Page 81 of The Shard and the Serpent (Shard Daughters #1)

Silent Hunger

Rayze

Saltmaw rocks beneath me where it’s docked high on The Dredge, the deck slick with water. Wind screams through the rigging, rattling chains and sails. Lightning splits the sky, lighting The Kraken as we face each other in the storm.

“Your mother came running in on us that day thanks to The Serpent Heir,” Torren snarls. “She didn’t know the truth. It was best that way. Russell couldn’t expect. Not a damn thing. I couldn’t risk telling Thalassa. She would’ve refused because of the danger.”

“She would’ve been right,” I hiss.

His amber gaze turns to dark pits as one of the sails shadows his face, the corners of his eyes wrinkles with what could be grief, but I don’t buy it.

“I lost my wife and my girls in five fucking minutes,” he says. “It happened so fast—them Serpents thrusting those devices onto their heads. I kept telling myself I could still get out of it. I just had to make sure Russell didn’t turn the fucking things on. Then your mother ran in—”

His voice cracks, and he rolls his shoulders back, running a hand down his beard as he frowns out across Synlon.

I suck in a breath, steadying myself as I slip behind Fate’s veil and study his threads. I comb gently through his mind, finding the sincerity to the words he speaks.

The truth. He’s telling the truth.

“I told my men to restrain her,” he continues.

“I had to keep playin’ the part, thinking I was saving her, but Russell was a paranoid bastard.

He knew Warrick went to see her with you and the twins.

I signaled for my pirates to attack, but nothing I could’ve done would’ve been quick enough to stop what came next. ”

Torren snaps his fingers. “Click of a button and six of my daughters had bolts clamped into their skulls, blood rolling down their crying faces.”

He squeezes his eyes shut and taps a finger to his temple.

“Clear as fucking day, my girl. I’ll never forget how their eyes just—dimmed. Like all their light bled away in a blink.”

I back into the ship’s railing and clutch my bow to my chest, hugging it. “Are you saying they were still alive? That the devices—”

“They worked. Kraken tech never falls short.” A dark laugh of anger leaves him. “If I was a smarter man and not so fucking prideful, thinking I’d have the upper hand, then I would’ve made sure the devices were faulty.”

My nostrils flare. “They were ruined when I found my sisters. Melted into their skin.”

He nods, pounding a fist against the rail and running his tongue over his teeth.

“Russell commanded them to strip. Said he’d let his snakes have the first go if I didn’t tell my pirates to back off.

It was—it was too late for your sisters.

All I could do at the point was make sure you, the twins, and your mother got out of Squallspire alive, but Thalassa fought out of the cronies holding her. ”

Tears burn in my eyes, and I look away.

“Russell thought it funny, watching her cry over them. I had to go along, Hallie girl—”

“ My name isn’t Hallie ,” I spit.

Torren glares but continues. “I laughed and I tried to push your mother out of the room, but she wasn’t having it, and I don’t blame her.

Not one bit.” The Kraken leans against the side of the ship, snatching his hat back off and bowing his head.

“Thalassa had a knife hidden in her skirts. Started cutting wires, darting around the table.”

“She would’ve. No mother would let her daughters live like that.” I turn a bleary glare toward my father. “ No parent .”

Torren twists his tricorne between his hands. “When she went back to the kitchen, I still—” His voices catches, his eyes shining with guilt. “I still played along. I thought maybe there was a chance that the Ivor boy got the last of my girls out, but no.”

“This is not Warrick’s fault,” I growl. “You had every opportunity to stop what happened. Fuck, it never should have happened, and for what? For power? To call another city yours?”

“Rathem is over-crowded,” he spits. “I don’t expect you to understand being a Boss, but it’s my job to expand.

Synlon’s population has dwindled with every passing year.

It was a dying city then, and it’s a dying city now.

The Rig Trade would’ve acquired the Skin Trade with Russell and his Heir out of the picture.

