Chapter 65
Ifroze.
Breath rough, Kye’s eyes darted to the sword pointed at his throat. He extended a firm arm in front of me, body rigid as he rotated his chin to gaze at who threatened him.
Four men stood between us and the path up the cliffs. A rowboat floated innocently behind them, tied with a frayed rope to the rocks. The man in front grinned, gaps between his black teeth. “Don’t stop on our account.”
We’d been so wrapped up in each other, neither of us had seen or heard them. It was my fault—I’d been the one facing their direction. I was the one with advanced hearing, though Kye had always seemed to house a proficient awareness for his surroundings. But it hardly mattered now, with a weapon shoved under his chin.
They were tall. Muscular. Bare arms folded across their chests, long hair tied at their necks. One had a pug nose. Another wore an eyepatch cinched over his forehead, flipped over his brow, both eyes functional.
They leered, chuckling to themselves at the position they’d caught us in.
On instinct, Kye’s hand felt for his belt and then stopped. I swore under my breath, realizing he’d left his own weapons in the stables.
“Stand, girl,” said the man with black teeth in an accent I didn”t recognize.
Kye’s body tensed as I withdrew my hand from his pants and slowly pushed to my feet. My heart hammered in my throat. Standing suddenly made me feel so far away from him, and fear crawled my spine, icy fingers dripping down my back.
Water rushed over my ankles and swept back out to sea. Someone grabbed my arm, but my eyes were locked onto Kye. Alone on his knees in the grass, he ground his teeth at the man holding the sword, fists clenching.
The man tilted his head at Kye, assessing. “To kill you or not kill you,” he mused out loud.
The one holding my arm suddenly pulled me toward the rowboat. Feet dragging in the sand, I yanked away, snarling at him. The motion caught the eye of the man holding the sword, and he turned his head only a fraction to watch.
But a fraction was all Kye needed.
He ripped from the grass, flying into the man’s middle and taking him down flat.
The one holding me suddenly set me loose, hurrying to help his leader as Kye wrestled the sword away. Kye managed to pry it from the man’s hands, but the pug-nosed man stomped his boot over the blade, clamping it under his weight.
Rippling with fury, Kye faced him.
“Kill you, I think,” the leader said, chuckling as he pushed to his feet. He snapped his fingers. “Demyan.”
The tallest one took a step toward Kye, hand at a knife sheathed over his hip.
Kye’s eyes flickered to the man. “Go, Maren.”
I didn’t move.
His jaw tensed. “Go, damn it.”
Their backs toward me, I could run. I glanced wildly at the pathway leading up the cliffside back to the castle. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave him.
Water—water was everywhere. It seemed to call to me more than I to it, but I recoiled from the invitation. Holding a hand to Hadrian’s chest as I manipulated the moisture inside him was one thing. I couldn’t reveal myself to men unless I planned to kill them.
And I didn”t know if I could kill all four of them.
And then—Kye. What would I do about him?
Then Demyan tore his knife from its casing, the blade wicked and curved. The four of them stepped in, cornering Kye against the rocks.
The tide broke across my calves. To Perpetuum with my secrets. I stomped my foot in the shallow surf.
A wall of water rippled out and away from my foot, yanking them off their feet. It knocked Kye into the rocks, but he remained upright, his eyes meeting mine for only an instant. Then his legs were churning, following the cliffs. And mine churned too, following the edge of the sea, towards the pathway to the castle in the distance. We met down the beach, and he grabbed my hand.
We ran.
The incoming tide brought swells of water over us. We slipped and dodged in the surf as we fled, crashing and pulling each other to our feet.
Kye was faster than me. He shoved me ahead, though he kept a hand firmly planted at my back, ready to scoop me up if the moment called for it.
Behind us, the sounds of thrashing legs in the water dogged our heels.
My instincts screamed at me to transition, and with the saltwater dripping from every inch of my skin, I had to fight not to. My knees wobbled, faculties demanding a tail instead of legs. I buried the urge.
It would’ve been too easy to dive in and escape—but I couldn”t bring myself to leave Kye.
Someone grabbed the back of my dress. Their fingers slipped through the satin fabric, but not before throwing me off balance. I felt myself go down. Kye stopped to heave me upright, and I scrambled to regain my footing against the oncoming wave. He groaned, lifting me with a single arm against the weight of rolling water as a shape stormed in.
He sensed the hit a moment too late. A fist cracked against Kye”s temple, rocking him off his feet. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.
Fear and anger cinched my throat tight as I turned to face the attacker. Before I could come up with a plan, the man with the eyepatch rammed into me.
I slammed into thigh-deep water, head swimming with whiplash, and felt his weight settle over me as the tide crept away. Pebbles shifted under us, the backs of my arms and legs dragging against rough rock. The man clambered to straddle me, his hands fighting for mine. Gazing up from underwater, the blurred lines of his face and the abstract sky high above him were all I could see.
Naheso. Marshes. Knife.
I screamed.
Bubbles erupted from my mouth, obscuring my vision even more. A sharp burn in my lungs informed me that I’d inhaled water, and my scream ended in a cough, forcing more water trickling down my throat. My arms and legs beat senselessly, hitting water and rock and solid flesh as he grappled for control of my hands.
Transition. TRANSITION,a voice in my head screamed.
I shook the thought away, even though my Naiad tail would’ve been strong enough to buck him off. Thrusting my hands forward, I searched for traction, slapping against his face. He laughed at me, his voice muffled under the whoosh of waves.
The curve of an eye socket met with my fingertip, and I dug in, feeling my nails slice into soft, sensitive flesh.
The man howled as he leaned away, thrusting his weight backward, forcing my tailbone to grind against sharp pebbles. A fresh wave washed over us, engulfing us both.
Buried underwater, time slowed. The motion of our bodies grew lethargic.
He lifted off from me, either by buoyancy or a need to breathe, and I rolled out from under him. Shaking as I gasped in air and scrambled to my feet, the receding water pulling me toward the sea. He grabbed my wrists and yanked me back, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and waist. His left eye closed under a rapidly forming welt, claw marks raw and angry down his cheek. I coughed, blinking water violently from my eyes, my hair a ragged mess over the side of my face as I searched for Kye.
Beyond my reach, edged into the rocks by the remaining three men, Kye’s eyes danced with madness—a vicious dog who’d been cornered. He traded blows with two of them while the leader stood back, his foot steadied on one of the boulders as he leaned into a bent knee and watched, a smile of bored satisfaction stretching his mouth.
Arms tightened around my waist. Eyepatch dragged me toward the little rowboat tied to the rocks.
I flung my arm out over the water.
It responded with another rippling wall. Though less forceful than the one my foot had drawn, it succeeded in knocking them all over. Dodging ahead, I found Kye under two of them and shoved him to his feet, turning to run again.
A hand grabbed my skirt.
Kye wrenched the hand away—but his movements were stilted and clumsy, the hits he’d taken not yet worn off.
Another hand clawed at Kye’s sleeve, and I tore in front of him. I faced the four men, filling my burning lungs with air.
And sang.