Page 91 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)
I resurface from the ocean within to a trembling that begins in my bones and echoes all the way out into the world of Pontus itself.
Gasping out in sudden keenness for the second time today, I bolt up onto my forearms and swear viscously at the pain that greets me.
My entire body feels as though it's just been flayed alive, while my brain feels like it might have been torn in half. I’m dumbfounded to discover myself laying in front of the now very firmly sealed golden vault doors of victory.
Coming to a sitting position triggers a new kind of pain to flare down my backside. Agony and confusion override most of my senses until I finally register the weight cradled in my arms.
Not daring to believe it, my eyes travel slowly downwards to discover that the bottle containing 'Death's Kiss' truly is secure inside my clutches. A tremor of something ancient and dangerous runs throughout my being at the sight of it.
Holding the beautiful ship closer to my person, I try to remember just exactly who and where, and when I am. Thoughts and images slide painfully back into place, one at a time. My crew, the trials, the captains, the TideLords, the Raider King, our futures—all waiting for me.
The sound of someone else gasping out has my head whipping around in alarm.
I find Captain Agni panting heavily on his knees a few meters behind me.
He looks as if he just finished making the longest and fastest run of his entire life.
My eyes narrow in on the bottle nestled inside the crook of his arm before landing back on his face.
Amber eyes lock with mine.
I know immediately from the way his gaze widens slightly in silent question that he knows . He-knows-that-I-now-know-that-he- knows -me. He knows who I am. He has known exactly who I am this entire fucking time.
I really will be his death, because now I’m going to kill him.
Agni must see the fury I'm practically vibrating with because he has the good sense to toss his bottle out of reach just as I set down my own before moving in a fit of rage and tackling him right to the ground. He’s so incredibly winded that the staggeringly powerful male goes down without a fight.
I take great pleasure in hearing his skull hit the floor.
My very last remaining blade is angled against his primary artery in a blink.
Agni’s dark brows rise slightly at the weapon while his breathing continues coming in and out in deeply labored waves. I cannot believe him— just when I think I’m figuring him out. He’s been playing me this whole time, and I didn’t even know the fucking game to begin with.
“ YOU’VE KNOWN ME ALL THIS TIME? ” I shout, seething with an ancient sort of wrath.
“Yes.”
Is all he fucking says.
“So then you tell me just exactly why I shouldn’t shove this blade right through your godsdamned skull, my darling dear betrothed, ” I hiss through my teeth, absolutely fuming.
“How much—do you know—about our past?” Agni has the audacity to ask in between breaths.
“ Enough! ” I snap, cold and sharp as an arctic blast. “I know that you knew exactly who I was the moment you walked off your godsforsaken southern ship! I know enough to know that you and I have met face-to-face before. Once at least for sure. I remember that night now—the one where I met you down at my family’s docks. ”
Something like bitter understanding dawns in his eyes, and he scoffs an insufferably arrogant laugh that tempts me further to murder the sadistic prince right then and there.
Agni utters a breathless string of unintelligible words in his foreign tongue that I can only assume is some sort of lengthy curse.
“Then you barely know anything at all!” he seethes up at me in return. “Because if you had remembered the entirety of how our story goes, then you wouldn’t have a blade at my throat—you’d be on your knees begging me for my forgiveness. Right-fucking-now!”
His eyes blaze with that same real, living fire.
They’re just as terrifying as ever with their intensity—possibly even more so.
In fact, if I wasn’t so livid, I probably would have noted the very real physical changes.
Agni has somehow become even more daunting and beautiful than before.
He’s impossibly taller and broader, and his skin even shimmers with a real golden hue.
Like a beautiful yet absolutely lethal sword forged from some truly divine fire. He’s virtually a freshly fallen avenging star.
However, I am much too pissed off right now to bother taking note.
The world around us begins shaking in peril, but I keep the weapon aimed beneath his neck.
My teeth clench tight as I study his expression and find it both furious and unwavering.
He notices the second that I begin to hesitate in response to the ferocity of his claim and knocks the blade from my hand with real lightning-fast reflexes.
