“You seem a bit rusty, Malrik?—”
Reaching for me, he gathered my shirt without looking. Before I could step away, he yanked, and with an effortless toss, flipped me over the top of him. My surroundings blurred. The various structures around me served as the sky for only a blink, and air whooshed out of my lungs as soon as I collided with the ground.
An uncontrolled whimper tumbled from between my lips as I curled on my side, my ribcage rattling as I fought to gather oxygen. “F-Fuck…”
Footsteps approached, and the rainfall assaulting my skin suddenly lessened as Malrik prowled into my line of sight. Clutching his right shoulder, a sneer consumed his expression, but I didn’t miss the underlying anguish blooming in his milky irises.
Lifting his leg, he pressed the ball of his foot into the sweeping laceration that Caspian had carved into my flesh. “I ought to butcher you in these streets for your continued display of ingratitude and insubordination.” He sank deeper, my back arching against the earth beneath me. “It seems your time at sea has chipped away at the woman Iraisedyou to be—a woman of servitude and devotion. Tell me, has Caspian Vayne been worth what you will suffer now?”
A guttural snarl tore itself from my throat, and I spoke near breathlessly. “I don’t associate with that pitiful fucking man.”
“Oh?” he crooned, pressure lessening. “And what did Vayne do to you?”
Nostrils flaring, I glared up at him. Fingers slowly snaking to my waist, I kept my movements minimal as I responded, “Wouldn’t you like to know. I’m sure the two of you would get along swell, considering you’re born of the same toxicity. Men who believe they can have anything without consequence, men who take what isn’t theirs to have, men who view themselves as impenetrable.”
His mouth opened with a simmering reply, but I beat him.
Spinning another one of my daggers between my fingers, I quickly solidified my hold before slashing across the back of the foot that hepinned me with. The sharpened steel tore through his Achilles with ease, the squelch of flesh and blood serving as confirmation of the damage.
A slew of curses served as his reply, his mumbled vulgarities casting ire at the gods. Instinctively, he jumped back, moving to test the damage I’d inflicted. As soon as he settled his foot against the street, he collapsed beside me, and I used the gap in his interference to push myself upright.
Tightening my grip on the hilt of the blade until my knuckles whitened, my shoulders rose with a shaky inhale. Soaked to the bone from the torrential downpour, I ignored the shiver that slithered its way up my spine. With my mind fixated on my wrath, a sudden warmth blanketed me, and with it, lightning carved its way through the sky.
“I’m rather fond of the image of you on your knees before me, rendered useless, like your prick.” Clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I fiddled with the dagger. “It’s ironic, truly, how fragile men who view themselves as superior really are.”
“If you believe yourself superior, as awoman,then you are even more idiotic than I thought. Our world does not accommodate the constraints of femininity. It does not cater to the concepts of innocence or gentleness, and any woman who believes it does deserves to bebroken,just like you.”
My jaw clenched with enough tension to pop. Taking a step forward, I fisted his hair and forced his head back. Glare settling on his, my lips pulled back with a snarl.
“And that’s where you have it all wrong.”
“Do I?” he prodded, a malicious smile forming. “Rohen, menrunour society. You are a minor inconvenience to the power of Serevalen, a speck of resistance that can be squashed without so much as batting an eye. Those who sit above you determine law, oversee trade, and command the fucking seas.”
“Again,” I breathed, bending forward just enough to grant myself leverage. “You arewrong.”
Driving the dagger into his stomach, I twisted with every ounce of rage and disgust I harbored. The warmth of his essence seeped from thewound, coating my knuckles with his corruption. He’d served as the pollution to my light for far too many years, robbing me of all it meant to be agirl—someone youthful and merely desiring to be understood.
He coughed, darkened crimson coating his lips. With the shake of his head, he laughed, the eeriness of it clinging to something far beyond mania. “And in which… magnitude am I incorrect? The Others… rule these lands. The Damned are…gone.”
“Gone?” I hummed, dipping my chin to glower at him beneath hooded brows. “The reawakening of the Damned has just begun, and you want to know why?”
He moved faster than I expected, hand cupping the back of my head as he forced me closer. “Why,mylittle viper?”
“Because I’m Ellira’s fucking daughter, and through her, I will command the godsdamned seasmyself,bitch.”
Something like shock consumed his features, but the deepknowingthat remained in his glinting irises nearly stole my breath. It was the expression of someone who harbored secrets, someone who had been familiar with my truth before I had.
The chant of the corrupt enemies who ruled our lands began to flow from his lips. “Vel’kharum ithra Sorva?—”
“Youknew,didn’t you?” I moved to rip my blade free, but his other hand looped around the back of my arm. “You fucking knew!”
His sneer grew as he continued, “Vrax ven’kyr maleth. Mor’zael korveth Kyrn.”
“You must leave,”Ellira growled down our connection.“Now. Do not rebuttal. Do not press. For once, Daughter, trust me.”
In every other instance when the Goddess of the Sea had warned me to stay wary or remain mindful of possibilities, I had ignored her. But there was something about her motherly caution this time that sparked a bone-deep feeling within me—Malrik was summoning.
Which meant…
