Page 15 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Selena

S urprise flickered in the unknown Naiad’s gaze as he realized I spied him. He stood behind the line of exotic plants, shrouded in verdant darkness, one foot stretched beyond the leaves toward me. The Naiad recovered faster than I did, stalking from the line in a way that roused panic in my bones.

Go. Run.

I grabbed at the doorknob, pulled it open—and the Naiad lunged forward, slamming it shut. His chest shoved at my back as he did, his face close enough that his breath nipped the hair along my nape.

He grabbed my arm. I twisted, wrenching backwards.

A rush of blood filled my ears, wild and stunted, a liquid slam that crowded all my thoughts. My fear washed the room, reckless and desperate. His fingers pinched as he held on, his opposite hand now turning the same doorknob I’d turned, and he pulled me closer into his grasp.

A small shriek filled my lungs. I spun again, this time managing to whip my arm free. Before he could grab me again, I fled into the shadowed plants.

I didn’t get far.

A single step into the heart of the solarium, and I almost collided with someone else. Steel eyes glinted in the dark. “Step to your right,” Pheolix calmly said, and before my thoughts could catch up to the demand, I rotated to the side .

The Naiad hunting me landed in my place. Pheolix drove his knee into the male’s crotch. Before he could flinch, Pheolix’s fist connected with his face in a blurred crunch .

He dropped to the floor, open-mouthed and stunned. Pheolix stepped over him, a foot on either side of the Naiad’s chest. He grabbed the Naiad’s head with both hands.

And wrenched.

A sharp, liquid crack followed.

The Naiad’s eyes deadened in an instant.

My hands flew to my mouth in shock, a tremor shaking them as hard as my breath.

Water dripped from my fingertips, trailing down my wrists.

Pheolix dropped him in an almost business-like way, rolling the Naiad over with the toe of his boot and tilting his head to study him.

I’d never seen the dead siren before. His long hair claimed an earthy hue, brown and warm.

He was clean-shaven. Perhaps a bit older than I was, though guessing a Naiad’s age was always difficult.

Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

His head hung oddly from his broken neck, a gruesome twist I could hardly stand to look at. I squeezed my eyes shut.

The sound of Pheolix unsheathing his knife forced them open again.

He began at the Naiad’s neck, cutting a lazy line down the back of the man’s shirt. “You all right?” he asked, not bothering to look at me.

My hands dropped from my mouth, though my breaths continued to stagger out, rib cage only beginning to calm. No, I wasn’t all right. Theia damn the stars, did I look bloody all right? But I swallowed the backlash away. “What are you doing?”

Pheolix abandoned the Naiad’s shirt halfway down, reaching through the slice to start again at the top of a second layer. “Looking for his brand, if he has one.”

“His brand?”

“Yes. His brand. The thing they burn into cattle.”

“I know what a brand is,” I snapped, my shock and fear not yet quite worn away to entertain the sarcasm in his voice.

He paused to aim a sideways smile at me, blowing a lock of his rusty hair away from his mouth.

The bulk of it lay drawn in the most disorganized bun I’d ever laid eyes on, and I couldn’t understand how it suited him so well.

“Just making sure. You seem like the type of woman who doesn’t know beef comes from cows. ”

I dropped my shoulders, a glare suddenly erupting through the confines of my struggle to recover, but my ice slid off Pheolix. He crooked his finger at me, inviting me to lean over his shoulder and peer at the skin visible under the Naiad’s shirt.

The symbol burned between the man’s shoulder blades was a single eye, lidless and wide. A chill laced down the vertebrae of my spine, lingering heavily between my own shoulders.

“Is it Aegir’s?” I asked.

Pheolix shook his head. “It’s Thaan’s.”

I glanced sharply at him. “You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never seen it on you.”

He raised a brow. “Are you asking to undress me so you can look for it now?”

I scoffed, throwing my gaze away from him.

Pheolix smirked. “You’ve only seen me shirtless in Naiad form, and my back scales travel all the way up my spine. But say the word and I'll take my shirt off now.”

My teeth clenched. “Ceba doesn’t have one.”

“Thaan has a vested interest in keeping Cebrinne’s body unmarked, though, doesn’t he?” He nodded at the dead man. “He’s been following you since our meeting with Thaan.”

I crossed my arms, shooing away the last of my rapid heartbeat. “And so have you, apparently. Thank you for the warning. ”

“He locked eyes on the two of you before you even left the administrative wing. I wanted to see how long it would take for you to notice him.”

A scoff itched at the back of my throat.

Pheolix’s mouth twitched. “You didn’t even look behind you.”

“I’ve never had a reason to look over my shoulder in this palace,” I grumbled back at him.

Neck bent awkwardly as he lay on the flagstones, the dead Naiad stared vacantly ahead.

