Chapter 20
A Monster Is a Monster Is a Monster
When I finally spotted land from atop the back of the higantorus, eight days of the twenty-two on the spell concealing my scar had elapsed. Eight miserable days riding this creature—this monster.
He glided through the ocean’s deep like he was out for a leisurely swim, yet ate up great distances due to his size, unhurried, unconcerned, as if he were one with his surroundings. No enemies, no threats could touch him.
Even before Isai’s many imports, the Moaning Ocean had teemed with all kinds of deadly creatures. Nowadays, I didn’t want to ponder what might prowl its depths—at least not until I put the water far behind me.
Despite Cosette’s belief that her insurance with “key officers” protected her from me—she was wrong. I’d been gone centuries, but accidents on the ocean must still happen all the time. One could take great care and still end up in the drink.
After all, we were riding a monster. Willingly.
No matter how smooth the ride or how even the higantorus’ temperament, a monster was a monster was a monster. Time would never change that.
Cosette, to boot, was the size of a hummingbird.
So many accidents could easily befall someone that size.
A wave could splash across the higantorus’ back, which doubled as a passenger deck.
Her wings would get doused. She might slip on that glistening, slick, pink flesh I could only think of as squelchy, and disappear without notice.
There would be no saving a parvnit from the ocean. No scooping her out. No spotting her, even, amid the water’s swells.
One moment there, the next … gone forever.
No one would blame me. It didn’t matter what she believed, what instructions she’d left friends or colleagues that pointed my way.
If anyone did accuse me, I’d bat thick lashes, maybe even work up a tear.
I have no idea what happened to her, Officer.
I’m devastated over her disappearance. We looked everywhere for her, I swear. I might throw in a sniffle.
If the officer was a man, he wouldn’t question my act. If my accuser was a woman, my allure would work at least half the time, regardless of her attraction to females in general.
The officer would consider me and see what they wanted to see. My admirers always did.
The most effective weapon in my arsenal wasn’t always the sharpest.
If anyone came searching for Cosette, however, I wouldn’t be lying—not much, anyhow.
Two days ago, after I left her under Marina’s watch, Cosette vanished without a trace.
Unlike the ships B.A., which possessed living quarters beneath deck, the higantorus had none. When cargo needed to be transported, it was done by ship like before, but now escorted by several higantoruses.
Yes, there was more than one of the monsters. Apparently, there were whole pods of them scattered throughout the deep. And also yes, they were needed to defend against other monsters that weren’t intimidated by anything less than several enormous sea dragons.
It was all very reassuring.
Isai had taken a world already fraught with dangers and heaped onto them. Quite the accomplishment for one lone man.
I’d been reading The History and Conquest of the Domdurron Empire, The Opalese World in the Modern Era, and The Book of Isai—it was all I could carry in my satchels. The latter treated Isai as if he were a savior or a prophet, perhaps even a demigod.
Isai had no right to change the world as he had.
Neither did the fucking emperor.
Alobaz especially didn’t.
The higantorus we rode had scales large enough to create a series of shallow caves all across his back. Passengers huddled inside them to take respite from the elements.
I refused to step inside one. They were surely squelchy, for one. They also allowed for easy cornering.
With the spell in place, no one would recognize me as the missing princess. Even with my scar, who would guess that after all that time presumed dead I was now roaming with the living?
But threats lurked everywhere, not just in the water. And not just for a princess.
Marina had checked every crease and fold of the beast’s back, anywhere a parvnit could hide.
Goblins slunk around hardly noticed, if not entirely ignored.
Their power allowed them to imitate their surroundings, and blend to such a degree that only when someone knew exactly where to look would they be spotted.
That they were so consistently underestimated was one of their greatest advantages.
Marina had never before failed a task I assigned her.
Without so much as a disturbance in the air, she appeared at my side. I gripped one of the spikes—as tall as I—that ringed the higantorus’ back, and she leaned close, speaking softly.
“She’s nowhere, Sora. I don’t understand it. I’ve searched everywhere. There’s nowhere left to look. She’s just … gone.”
I stared out at the outline of land, still far in the distance. A ferry slowly chugged toward the higantorus to offer us passage to shore.
“It’s not your fault.”
Marina turned hopeful, perhaps even surprised, eyes toward me, and I realized I’d never said that to her before. Never had to.
I looked from the too-bright light shimmering across the waves to her. “How were you to know she’d just pop out of sight like that?”
“Because I, unlike you, have been here all this time, since the first parvnit appeared in Domdurro.”
I bristled. I was certain I’d never grow accustomed to hearing my homeland referred to by the name of its conqueror.
“I know parvnits can do that, even if I’ve never seen it done. It’s called transpopping. I should have known she’d do that.”
“How? All she kept talking about was how she wasn’t gonna let me out of her sight.