Agni then rolls me easily off his person before swiping his bottle angrily from its resting place and roughly yanking me up to my feet.
My face is a mask of icy rage as I grab both my fallen weapon and bottle before descending the golden temple steps and beginning to stride angrily towards the tunnel from which I arrived.
There is an iron hold on my wrist in the next instant that has me seeing red. “And just where do you think you’re going?” Agni demands with barely concealed fury.
My newfound hatred for the southern celestial prick shakes the ground itself as I look back at Agni in outrage.
“To find my crew and our speeder, ” I spit, yanking my wrist from his grip.
“To get out of this godsforsaken place and away from your infuriating presence as fast as possible so that my crew and I can begin plotting how best to execute you and your crew's murder!”
The jackass rolls his eyes, like I’m being needlessly dramatic. “I already told you—I have your crew detained. They’re being held, along with your speeder, by my crew at our mooring. So you’ll have to come with me.”
The waves of anger emanating from me seem to make the ground around us tremble even harder. Cracks begin riddling the kórallian walls as an otherworldly hum of energy fills the air.
“I told you already they are safe —my gods, Boreas. ” Agni's tone is sharp and peevish. “You have got to be more careful with your emotions right now.”
My jaw drops fully, and I look up in complete and utter disbelief at his nerve.
"Oh what is it now ?” the prick demands, his expression turning to one of irritated confusion in the face of my total affront. “You have very clearly just broken down the wall to your source.”
He states it as if I should obviously know what that fuck that is supposed to mean.
I eye him skeptically in silent return.
Agni's eyes close tightly, and his jaw clenches forcefully as a ring-adorned hand swipes down his face in utter aggravation. When he opens his eyes again, I find them coal black. “Are you honestly telling me right now that you don’t know a sundamned thing about your own well of power? Do you know anything about elementals? ”
His anger makes me defensive. I shift the bottle in my arms and snap, “I know about my affinity and I know about elemental powers, you arrogant prick . I know that the source of your element is a separate thing from your affinity, and I know that each individual’s elemental ability is just slivers that make up that source. ”
Agni’s mouth parts in clear disbelief. His hand goes to roll his jaw before he finally lets out an infuriatingly condescending scoff. “That is just about the stupidest fucking thing I think I’ve ever heard. Who told you that?”
My lip curls up high in response to his brazen haughtiness when answering, “Another elemental, Captain Tharos.”
Agni’s eyes blaze obsidian for a half-second before that wall of unfeeling iron slams down into place.
He lets out a laugh so dry it could start a fire.
"Oh-ho-ho, but of course . I should have known that dear ole’ wonder boy would somehow be involved in this.
That now makes perfect sense as to why it’s the most asinine explanation of elemental power that there has ever been! ”
At my look of simmering loathing, Agni huffs a murderous breath.
“Look, we don’t have time to go into specifics right now, but you have just tapped into—or more accurately reconnected with —a deep well of ancient power that is both incredibly dangerous and completely unstable at the moment.
It is directly influenced by your emotions, which are also completely unstable at the moment. ”
Even deeper cracks form up the luminous kórallian tunnels around us.
My mouth opens again to lash out in outrage, but the prick cuts me off.
“That was once again not a taunt but a fact. Believe me, I know from personal experience the deadly consequences of not getting your emotions in check after that wall inside comes tumbling down.”
Something painful flickers in his gaze that tells me he’s actually speaking truthfully.
“ Fine, ” I concede, my jaw clenched tight.
We continue walking down the winding vein leading back to the heart, and I try focusing on Preceptor Darood’s breathing exercises.
Unfortunately, they no longer seem to help me shove down that raging beast. I feel so impossibly raw, truly as if I’ve been flayed all over my person but even more on the inside.
Every question and thought regarding the millions of things I still don’t know swell up inside.
I find myself halting to demand from Agni before we take another turn along the passage, “So then what happened? The end of our story—why should I be begging you for your forgiveness? What exactly do you know of me? Who am I? Where did I come from? What happened?”
Agni pauses mid-stride to look down at me with an unreadable expression. I watch as his jaw clenches tight, and he shakes his head at me in silent denial to answer any of my questions.