Page 63 of Of Rime and Ruin (Sirens of Adria #2)

Chapter sixty

Nahla

I swim in darkness with my hands stretched out. My palms sting with fresh cuts from the sharp walls. Fucking labyrinth. The tunnel twists in a complicated pattern as I struggle to retrace my path. Is it left after the large stalagmite or right?

Bubbles stir nearby, and I hear the soft flutter of a tailfin. I’m not alone.

The person gasps. My face smacks into soft blubber. A brush of whiskers. Flailing arms. An elbow punches me in the ribs.

Then a familiar voice comes, muffled in my hair. “I can’t see… fucking… shit!” Perrin. He tugs my hair from his mouth and spits.

“Perrin!” I backpedal. “What are you doing here? It’s not safe.”

“Everyone keeps saying that,” he grumbles. “I’m rescuing the damsel in distress. What else?”

My hands find his cheeks, and I pull him close, resting our foreheads together. Godsdammit, Perrin. “I’m fine,” I breathe. “Except for this new bruise from your elbow.”

His cheeks grow limp between my palms, the tremble of his lip vibrating through. He lets out a choked sob and clutches me. “Shit. I thought you were dead.”

I fold him close to my heart as he hiccups again. “Shh, shh. I’m here.” Poor youngling must be terrified, coming to rescue me.

He’s an idiot, but he’s my idiot. My eyes sting and my chest tightens until I can feel the heavy beating of my heart, echoing through every bone. I’ve got him. He’s safe with me. We’re going to find a way out of here together. We’ll find Aethan and swim home.

“His Majesty is gonna flip,” Perrin mutters. He lifts his head off my chest, glancing around as if he’s expecting the king to emerge from the rock wall.

Scales rise along my neck. “Perrin,” I say. “Where is the king?”

“He went to find”—the clawbeast’s yowl echoes through the tunnel—“you.”

Perrin’s final word sinks between us like a rock and so does my stomach.

“Shit.” I have to go back. I have to save him. “I can’t ask you to come with me, Perrin.”

He snorts. “And you can’t stop me, Princess.”

We swim deeper into the labyrinth, weaving through the dark tunnels as the sounds of fighting float toward us. The beast growls. Aethan cries out.

My heart thunders as I push my body faster, twisting around the curves with reckless speed. Rocks scrape my skin where jagged edges catch my limbs, ripping scales off to bleed. Perrin is fast on my tail. We turn the final corner, and my heart stops.

The beast holds Aethan in her hands, halfway to her mouth. Claws clamp around his body—not his Beast form, but the soft-skinned form of the king. His legs dangle in the water, those muscled thighs bare and motionless. He stares listlessly at her, limp as reedgrass. Like he’s given up.

“No!” I shout.

Godsdammit. He can’t give up. He is Aethan Nastrond, King of Frost. A brutal and powerful ice-wielder and lover of hot peppermint tea. Diligent leader and loyal friend. He’s fucking mine . He can’t give up .

Aethan turns. Blue eyes lock on mine. His face morphs from blasé acceptance to confusion to anger. “Nahla?”

He squirms in the beast’s grip without effect.

Perrin’s instincts are faster than mine. With a war cry, he launches at the beast, grasping a knife tight in his fist. He slices at her neck, nicking her gills. Blood trickles out.

The beast screams. A swipe of her arm knocks Perrin away, he flies into the wall with a sickening crack, and his body sinks to the floor, limp.

Perrin!

He doesn’t move. His tattered tailfin floats aimlessly in the low current. Is he…?

She’ll pay for that.

My blood warms as magic stirs. I snap my gaze to her and clench my gut. With my Voice, I launch my mind toward her defenses.

I punch through. Magic pours out of my mouth, strengthening my attack. Her mind fills with emotion, a chaotic swirl of colors. I don’t stop to take inventory. I snuff them out one by one. Wrestle them into submission. Slash them to pieces.

A piercing screech cuts the water. The clawbeast lifts one hand to cover her ear, and she digs her claws into her temple as she screams and shakes her head.

I press on, spiraling toward her center. A small orb glows brightly in the middle of her mind, the fragile blueprint of her psyche. It hums and vibrates as her innermost thoughts thrum beneath the surface in a world of color. I hesitate, staring at the swath of color. So pretty. So fragile.

To enter an animal’s center of self has serious repercussions. It’s taboo for good reason—but Keen never told me what would happen if I broke it.

I assume it means death. How can a creature survive without a psyche?

Could I kill her? Do I have it in me to take this creature’s life? I’ve assisted so many times in the death of other creatures. What’s the difference, really? I brush against the orb. It’s warm to the touch.

The beast snarls. Her glare finds me, and she thrashes her tail, lifting from her perch.

Aethan howls as her hands crush his body. “Nahla!” he screams, agony twisting his face. She’s hurting him. Killing him before my eyes.

She tucks Aethan against her chest and launches toward me. Her bulk crowds my vision until I see nothing but a wall of flesh and muscle. Trapped.

Through clenched teeth, I strengthen my spell. I grasp the orb inside her mind and squeeze until it fractures like glass. Veins splinter across its surface. Color leaks out, hissing through the cracks. Building in pressure.

