12
Jeryn
Infernal bitch. She would pay for this.
First, that sentinel had almost gutted her, a sight that had me feeling murderous, purely because he’d been targeting my property. Nothing more and no other reason.
Second, no rational being would leap into the ocean or pilot a boat during a hellish fucking tempest. The thought of her fighting this storm chilled my blood. She could break her neck. She could drown. Again, let nothing damage what was mine.
This wasn’t about keeping her safe. Not a fucking chance.
I heaved myself over the side, my body slamming like a log onto the deck. Staggering to my feet, I seized the rigging for balance. From several paces away, the tiny fugitive tensed.
“Hello, Little Beast,” I gritted through the tumult. “Going somewhere?”
Standing amid the chaos like an immortal, she took a precious second to scowl. My drenched shirt plastered itself to my frame, and that minuscule excuse for a dress suctioned to her body. Naked under the garment, her tits, hips, and cunt shone through the material, that threadbare layer of film serving as the only protective barrier. Sopping wet, she resembled a drenched mermaid.
The visual pissed me off. Why the fuck did I feel the urge to steady her before she slipped and fractured a ligament? This female had proven half a dozen times that she wasn’t easily breakable.
The tidefarer jolted, knocking us from the bizarre trance. The woman’s hand shot out, using the rigging to stabilize herself, the wind buffeting her sodden rags. In a frantic rush, she hustled to the stern and pulled on the steering rod.
Going somewhere?
She speared me with those eyes again, silently answering my question, her sneer indicating something along the lines of, Yes, cocksucker. And so are you.
My muscles locked. I’d been too incapacitated by the sight of her to notice one vital fact: I stood in the rod’s fucking path.
The beast let go. With the force of a battering ram, the lever swung and slammed into my abdomen, launching me backward. As I crashed, another wave collided with the boat, intensifying the impact. I smashed onto the deck, a shudder vibrating up my tailbone.
Seething, I hauled my upper body off the floor, my muscles screaming with each movement. That maneuver with the lever had been a flagrant overreaction on the captive’s part, this being an inconvenient time for us to flay each other. If she had sense, she would have comprehended that.
The fool grappled the apparatus, directing the boat through the maelstrom. Her gaze fluctuated between two entities—the sails and the rising sun. Whatever the fuck she was looking for, that frenetic energy needed to be contained, preferably before she capsized us.
Flattening my palms on the slippery boards, I hefted myself upright. My rumbling groan caused her to swerve in my direction. As I stumbled her way, she guessed my intention to overtake the lever, panic gripping her face.
A second later, her foot hooked beneath mine. The beast gave a harsh jerk, vaulting me backward yet again, at which point she took a flying leap toward my chest and tackled me to the floor. The planks convulsed beneath us, and the boat went rampant along with her. It shot upward, climbing a wave and plummeting into the mouth of another. A wall of ocean struck the hull, sliding us to the opposite end of the vehicle. And because she’d released the lever, the boat tipped from side to side, careening with the surf.
Fucking hell. Clearly, it did not occur to this creature that negligence would result in death.
I reached for her, but the woman saw it coming. With a glare, she cranked her arm, then slammed her knuckles into my jaw. My head rocked sideways, spots blotting my vision. She couldn’t weigh more than ninety pounds soaking wet, yet that punch could have snapped my neck.
Clenching my teeth, I lunged. Heaving in her direction, I rammed into the fool, using every inch I had to roll us over. Landing on her back, the beast’s slick thighs flew apart and flanked my hips, the upper half of her chemise riding high. My chest mashed into hers with the weight of an anvil, her rabid pulse thrashing against my own.
Pinning her like a moth, I snatched the female by her wrists and fixated on those gilded irises. “Cease, fool,” I hissed. “Or we’ll drown.”
Her lips curled into a snarl. She had the nerve to glower as though I was a moron.
Fresh rancor scalded my blood. Seasons flay me, this firebrand had defied my commands more times than I could count. The second she had projected herself into this behemoth of an ocean, urgency had overcome me. The chase had continued as I’d descended from the cliff to the shore, my gaze tearing apart the coastline and my limbs prepared to dive after my quarry.
