Page 57 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)
“Alright—then you will remain here. But one more strike this year, Boreas , and I will not feel even an ounce of guilt watching you be fed back to the sea,” Skelm warns me fiercely .
I do not doubt his claim one bit.
It’s not until reaching the main level of the dining chambers that I realize Raider Hiraeth has become my shadow. Turning sharply back to face her, I again find that surprising hint of humor hanging about her expression in response to my frigid temperament.
I hate that.
“Are you following me, Hiraeth?” I snap.
The corner of her mouth hooks up before answering simply, “Yes.”
Blowing out a stream of annoyance, I grumble, “And why is that? I can’t compensate you for the lies you told.” The next words have a bitter taste as they slip past my tongue. “I don't have any oblations to trade with, and I—I got banned from the boneyard.”
“You’re banned from the boneyard? Why ?” Hiraeth’s dark brows knit themselves together. “I don’t think they mind you starting fights in there . I think that's sort of the point.” She lets out a timid sort of laugh.
My face begins to burn without warning. I quickly look away from her and over to the mouth-like opening of the northern fortress.
An idle palm comes to rub the base of my neck uncomfortably, and I feel the still terribly too-short edges of my tightly shorn hair against the back of my hand.
In the last six months, it’s only managed to grow a few pitiful inches .
“The new level-eight captains aren’t allowing castaways to compete in affinity fights anymore, so...” The words drift off into the vacant corridor while I fight another flush of embarrassment beginning to engulf my neck.
Raider Hiraeth rocks back on her heels, and I’m immediately on the defense.
“Look, I didn't ask for your help. You should have known I wouldn’t be able to pay you back for it. I’m a fucking castaway and a bastard.
That’s your own damn fault for thinking otherwise.
” My tongue is just as impossible to control as my temper.
“You think I want you to pay me for not standing by and letting them murder you?” Her voice is high with incredulousness.
I pause for a moment to wrangle my own emotions before turning back to stare blankly at Hiraeth. I hate every single bit of the warmth in her sepia-shaded eyes. The warmth indicative of someone who's been loved before.
“I don’t want payment, Merena.” She utters the words quietly around a newly formed frown.
I can’t stand to be here anymore. I can’t stand to look at the blood and bruises on her otherwise lovely face. I can't stand to hear her call me by my name, as if she knows me. No one knows me. I don’t even know me.
So I turn on my heel and head for the exit leading to the path towards Giant’s Crook.
I only make it down the first rocky slope before her needling presence has me spinning back around.
“What ? ” I growl out. “What do you want from me? I already told you I can’t give you anything—there is nothing I can do for you.
Go on to the sickbay.” I wave my hands, gesturing towards her injuries.
“Go get your cuts and bruises cleaned up. Just—just leave me alone .”
Her reply to my exasperated and slightly broken bellowing is so quiet and rushed that I just about don’t hear Raider Hiraeth’s next statement. “I-would-like-to-be-your-friend.”
“You want— what ?” I falter back a step, positive I've misheard her.
She gives me a nervous bob of her chin in response, as if surprised by her own request.
I'm fairly acclimated to being on my own. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I particularly enjoy it, but it’s pretty much all I know.
There are no other castaways or even bastards in my level.
I’ve had to come to terms with isolation early on.
Choosing to view my aloneness more as a way of life rather than something that’s been thrust on me has been the only way to push forward.
The incident from six months ago has also not helped. In fact, it’s managed to push me even further towards the outside recesses of The Order. A feat I hadn’t before thought possible.
This must be some sort of joke, then. A prank that Raider Larceon or one of the others has coerced her into executing. Well, I won’t be made a fool. My mouth twists into an ugly sneer.
“ No, ” I spit up at Hiraeth before turning around and storming down the next rocky hill.
The wind today is just unruly enough for my next intended venture but not so loud as to hide the sounds of the girl’s continued stalking.
Hiraeth is about to make me come fucking unglued, and that would be very bad news for the both of us.
Waiting until I reach the bottom of the cliffside, I pause and then hurl my affinity back at her in a whip of merciless cold.
I expect to hear a yelp or even a shout of pain. When no such reaction reaches my ears, I peek back over a shoulder. In the space between us, the shield of her own affinity's power glimmers a pale violet shade. A scowl etches itself deeply into my expression at her unabating smile.
“Look—I’m not going to be your sad little replacement for Voss,” I grit out.
Raider Hiraeth winces slightly at the mention of her friend's name. Her dead friend's name.
Raiders Voss and Hiraeth were pretty close throughout our first two levels. I think they both derive from the same landmass, but I’ve never felt inclined to ask. Voss’s pyre burning was a few months ago. Just another raider in our level lost to the unforgiving expectations of The Order.
Hiraeth had sobbed in her bunk for weeks.
It made me sick.
“Allies then— maybe, ” she offers hesitantly.
Pushing out an aggravating breath, I look back at her in question. “Why? Did Larceon put you up to this? Because if I find out that he did—” My lip curls upwards. “I will freeze him from the inside out.”
Her eyes widened slightly in response to my very real threat. Hiraeth is well aware of what I did to Raider Byron and the others. The whole damned north is aware, thanks to Raider Nell.
Good .
She should see me for the monster that I am.
Hiraeth recovers quickly to dispel my suggestion. " No , Raider Larceon did not. No one even knows I went to the Grand Preceptor's office. I just wanted to find you and—and apologize, and then I heard what Preceptor Raith was saying, and I—and I had to make it right.”
“Apologize for what?” I question sharply, my eyes tightening with suspicion. We both know I started that fight without any real grounds to do so.
She shakes her head of braided curls. “I shouldn’t have asked you about your affinity mark in there like that in front of the others.
It was stupid—I should have realized what sort of position that put you in.
I cannot imagine how hard it must be for you after what they—” A menacing growl escapes my lips at her implication, and she scrambles to change tact.
“I think that we could make a good team.”
One of my brows lifts, and she continues hurriedly, sensing my attention is fleeting. “I think maybe we could do well together, you and me. I—I think we’d be able to survive here together. If we each had someone to rely on. To—to talk to or not talk to.”
My arms begin to fold themselves evenly across my chest. The winds whipping off the darkening waters run over the shorn sides of my scalp, a constant reminder of that nightmarish night.
“I’ve been doing just fine here on my own, Hiraeth.”
She fidgets, her weight moving from heel to toe and back again. Raider Hiraeth’s eyes study me. They trace over the uneven chunks left of my hair and then slide over the glacial plains of my features before admitting softly, "Well, I’m not, Merena.”
I snort. “You don’t say.”
Her eyes flash, and I realize there’s anger in them. It’s a spark I’m not sure I’ve ever really seen in her. Hiraeth is usually far too kind and agonizingly positive for someone such as myself to stomach. Even as her arms cross and her gaze turns flinty, she remains silent.
That’s interesting . My lips fight to stay in a straight line.
“Okay,” I concede slowly. Partly because she’s intrigued me and partly because I want to see just exactly how long she’s willing to keep this up. Being alone has become rather dull as of late.
“Prove it. Prove to me you're being honest with this request. Prove to me your allegiance, and I’ll consider becoming allies, ” I challenge her.
Hiraeth’s expression brightens immediately, and her voice carries varying levels of worry and excitement when asking, “How?”
My mouth curves upward into a very deviant grin before resuming the hike down to the wharf.
I call back over a shoulder to her, “Come along and find out, Kleio .”