Chapter 41
Theo
Gris fired her arrow. It whizzed past Theo, meeting the neck of a Deavopan soldier creeping up behind them.
His sword fell to the deck with a clank.
Theo whirled on Gris as she stood tall atop the deck, another arrow drawn and her hair whipping against the wind in the torrential downpour.
Clad in her black breastplate, she practically blended into the night, but Theo knew the shine of her bow and the vivid locks of her hair. Gris had come back.
When he’d needed her most, she was nowhere to be found. But the sight of her in the same armor she wore during the war brought determination to Theo’s heart. He had Esaias and Gris by his side once again.
“Both of you need to get out of here.” Gris didn’t dare lower her bow, drawing it back.
“Gods, Gris,” Esaias muttered, “you always have impeccable timing.”
“What are you doing here?” Theo asked. Had she seen Adelaide taken?
“I’ve come for Amaris.” Gris took slow, methodical steps down the stairs, her aim still drawn.
Theo startled. A cold wind sent a shiver through him, further freezing his bare chest and reminding him of his shame, laid open for the realm to see.
“Amaris is within the manor.”
“No, she’s not. I followed her.” Gris released her arrow. The sound following it was the slump of another soldier hitting the deck.
His breath hitched. “No,” he stammered. “We’re here for Adelaide. I sent Amaris—”
“Adelaide?”
“They took her.”
Gris drew a sharp breath. “I’ll find them.”
“Gris, where have you been?”
“That’s not important right now.”
Theo raised an inquisitive brow, and he gently set the tip of his sword on the deck. “Not important?” He gestured around them. “I sent you to investigate Freville’s murder, and the Accords attack!”
“The entire Accords aren’t here, only Deavopan. It isn’t a full-scale siege.”
“Then what do they want?”
“I don’t know.”
Esaias stepped forward and threw his hands up between them. “It would seem none of us have the time to explain. We have both Amaris and Adelaide to find.”
Gris nodded, but her eyes drifted to Theo’s knee. “You’re injured.”
He tightened his grip around his sword. Amaris and Adelaide were here.
He swallowed as the monster threatened to break to the surface.
Its claws were a subtle reminder, a mere whisper in his head.
He allowed a single shred of it to sweep away his pain and slow his heart.
No injury would keep him from protecting them.
“Who isn’t?” Esaias threw out.
The rain grew stronger, creating sheets around them, narrowing their circle of vision.
“We need to get below deck,” Theo said, but as he did, a creak sounded behind Gris.
Theo narrowed his eyes, eyeing a shining blade through the rain, raised and ready to strike. Before he could warn Gris, she turned and launched an arrow through the soldier’s throat. His body tumbled down the stairs and jerked like a fish flopping on the deck.
“I’ll go after them. Esaias, you need to get him inside,” Gris shouted over the rain. “Theo, I tried to find you at the Conjugation. Your father wants to send Amaris to Elric.”
“Old news,” Esaias said, annoyed. “We were planning to get her out.”
Gris only raised a brow before she shook her head. “You both stay here. I’ll go after them.”
“No.” Theo wouldn’t leave their rescue only to Gris. She needed their help, and he had to protect Amaris.
Gris worried her lower lip, her hand tightening around her grip. “I know how you feel about her.”
Esaias snapped his attention to Theo, but he ignored the curious raise of his brow. He would tell Esaias later. If they survived.
In a split second, Gris released her arrow, but a gunshot went off. Theo dropped to the deck, his body screaming and his ears ringing. He grasped his arm and blood pooled through his fingers.
Esaias turned and stabbed his sword through the soldier’s throat, but Gris’s arrow already protruded through the man’s chest. Another one came charging down the steps, catching Esaias off guard as he tackled him. They rolled in a tangle of limbs through the sheets of rain.
Theo pivoted to his stomach, biting his lip against the stinging in his arm. He stood against every fiber of his being telling him to stay down. Gris cried out. A soldier pinned her, straddling her and sending fists flying into her jaw.
Theo was torn as they both locked in their battles.
Esaias grunted as he took a cut across the face, and Gris screamed with another punch.
No more. The muscles of his forearm flexed, and his neck twitched.
Anger spilled from his marrow, seeping into his blood.
He was done with his friends and the people he loved being ripped from his life.
The monster flexed through his fingers, wrapping tightly around his sword.
He raised his blade, but a third soldier jumped from where he’d hidden at the helm. He smiled, a silver tooth glinting in the lightning’s flash. In a matter of moments, Theo was upon the man. He slashed and swiped, parried and blocked.
The deck was slick, but the soldier, with his feet bare, jumped and moved with ease.
Theo rolled to block his next strike, grabbing a fallen sword and raising both against him.
The soldier was quick, guarding both Theo’s attacks with his single weapon.
But Theo was bigger, stronger. He hacked at the soldier’s defenses, beating him down until his sword slipped from his grip.
Without hesitation, Theo cut off the soldier’s head, and it rolled across the deck.
He stepped over the man’s lifeless body, looking for his next fight.