Even suspecting I was going to … you know, she didn’t let up.
If I’d known she could transpop, I still would’ve guessed she was more likely to get caught underfoot and stomped”—I smiled at the thought—“and squashed”—my smile deepened—“than to disappear like that. What purpose does that serve her?”
“None that I can think of. She should have been trailing after you, trying to spy on you, if anything.”
“But she didn’t—wasn’t.”
Marina tapped a foot against the higantorus’ back with a wet plop, plop, plop. “So we just leave without her? Without knowing what happened?”
“You know I’m no fan of loose ends—”
“You’ve never left even one.”
“And I’m damn proud of that. But when that ferry gets here, I need to be on it, and I’m not leaving you behind.”
Marina’s dark eyes glistened. “I missed you, Sora.”
Pretending to be taking in a panoramic view, I glanced around us.
The other passengers, who were mostly fae, with some creatures and a small human family, were milling around, readying for transport.
None seemed to be looking our way, but we couldn’t take the risk.
I’d begun this journey under the pretense of being a whore because anyone might be a spy.
I clenched the spike harder instead of squeezing Marina’s slim shoulders as I wished to. “I missed you too, Mina,” I said, sotto voce.
It wasn’t technically true since I’d been unconscious and unable to miss anyone. “Without Teo…” My throat contracted, squeezing my words to a halt. Immediately tears sprang to my eyes. Urgently, I blinked away their burn.
To become the Opalese’s most effective assassin once more, I was going to have to do so much better than this.
Marina’s fingers slid up to brush mine. I allowed myself a second of her comfort before yanking away. I widened my eyes until they stopped leaking.
“Without Teo … I couldn’t do without my only other true friend.”
I used to have plenty of friends, but they were sycophants eager to ride an aristo up the ladder of nobility. Beyond Marina, a friend’s loyalty was only bought and never true.
“He’s really gone?” Marina said. “You’re sure?”
I’d already told her how I felt my connection to my twin sever. How he was the one to save me even when it had cost him his life.
I clenched my jaw and gritted out the words. “I’m sure of what I felt. What I still feel. Rafaela and Alonso are sure too, and their info was rock solid.”
She harrumphed. She didn’t trust either of them; they’d never given her reason to.
I gazed across the ocean, to the land that had once been home to the ruling dynasty of Lingdon—Rafaela’s family. Everyone else in her bloodline was dead. Executed. Her father, mother, and two sisters.
Rafaela was the last with a claim to a throne that no longer existed.
Alobaz had done that too.
Every murder, every devastation, landed squarely on him, before falling on the emperor.
While I studied my books, I’d decided. My vengeance wouldn’t end with Alobaz.
I’d kill him.
Then I’d kill the emperor.
I’d kill whoever was responsible for neutralizing me when I should have been a tremendous weapon.
I’d take out everyone who needed killing.
A vampire’s vendetta was as significant as the s?nglure who enacted it.
“He’ll regret taking Teo from me,” I said, without need to specify who he was.
Marina seethed, too, with knowledge that Teo’s murderer was free, enjoying life at a castle instead of paying for his many, many crimes.
“So we can’t find the parvnit.” I shrugged. “So be it. Maybe the ocean dealt with her. Or the higantorus swallowed her as a pre-appetizer snack. Whatever. She’s not our problem anymore. If she shows up, I’ll deal with her then.”
“We’ll deal with her. She dampened your power and locked you up. No one hurts my Sora.”
I tried to restrain my smile but failed. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Mina.”
She smiled back. Her teeth were slightly crooked, spindly, and very sharp.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Especially since I never thought I’d see the day that”—she glanced around—“the great and formidable Soravelle Davana would be dressed like this.”
She dragged her gaze up and down my body, slowing along the ample curves of my hips and the even ampler curves of my breasts, plumped and pushed up for appreciation.
“I’ve disguised myself for jobs before,” I said. “Many times.”
“You have. But your plan has never been to go in as a whore and conquer your mark by conquering his pole.”
I blinked. “His … pole?”
“You heard me.”
I snorted. “His ‘pole’ won’t be my concern for long, nor will it be his for long either after I get my hands on him. And you know I don’t tell you everything.”
“I know that.”
“I’ve seduced my targets before.”
“But have you ever paraded yourself as a prostitute?”
“No, and I won’t be ‘parading’ myself this time either. All I need is to infiltrate the castle, find him, draw his eye—”
“His pole, you mean.”
I chortled. “Okay, yeah, his pole. And then when I’m close enough, when he’s distracted by my body, I take his head.”
My fangs lengthened, sharpened. I rolled my neck, as if I’d find him waiting for me at the port of Galmeen.
“He doesn’t stand a chance against you,” Marina said.
“Damn right he doesn’t. He won’t even feel me coming.”
“For Teo.”
“For Teo. Always for Teo.”