Chapter 16
Agony.
It blistered through her chest.
Her every breath dragged through a filter of hot sand, clogging lungs no longer meant for air.
And worse than suffocating on land…
… she was back.
Marooned on this accursed beach.
Kneeling between not one, but two males baring spines and fangs, fighting for the right to stuff her womb full of seed.
Neither of them seeing… her.
Her next breath chattered through her gills.
Squelching and wrong.
Soggy.
As if she was choking on air. Smothered by too much.
Vision sparkling at the edges, sensitive eyes shying away from the dawn that had once brought her such joy, Kore coughed. Chest burning on the heels of another breath.
Ribs flexing as she pulled until her chest ached, searching for space she didn't have and couldn't invent.
And she knew… there would be no last-second burst of power. No divine intervention or unholy monster of the deep to save her this time.
There was only this.
The way her gills fluttered, ragged and desperate. The hollow behind her ribs growing soggy and damp. Too full.
Thalos said something cruel.
Something she couldn't quite hear through the crackling hiss of her own choppy breaths.
And Nyxarion.
He was her mirror.
Chest heaving, gills clattering. His every moment above the surface blistering agony. Suffering with a purpose.
And she looked, clinging to that fathomless scowl fixed to her face. Smiling when he reached. Cupped her cheek in a fist meant for murder. Palm rough, claws tangling in her hair.
Molten silver eyes filled with something tender she couldn't name, and he leaned in.
Pressed his forehead to hers.
Letting his thumb trace the blade of her jaw.
Sweeping back to cradle.
Just once.
A swipe that teased the edge of her gills.
And then he pulled away.
Coils flexing, he dragged himself back to the water's edge. Scales gleaming in the morning sunlight. Tight. Unfurling with every flex of his enormous length.
Lips parting, Kore tried to stumble after him, webbed fingers spread as she reached. Her voice a hollow rasp when she tried to use her voice.
He slid into the surf.
Didn't look back.
Not once.
And the Black Sea swallowed him down.
Chest heaving, she blinked. Shocked. Betrayed.
Staring at the spot where he'd been and gone.
Horrified.
That he would leave her. Here. Kneeling on this wretched beach.
With Thalos.
Lungs rattling—wet and wrong—she almost laughed. Sinking into the sand. Braced on her hands and knees, she stared at the webbing, at the dainty sunset scales speckling her forearms.
That Nyxarion would dare.
That he'd breed her before an audience, name her his precious living flame—the heart of Vorynthar. Only to abandon her.
To Thalos.
Something tattered and broken bubbled over her lips, then.
A choked thing that died before it escaped her throat.
He'd abandoned her the moment she became inconvenient… just like everyone else. The priests who'd taken her maidenhead, and smeared vestal blood across an altar. The slavers who'd measured her worth in silver. And him.
Being abandoned was the only real consistent thing in her life.
"Well," Thalos hummed, snaking closer as he squinted after Nyxarion, "that's settled, then."
Gills clattering, Kore turned to look.
Thalos was perfect. Composed. The morning sunlight splintered off his scales as he slipped closer. Looming. Gleaming silver while she wheezed and crackled.
Smug, a smile tugged at the edge of his lips.
"You know," he murmured, spines lifting as he turned his face into the sun, "I think I might stay.
It's been an age since I had any reason to linger.
Up here. In the surf." Polar eyes raked her wretched body, then.
Lingering on the way her ribs hollowed out. On the spread of her gills.
She returned his smile with one that was cutting and sharp. All teeth.
And, pushing herself up, trembling, she stood on legs that had gone liquid. Her knees buckled. Wobbling and snapping as she fought for balance.
She took a step.
Locked her knees.
Claimed another.
And another.
Feet dragging across the sand, chasing the surf, she shuffled toward the sweet relief of the sea.
Thalos followed, and with a sigh, he swept her up.
One arm a merciless band of strength behind her thighs.
The other sending her over his shoulder as he snaked to the water's edge.
"We'll call this a mercy," he said as the sea took them back.
And his palm slid down her thighs as the water swallowed her knees.
Dazed, her next breath was filled with the rush of liquid relief.
Gills flaring, sweet, soothing brine flooded her chest.
And she gasped. Head lolling as the water moved over her. Through her.
A single note chimed through the sea.
Crystalline. A horn declaring Thalos the winner of the Chain of Breath.
