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Chapter Nineteen
VAARIN
S even Obsidian Pearl members enter the cavern and board the ship. They move with stealth, gliding across the ground, black cloaks brushing the deck. There are rumors about their kind, about their true nature being that of abominations. But if that is true, then they hide it well. I have yet to see evidence that they are anything but misguided sea folk. Insane, irrational, and delusional.
I watch from the crow’s nest as they split up to cover the ship, gut tightening as one of the groups reaches my first trap—carefully spilled netting, counterweighted to snap them up and into the air once they tread on it. I’ve made sure that there is no way around the trap, not unless they double back on themselves.
Any moment now….
The leader of the group pauses at the netting, and the others stop behind him. He stares at it for several beats then rises into the air and floats over it.
My heart thuds hard in my throat, because how is this possible? This level of power is blessed only to the royal bloodlines, and even we cannot use it on land. Not like this…not like they do.
My heart sinks as the second group bypasses my other trap, a hatch left carefully open beneath sandbags. They can see…They know.
They must.
My suspicions are confirmed a moment later when they come to a standstill on the deck beneath me.
They slowly raise their heads to look up, pale oval faces and ink-stain eyes finding me easily.
Kraken’s ass, these sea folk aren’t the same as the ones who I fought in the deeps. These have crimson marks inked on their faces, and as I stare back at them, pinpricks of crimson bloom in the centers of their obsidian eyes.
“Give us the female,” they say in unison. “Give her to us and you may live.”
The thought of giving Thalia to these monsters evokes a visceral reaction of despair and rage and the realization that I would die for this female. Not because she is vital to my people, but because she is vital to me .
My heart, cold and dead for too long, warmed for the first time with her in my arms. It beat a staccato rhythm when I held her to me as she slept, and in terror of losing her when the wraith attacked.
It awakened for her. There is no denying it. And the emotions that course through me can no longer be denied.
I would die for Thalia because…because I love her. The truth is a blow that almost knocks me off my perch, and the desire to tell her courses through me like a tsunami, and I know in that instant that I will not give her up. Not to the Obsidian Pearl, and not to my son.
I must survive this. Survive, join her, and tell her what I have known deep down all along. That she belongs to me.
A renewed purpose blooms in my chest. If fully charged, I could take these zealots down easily, but drained and depleted as I am, it will be no easy feat.
But when have I ever taken the easy route? “There is no prize here for you. Only death. Turn away now and be spared. This is your last chance.”
“You are weak. We sense it. It is you who require a chance. Give us the princess and you may have it.”
Good, they may have seen through my traps, but they are not all seeing. They believe that Thalia is somewhere on this boat. “You can’t have her. I won’t allow it.”
“Come out, Princess!” they call. “Come out and we will spare the king’s life. Otherwise on your head be his death.”
“Don’t come out!” I bluff. “Stay hidden. Remember your oath to me.” It’s all a lie, but they seem to buy it.
“Then you will die, King Vaarin, and we will take her regardless.”
With the final vestiges of my strength, I summon my weapon of choice.
The trident glows bright in my hand, lending me a jolt of residual power. I siphon it greedily, then leap from the crow’s nest and into the fray.