Page 20

Chapter Twenty

THALIA

T he unmistakable sounds of battle shook the cavern, echoing off stone and amplifying. Pulse beating hard, blood singing with the thrill of the swim, I made my way silently and quickly onto the dock, keeping low to avoid being seen.

Once on deck, I moved toward the sounds. The clang of metal on metal. The fizz of power raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Alarm bells went off inside me as I approached spilled netting and stopped, gaze raking over the mess until I spotted the carefully laid trap. Shit. I would have walked into that, so what had made me stop?

Vaarin’s bellow galvanized me into action. I skirted the trap then pressed my back to the cabin wall, moving slowly forward. If I could catch the bastards unaware, then I could?—

Vaarin cried out again, but this time, the sound was filled with pain. My stomach clenched hard, and I peered around the edge of the cabin to see several cloaked figures surrounding something. The figures stepped back, forming a loose circle, and my heart squeezed in panic at the sight of Vaarin lying on the deck, his hand clutching his bloody chest. His lips were bloodless.

“Come out, Princess,” the Obsidian Pearl said, their unified voice swelling to fill the cavern. “Come out or he dies.”

Vaarin let out a raspy laugh. “She’s gone, you fools. In safe waters by now. You lost.”

“Then there is no use for you.” The crackle of power singed my senses as they prepared to attack him once more.

He lifted his chin, defiant, prepared to die, and something inside me snapped and broke. My own defiance. My own will. The shell that lived around my heart.

“Stop!” I stepped into view, sword held loosely at my side. “I’m here. Let him go.”

They could have me. It didn’t matter.

Vaarin’s head snapped my way, his eyes wide with shock. “Thalia…No….”

I wanted to tell him the truth then, that all was not lost, because I wasn’t the savior he thought me to be. That it didn’t matter whether I lived or died. But these bastards needed to believe otherwise.

“Let him go, and you can have me.”

Laughter, low and resonant, filled the air. “There is no reprieve for the sea king.” One of the cloaked ones pushed back his hood. “But you may watch him die.”

It was him…the cloaked sea fae that had attacked my ship. “You…”

“My brigands mistook you for dead, the fools. But blessings of the deep ensured that you live. Your blood will fuel the true gods.”

“Leave her be!” Vaarin cried.

The sea fae released a jet of power that hit Vaarin in the chest. He convulsed, eyes slipping closed as he fell onto his side.

Dead.

“NO!” My scream shattered the silence.

He was dead. Like Bryony, like my crew. Dead, all of them dead, and this fucker, this cloaked bastard was responsible for it all.

A tsunami of rage swelled inside me, eclipsing all reason, all thought. I attacked, senses in a red haze of fury, not caring whether I lived or died, wanting only vengeance. Wanting only the bastard’s head. All their fucking heads.

My blade found its mark, slicing and stabbing, but they refused to fall. Their laughter rang out to mock me, fueling my impotent rage.

“Why won’t you fucking die!”

“You cannot harm us with mortal weapons, human. We are almost gods, and we cannot be put down by mere steel.”

Amidst the fray, I caught a glimpse of Vaarin, still and pale in death, and by his side, glowing and pulsing, was his trident.

His weapon.

A sea king’s fucking weapon.

I ducked in time to avoid a blast of red power. It hit the cabin behind me with a soft fizz.

They wanted me alive, so that blast must have been some kind of disabling power. I had to get to the trident.

I feigned left, then went right, slicing at a cloaked one’s throat to force him out of the way, then ducking to avoid another blast of power before sliding across the deck toward Vaarin’s weapon.

“NO!” the Obsidian Pearl cried. “It will kill you!”

My hand closed around the weapon’s hilt, and a pulse of power rocked through me, fire lancing down my spine, stealing my breath so that my scream was nothing but a strangled gasp.

But then the pain melted into a pulsing heat. My palm tingled. A greeting…an assurance.

The weapon began to glow softly.

“No…this can’t be,” the Obsidian Pearl said in unison. “A mortal cannot wield a relic of power.”

I stood slowly on steady feet and turned to face the closest one “It looks like someone got their information wrong.”

The trident glowed brighter, and a tingling sensation traveled up my arm and into my chest, settling at my solar plexus. I gasped as a connection took hold and power flooded my limbs.

It was as if the weapon was both feeding me and feeding off me.

The air crackled and thunder rolled in the distance, and when I spoke, my voice held an unearthly resonance.

“Time for you to die.”

The thud of the hilt on deck emitted a shockwave that sent all the figures flying back several feet, allowing me the luxury of taking them out one by one. This time when I attacked, each blow drew eerie screams. The cloaked figures disintegrated with every stab and cutting swipe of the weapon until only one was left.

The one who’d taken my ship.

He cowered on his knees now, crimson pupils pinpricks in the depths of his black eyes as he stared up at me.

“What…what are you?” he asked.

“Your death.”

I stabbed him in the throat, exhaling as he disintegrated to nothing.

The trident dimmed, and the light went out. I sagged on my feet, released from whatever connection it had forged with me.

Silence surrounded me. Deep and final.

I forced myself across the deck and fell to my knees beside Vaarin’s still form. Laying the trident beside him, I pulled his head into my lap, my chest aching with the weight of loss. His face was beautiful in repose. Almost as if he was merely sleeping. “I’m sorry…Vaarin…I’m so fucking sorry.” My vision blurred as I pressed my palm to his cheek…still warm.

A soft glow fell across his pale cheek.

The trident…it was glowing.

Wait…I pressed my fingers to where I would expect to find a pulse in his throat. Nothing. I checked for breath. Nothing.

The trident pulsed insistently.

Bryony’s voice filled my mind.

Did you know their hearts are on the opposite side to us? And they have two sets of lungs.

So maybe sea fae didn’t have pulse points where humans did, and maybe…maybe they didn’t need to breathe the same way that we did?

I scooted down to press my ear to his chest and held my breath, listening. Long seconds passed, then I heard his heart beat once.

Several seconds more, then another beat.

He was alive!

Oh praise Thalor.

I needed to get him into the water. I tried to lift him, but he was too heavy. I could drag him, but getting him over the side of the boat would be impossible.

How could I get him into the sea?

A voice filtered through my rapidly thickening haze of panic.

Take the sea with you…

The sea fae who’d saved me from drowning had said those words…She’d given me something…energy…and then…the sea had fueled me and the trident…

It was all connected.

Connected.

That’s what I needed to do—connect to him, and I suddenly understood how.

I grabbed the trident, biting back a cry as fire pulsed down my spine. Once the pain ebbed and I felt its energy low in my chest, I turned my attention to Vaarin, gaze dropping to his mouth.

Take the sea with you… Yes, I had it with me and now…now I could bring it to him.

I pressed my lips to his and closed my eyes. A second passed where nothing happened, and I might have lost hope, if not for the growing swirl of energy in my chest. But I held firm, heat gathering behind my eyes because I needed this to work, I needed my conclusion to be right.

Another second passed, and doubt attempted to seat itself in my mind, but wait…something was happening—power unfurling slowly, my hand tingling, energy sweeping up my arm in waves.

I gasped as the vibrant energy rushed up my throat and into my mouth, spilling into Vaarin.

My eyes popped open, and his skin began to glow. His arms wrapped around me, crushing me to him as he siphoned from me, through me, every iota of power loaned to me by the ocean. Power that belonged to him, and I surrendered it all, allowing it to spill from me into him until darkness gathered around me, thickening into a forever night.