Page 89 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

T he Goddess had said fate was on our side.

Either she lied, or fate’s favor was more of a curse than a blessing.

“This just reminded me,” Rogue shouted over the roaring water. “I still need to teach Doran how to swim.”

I let out a nervous chuckle. “Good thing we know we’ll walk— swim away from this. Would hate to see Doran go on forever without ever knowing how to tread water.”

He stood at the bow of the boat we’d found ourselves on, holding the rope in a vice grip as we rocked violently. His hair pulled free from the tie, whipping around his face, damp from the sea mist, and I was suddenly grateful I’d braided mine a bit too tightly.

We hung just outside of a fucking maelstrom, deep within the Southern Sea. Like the Marsh marked Iaso’s birthplace, this angry, swirling deathtrap marked Calypso’s.

“Whoever threw it down there really didn’t want it to be found,” I muttered, fear like lead in my veins.

From the helm, Mae shouted, “You sure about this?”

No . “Yes.”

I glanced over my shoulder at her. Worry pressed between her brows as her eyes flitted between Killian’s map and the sea.

The boat jerked inward toward the whirlpool, and she snapped the book closed, placed both hands on the handles of the helm, and wrenched. I hit the mast, crates sliding across the deck, yet Rogue remained on his feet, white-knuckling the rail.

Mae managed to rip us free of the maelstrom’s pull, and a shaky exhale slid past my lips. I pushed off the mast and second-guessed every choice we’d ever made that led us here.

This was insanity—a death wish.

“A fool’s death wish,” I muttered.

Fate had explained our best course of action, the most crucial aspect being that we stay together.

“Your blood oath merged your magics to an extent. The closer you are to each other, the stronger they work together. Skin contact will give the blood oath free rein over both of you, and it’ll do everything within your powers to keep you both alive.”

Thanks to the prophecy, we knew we’d face death again in less than five days, which meant we would survive this madness, but the sight and sound of the ravenous monster left ice in my gut.

White foam capped the thrashing waves on the edge of the whirlpool, but within, dark water spiraled downward in violent currents.

“Get ready,” Mae shouted.

I ran to Rogue’s side. He looped the rope Mors had given us around his waist before doing the same to mine, leaving a few feet of slack. It’d been spelled unbreakable, and we were warned not to get caught or entangled. We’d be trapped with a rope we couldn’t cut.

Mae anchored the other end of the rope to the mainmast with a complicated nautical knot, so we were secured to the ship. It would maintain a connection to the surface—as long the damned thing didn’t get sucked down with us.

Mae was young for a captain, but she swore she could navigate the currents and stay afloat. Rogue was skeptical, but I trusted her ability. Not that we had a choice. Next to no one was brave enough—or foolish enough—to try such a feat, and we didn’t have time to shop around.

“Three!”

We flung forward as the boat crested a large wave and crashed down into a spray of water before leveling out again.

Rogue grabbed my hand, and ropes of sizzling energy weaved between our fingers.

“I love you,” I said in a rush.

“Two!”

Rogue cupped my jaw with his free hand, and his mouth crashed to mine, the kiss desperate and raw and filled with every word we didn’t have time to say. “I love you.”

“Now!”

We sucked in one last breath and jumped.

We slammed into the water, and it ripped us as far apart as our arms could go. My eyes popped open at the hot pain in my shoulder, verging on dislocation, until energy coiled around our arms and down our torsos.

The blood oath wielded my magic, but it used my strength to fight the current and drag him closer. Every muscle in my body strained, a scream of effort climbing up my throat.

Two flickering orbs of fire cut through the aerated water. His hand tightened around mine. The tips of his talons pricked the back of my hand as he partially shifted and pulled.

We snapped together, and I wrapped my arms and legs around him, another rope of energy sealing around us.

The current tossed us like rag dolls, thrashing and clawing in an attempt to rip us apart while it sucked us farther into its vortex. I clenched my jaw and buried my face in Rogue’s neck as pressure built in my ears, eyes, and lungs to the point of agony.

The whirlpool finally spat us out, and we tumbled into stiller water. I cupped my ears as they threatened to rupture—that or the weight of the ocean would crush my skull.

I unwound from Rogue and forced my heart to slow before my oxygen burned away in panic, but a quick glance up threatened to drown me here and now.

