Page 41 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

The fins deploy another round of painful spikes that spear into the side of my mouth and down the right side of my body to my gills. My tongue is already getting kind of tingly. Some kind of toxin in the spines, then. I suppose that’s what that defense is for, since the mouths can’t reach.

I keep beating my tail, twisting the beast and pushing it up toward Reina.

When it’s fully upside-down, the serpent goes still.

The ga’hanoi rush in to hook it with their spears.

Even all the poking and prodding they give do nothing.

The beast’s two massive eyes are open and moving, but it’s completely immobilized.

“I’ve got it!” Reina screams from its stomach as she holds up a corked vial full of yellow bile. “One more, just in case!”

She goes back in for another squeeze, but things are getting woozy for me. My jaw slackens against my will. My body twists and bubbles as I transform back into a selkie. I try to beat my tail, move my arms, anything, but I can’t .

I’m twirling down into the darkness and none of the ga’hanoi are coming to help me.

Fuck.

I shouldn’t have killed all their delegates.

I drift to a stop and then see two large eyes looming over me.

“Serpent venom. It makes the body lose itself,” Vek’ihr says.

I can’t swallow. I can’t even close my mouth. It’s just hanging agape like I’m a fucking moron.

“You’re scared? Interesting. You think I would harm you after all you’ve done? Selkies claim to be the wisest, but you are quite…silly.”

Silly.

Like I’m a child.

I suppose it’s better than moronic.

He swims up toward the others and sets me on the shelf. Reina is so caught up with her bile it takes her a moment to notice I’m gone. She looks around wildly and when she sees me sitting near the shit hole, she beams, holding up the glass bottles.

I can do nothing in response, and so her smile quickly morphs into terror. She surges over to me, touching my chest and neck. She feels my pulse as she calls my name again and again.

“What’s wrong with him?” she asks Vek’ihr.

“Hit with poisoned spines. One of the many things we collect from the Serpent.” He holds up a glowing bead and passes it to her. “Make him eat this.”

She, being the trusting fawn that she is, shoves her hand into my mouth. Even my gag reflex is subdued. She pushes the bead into my throat and massages it down.

“Come. It’s time to leave,” Vek’ihr says.

His people are already shuffling off. I can’t see where they’re going, but surely there’s another entrance somewhere nearby .

“Will you let it go?” she asks, nodding to the serpent.

Oh, my sweet, conscientious queen.

“It will manage,” Vek’ihr says. “And we don’t want to be here when it does.”

“Agreed.”

She grabs me around the waist and hauls me up under her arm like I’m a sack of grain. She tows me through the water, following the procession of animated ga’hanoi returning with their pilfered goods.

There’s another narrow intake tunnel, and Reina pushes me in first. I’m glad I can’t feel the bumps and scrapes right now, but I certainly will later. We emerge into the safety of the dome and it’s like my ears pop. Suddenly, I can feel my face again. I snap my mouth shut and groan.

“Jasper,” Reina rushes out and hugs me to her chest. She plants kisses along my brow, down my temple, across my cheek, and then smashes her lips to mine.

“They can see,” I slur around her kiss.

She laughs. “I don’t care. I’m so happy you’re okay.”

My arms come up around her and I hold on, waiting for the rest of my body to wake up. She nuzzles the top of my head and strokes my finned spine. I let myself forget where we are and just relish her touch.

“Is this part of your mating ritual?” Vek’ihr asks, and I feel the urge to rip him apart. There’s nothing left in me for shifting, else I’d consider it.

“No,” I murmur at the same time Reina says, “Sometimes.”

Vek’ihr’s colors shimmer. “I would like to see more.”

“Fuck off,” I say, batting at him with an arm made of rocks. I could never defend myself in this state. I hope the danger is well and truly gone. If Vek’ihr had wanted to kill me, it would’ve been easy down there at the edge of the abyss. Slit my throat and let me drop. She never would’ve found me.

But he didn’t.

Perhaps he’s still plotting, and I’m a useful piece in his game.

“Another time, then,” Vek’ihr says.

“Never time. Not ever a time,” I say.

Reina giggles. “Mating is something we typically do in private.”

“There are exceptions, though?” he asks.

“Not for us,” I say.

My tail comes back with a sharp tingle, and I swish it a few times to test it out. I’m slow, but I have full motor functions back.

When I turn, I’m shocked by the overwhelming presence of all the ga’hanoi in the city. They’ve swarmed upon us. Waiting. What for, I’m not certain.

“We have been hopeful for this day a long time,” Vek’ihr says. “The last hatched, the unwanted, the broodless. All of us powerless to make the change you made.”

Vek’ihr shifts colors and moves around us. As he goes, the other ga’hanoi change with him.

“Long have we wanted allies of the surface. Long have we yearned to return to our ancestral land. But our leaders, passed down from first hatched onward, sequestered and fed dogma, they would never relinquish control of us.”

I have a feeling he’s giving this exact speech to his people as he moves. That he’s doing it out loud for our benefit.

“They were fed and allowed to breed without fear of injury or competition. They kept us from the light. They made us weak !”

A ripple of red moves through the crowd. They raise their limbs and gesticulate wildly. Slowly, they calm .

“Now we have the chance to be strong. Now we have the chance to make friends of the surface again, to be the people we were meant to be.”

Vek’ihr turns to us.

“Today, we make a promise to you, to the Ki’ah Ohn and the selkie.

We will not eat your flesh unless willingly surrendered.

We will not hunt or hurt you. All we ask in return is a place in the light where we will not be hunted or hurt, and that this unbreakable oath be passed to your descendants for all time. ”

He holds two of his tentacles out for each of us. The ends of them glow with a soft orange that’s nothing like his communication lights. This is his magic.

He’s a high-blood magus. A royal bloodline. Some long-ago hero of his people. But he was last hatched. In their old ways, he was a servant despite his power.

Now the old ways are gone.

Reina doesn’t hesitate. She grabs his limb in hers as blue surges down her arm.

“I promise.”

Her magic fuses with his and a flowing orange mark appears around her wrist. A twisting design, not unlike her scars, glimmers along Vek’ihr’s tentacle, then solidifies in blazing blue.

His gaze locks on me. “Can you make this promise with me?”

Can I make an unbreakable pact with a creature I’ve called enemy for a long, long time? If I don’t, will they all turn on me here and now? What will happen to Reina then? Will they hold her hostage?

“There is no hidden agenda. We only wish to return home. To destroy the Verdant Drown that infects our shallows, and to grow. To become a people worthy of the light. To trade and transform, learn and lead. To make art. To love.

“It is an idea we’ve whispered in the shadows, but it has never lived in any one of us. There was no room, down here in the dark, to grow love. No resources to trade for time spent enjoying one another. Fleeting affections existed but were quickly quelled. Ripped apart and fed to the Serpent.”

“That’s horrible,” Reina whispers, her voice warbling on the edge of tears.

Because the consequences of not making the pact far outweigh the benefits, I will overlook the past. Because we need to leave soon, and an escort to the surface will be essential, I will forgive his transgressions.

Because I couldn’t bear to watch Reina become a captive, traded for the favor of some other selkie willing to give it, I will align with my enemy.

I lift my hand and grip Vek’ihr’s offering. “For love, then, I can make this promise.”