A clink pierced the air, an unnatural sound, causing Theo to cringe. The soldier pinning Gris held a bent dagger against her midsection. Theo furrowed his brow, training his focus through the rain. He’d seen it true. Whatever armor she wore, it’d bent his dagger.
Gris grabbed his thighs and threw him back.
She rolled onto her hands, pushing off as she stood, waiting for him.
Her fist sailed into her attacks—a jab, a left hook, a kick, but her opponent was swift.
He hurled his own attack, landing one to Gris’s jaw.
She grunted, but it didn’t drop her to the deck.
No, she spat a line of blood and reached for her sword, her hand wrapping around the leather-bound hilt.
With a single thrust, she pierced his heart.
The scent of blood filled the air around them, but so did Esaias’s scream. Gris charged, running straight for Theo. He crouched, and she used a barrel to hurtle over his kneeling form. She came down, driving her sword through the soldier’s back.
Esaias laid sprawled and panting while Gris leaned over her knees. For a moment, all was still besides their rapid breaths.
“Gris, do you know who told my father of Amaris’s attempted escape?”
Theo needed to know the truth. If it hadn’t been Alan, it left only a few choices.
“Where is this coming from?” she snapped.
“You were one of the few on sentry duty that night.”
“No, I wasn’t, but we don’t have time for this. We have to find them.”
Another soldier descended the steps, two blades trained on them. Theo twirled his sword, and Gris’s head snapped up as she readied herself. But Esaias groaned on the deck, coughing and rolling to his side.
“Help him,” Gris said to Theo before charging toward the soldier.
Rain pelted Theo’s face, like small daggers against his skin. He kneeled over Esaias. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and the cut was longer than he initially thought. It trailed from his temple, down his cheek, and met the split in his lip.
“That fucking hurt,” Esaias coughed, blood spilling from his lips.
A breath escaped Theo as he watched the crimson liquid slide down his cousin’s chin.
“Don’t worry. It’s only from my face.”
Theo had never felt such sudden relief. He grabbed Esaias’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “We need to get you off the ship.”
“If you can fight, then so can I,” Esaias insisted, but the fresh laceration dripped blood into his eyes and obscured his only good line of sight.
“You can barely see.”
“I’ve had worse odds,” he reminded Theo.
Esaias tipped his head back, angling his face upward to clear his eyes. His hands shook as he flung the blood spilling down his cheeks.
The sharp strike of a blade pulled their attention. Gris struck down her opponent, but she was already caught in her next duel. She charged across the helm to meet the next Deavopan soldier. “Go find them!” she shouted.
They didn’t wait for her to say more. Esaias descended the ladder into the ship with Theo following behind him. Theo relinquished the hold on the monster within, allowing it to slither back from where it came and give him a moment of reprieve.
They landed with their swords ready, but Theo began feeling the effects of his injuries, the press of his knee against the binding and the blood leaking from his shoulder. He eyed the wound, but the musket ball had only grazed his arm.
“Where do you think they’ll be?” Esaias asked.
“If Adelaide was taken, she’ll be farther below deck. Amaris could be anywhere.”
“Is it true?” Esaias whispered, wiping the blood from his eyes as they began their trek through the ship.
“Is what true?”
Esaias gave Theo a flat look before he checked around the corner. “Love fizzles out eventually, especially with a woman like Amaris.”
“I don’t love her,” Theo snapped. “It was one kiss.”
“You kissed her?”
“Technically, Amaris kissed me first, but she doesn’t even remember it.”
“Whatever is between you two, set it aside. Focus on why we’re here. You can sort out who kissed who later.”
Theo ground his teeth, but Esaias was right.
A cannon fired, jostling the boat.
Esaias gazed down the next ladder. “Sounds like they’re below us.”
“Then we avoid that deck. I doubt Amaris would be foolish enough to crawl into Deavopan’s nest.”
“Do you even know the woman?”
“Excuse me?” Theo asked, lowering his sword.
Esaias forced out a sigh and spat blood from his lips. “She’s looking for Adelaide, who will be in the brig. She needs a key.”
“Why do you only show this level of intelligence when we’re near death?”
“It’s one of my specialties.” He grinned.
Esaias swung himself over the ladder and scaled deeper. Theo gripped the rung, waiting to descend into the chaos. His thumb brushed against the worn wood from the many hands having climbed it.
Several weeks ago, he’d wanted desperately to know what plagued Duncaster, but now he would’ve gladly stayed in the dark.
He wished it was anything other than the Accords.
He wanted to have met Amaris in the market, offering to carry her basket of herbs.
He wished Adelaide to be a soldier, learning and training under him.
But the life he wanted was only a dream.
Amaris’s life was threatened, not only by Deavopan, but by his father and someone wishing to poison her, and Adelaide might never again see the end of a sword.
Before Theo could follow Esaias, someone ran into him.
His grip slipped, and all three of them crashed below.
Theo smacked the back of his head, seeing stars glittering in his vision.
The attacker pressed against his stomach, but he gripped their wrist and dragged them against the wall.
Theo’s vision blurred in and out of focus.
He swayed as he pulled out his dagger and held it to their throat.