Chapter 26 #3
A horrible idea struck that I couldn’t quite dismiss as crazy.
I sat back on my heels, staring at the runes and racking my brain for something else—literally anything else—to try.
When nothing came to me, I drew my dagger and pressed the blade to my palm.
The steel bit into my flesh, and blood welled in a dark line across my skin.
Anunit watched, her furnace eyes wide.
I held my bleeding hand over the nearest rune. “Here goes nothing.”
Blood dripped onto the iron.
The rune flared white-hot, searing my vision, and then cracked down the center like an egg. The glow died, and a hairline fracture split the bar beneath it.
Anunit gasped.
So did I, though for different reasons. My blood had just shattered a mage’s spell like it was nothing. That wasn’t normal. That wasn’t even in the neighborhood of normal. I stared at the slice across my palm, half expecting it to glow or sprout runes of its own.
It didn’t. It just bled, like any other cut.
But the cracked bar changed the math entirely. I could free her. I could break every rune on this cage and release a creature who’d been tortured for years, gaining us a powerful ally against the fishmen.
I could, but should I?
“What are you, anyway?” I winced the moment the question left my mouth. “I mean, if it’s okay to ask. I’m a wolf, if that makes this less weird.”
Her smile seemed genuine. “I am a fire sprite. And I am not offended by your curiosity.”
A fire sprite.
A fire sprite who’d spent years on the water in an iron cage, burned every time the sea rocked, forced to attack the only friend she had left.
If that didn’t breed rage, nothing would.
And a fire sprite’s rage wasn’t metaphorical.
A pissed-off fire sprite had once leveled downtown Seattle, after all.
I looked at the cracked rune. Then, at the remaining ones. Then, at the wooden ship surrounding us.
“Before I keep going... can I get your word that you won’t set this ship, or anything else, on fire? At least while my pack is on it. And that you’ll stay here, pretending to still be captive until we’re ready to attack.”
Something flickered in her furnace eyes, possibly amusement, or even recognition that I was smarter than I looked. “When do you believe that will be?”
I shrugged. “That’ll be up to the alpha, but I’m guessing it’ll happen as soon as we see land.” Rowing a dinghy in foreign waters, full of God-only-knows-what in the middle of the night with no land in sight seemed like a horrible idea.
“Sprites are bound by our vows, so let me ease your mind by confirming that I will stay here in my prison and await your command before attacking. I will not harm you or your people. Nor will I engulf this ship in flames until you and yours are safely away from it.”
That was about as good as I could expect to get.
I nodded, sealing our agreement, then moved to the next rune, pressing my palm flat against it this time to get the same result before moving on to the next. And then the next, until the cage finally shattered beneath my blood.
I stood, and the edges of my vision darkened. Apparently, the runes hadn’t been as easy to break as I’d thought. I knew better than anyone that handling magic always came with a price.
It was worth the drain to see Anunit tremble as she stepped out of the wreckage.
Her bare feet hovered above the wooden deck, and for a moment, she simply waited, as if she couldn’t believe she was finally free.
Then her wings stretched experimentally, crackling with sparks as the circulation returned.
When she looked up at me, the fire in her eyes had turned oddly watery, which shouldn’t be possible. “Thank you, Ziara. I am in your debt.”
Swallowing past the sudden lump in my throat, I nodded. “Nobody should have to suffer what you have.” Displays of emotion weren’t really my thing, so I eyed the destroyed cage. “However, it occurs to me that if anyone comes to check on you, the jig will be up.”
“The sons are deep in their rum by now. They have never checked on me after sunset, and I will give them no reason to do so this night. If they do, I will handle them.”
She sounded fierce, but she was tiny. And after all she’d suffered, I didn’t want her to get hurt fighting for us.
“Where is Oannes?” I asked. “Do you think he’ll help, too?”
“He circles these waters endlessly, as the curse compels him.”
“So, if he shows up during our escape....”
“He will not harm you. My friend is not beyond reason, and he will help me keep the sons busy while you flee.” Anunit’s expression became all fire and no warmth. “And we will punish them for what they have done to us.”
That was as close to a plan as I was going to get.
I thanked Anunit and made my way back through the ship. The corridor was still empty, the fishmen’s scent concentrated near the bow where the night shift manned the sails. I climbed through the sick bay porthole just as Rust’s snoring hitched.
I froze, one leg still dangling outside.
His breathing evened out.
Exhaling slowly, I climbed the rest of the way in and slipped back into my hammock without a sound. The bloodstone pulsed against my thigh, steady as a second heartbeat, and for once, the rhythm didn’t unsettle me.
I had a plan. It had more holes than a training dummy, and the alpha was going to skin me alive for not waking him first, but it was a plan, and every cell in my body itched to put it into motion.
Mack shifted in his sleep, and his hand dangled between our hammocks, fingers loose and instinctively reaching in my direction.
I stared at that hand, my chest aching with everything I couldn’t say.
Then I closed my eyes and thankfully didn’t dream at all.