He grabs my calf to drag me back. Relentless man. My other leg kicks out, landing a blow hard on his shoulder with the ball of my boot. He falls back with a grunt of pain.
“Fuck,” he growls. I drag myself up onto the rock just as his hands find my thighs. Rolling away from the shore, I stumble upright, hand to my sword hilt. My whole body shakes.
Why do I feel empty, like there’s a hole in my chest? I justescaped. All I should feel is relief.
Roiven’s still in the water. A lock of his black wet hair falls across his face.
“Were you trying to drown me?” I gasp. My throat still burns from the seawater I swallowed. My stomach rebels, wanting to empty itself. But I cannot afford to be vulnerable for even a moment.
“You’re the one who gave the fucking command,” he growls. “There’s no way to get back to that island of yours but swim. Savasaeirn isn’t going to take us.”
“We can’t swim. That’s insane.” We’re hours away by a dragon’s flight. Even if it weren’t for the reapers, thethingin the ocean, the fact that I don't know how to keep my head above the water, and the gods know what else haunts the terrible deep, no human being can swim that far.
There was no natural way for me to have washed up by Amkrieg then, and there’s no natural way to make it back to the Bluff now.
“You think I don’t know that?” Roiven growls. He winces as he rubs his shoulder. The witch drags himself out of the water and I back up, hand still on my sword hilt. He rests for a moment on hands and knees, long hair dripping onto the rock, then staggers upright.
He takes a step forward, then another, like his body is being forced. My command must still be in place.
“Don’t touch me. We’re not swimming to the Bluff. And no more picking me up without asking.”
He stops.
“Be careful with your words, knight. They have power.”
“I didn’t realize you’d try to drag me off the island. Ifiguredyou’d argue with your dragon until she agreed.”
Roiven snorts.
“Savasaeirn said no.Iwon’t force her.”
As if he has any right to be mad about me using commands right now.
“If you didn’t want me to force you, you shouldn’t have kidnapped me from the Bluff. You haven’t left much choice, asshole.”
He grunts.
The arrow is still sticking out of his arm. He wraps his other hand around the shaft and grits his teeth. The wound must have hurt terribly in the salt water.
“I command you to force her.”
From where she rests, Sava makes a low rumbling noise that sounds like a laugh.
“I can’t,” he growls. “She’s her own creature.Youshould understand that.”
And then, with a roar of pain, Roiven yanks the arrow out of his own flesh. The arrowhead comes out whole, the blood so dark in the moonlight it’s black.
I stare at him in absolute horror.
“You idiot. That was plugging your wound.”
“I heal like you do,” Roiven rasps. He drops the arrow and its wooden shaft clatters on the stone. One-handed, the witch pulls at the bandages I’d used to stabilize the arrowshaft, tightening them over the wound. Now that they’re drenched in filthy salt water, the bandages will just burn and infect.
“LikeIdo?” Is he an idiot?
“Answer one question. Why are you doing this?” Roiven says. His voice is thick with something. Pain, probably. Or hatred. He lifts his arm and grips the bandage in his teeth so he can tie it tight. “Are you under an enchantment, too?”
“Why am I doing what? Defending myself?”
