri gave an impatient sigh. “He’s waiting.”

The colony throne room opened over our heads, twinkles hidden in the chiseled smooth arch that wrapped from one end to the next.

A line from sacred texts flashed in my mind.

The room where Naiads dine. Where the power of a Videre is passed from one Naiad to another, whether inherited or taken by force.

According to rumors, Aegir drank his grandfather’s blood and ascended to monarch of the Venusian Sea less than a year before.

My musings ended as I spotted him across from us.

Blue whirls danced across his chest and face, illuminating his tidal wave tattoos.

Cebrinne stood next to him.

My heart lunged. I hadn’t realized she’d even left her room.

The entire reason I’d come had been to ensure she wasn’t left alone with Aegir.

Cebrinne’s skill at water-calling and defensive forces cast a tall shadow over mine, but I could still summon a formidable amount of power compared to the average siren.

Pheolix halted as well. In an instant, heat vanished. The humidity of the colony shriveled into the air, and my ties to any moisture floating around us snuffed out. Like a blindfold thrust over my eyes or my hands bound behind my back. I glanced at him, startled.

“That’s unnecessary,” Aegir said calmly.

Pheolix didn’t answer.

Aegir raised a curious brow. “How long can you hold it?”

“Hours.” Pheolix’s voice hardened from the easy taunting he’d used when we were alone. “But you’d be dead long before it ran out.”

Aegir didn’t react, though something about him bristled. “I won't tolerate threats of death within the walls of my colony.”

“It’s not a threat.”

Cebrinne rolled her eyes, leaving Aegir’s side and approaching us dispassionately. “You realize you hinder my ability to protect myself when you do that, right?” she snipped.

“You don’t need it,” Pheolix replied .

Aegir forced a long-suffering sigh, his jaw jutting slightly to one side. He pulled his silver cloak away, unsheathing a knife from his hip, and pressed the small, wicked curve into the pad of his thumb.

Vouri gave a startled gasp, but Aegir had already turned his palm upright, a streak of crimson dripping to the floor.

“Unless attacked first, I will not harm the three of you here in Venusia. I swear it on my blood.”

“Aegir,” Vouri hissed, stalking to her brother.

The stream of red gave a small crack of light, sealing Aegir’s vow. “Now, if you don’t mind,” he said, rubbing his thumb against his index finger and watching the broken skin close, “before you freeze our oxygen supply.” He tossed a glance at the tall succulents lining the walls.

Slowly, the touch of water against my senses returned.

Aegir crooked his arm and flexed his fingers as though vaguely mystified by the sensation of it. “Cebrinne and I have struck a deal,” he said, “but I need to know where you stand.”

With my sister. Unquestioningly. Unwaveringly. Undoubtedly. Always, no matter how angry I was at her. Always, always, always.

But I took my time answering, offering a tentative, “What deal did you strike?”

“He’s going to help us find the stones,” Cebrinne answered. “And we’re going to gather information for him. About Thaan.” I met her eyes from across Pheolix, and though her voice remained firm, her mouth twitched with uncertainty. “Well. I’m going to gather information at least.”

Aegir took a step forward. “This agreement only works if all parties concede.”

“To spy on Thaan,” I clarified.

Aegir’s eyes dropped to mine. “Yes.”

“And conspire his death.”

“Yes. ”

I shifted weight between my feet. Killing Thaan wasn’t part of my plan.

It had always been part of Cebrinne’s but not mine.

I would have been happy to break her from her contract and run, hiding among obscure coasts and port cities, taking on the life of a nomad.

Adopting a trade like beading or sewing, drifting from place to place.

It would be easy, with the ability to incant humans.

We could stay in villas or mansions and never leave a trace.

“What if we don’t agree?” I asked, though internally I already had. I’d acceded before I even knew there was something to assent.

Cebrinne’s eyes cut a line in my direction, but I kept my gaze on Aegir.

“I can’t allow a drone and two Prizivac Vodes to leave alive while knowing they were sent to trap me,” he said softly. “But I've just vowed not to harm you. You'd live out your days here.”

I nodded. “I guess I don't have a choice, then. I agree.” Aegir dipped his head, and then everyone looked at Pheolix. The drone’s jaw tensed. He darted a look at me then back to Aegir. “What will happen to Thaan’s servants?”

“Are any of them loyal to him?”

Selena and I shook our heads. Pheolix didn’t move. Aegir studied him, calm calculation in his stare. “If they do not retaliate, I have no reason to want them dead.”

“You’ll swear that in your blood as well?” Pheolix asked.

Aegir turned his cheek slightly. “That one I won’t vow to. But I have no intentions of stealing life from the innocent. You’ll have to take me at my bare word, drone.”

Pheolix released a deep, quiet breath, glancing down at the knife in his hand.

He twirled it between his fingers, more slowly than he had in the room we’d been placed in, watching it rotate across his palm.

“All right,” he said. “I agree. If I get even a whiff of a threat from you, you’ll already be bleeding out on the floor. ”