Surrounding the maelstrom, sunlight beamed through the harsh waves, deceivingly calm from underneath, but they were so far away—far enough that it wouldn’t be a quick kick off the bottom and glide to the top. It would take time to break through the surface.

Shaking my head, I turned my focus towards the seafloor and sent out the feelers of my magic in search of silver.

Everything in existence held some form of energy, including a dagger. All I had to do was locate it. I’d practiced this again and again over the past day, increasing the depth of water and shrinking the size of silver until I could recognize it anywhere.

Ten seconds passed.

Fifteen.

Thirty.

Nothing.

I couldn’t detect anything over the maelstrom’s intense outpouring of energy as it spun and devoured and garnered more, more, more.

Rogue slid his arm around my waist and sealed our bodies together, his movements slow and controlled—calm.

We’d been under for over a minute already.

Ten more seconds passed.

My lungs burned.

I closed my eyes, relaxed into Rogue, and drove my search straight down. My magic fanned out across the seafloor like a net of light.

Ten more seconds.

My eyes popped open.

There.

A bolt of light speared from my hand down to the dagger buried a foot beneath the sand. Rogue pushed us apart and began the swim upwards, moving away from the whirlpool as he tugged me with him.

My energy coiled around the hilt at the same moment a branch cleaved and struck another object.

Not an object.

A creature.

A syren.

She moved faster than physically possible. I didn’t even have a second to react or alert Rogue before a word floated into my head: Godkiller.

She abruptly stopped, close enough that I felt her eyes on us, but I couldn’t see her. A heartbeat later, she flung something and disappeared as quickly as she’d arrived. It flew through the water with stunning speed before my magic latched on.

It was another dagger, but it wasn’t made of silver. It wasn’t Severance, which meant the one buried beneath the seafloor was. I tightened my hold around both weapons and yanked Severance. A cloud of sand swirled at the disturbance.

Got it.

I turned and followed after Rogue, swimming as hard as I could. Another hard tug, and the dagger exploded from the seabed. Both daggers hurled through the water, and I hardly had enough time to throw my arms out before they hit palms with enough force to sting.

With my eyes trained on Rogue and the surface above him, I slid Severance into my sheath and tucked the other dagger into my waistband, with some difficulty. My fingers grew more uncoordinated when the weak tingling set in.

We made it halfway to the top by the time that tingle spread to my arms and legs. Sparks danced in the water around Rogue.

I kicked harder but moved slower. The fire in my lungs lessened to numb when the stars faded, replaced by the darkness rapidly consuming my vision.

Did the sun set?

I blinked a few times and slowed enough that my rope tugged on Rogue. He glanced down, and bubbles left his mouth as he yanked me up to him and looped an arm under my shoulders.

Weak.

My limbs wouldn’t respond.

Swim.

Light grew brighter, closer.

A garbled, “Fuck,” floated through the water.

A shadow dove into the ocean and sliced through it like a starved sea creature, and we were its target. It moved too fast, a dark blur as it flew by us and snagged our rope in its maw without slowing a fraction.

Guardian.

I had just enough time to force my hands to cover the daggers before we were ripped forward.

The rope snapped taut with a loud crack in my ribs, and my vision went black. Any remaining air bubbled out of me in a scream, but I held the fucking daggers—and Rogue held me. He had to be injured too, the pain in my rib cage too great to be only mine, but his hold held steady as an iron bar.

With a thrust of his wings, Guardian shot into the sky. Water poured from his massive body as he dropped the rope, and our upward momentum carried us the rest of the way.

We broke through the surface, and I sucked in a lungful of air, only to be choked by the agony that followed. I forced quick, shallow breaths and treaded the water with as little movement as possible.

“Ribs?” Rogue groaned.

“Mhmm,” I managed.

He hissed when veins of white snaked down his body in search of his wounds. Before they finished healing him, he hooked his other arm behind my knees and lifted me in a cradle hold as he kicked forward.

Mae moved her boat out of the maelstrom’s range, the surface calm enough not to beat us to death, but we still had to keep our heads above water until?—

Something splashed a few feet away.

A rope ladder.

A ladder we had to climb.

“Fuck.” I rolled out of his hold, anticipating the pain, but a warming sensation took its place. My abdomen glowed with white veins that closed the fractures in my ribs.

I sucked in a deep breath—a real breath.

My magic had never healed my own wounds before, but fuck, I was grateful for it now.

Rogue nudged me forward. “Climb.”