In addition to the blood running from his mouth, drops had begun seeping from the corners of his eyes.

“Thaan’s never had a Naiad trail us before. ”

“That you know of,” he snickered.

My eyes narrowed.

Pheolix’s mouth twitched. “Thaan’s also never sent you to seduce an enemy.”

“That you know of,” I mocked.

His brow rose. He pointed at the body again. “Could just as easily be a test for me as your guard. Whoever he is, he was ordered not to hurt you. He only had a dozen opportunities. Why didn’t you water-call to fight back? He’s not a hive heir like you. You could have easily stopped his heart.”

I stewed, readjusting the cross of my arms over my chest. I hadn’t even thought of it. My body had screamed to run, overpowering any sound judgment.

Pheolix chuckled. “Well, at least we know what your fight or flight response is if we’re ever under attack.

Indignation roared to a sharp point in my chest. “My water-call is considered weak for a Prizivac Vode .”

“Is it?” Pheolix stood suddenly, giving his hair a smooth shake from his eyes. “Stop my heart.”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Freeze my veins, block my blood, whatever it is you do when you’re training for a fight. ”

“I don’t—I’ve never trained for a fight.” My voice lilted, the statement sounding more like a question, and warmth flared into my cheeks.

Pheolix crossed his arms. “Thaan sent you to his enemy without any water-combat training?”

“What good would it have done?” I shot back, a measure of impatience in my voice. “He sent me with you .”

“Aw, heiress. I’m flattered.”

My flush deepened, and I thanked the stars the solarium was lit only by the thin moon. “That wasn’t a compliment. He sent me with someone who blocks Naiad abilities. And don’t call me heiress.”

“Hm.” He let his gaze soak into me, a deep study that would make anything hanging in the palace’s art gallery jealous. “What should I call you?”

I ignored the sudden impulse to scrub my fingers through the roots of my hair. “Are you flirting with me while we stand over a dead man?”

“Of course not.” He swung his chin toward the distant door behind us. “Would you like to stand over there instead?”

I didn't dignify that with a response. “What are we going to do with him?”

Pheolix’s attention returned to the Naiad, chest down on the stone floor. “Dump him.”

“You can’t be serious.” My words halted as Pheolix pressed a shoulder into the man’s spine, rolling the corpse easily across his back.

He straightened, giving the man a quick bounce to straddle the weight across his shoulders before indicating to the far reaches of the room with the dip of his chin. “The door?”

I hesitated. Then called enough water to the floor to mop the small dribble of blood with a laced handkerchief.

We followed the labyrinth of exotic plants toward the eastern door Cebrinne and Vouri had taken, but a separate wheel turned in my head.

Thaan had never bothered to train us to fight.

Even Cebrinne, a natural caller, had only practiced the art of water manipulation. Neither of us had trained for combat.

Behind me, Pheolix’s steps softly scuffed across the flagstones, slower than mine under the burden of the Naiad. Thaan had obviously trained other sirens for action.

“Does he worry your power might outmatch his own?” Pheolix’s voice floated ahead to meet me.

I glanced back at him, turning sideways between two lavish drifts of foliage. “I don’t see why that would be the case. Thaan can control rain . The old texts say that’s impossible. There’s not a Naiad alive who can rival him.”

“Then why is his colony on land, and not in the sea?”

“He’s biding his time.”

“Hmm.” Pheolix stopped beside me as we reached the door, hoisting the dead man higher.

“If there’s one of these, there will likely be more.

And they may be ordered not to harm you, but they’re still reporting your actions to him.

You’re playing a dangerous game, you and your sister. Double spy is a tight rope to walk.”

I leaned into a single heel, crossing my arms again. “Thanks for the lesson in espionage.”

Silver light slashed across his face, casting his smile in crooked mischief. His voice dropped an octave, suddenly as rough as the tide under the full moon. “You’re welcome.”

My mouth thinned as I pushed the door open. Wind crashed against my face, sending my hair in a stormy cyclone behind my shoulders. I whipped it out of my eyes with a toss, pulling myself close to the sky bridge railing so Pheolix could shuffle past me.

The eastern bridge connected to the main towers in the south and north.

Built in layers, nobles and royalty usually kept to the center passage, which boasted long glass panels to offer views of sky and sea.

Servants were sequestered to the lower level, hunched and narrow.

Here at the top, in the birth of a new spring, the wind was ravenous, feasting wherever our flesh was bare.

Guards patrolled the bridges less than they did the outer curtain wall, the parapet hanging over the sea at the halfway point.

We halted there, with no one to witness the Naiad’s descent except Theia and the sea itself.

Pheolix heaved the man between two stone crenellations, and I leaned forward to help him roll the lifeless body off the edge.

We watched it drop. All the way to the water raging across the red cliffs far below. The tide ate him as though he were nothing, stealing the man’s existence in a single gulp.