6
“It’s not as bad as it looks, Elf,” the soldier said. I glared at him, and, with a ghost of a smile, he added, “I suppose the prince is already on a ship to fetch his little sister.”
I frowned. I doubted it. Deep inside, I knew that Araton hadn’t moved a finger as the sea took me away. Deep inside, I knew he stood by and watched.
To punish me.
“Were you conscious after the fall?” I asked.
He arched a brow at me. “Who do you think kept you from drowning?”
I glowered at him, trying not to blush at the thought of his hands on me as he brought me back to the surface. “Why didn’t you swim to the nearest beach?”
“I tried,” he replied with a lenient look. “The currents were too strong.”
I believed him right away. Even the most experienced among our sailors couldn’t navigate close to the southern shores of the Lands of the East and had to go around them from a distance to avoid being pushed against the cliffs.
“So,” the man continued, “I decided to swim back to our loyal tree and use you as a counterweight, though you are light as a feather and haven’t been much help, honestly.”
I stared at him, looking for the lie in his eyes. But I saw none. I exhaled through my nose and looked away, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.
“Thank you,” I said softly. I turned my attention back to him. “For saving me.”
The soldier gazed at me too hard, for too long. “Just like you saved me before.”
I watched him, and watched, and watched.
I couldn’t look away. The sound of his voice, warm as a flame and intimate as a lover’s, echoed in my mind.
My brain longed to capture every detail of his face, from his high forehead to the fine wrinkles around his eyes.
Every cell in my body seemed to lean toward him, drawn by something I couldn’t understand.
Something I didn’t know.
Suddenly, he took a sharp breath and jerked his gaze away from me, frowning. “Can you see our land with your eyes?”
At his distant tone, I pulled myself together. Annoyed by my reaction, I ordered my heart to quiet down and scanned the horizon in all directions. “No,” I replied.
There was only an endless stretch of calm water, blue sky, and white clouds drifting peacefully.
We were stranded in the middle of the Thalion Sea. I wondered how far north, how far south.
And it happened because I had fainted. Over three thousand years, I could count the times it occurred to me on just one hand. How could I have been so careless as to hit my head on the tree?
The man let out an angered sigh. “Then we’re screwed.”
The sudden urge to close the distance between us struck me like a whip.
What was happening to me? I had to leave this human to his fate. I had already pushed back his death once; there was nothing more I could do for him. His people would never come searching for him.
He was doomed.
And it was time for me to accept it.
I closed my eyes and prayed to the Spirits, using the same prayer I had for all the young soldiers hit by the flood. Then I removed my white armor with gold carvings and tossed it into the water, watching the gilded cape float on the surface and darken before the weight of metal pulled it down.
“What are you doing?”
I met the soldier’s worried gaze, then started untying my bracers. “I’m leaving.”
He stayed completely silent as I took off the rest of my armor, watching it sink with a more and more somber expression.
I took off my dagger belt and temporarily placed it on the tree to remove my chain mail, leaving only my white tunic, split at the hips, and my pants.
I threw my leather boots into the sea as well and tied the dagger sheath back around my waist. Finally, I stood up and focused on the man in front of me.
“I’m sorry I led you to an even worse end,” I said sorrowfully.
If I had left him in the plain with his comrades, his death would have been fairly quick. Instead, he should now face a long and terrible suffering ahead.
“You still have your weapon.” I glanced at it briefly, then fixed him in my gaze. “Use it when you’re ready.”
So, at least, his pain would be over in a few moments.
He didn’t reply, keeping his dark gaze on me, his cheek muscles twitching as he clenched his jaw.
I nodded goodbye and jumped into the sea. The water was so cold that for a moment I felt as if a massive stalactite had pierced my skull. I chose not to resurface right away and looked around, creating bubbles as I moved my arms and legs so that I wouldn’t be pulled into the black abyss below.
Not far away, a school of fish moved like a sinuous sea snake, their silver scales reflecting the sunrays filtering through the surface. On the opposite side, farther away, I caught glimpses of dark whale silhouettes; their song’s echoes seemed to reach me in many small clicks.
I smiled, enjoying some more the muffled sound of the sea . . .
Suddenly, I heard multiple thuds in the water, which seemed to vibrate around me. I waved my arms and legs to turn around and frowned upon seeing the human’s bronze armor parts sinking toward the seabed.
Sad, I surfaced to tell him there was no reason to try to follow me, because I would vanish from his view with just a few strokes.
But he wasn’t about to jump into the sea.
He was standing on the tree—showing impressive balance for his race—with his back turned to me. The fabric of his sleeveless brown tunic pulled over his broad, muscular shoulders, and his strong arms hung stiffly at his sides, fists clenched.
I realized I had no right to tell him how to end his life. If he, too, wanted to try swimming to his land, despite knowing he would never make it, I was not one to stop him.
So, I turned around and started looking at the horizon to choose which way to go.
A movement of air.
I instinctively turned just as the soldier’s body fell on me, pushing me underwater.
His arms wrapped around me like octopus tentacles, preventing me from pushing him away.
Surrounded by the oxygen bubbles escaping from our mouths along with the sounds of the struggle, I kicked with my knees and feet to break free and swam toward the surface.
I barely had time to breathe before he appeared behind me and put his arm around my neck.
“You’re not going anywhere, Elf,” he growled, his lips pressed against my ear, his hot breath brushing my cheek.
I attempted to kick him, but he seized my hair and held my head underwater, demonstrating an unusual strength for a human. I fought back, feeling my tiara start to slide from my side braids. Just before it fell, I punched him in the stomach, and he instinctively pulled me up.
“Your family will be here soon to fish you out,” he hissed, still holding me tightly. “So, you’re my only chance to stay alive.”
My hand fisted into his tunic. “I can swim so fast that I’ll be gone before you have time to blink.”
A grin spread across his face. “Oh, yeah?” He gripped my wrist with his callused fingers, pressing my knuckles against his chest vehemently. “Then try.”
Ignoring the sudden, strange tightening feeling in my lower belly, I did as he wished and elbowed him in the temple with my free arm.
He released my hair and went underwater.
I tried to swim away, but he grasped my ankle and pulled me down.
I struck him in the face with my heel, and the water quickly turned crimson.
We surfaced again, and I started swimming away once more. Still, the soldier firmly grabbed me by the hips and pulled me back to him with determination, squeezing me into his arms.
For a flicker of time, I was shocked by how my small breasts pressed against his chest, how my abdomen adhered to his, and how my hands instinctively rested on his shoulders.
I had never been so close to a male before, nor had I ever been embraced so . . . possessively. And he was so masculine, his rugged beauty so striking that it dulled my senses for a moment.
For a moment.
Then I punched him in the face. As soon as he let go of me with a grunt, I grabbed him by the back of his neck and pushed his head underwater. I held him down for a few seconds, grinding my teeth as I took the blows he was delivering to my stomach.
When I decided it was enough, I yanked his head back. He gasped, coughing violently as he floundered. I grabbed his hair and clamped my hand on his chin, pressing my fingers firmly on his jaw to make sure he only focused on me.
“If you keep holding me here,” I said, staring straight into his eyes, “I will kill you.”
He gave me a cocky smile. “If you really wanted to kill me, you would have done it already.”
Before I could dwell on the meaning of his words, the distant rumble of thunder caught my attention. I loosened my grip on the human and frowned at the approaching lead-gray clouds, where lightning was already raging.
“Looks like now I am your only chance to survive,” the man said.
I cut my eyes at him. “Why is that?”
He smirked. “Because I have a rope.”