Page 21 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)
Selena
I twisted and lurched. My heels beat the flagstones. Jolts of static panged through my chest, and the sweet spring air imploded around me, leaving only the acrid scent of my fear.
They dragged me backwards. Under the shade of the nearest alcove and into a garden corner. I threw my weight to the side, flinging elbows and forearms into them, my aim and accuracy ineffectual as the sound of thunder roared in my ears.
They pushed me against the wall, a hand splayed across my stomach, hot through the woven fabric of my Calderian dress.
A cloak veiled a male face, the rough edge of a jaw too close to see anything else.
I shoved at him with my shoulder, but he held on, his free hand curling gently around my throat.
Cool breath scattered across my cheek, and I raked my nails down his neck.
He laughed.
The sound of it was warm and friendly, as though we were only playing.
A challenge lay within it, an invitation to a game.
It forced me to pause, taking in his features with a bit more care.
The rusty stubble along his jaw, gold where the setting sun struck it.
The curve of a teasing smile, the cleft in the center somehow square.
A hollow V at the base of his throat, a vein disappearing somewhere under his cloak.
I shoved him again, my fingertips wet, and this time he let me.
“You.” I didn’t have words for what he was.
He bought himself a step away, crossing his arms and looking at me as if he could see through his ridiculous hood, and my hands curled into fists.
I banged both on his chest, knocking him off balance by an inch.
He caught himself gracefully with his heel and laughed again.
I shoved a third time, a sudden red light overtaking my vision. But this time, he was ready, and my strike was much like trying to knock a wall down with a spoon.
“Why didn’t you go for the heart, heiress?” he asked. I was surprised he could even speak through the moon-forsaken foolish grin plastered across his face.
The rapid rise and fall of my chest was only too obvious. “Leave me alone, you blackguard ass of a siren,” I spat, my voice full of ragged wind.
“Lady Selena ,” he admonished, aghast.
I threw my middle finger at him, scarlet heat blooming over my cheeks at how pitiful my attempts to hurt him seemed to be. Then made to march away, but he caught my wrist. “Don’t run away next time. Stop my heart.”
“ Next time?” I huffed, outraged. “If there’s a next time, I’ll stop your heart as soon as I realize who you are, and I won’t quit until it’s evident that it will never beat again.”
He grinned. “Splendid.”
I shook him off. “How old are you?”
“I don’t know. Thirty-something, probably.”
A scoff rolled out of my mouth. “Did you never grow up, or did your mother never teach you manners?”
“Both.” He mimicked me, lacing his arms over his chest as a raindrop splashed into his lower lip. He licked it away. “Life is too short to grow up, and Thaan separated me and my brother from our mother when I was seven.”
My jaw had already cocked, a razor-sharp retort primed and ready, but it died on the spot.
“That explains a lot,” I snapped, though the words didn’t have the bite I’d intended.
Unwittingly, my mind bounded far away. To sulfuric lakes in the mountains.
Tiny Naiad colonies. Names of families I’d written down on paper.
A sickening twist wrenched in my gut. He wouldn’t have been one of my victims. But he was one of them all the same.
“I’m late,” I said, stepping around him. “I need to grab a meal for Ceba.”
“Want me to walk with you?”
“Not particularly.”
He shrugged. “That’s fair. I’ll just walk behind you, then. Admire the back of you.”
I sent a lethal stare his way. He threaded his fingers behind his neck, leisurely stretching his spine, a dark smile under his hood lifting out of shadow.
“Fine,” I snapped. “Walk with me. But don’t touch me. And don’t call me heiress.”
He sauntered up to my side, falling into step with me. “What should I call you? Heart-stopper?”
Something in my chest sparked, a small flutter that I quickly smashed. “Selena.”
“Hmmm. I prefer heiress.”
“Why?” I scoffed. “I’ll never inherit anything. Might as well be an average Naiad.”
“Average Naiads are boring.” He pulled his knife from his pocket, twirling it in his palm. “You’re anything but average.”
“And what should I call you? You’re further from average than I am.”
He tossed his knife to the opposite hand. “There are hundreds of drones, you just haven’t met most of us. But there’s probably only enough hive heirs alive to count on both our hands.”
That didn’t really mean anything. My lineage might have been rare, but the only thing I excelled at was incanting humans.
“I don’t know why it matters, anyway.”
I glanced at him, annoyed at the bait. “Why what matters? ”
“Two Prizivac Vodes cordaeing . Only one is needed to create a hive heir. It’s not as though their offspring will be any more or less powerful if both were born from a Videre .”
“It’s a means of status. Like human royalty marrying each other.”
“Eh.”
“It also blends power across territories. Or it did once, when there were more of them. The heir of one sea cordaeing another means they’ll inherit the power of both.”
Pheolix shrugged.
I ground my teeth, annoyance only growing with his indifference. “And I suppose, in some ways, it’s romantic.”
“Ah, is it now?” He opened the courtyard door for me, a taunting smile sneaking across his mouth. “You want it for the romance? Even if the hive heir is an ass?”
“No.”
“What about a blackguard ass?”
With a long-suffering sigh, I slid past him, into the empty throne hall.
Sconces carved from gold lit the interior walls, the ceiling a canopy of chandeliers and tear-drop glass, wicks flickering from somewhere within.
Long beams of heavy oak ran across the ceiling.
Someone had recently restocked the runners with fresh lilacs.
Usually, the palace opted for dried lavender or roses to perfume the halls, but as with the birds and rain, spring was here and fleeting.
Cobalt velvet carpet brushed under the soles of my shoes, muffling my steps as I led Pheolix to the servants’ stairway and down to the kitchens.
Pots and pans clattered, inviting us in.
Water boiled. Oil spat. A dozen pairs of feet harmonized to the tune of the kitchen, cooks and maids dancing around each other in close quarters.
One kitchen maid recognized me from across the room, holding up a finger to let me know she’d spotted me.
I rested against the far wall. They knew I always wanted whatever was on the fish menu and always asked for a tray of two meals to take with me .
Pheolix leaned into my side, dropping his hushed voice directly into my ear. “What about a blackguard ass of a siren?”
His breath was warm, sending goosebumps rioting against the surface of my arms. “Why are you mocking me?” I demanded, eyes forward.
A flash of teeth. “Because you’re beautiful, and I can’t help myself.”
Theia and all the moons across the stars. I hated that his smirk and square chin were the only things visible. Suddenly, Pheolix had the most unbearable face I’d ever seen half of. “Take that stupid hood off,” I demanded.
He tsked at me. “Once again, trying to convince me to disrobe for you. Corrupting my innocence with your wicked ways.”
Even more unbearable. “I am not.”
“No, Lady Selena,” he suddenly called out. Loud enough his voice echoed across the walls and into the deep reaches of the room. “No, I will not strip naked with you and dance the Saltare to the music of clashing pots and pans here in the kitchens.”
The clatter stopped.
My mouth hung open as I gawked at him in shock, fire roaring up my neck and into my cheeks. The maid, halfway to us with a loaded tray, stopped in her tracks, eyes wide.
Pheolix aimed his attention at her. “Can’t seem to tame this one.”
Skin aflame, I walked to her as quickly as I could, taking the tray without a word and turning toward the door.
Pheolix fell in behind me. “You were all witnesses to my harassment by Lady—” he began. But his voice cut as I summoned the water in his heart to stall. He choked and swayed on his feet, falling against the wall behind him.
I released him just as I rounded the top step, not bothering to glance back.