But he didn't pause to gloat. Didn't bother acknowledging his victory, or the gathered Pelagorn circling to witness his tide with the Siren.
He moved.
Fleeing into the current.
Fast.
Coiled muscle and heaving scales, he lifted his fluke and sent the ocean screaming over her ears. Her gills. Every violent movement propelling them away from Nyxarion. The Hollow Court. Vorynthar.
Away from witnesses.
"What are you doing?" Kore cried, her hair swirling around her face as the current gushed over her.
He only adjusted his grip. Pressed her to his chest and poured his energy into ferrying her away from the eyes of his people.
Fingers twisted in a string of pearls draped around his neck, Kore clung as he moved. Legs fluttering in the current.
Claws prickling her scales, caging her tight against his chest, Thalos swam at a speed she'd never known might be possible.
Every movement sleek. Controlled.
Art in motion.
The black waters howled as they rushed past her ears.
Too fast. Controlled, for it wasn't desire that drove him… it was secrecy.
Fingers growing tight, pressing the round edge of a pearl between her digits, Kore's heart thrashed against her ribs. And she tipped her head into the rushing water, searching the abyss for a hint of Vorynthar's distant glow.
Scanning for a glimpse of the courts gathered to watch, as they'd done when Nyxarion had won the first trial.
But there was nothing.
Only the endless maw of a yawning void.
And Thalos.
Secreting her away. Free of witnesses, so none might hear her scream when he dragged his waveblade across her throat.
"Thalos! Where—"
"Hush," he crooned, grip growing tighter. Possessive. "We don't need an audience for this, little monster."
Yield.
It was an echo.
Let him think he owns you. Convince the Shallow King that Sirens belong in these waters…
For a moment, there was horror. That her survival hinged on convincing this frigid, cruel creature that she had worth. That she'd be forced to use her body to do it. To yield to another male who saw only a womb. Leverage in female flesh.
But what was another sacrifice to a woman born to kneel?
Twisting, Kore let her muscles loosen. Curling in, cheek to his chest, she made herself soft where he was hard.
It was almost funny how fast she felt the shift. The way his claws softened against her skin. His ribs twitching on a caught breath.
She let the water drag her against him. Thigh brushing against his scales, where his slit concealed his repressed interest.
But his spines flared. Every fin bristling in a fan of venomous warning. "Don't." A single syllable snapped between his teeth. Low. Vicious.
Blinking against the rush of the current, Kore tilted her head as she peered up at him.
"You think I don't know?" he snarled. "What you're doing?
Pressing against me. Rubbing that vile Siren cunt all over my scales.
You reek of it," he hissed, teeth bared.
"Slick. Do you think me so easy? Some rutting beast from the Deep to be swayed by the scent of a pretty pussy.
" He laughed, low and cruel. "I won the right to breed you, little wretch. Nothing more."
"Then what—"
"Patience," he cooed. "Unless you'd rather me serenade you with the details of your ruin." His thumb traced the jutting edge of her hip. Voice dropping low.
"Careful," she returned, mocking his icy tone. Head tilted back to let him see the gaunt smirk stretched across her lips. "All that energy spent insisting you're repulsed, and you still stink of desperation."
There was a beat of something violent between them. Unspoken. A moment of prickling claws and stuttering rhythm.
And she laughed, low and rough. Filled with spite. "Does it unsettle you?" she murmured, fingers clutching at his arms. "How hard you have to work? To pretend you're not exactly the same as Nyx?"
It was his turn to laugh, and it was laced with something wild.
And, claws skating up, tracing her spine, he said, "Such a clever creature.
Just learning to use her claws. Tell me," he murmured, thumb tracing the base of her spine, "if I'm so desperate to sully myself in the quagmire of your…
affliction, why would I waste time discussing it with you?
A creature who exists outside of the law.
Scarcely more than a beast created to breed. "
The current gushed over her gills as his speed increased. But she smiled. "And yet, it was you who issued the challenge. You who invoked the law to take, knowing it would mean if you won."
Thalos hummed. "You think I want you," he drawled, but it wasn't a question. "That I'm just another mindless trench-dweller looking for a hole to fit my cock." He laughed, breath rippling over her gills. "How disappointingly… human of you."
Shifting against him, Kore lifted her hand. Touched the current as it sailed past them, letting her biolume pulse with the subtle hint of violet fire. "Perhaps you want something… unexpected," she murmured. "A challenge you haven't had in your own kind."