The chopping waves could have consumed her. Yet she wouldn’t have escaped the tower just to sink voluntarily. A fool she may be, but she was also a sand drifter, therefore a swimmer.
Registering the wharf’s proximity, I had launched into a run. Apart from the sentinel I’d killed, it hadn’t been a shock to find only a small faction on patrol. Regardless of the alarm, what fool would make it that far? What escapee would take a boat? A loose prisoner would be on land, heading for shelter.
Of course, only a fool wouldn’t know better than to brave a storm. I had discerned her dark silhouette on the tidefarer. By then, more bodies had charged in the wharf’s direction.
That should have done it. They would have caught up. No need to have put myself in jeopardy.
Yet. Fuck.
I had thrown off my boots, then stared at the black ocean. A subterranean tomb filled with sea dwellers. A tank of them. My breaths had grown shallow, and sweat had crept up the nape of my neck. To compensate, I had recalled the liquid I’d consumed in the castle infirmary, the tension draining from my pores.
Fine. I was fine.
Seconds later, I dove. Let no one … let no fool … prove me wrong.
The saltwater had stung my eyes and clogged my throat. But although I wasn’t the most adept swimmer, I was strong. Focused. Furious. Those emotions had driven me forward, my need to capture this female eclipsing any fear of leviathans lurking in the deep. I’d kept my eyes on the fleeing conveyance, refusing to look elsewhere.
Without her noticing, the boat’s tether had slipped into the ocean. At which point, I’d caught the slack and held on.
Presently, I tightened my viselike grip on her wrists, my arms still burning from the ascent to the boat’s rim. The mainsail’s bar swooped, beating hectically from left to right. Through the clouds, thin rays of sunlight trickled across the water.
The beast glanced toward the waves, then back to me. Either we both died in the next five minutes or lived to slay each other at a later date. Finally, this logic stretched across her face, and her joints relaxed.
Much better.
I hoisted her up. At once, the woman floundered to the steering lever, her thin arms pulling, making tenuous progress. As I strode over to help, she thrashed her hands about, signaling what to do, and we rerouted the boat.
Toward the sunrays. Not toward land.
Because there was no sign of land.
Implausible. Due to their construction, Summer conveyances could travel at fast speeds. But not that fucking fast. Yet over my shoulder, the coastline had … vanished.
The mad woman kept checking the rays filtering through the storm. Her fanatical expression alighted, those eyes blazing with elation. Worse, the gleam on her face intensified as she directed the boat.
Suddenly, the sky burned with light and heat, the dawning sun ripping through the clouds like gauze. I twisted back around. Ahead, a new landmass appeared, a dark blot where there hadn’t been one before.
The boat surged forward, pushed by another wave, driving us toward that absurd shape, which grew larger. Then bluer. Then greener. My forehead knitted, and numbness overtook my limbs.
In the water, had I been bitten by a siren shark and not registered it? Was I going mad?
Rocks broke the wave. The boat cracked open like a shell.
Instinctively, I reached for the beast. My hand shot out to grab and yank her behind me, to block her from the impact. But before my fingers could snatch the fool, she ducked her head.
Wood exploded, splintering and blasting us upward. Snatching my arm, she vaulted with me into the air. My body hit the ocean, the tide seizing my limbs and vacuuming me down. Fluid shoved me under, the depths glistening like liquified glass.
For a moment, it became quiet enough to concentrate.
Snow fell outside an infirmary window. A signet ring glinted from a trembling male hand, while the pallid fingers of a woman held it fast.
Snow fell outside a bedroom window. My grandaunts entered, knelt before my small frame, and asked if I’d like to be a king someday.
Snow fell outside a university window. The hour tolled midnight as I rolled up my sleeves and poured through the pages of an anatomy textbook.
The water heaved me up. With a great shove, it thrust me onto a coarse periphery. A surface that felt very much like sand.