When I pulled myself up over the edge, I crawled out of Rogue’s way and collapsed onto the deck, my cheek flat against worn wood, warmed by the sun. I rolled onto my back when Rogue sprawled out, chest heaving, and stared up at the blue sky, not a cloud in sight.

“You two all right?” Mae shouted with more than a tinge of panic in her voice.

I gave her a thumbs-up.

She released an unintelligible string of relieved curses, followed by, “Got what you came for?”

I held a second thumbs-up.

“Amazing,” she said, but I couldn’t tell if it was towards us or Guardian as he soared overhead.

“Can you tell him I said thank you?” I slid my hand to Rogue’s. “That’s twice he’s rescued me from almost drowning.”

He laced his fingers through mine. “He says you’re welcome, and as your friend , he’s happy to do it.”

“We are friends.” A giggle climbed my throat, my eyes widening. “I cannot believe we actually did it.”

I unsheathed Severance and held it to the sun, expecting to find it weathered and possibly corroded, but it looked in mint condition.

The storm’s eye in the pommel remained intact, shining a translucent blue when it caught the sunlight, and the blade looked like any other, except maybe thinner than average.

It’d spent over a century at the bottom of the sea, yet it looked perfectly fine.

Rogue squeezed my hand. “Proud of you.”

Warmth bloomed in my chest. I turned my head to look at him, but gasped at the glowing threads between us.

“I see them, our mate bond and blood oath.” I pushed up onto one arm, and the two strands swayed weightlessly with the movement.

The new position pressed the hilt of the other dagger into my side, and I lifted my shirt to pull it out.

I froze.

“Am I hallucinating, or…” I tilted my head, studying the blade with my heart in my throat.

I lifted it to the sun, and when light hit the bloodstone, a beam of red light fell over the deck.

“Is that…” He didn’t even finish the question.

I dropped the dagger to the deck, panic flaring, as Rogue rolled me onto my back to lift my shirt and lower the hem of my trousers.

No blood. No wounds.

I released a shaky breath. “I’m all right.”

He continued searching, though, running his hands over my skin and checking his fingers for any evidence of my imminent demise.

I gently caught his wrist. “I’m all right, love.”

He met my gaze a second before he crushed me to his chest. “That was way too fucking close.”

I must be the fool with the death wish, because I’d had Sacrifice, the weapon that could kill anything with a single nick, tucked into my damned waistband.

Oh, Goddess. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Perhaps fate’s favor wasn’t so bad after all.

Rubbing Rogue’s back, I whispered, “I’m safe, here, and alive.”

He released me to scan my face, then my abdomen one more time. “I don’t think that applies to a cursed dagger.”

“If this is Sacrifice, then what does Adonis have?” The two blades were identical, but there was only one in every book and legend, which meant… “One of them is a fraud.”

Rogue picked up the dagger and held it to the sun to peer through the burning red stone. “This one was at the bottom of the ocean alongside its sister.”

I scrambled onto my knees. “You don’t think?—”

“That we have both Severance and Sacrifice?” His mouth tipped up in an infectious smile. He sheathed Sacrifice at his hip before carefully sliding Severance into mine. “I do. I think we have both, and Adonis is none the wiser.”

It’d been a long time—too long—since hope sparked in his eyes like this, and it flamed my own.

As he reclined on the deck and stretched an arm out to me, I tucked into his side and lay my head on his shoulder.

We sailed into smoother waters as the sun peeked in the sky, beaming down to cut the chill from the air. While winter couldn’t truly reach this far south, it was still cool, and goosebumps broke out along my exposed skin.

I’d never been a summer person before, but I might’ve become one.

“I want a day to ourselves. No interruptions. No fear.” His fingers skimmed over my shoulder. “Just one day to pretend like the weight of the world doesn’t rest on our shoulders.”

We had the daggers. The wyverns might have to return to the Hearth, but Rogue had his Bloodsworn. I had my memories of both Rogue and Adonis, and we’d unraveled his plan.

For once, we had the upper hand.

I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and whispered, “I think the realm can spare us for a day.”

He turned his head, so our lips were a hair’s breadth apart. “Just you and me?”

“Forever.”

He cupped the nape of my neck and captured my mouth so quickly, a shocked giggle bubbled up my throat. His chest vibrated with a soft laugh as he kissed me again and again.

I swatted him off, even as my heart sang and stomach flipped.

With one final kiss to my forehead, he uttered a quiet, “Forever.”