It was the first step in making sure our family was the only family at the top. ”

I swipe away angry tears. “You gave up your children, your wife,” I say, “to be a king. Is that what you’re telling me?”

The Kraken lifts a hand to touch my shoulder, and I jerk away.

“ Don’t ,” I snarl. “You lost the right to comfort me when you made the decision to see your plan through. Your intentions were never about protecting us. They were about your legacy, your power— you . That’s why my family is dead.

” I take a step back lifting my bow and positioning my arrow. “And Ruel was part of this? He knew ?”

Torren lifts his chin, eyes locked on my kill shot.

“Your brother will make me proud. He’s every bit my better.

It took time after he lost all you girls, but I made sure he’s ready to follow in my footsteps.

” Then his gaze slants toward mine. “And whether you believe me or not, I’m proud of you, too.

I know it’s been you taking down my fleet.

You pulling the Ivor boy’s strings. You—with magic. ”

My breath stutters.

“Oh, yes, I know about magic.” The Kraken’s eyes dance.

“I also know it was you delivering those crates of Brass to my sea caves. I didn’t understand why.

I hoped you were giving me an advantage because you were ready to come home,” he continues.

“Then I’d see you out the window, standing at the cliff’s end of Squallspire, trying to find the courage to come inside, and I knew you had no such plans.

If I wanted Synlon, I couldn’t rely on my own flesh and blood, especially with Ruel in his Godsdamn coma. ”

“Not entering Squallspire had nothing to do with courage, and everything to do with self-preservation. Someone has to look out for me, and it sure as fuck has never been you,” I growl.

“And I’ve made my fucking peace with that,” he argues, “but that doesn’t mean I’m letting your Snake of Madness have what’s rightfully mine. This city belongs to Trask blood, and since you’re so willing to throw your legacy away, I’ve got no choice but to make sure my son inherits Synlon.”

Warrick

The first pirate rushes me, Volt spitting in crackling arcs from a jagged harpoon. I duck, his charge carrying him past. My blade flashes, gutting him open in a splash of blood and spilling intestines.

Brass shells crack across the deck. Orange smoke billows, thick and choking. I drag it into my lungs. Magic spreads under my skin like cold lead, heavy and uncoiling, but hard steel crashes into my arm and I grunt, my Serpent blade flinging across the deck out of reach.

Threads of Fate strain around every enemy, trembling lines in the dark, but what rises in me isn’t their weave. Not like how I’ve known Rayze’s power in the past. This—it isn’t hers. It’s something else or something kin. Darker .

Light bends away from my fingers, warping like it wants to flee. Air thickens around my grip as if the realm’s trying to fold in on itself.

A crony charges—

My fist slams into his stomach, knuckles leaving strange smears of distorted static through the air.

He flies back with the force of my hit—a hit stronger than anything I’ve ever managed on Volt. My brows knit as his threads drain of color, leeched to gray, but I don’t have time to think as another wave of cronies push forward.

I roll as flames chase me, a pirate wielding an arm rigged with a blaster. Fire kicks out of his fist, searing my pantleg, and my boots skid in the rain. I launch with a heavy slash to the piping exposed near his elbow. Fire engulfs his arm, and I spin away. He screams, rolling to douse himself.

I spit blood, wipe my mouth with the back of my wrist, and let the thing in my gut twist free, eager to spread and devour. A raw laugh breaks from my lips as adrenaline surges, shadows winding beneath my skin, climbing my arms in sharp, jagged lines.

Brass burns in my chest, fueling the heavy force pushing out from my bones.

Then my magic surges, pulling from the voids between threads.

A loud crack echoes across the deck, and every Kraken bastard falls limp.

Dead. Necks snapped.

I stiffen, heaving, blood rinsing down my chest. Light bends and blurs around me, edges warping like the realm wants to pull away. Threads flicker in my head like a map, but it’s the gaps that lead me. The places where everything thins and strains, holding nothing but silent hunger.

Fucking Gods. What is this?

Raised voices carry over the wind, and my head snaps toward Saltmaw.