The icy grip of panic wraps around my spine. I squeeze my eyes shut, crushing the orb with all my strength, and wait for whatever comes first—her teeth or her demise.

The orb bursts.

The clawbeast stops short, teeth snapping shut. Her eyes widen, and her grip loosens.

Her memory erupts with a rumbling force, flinging me to the far reaches of her conscience. Emotions pour out. Sadness. Longing. Loss. They churn and grow, washing through her mind like great waves. Grief crashes over me, plunging me into her tumultuous sea of memory.

Pieces of her life flash before me, too fast to grasp them all.

A home built within the ice. Chasing silverfish through the Rime.

Catching them with bare hands. She was forced to marry young.

Too young. He wanted a son. She tried to give him one, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Beatings. Blood. Her only solace the comforting caresses of her handmaid lover at night, where he couldn’t see.

She let her rage build for years, kept it close to her heart.

Finally, a viable hatchling. A male. She feared for his life, with a father like that. She plotted the king’s demise. Poison in his rum. It was easy. Old age, she said. The kingdom believed her.

Her loving handmaid helped her raise the guppy. Her son would be king someday, and he would be a good king. Better than the last.

I gasp as Aethan’s young face floods her mind.

Hatchling Aethan watching her with big blue eyes from the crook of her elbow. Tiny hands. Tiny tailfin. A larger Aethan rolling in glacierweed. Adolescent Aethan in the library, surrounded by stacks of tomes. Asking question after question. Eager to learn. Eager to rule.

Her son.

Memories intertwine with her mood. Her mind grows rapidly, expanding past its shattered defenses. Building new ones. I find myself inside an intelligent being’s mind, bursting with color and complexity of thought. I tumble to the edge, pressed out.

When I broke her center of self, I didn’t kill the beast—I freed her.

In shock, I cut my spell, landing back within myself. Every scale rises along my body. We stare at each other, both dumbfounded. She blinks, all traces of aggression fading from her features.

The clawbeast thinks she’s Aethan’s mother.

Fucking hell. If that’s true, why was she trying to kill him? Her actions don’t add up to reason.

Aethan twists out of her grip, reorienting himself in the water. With a strong arm, he pushes me behind him, placing himself between me and the beast. He growls and raises his hands. The water around his fingers crystallizes with the beginning of his spell.

Sharp blades form in the water, hovering. Ten. Then Twenty. Thirty. He builds them rapidly, collecting a deadly arsenal of ice. His back flexes before my gaze as he prepares to attack. A vein protrudes from his skin, running the length of his neck.

My stomach twists in a hard knot. “Aethan, wait,” I whisper.

The shards whir, gaining speed as they spin. The beast shuffles away, hands reaching behind as she backs into the wall.

Gone is the fight in her eyes. Her shoulders slump.

Is it all an act? To trick me into trusting her? The bitch flung Perrin against the wall. She nearly crushed Aethan in her claws. And I’m supposed to throw that all away because I read her memories?

Maybe they were fabricated somehow. Maybe she’s been stalking him his whole life, waiting for the right moment to spring.

Aethan growls. His Voice alters the note of his spell, and the projectiles take aim. The beast raises her hands, covering her eyes with a whimper. She peeks between her fingers, watching Aethan with a sad, proud look in her eyes.

“Wait!” I shout.

As Aethan barks with intent, I wrap my arms around his waist and yank. We fall.

Ice flies off course. The shards batter the wall, shattering on impact. A few graze the clawbeast’s flesh, shredding her skin in bloody tatters along her ribs. But not deep enough to kill.

Aethan’s legs twist around my tail as we tumble. He wraps me in his arms, cushioning me against the impact of the sharp rocks beneath us. Protective. His mouth finds my ear.

“What are you doing?” he hisses. “I had it!”

“I read her thoughts. She thinks she’s your mother.” My bottom lip trembles. It sounds whaleshit crazy when I say it out loud, but there’s a shred of truth to it. And if I’m right, then he’ll be glad I stopped him from killing her.

“Impossible. My mother is dead.” He plops me onto the cave floor and twists to face the beast. “It’s a trap.”

I latch onto his ankle, fingers wrapping around smooth skin. “But what if it’s true?”

He glances between me and the clawbeast, who watches us both in silence. “I will not risk your life to find out. I have to kill it, Nahla. I have to end this. For the future of my kingdom.”

A fissure splits my heart as I look into his face. His expression crumples in pain, eyes searching mine with rapid flicks, as if he’s trying to absorb every detail. Just as I’m doing to him.

“No, you don’t,” I whisper. When I push off the floor, he blocks me. I push past him, approaching the beast.

She opens her eyes as I draw near. She lifts a paw to her mouth and licks a wound between her knuckles. Maybe she is lying. Maybe it’s a trap, as Aethan believes. But I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t find out the truth.

Reaching out my hand, I swim within inches of her. She doesn’t move.

Aethan’s fingers graze the edge of my tail. “No!” he barks.

I ignore him, focusing on her. “May I?” I ask, stretching my fingers closer. “To strengthen the connection? I want to understand you.”

She cocks her head and blinks, then dips her chin. This is not the same beast I fought moments ago. Emboldened, I place my hand flat on her hard stomach and tune my spell.