Chapter 25
Frelina
Frelina watched the red-haired Fae warrior stalk around her in the training ring, but it wasn’t his curved blades reflecting the white sail above them that had her stomach surge.
Something was different about Raine. Sure, he’d saved her when those idiots had decided to question Loche and Iviry, and he had said some things that made her heart leap. But it had been in the heat of the moment, just like that moment they’d shared during the last battle.
Still, when he’d come to her room this morning, there had been something about him…
There was a fire in his hazel eyes—and not one that came from the sun blistering above them. There was a change in his gait, an almost purposeful shift of how his feet moved, and when he’d touched her…
The way he’d placed a hand on her lower back to help her up the stairs…
it had raised the hairs on her entire body, and not in an unpleasant way.
Frelina shivered despite the warmth beating down on them—the indication that they were coming closer to the border of Vastala—which had forced her to remove her jacket and let her pale skin shine as bright as the sword she held in her hands.
As if he noticed, Raine’s grin stretched.
“Scared, sunshine?” Raine teased as he circled her, spinning his blades in his hands.
She rolled her eyes. “As if I’d be scared of you.”
I’ve seen you at your worst, Raine, she added silently when he continued grinning. Nothing you do would ever scare me.
While her tone had been playful, his smile wavered for a second, and it was enough for a knot of worry to form in her gut, and Frelina was just about to apologize when his smile snapped back into place.
I know you have, he responded softly. And I’m so grateful for it.
For some reason, it became difficult to continue holding his gaze, and while she tried to blame the heat spreading across her cheeks on the sun, the soft chuckle Raine sent through her mind told her she was fooling no one.
“Are you ever going to start? Our enemies aren’t going to dance around, showing off their skills by spinning their swords, you know.
” Frecco’s playful quip broke the sharp tension radiating between her and Raine, and Frelina laughed when Raine’s eyes darkened and the Fae hissed at the blond soldier.
Frecco innocently lifted his hands. “I’m only playing, Mind Capturer. I’ve heard all about your incredible skills. I just didn’t know they were circus tricks.”
Frelina laughed harder, and she shook her head when Frecco threw a wink her way.
She knew exactly what he was doing.
“Circus tricks…” Raine’s voice sounded quite similar to Merrick’s when the latter was raging, but Frelina continued to giggle as he turned to Frecco. “I’ll show you circus tricks, boy.”
Red streaks appeared on Raine’s neck as he glared at the Fae, and Frelina started to creep up behind him, keeping one eye on the blades resting by his sides and the other on the people around them.
It appeared as if most of the progress that occurred yesterday had faded with the rebels’ attack. Humans, Fae, and shifters again kept their distance from each other, and once more, the mistrust in the air was as sharp as the many dark rock formations sticking out of the water around their ship.
Loche’s ship, which they were now on, sailed in the middle, two ships flanking it while the others had had to disperse around them to avoid sailing into the rocky isles and stones hidden beneath the surface.
The wyverns who had swum far beneath the surface had come up to let them know they’d swim ahead and meet everyone at the final gathering spot—that they needed to avoid the treacherous area as it disrupted their speed.
The regent and Iviry still hadn’t returned from a meeting they’d been in since dawn, but Frelina and Raine had left early to help get the training of the day—or rather the show to create some sort of unity—started.
As more people started to understand the game she and Frecco were playing, the thick silence that had layered across every ship since last night shifted into low mumbles, a slight snicker here and there breaking through the apprehension.
Frecco’s eyes darted to hers for a second, and she knew it was the sign for her to get ready.
“Can’t get into my mind?” Frecco pushed out his bottom lip, his light eyes twinkling as he stared at Raine approaching him. “I’m a blocker, Raine. Mind magic doesn’t work on me unless I want it to. You’ll have to use your circus blades.”
An ember of worry trembled inside her at Raine’s growl, but Frecco seemed entirely unbothered as he flicked his own sword from hand to hand.
“Watch it,” Raine snarled. “You saw what I did yesterday.”
“Oh, I did.” Frecco laughed. “You took down almost all of them, and yet…”
Frelina made her every nerve and muscle focus.
“Yet what?” Raine hissed as he took the final step to reach Frecco.
Frelina leaped, one arm flying out to grip Raine’s tunic as she wrapped her legs around his waist, and the other grasping her sword, lining it up perfectly with his proud neck.
Making sure the sharp blade wouldn’t cut him, she leaned forward and whispered, “And yet a small half-Fae just killed you.”
Raine stood still as death, not even his chest moving, as the people around them started laughing, a few of the Fae clapping their hands at seeing the Mind Capturer outmaneuvered.
But just as Frelina was about to hop off, the Fae warrior moved, and she found herself with her legs locked around his back, her sword clattering to the floor with Raine’s blades as his arms circled her waist.
“Good work,” Raine purred as his eyes challenged hers. “Very. Good. Work.”
She felt the words from her toes, a rush of heat shooting through her body.
A half smile tilted his lips before he turned his head Frecco’s way again. “If you ever do that again…”
A shadow of fear crawled across Frecco’s features, and he winced as he backed away, quickly approaching a human woman who’d stepped forward and taking her to another part of the training ring.
