Page 16 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)

W e’re only one day away from the first challenge, and I’m spending every free moment either studying or training.

Preceptor Oplon has graciously agreed to leave his chambers open far later than usual this past week, allowing me to make up the time lost after Corvina’s little stunt.

I still don’t know how to face the fact that Captain Agni saved my life.

It hasn’t appeared to change his attitude toward me in the slightest. On the contrary, he’s been even nastier than usual.

Always quick to embarrass me in class, always talking and laughing loudly in that southern language he knows I can’t understand.

If anything, he’s gone out of his way to make it well known he views me as little more than a sea slug he’d delight in crushing beneath his heel.

The memory of his foul words and equally irksome actions steels my resolve to win these trials.

The look of shock and disgust on his face when I’m the one to enter the Vault will be all the sweeter.

I head back down to the training chambers after dinner every night to practice, sometimes with one or two of my crewmembers in order to spar .

Tonight is no exception.

Tomorrow we are expected to meet near the docks that curve along the North Order’s bay.

We can each bring one weapon and our affinity; no other hints have been gifted since Raider Dornon’s official introduction.

My crew and I have scoured the very few scrolls and tomes available recounting previous pillar tasks, but no solid answers have ever revealed themselves.

The tests change each time around, and Kleio informs me the same lack of intel is true for Vash as well. We’ll be going in blind.

A grunt escapes me with the effort it takes to hurl the heavy tactical ax across the self-made training area and lodge it onto the target board. It is admittedly my very worst weapon. But I figure if the trials are meant to test you, then surely I should work on my weakest points.

Hence the ax.

I begin walking over to the board with the aim of dislodging the ugly thing when a dark, rumbling chuckle halts my steps. Stopping mid-stride, I turn toward the open doors of the chamber to find a towering form watching me through near-glowing ember eyes.

I haven’t technically spoken a single word to Captain Agni since he saved my life. We’ve exchanged plenty of sneers and murderous glares, but any time there’s an opportunity to speak, I feel this terrible urge to thank him. It’s disgusting.

“The training chamber is closed,” I announce icily, resuming my path to the weapon-laden board.

Removing the ax takes little effort, and I turn around in time to find Captain Agni staring at me.

The expression he studies me with is like that of a predator deciding whether to bother devouring such minuscule prey.

My eyes narrow down to slits, and the sneer he gives me in return is well practiced.

Agni steps into the training room, ignoring my comment altogether.

I notice that he’s brought his own weapons.

A pair of tenebrous broadswords intersect across his back, peeking over the tops of his shoulders menacingly.

Holding my ground, he swaggers closer, his chin lifting incrementally when surveying the room.

“Practicing alone, I take it?” he asks, his deep voice a heavy drawl.

“Someone’s astute today,” I quip, my tone as biting as a cold snap, throwing a scowl in the direction of his approaching figure.

His lips form a brief smirk, and a shadow passes over the sharp planes of his face. “My, what a temper you have. It’s incredible no one’s beaten that out of you yet.” He tuts in mockery.

I give him the sliver of a grin and say with false sweetness, “Trust me, they’ve tried.”

Captain Agni throws me an unimpressed look. “You do know that it won’t make any difference, don’t you?” he questions airily, continuing his casual stroll across the empty chamber.

“What?” I twirl the wooden ax once in my palm. Frost patterns begin skittering up the handle from my sweat-soaked grip.

“This,” he answers simply, gesturing to the training room around us before stopping a few meters from my mat. “It won’t do you any good. No matter how hard you train or the time you put in, none of that will erase the fact that you do not belong here.”

His words are harsh yet familiar. They’re no different from what I’ve been told repeatedly since the day I washed up here and the Cardinal North Order was forced to accept me.

“And you think you’re the first one to tell me that?

” I huff a mirthless laugh. “Hate to break it to you, Agni, but you aren’t special.

” I enjoy the slight way in which his nostrils flare at my disrespectful use of his name without his captaincy title.

“Now, like you so kindly pointed out, I’m practicing alone and I’d prefer to keep it that way. So leave .”

