Page 81 of The Shadowed Oracle (The Bonded Worlds #1)
It was Arryn, she realized. That sick cackle of his sliced through all the noise surrounding them.
Ingrid dismissed it as madness, the spell digging its claws into the cursed male as he drifted further from Enitha.
Because of course she saw his queen’s full power.
She was looking right at it. Wranes were perched on the sails, tearing them to pieces, and Shades still haunted the deck like poisonous gas.
“Oracle! Answer me!”
Then again, louder this time: “Answer me! Do you see her strength?! Do you!? Do you see it!? Tell me! Do you?—"
“Shut up!” Raidinn silenced him with a swift kick to his chest. He’d been nearby, fighting off the Shades that were trying to free the shouting king from the restraints.
“Or I’ll cut out your fucking tongue, hear me!
? Not one more fucking word!” He was still clearly shaken by the Hydra, unable to watch the sea below.
“Any sight of it!? Did it leave?”
“No!” Ingrid had lost the creature at some point, though she could still feel it. Wanting to quell any nervousness in Raidinn, she added, “I think we’re clear for now!”
“You’re sure?” Raidinn asked.
But it was Arryn who answered. “She would never leave me! Never!”
Raidinn kicked at his boots. “I said shut up!”
“Never!” Arryn cackled again. “She’s coming! She plans as we speak! Thinking of how to free me! How to rescue her king from this… this army of thieves!”
He spat at Raidinn, eliciting an irate threat from the much larger male. “How about I throw you overboard instead!? Feed you to that three-headed monster!?”
Ingrid couldn’t help but look over at that.
The tension had reached a breaking point, and she worried Raidinn might’ve been more affected than she’d thought.
The internal fight seemed to be the most important battle now.
On the other side, Dean had managed to take out the remaining Wranes with his bow.
All they had to contend with were the Shade-slaves and their tricks.
Just hold on to their sanity, remain themselves in this last dash for safety. That’s all they had to do.
She started to call out to Raidinn, to try and soothe him.
But again, Arryn beat her to it. “Yes! Send me to the sea! Send me to my wife! My queen! Cast from this infernal ship! Send me to my love! My Enitha!” It was that other, demonic voice from deep within his chest that spoke now, and his eyes were an empty black void. Bottomless, poisonous.
Raidinn took a panicked step away at the sight of it, reeling in terrifying confusion until Ingrid and Tyla ran to his side, together placing a hand on his shoulder.
“The distance,” Tyla offered. “It’s probably getting worse because he’s getting further away from Enitha.”
Ingrid nodded in agreement, though Raidinn could only see Arryn in front of him, eyes glued in horror.
The former prince of Maradenn was trying maniacally to free himself, jerking and convulsing so hard that his crown fell to the floor, revealing a blank patch of skin where his marriage mark with Callinora had once been inked.
It might’ve been a relief to see that Enitha couldn’t manage a new bonding mark.
It might’ve given them hope for their return…
If Arryn hadn’t come to a full, eerie stop, and then whispered, “She is here. She is here. She is here. She is here. She is here. She is?—"
Another blow from the circling Shades hit the ship, putting a hole in the hulking mast. Immediately, before Ingrid could realize what had happened, Raidinn leapt on Arryn and slammed his hands down on the king’s chest. After a moment, Tyla and Ingrid realized that he was the only thing keeping Arryn from freedom.
The destruction of the Shades had cut part of the rope and left Arryn free to escape.
Salvaging what was left of the long pile of rope nearby, they worked at tying him back up, enduring scratches and bites from their disturbed prisoner.
“Ingrid, get his feet!” Raidinn barked.
She moved down and plopped with her weight onto his legs, making sure he couldn’t kick at her companions.
“You got him?” Tyla asked.
“For now!” She was being bucked so hard she began to feel dizzy. It couldn’t last long, not with the size difference and the unnatural strength Arryn’s curse bestowed on him—that demon inside clawing to get out.
“I’m losing him!” Ingrid warned. “I can’t… I can’t hold on!”
With a grunt, Arryn’s foot came up and connected beneath her chin. She shook it off, pouncing back on him, but then his legs swept to the side like wild eels out of water, whipping back at her head and connecting once more.
With Ingrid now planted on her backside, Arryn had almost freed himself using the now open space to slide underneath the twins.
“I can’t… he’s too…” Tyla’s voice was a choked mumble, barely holding on. Even Raidinn’s strength was no match for the wet cloth and animal wriggling, inching lower every second.
Arryn was almost free.
Ingrid’s eyes blurred from the effort.
And just as her hands failed her?—
“I’ve got him!” Dean yelled out, wrapping the prisoner up with ease. He had run from the other side of the deck and slid to a knee, taking the place of where Ingrid had been. “Slippery little shit, isn’t he?”
Ingrid looked up at him from the damp wooden planks, meeting his eyes. He gave her a smile that, despite the numbness spreading in her face after the hits she took, somehow soothed her.
“She’s here,” Arryn repeated. “She’s here!”
“I said shut up!” Raidinn barked. “Shut the fuck up!”
Arryn kept on, the whites of his eyes now fully black. “She’s here! She’s here! She’s here! She’s here! SHE IS HERE!”
Ripples of lapping water came from just over the edge of the ship.
None of the world-walkers moved, spoke, or even remembered to take a breath as the Hydra speared up from the ocean.
All three sets of the monster’s teeth bared, and its six green eyes unblinking, beaming down that same sentient, assessing look Ingrid would never forget.
“She’s here,” Arryn chanted. “She’s here. My Enitha.”
The electric green irises hooked onto Ingrid, begging her to figure it out, willing her to understand who she was looking at.
“She’s here!”