Raine’s consuming gaze came back to Frelina’s, and she wasn’t sure if it was rage or pride that had him storm a few feet away so that they stood in the shade of the mast above them.
He didn’t release her as he halted by the railing, and she decided it was anger when he muttered, “Stupid fucking boy.”
“Come on, it was a joke.” Frelina bounced her brows at him. “It lightened the mood around here. Which was very much needed, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t like it,” Raine grumbled, his eyes narrowing.
“That I won over you?” Frelina wrinkled her nose. “I cheated, Raine. I—”
“No,” he growled. “I want you to win. I don’t like you and him.”
She laughed, lifting her eyes to the sky for a moment before finding his again. “Are you jealous?”
Raine bored his eyes into hers. “Yes, I’m fucking jealous. I’m so jealous I could kill him right now. I want to be the one you conspire with. I want to be the one who makes you smile like that. I want to be your everything. I’ve told you that.”
Frelina opened her mouth. Then closed it again.
She didn’t know what to say, so instead she bit her lip as she tried not to let his swirling green-and-gold gaze overtake every thought in her mind.
“Fuck, Frelina,” Raine rasped. “I can’t think when you pull that lip into your perfect fucking mouth. All I can imagine is having those lips wrapped around my cock while you suck me dry.”
Frelina’s toes curled, and she knew some of the Fae could probably hear everything, but that didn’t stop the whine escaping her throat.
Raine seemed to have realized the same thing because he moved them farther into a corner, hiding her from the world as he pressed her back against the wood, his growing length grinding into her from the front.
“I dream about those sounds,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “I would fuck you here and now if I thought I was worthy. But I’m not. Not yet.”
It was as if her body moved on its own, repositioning her so she could move her pussy along his hard cock, and Raine’s eyes flared, his hands gripping her clothing so hard the threads squeaked.
“Frelina,” he hissed as he leaned his forehead against the wall behind them. “You’re not winning this one. Not until you know how fucking sorry I am for what I put you through.”
“Mm,” she mumbled, her chin landing on his shoulder as she went to bite his earlobe. “I always win, Raine.”
The groan leaving him shook both of them. But as Frelina was about to move his face to her, kiss him like she’d dreamed of all damned night, the shaking continued. Then a scream followed.
“What the fuck?” Raine set her down so quickly she didn’t have to take a breath before he pressed her into the corner, shielding her with his large frame.
“Fuck,” he cursed again. “Stay behind me.”
“W-what’s happening?” The ship heeled as if they’d hit something, and the screaming around them intensified.
“My guess”—Raine cursed again as he grasped for the swords that no longer hung by his side—“is those fucking Oakgards’ Fae are trying to separate us from the others.”
An icy ripple ran down her back, and her wide eyes reflected in Raine’s when he spun around and snarled, “Stay here. I swear I will spank you, and not in the fun way, if you move.” Then he whirled and stormed toward the blades lying in the sun back in the training ring.
As Frelina’s gaze left Raine’s back, she gasped.
All around them, those dark rock formations grew, pushing the other ships out of the way and circling their own, forcing their vessel to a halt.
Soon, the stone rose so high that only small streams of sunlight broke through the sides and the top of the black wall.
“Get the fuck out of here!” Raine bellowed as he got to his weapons, and when Frelina followed his glare, she found Loche and Iviry staring at them from a ship glimpsed through the still-growing barrier. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”
The last thing Frelina saw of the leaders was Iviry’s sharp nod, and even if she and Loche looked as stoic as ever, Frelina didn’t miss the tear Iviry forcefully wiped away before she turned her back on them.
It felt as if her stomach would fall out of her body when the others around her started to realize the same thing she’d just done—that they would be left behind—and the cries and pleas that followed hollowed Frelina further.
A thumping noise forced her out of the spiral of despair, but it was her turn to scream when stones started raining down on them, pelting into the crowd and breaking through the wooden deck.
“Raine!” Her cry seemed to bounce against all that black stone around the ship.
A scream that couldn’t have been of this world left her when her call made Raine turn around just as an especially large stone flew his way, hitting him in the back of his head.
Raine’s eyes rolled upward, and the Fae warrior took a stumbling step her way before collapsing into a heap on the wood beneath him.
It was the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen. Even more frightening than the Fae who elegantly slid down the stone, or somehow built steps into it that led them right onto the ships.
They looked like the Oakgards’ Fae in the cellar. Beautiful tan skin. Brown and black hair. Green and brown eyes. Slightly more rounded ears than her own, making them seem more human than Fae. Until you noted the magic shimmering around them, as if they and the glistening black stone were one.
Frelina realized she was still screaming when a male Oakgards’ Fae stalked up to her and slapped his hand over her mouth, pulling her against his chest as he forced her into the middle of the ship, where the others Frelina had traveled with were fighting for their lives.
She violently shook her head as she watched Frecco get cornered, three Fae grinning at him as they made the stone behind him come crumbling down.
She heard the crack of his body splitting open, blood splashing so far away that drops landed on Frelina’s face, and bit down on the hand covering her mouth.
Frelina had started running toward where Raine still lay motionless when another Fae—a female this time—stepped into her path and drove a fist so hard against her temple she tumbled right into her and then dove into oblivion.