His expression appears unruffled, but I note the way those flickering flames in his eyes darken until they’re nothing but searing black coals.

“When will you learn, squid ? I will not ever take orders from the likes of you.” He’s sure to put as much repulsion into the slur as possible .

I hold my weapon tighter, wishing it was one of the ones I favor instead of my worst. Captain Agni’s head cocks to the side, and my jaw clenches at the way his menacing gaze scrutinizes me.

“What is your problem with me?” I hiss through gritted teeth.

It’s a slip on my part. A question I’ve longed to hear the answer to.

Not just from this foreign captain, but from all the others who have come along years before him.

The ones who judged, looked down on, underestimated, and discarded me.

“I don’t think we have time for that. The first trial begins in only twelve hours,” he taunts.

“Funny,” I spit back.

Agni chuckles, the sound dark and hollow. “What can I say, squid ? I find your mere existence more than reason enough. But if you really care to know, I can name a few others.”

My shoulders tighten as he takes another step across the training chamber.

“For starters, you’re a mistake, a blip, an error . You weren’t sacrificed—you were unloved,” Agni states, his voice so matter-of-fact it makes me irate.

“You don’t even know me,” I growl, my feet shifting to properly balance my weight.

“Oh, but see, that’s where you’re wrong,” Agni chides, a hint of his southern accent trilling over the last word.

“Captain Boreas, isn’t it?” he inquires, as if we haven’t just spent the last few weeks in class together.

I don’t bother answering, but he carries on anyway.

“So, not only are you a castaway but a bastard to boot.” He lets out a bitter laugh.

“I’m told you didn’t have the faintest idea of your past life, weren’t even positive in your own name.

You washed up here with the markings of an undesirable and nothing else. Have I got it right so far?”

Agni takes my silence as confirmation. He nods to himself with an unsavory chuckle.

“Thought so. The fact is, you’re here in place of another child.

One whose parents had no choice. Someone who was actually wanted.

Someone born with the power you stole .” He spits out the last word, and it’s an effort not to wince at the disgust in his tone .

The room feels warmer.

He keeps talking.

“As if that weren’t enough, you’re hellbent on taking more.

You’ve risen to captain—a title, I might add, that has been made comical with the use of your bastard name.

Now you think you’re good enough to compete with us?

You’re truly arrogant enough to believe you’re actually worthy of entering the Vault?

” He gives me a look of deepest disdain.

“The drowned gods chose me!” I snarl, finding my voice at last. “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for their blessing or their gifts. As for my title—I was voted in as a captain by the raiders of my cardinal order. I was chosen by my peers. The same as all of you.”

“Interesting.” Agni’s lips twitch and the beginnings of a cruel smile pull at the corners of his mouth.

He takes another measured step in my direction.

“Did you know there hasn’t been a single squid to compete in the trials for the last thousand years?

” His head cocks to the side before musing, “I wonder... why do you think that is?”

My voice takes on a tone so sweet it’s sickening.

“Probably because of insecure assholes like you—too scared to allow a castaway to be voted into captaincy. Likely due to your very apparent paranoia that maybe it’s not only your highborn mommy and daddy who don’t love you. ” I smirk. “At least, not enough .”

His eyes again turn coal black before he lets out a low chuckle.

The sound is so unexpectedly sharp and bitter that I almost flinch.

I watch as a new, terrible thought crosses the planes of Captain Agni’s exquisitely carved face, and I take an involuntary step backward.

“You know, now that I think about it,” he draws out his words slowly, tracking the movement of my unease, “you remind me of one of those wild creatures that roam the open seas near here.” His eyes dip to where my braid is tossed over my shoulder, and he reaches out a hand as if to grab it .

I flip the ax once around my wrist in warning, and Captain Agni chuckles again. “So vicious,” he taunts, making a tsk-tsk sound, as if I’m only proving his point. “I have to wonder if that affinity of yours comes from one of them.”

At my look of confusion, his lips curve into a wicked sort of grin.

