Page 159 of Daughter of the Dark Sea

“Kor . . . a,” he muffled around the gag.

“Silence!” A guard kicked Erick in the back and he sprawled into the mud.

Tears brimmed her eyes. He had lied to her, kept her past and powers from her, but she couldn’t bear to see him like this. Barron paused, noting the tears cascading down her cheeks.

“You feel such emotion for this male,” he observed. “After everything he’s done to you, and you still cry for him. I didn’t expect an attachment to form between you two.”

She frowned, and a sniffle followed. “He lied to me about my powers. Doesn’t mean he deserves this.”

Barron threw back his head and laughed. The sound truly horrified her.

“My apologies, pet. I keep forgetting how much you don’t remember.”Ouch.

Erick cried out in the mud, pushing to his knees and begging Barron to stop. The guards kicked him again, pressing their heavy boots into his back, and he spluttered, mud caking his face as he suffocated. She yelled until Barron motioned for them to stop.

“You know, Erick and I have been friends for a long time.” Barron paced the grassy plain. “In fact, when weknewwe needed you, he became my informant on the inside. He infiltrated Galen, befriended your family and the Windwards . . . and then snatched you right out from under them.” Barron’s slick smile sent shivers through her, his hand passing through the air, imitating the snatch.

No . . . no, he wouldn’t.

“And we ensured they could never find you ever again. Placing you in his care, on the island furthest from Galen. Understrictinstructions to keep you hidden until it was time to make our move. Allowing you in the trials, though, I was not impressed. Erick clearly has no control over you. So I had to send my son in after you. To make sure you remained loyal to us.”

She stilled. Erick had vehemently begged her not to participate. Blake had been her saving grace, an unpredicted alliance, and an unprecedented win . . . but the trials had been fixed. Barron needed their power. He couldn’t afford for them to die in the trials.

Eventhathad been a lie.

Barron’s gaze flicked to her hair and he grunted, as if her appearance was distasteful. Erick choked on his gag, desperately seeking her attention. He had tried to hide her in plain sight . . . as a male. The haircuts. The clothes. The attitude. It was all to suppress her true self.

Everything was a fucking lie.

Erick protested through the gag, and his muffled pleas raked against Kora’s ears as she looked away from him.

“What of my family?” she whispered. “Are they alive?”

Blake choked at her question.

Barron neared, until his cold breath tickled her face. He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, the sensation icing her skin, and Erick screamed from behind.

“Yourrealfather is still alive, yes. I couldn’t tell you about the rest.”

She glanced to Blake, his face sickeningly pale.

“Please don’t tell me it’s you.”

Barron chuckled. “God no, lucky me.” He winked and Kora gagged. Barron had no scent, only cold darkness. His presence made her muscles tense to the point of snapping, her teeth grinding, her scar screaming.

It all made perfect sense now. He was the black mark upon her soul. He was the blockage. The fraying ends of her void. He had destroyed the tether to her previous life, to her powers.

“Who is my father?”

“The question iswhere, Kora. Your father is the most famous sailor in all of history, and he currently resides at the bottom of the Black Abyss.”

60

Kora was a daughter of the dark sea. She was a harbourer of death and a siren of oceans.

“He . . . what?”

Her ears roared, and her stare helplessly snapped to Erick as his eyes begged and pleaded with her. He’d forced lies upon her, warping her mind to loathe pirates and Galen. Made her believe she was acting in revenge.