“With as wild and unrefined as your power is, it would only make sense. I mean, any common gutter whore can be rutted by a monster, can’t they?” Agni’s eyes glimmer with meaning. “I hear kelpies can sometimes take the shape of men.”

His words have the intended effect.

My self-control evaporates, and the room drops rapidly in temperature. Ice instantly spiders out along the dark stone floor surrounding where I hold my ground. A rush of fury swallows up my restraint, and like a moronic level-two, I swing on him with emotions running exponentially high.

Agni catches my arm with surprising agility for someone so big. In one swift movement, he dislodges the weapon in my hands while simultaneously drawing one of his own. The ax skitters noisily across the cold stone floor.

I feel like a novice. There’s a deep flush creeping into my face. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been disarmed and never so quickly. It honestly doesn’t seem like he’s really even trying.

Agni’s free hand catches me by my braid. He tugs it sharply backward while placing one of his twin blades beneath my throat, forcing me to glare up into his burning eyes. I bare my teeth, and his breathing comes out in clouds, like puffs of smoke between us.

“You know what else I’ve heard about kelpies?” he asks, his hand now winding my braid like a rope. “All you need is a bridle in order to control them.”

There’s a mean glint in the amber of his eyes as he tugs down on my hair for emphasis.

The scents of citrus and saffron begin wrapping around my senses.

Hatred like I’ve never known rushes through my veins.

“Why did you save me—why not just let me die?” I hiss through clenched teeth.

It’s the unsolvable mystery that’s been preying on my mind for nearly a week straight .

The edge of his blade presses perilously tight against the skin of my throat as I meet his dark glare. For a brief moment, I think I glimpse uncertainty flicker in the shadows of his eyes, but in a blink, it’s gone. I’m sure I imagined it to begin with .

Agni wets his lips before swallowing tightly, his throat bobbing with the movement. “I took you to your healers that day only so that I wouldn’t miss out on the joy of watching you realize your place.” His words are blazing. His mouth is now only inches from mine.

“And what place is that?” I’m seething.

His face moves even closer to mine, and I catch a wicked gleam in his gaze before he whispers just beside my ear, “Subtus mihi.”

I’m about to lash out in vexation at the use of his foreign tongue—blade beneath my throat be damned—when, with abrupt force, he lets me go. I stagger back from his unexpected release. White strands of hair flutter in the air between us and down onto the black stone floor.

Swiftly snatching the discarded ax from the ground, I pivot back to face Agni.

My heart is thundering painfully against my chest in outrage.

I wonder if he can hear it. I now know with absolute certainty that I have never hated a person this much in my life.

The only thing I want more than to watch that highborn head fall from his shoulders is to be the one swinging the sword.

I find my thoughts reflected in Agni’s face.

Unfathomable rage kindles those living embers in his eyes.

The sight is almost enough to send a shiver of terror down my spine.

It’s clear that whatever loathing I feel for him, he feels for me in turn.

I don’t understand it. Perhaps I'll never understand it.

How those sacrificed can feel such sheer hatred for a castaway. As if I had any say in the matter.

Lesser still can I understand how someone I scarcely know is able to detest me with such vibrant animosity. Including this interaction, I can count the number of times we’ve spoken on one hand. Yet every single thing I do repulses him.

Enrages him.

Offends him .

Captain Agni slides the tenebrous blade across the length of his broad back and deftly turns away from me.

I can damn near hear his smirk as he swaggers out of the training chamber, leaving me standing there fuming.

It’s not until the last of his infuriatingly messy hair is almost out of sight that I remember the weapon in my hands.

I fling the heavy ax with all that pent-up rage writhing uselessly inside my veins.

It rotates through the air with startling speed before making a satisfying thunk as the blade sinks itself into the entranceway.

The sunken edge struck just barely above where his disappearing highborn head would have been.

What a pity.

Small white petals of frozen moisture begin falling in the air around me as I continue standing there shaking, staring at the hilt. My chest rises and falls in tune with the beat of my fury.

I make a vow to myself.

I promise to earn his abhorrence any way I can.