Page 109 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

After days of lending the use of their arms and hands as a punching bag, bruises covered the limbs of both men. Dimas sported a shining eye, and a heavy scrape graced the corner of Kye’s mouth, raw and angry. But they grinned at each other, shaking out their arms, driving heat into their muscles.

The air changed around us, our attention piqued as both men readied to strike. Dimas flexed his fingers.

“Nine fraggs on my cousin,” Leal said, twisting a peanut and popping it into his mouth.

“Maybe if Kye was drunk,” Aren muttered.

Elbow propped into the nearest rock, Hadrian smiled. “He favors throwing his weight in his right hip, Dimas. Focus on taking out that knee.”

“Shut it,” Kye said, mouth curving.

“Make him spin,” Diara added. “He’s slower when he’s twirling.”

“He only twirls when he’s fighting two at a time,” Aren argued.

Leal turned his head, ejecting a peanut shell. “We’re waiting.”

Dimas burst forward, fist extending in a blur, but Kye was already swerving to the side, deflecting the attack with the shin of his arm. Dimas struck a second time—punch, swipe, dip. They sprang away from each other, bounding lightly on the balls of their feet, the gravel crunching under their weight.

“Stop flirting,” Aren called out.

Dimas shot ahead, fists aimed low at Kye’s stomach. Kye braced it with his left knee, leaning in to grab Dimas by the elbow, yanking him in close. Dimas thrust his hip to the side, trying to pivot away—but Kye’s grip was too tight. He threw Dimas to the cold ground, gravel flying under the quiet man as he slid between Kye’s feet.

With a grunt, Dimas chopped the back of Kye’s knee with a hard wrist. But Kye was already on his way down, pinning the center of Dimas’s chest with a bent leg.

Wind knocked from Dimas’s chest, he coughed and sputtered, slapping Kye playfully away. They rolled in opposite directions, tossing insults back and forth, hands held out to each other as they both stood. Kye’s eyes twinkled as they swept to me and rebounded away, rotating the sapphire ring over his thumb.

Cheater, I mocked, shaking my head. You’re as slimy as Olinne says you are. Take that ring off and give Dimas a fair chance. Did Nori even actually—

A shadow surged overhead.

It covered us like a cloud, snuffing out the sun’s rays in a single pull like a shroud thrown across the sky. Black and shapeless, it vaulted east toward the mainland, the City of Towers, as if Darkness himself had defied the laws of day and night.

I slid off the stone ledge, the hair at the back of my neck standing on end.

The sky began to caw.

49

Maren

“What is this?” Aegir voiced the question in my head, watching the crows fly toward Calder. “The nearest landmass is a hundred miles away. Another continent. Where did they come from?”

“Spies,” I murmured.

“Why would he send them to watch us?” Aitne asked, sliding from the rock she’d been nestled over. “Why not just use Pheolix?”

As if we expected to find his eyes sharp and mean, our collective attention turned to the drone. But he hadn’t changed, his gaze just as clouded as it had been the moment before.

Still, he lifted his hands in surrender, as if even he didn’t trust himself. “I’ll leave if it makes you feel better,” he said softly.

“Thaan’s not spying,” Selena cut in, watching the crows overtake the sky. “He’s sending a message.”

Sharp screams just south of the island—Naiads scrambling onto shore. The Venusians who had been watching us from the water.

“Don’t look,” Selena warned the humans, an anxious frown shading her eyes.

They turned away, shoulders rigid with tension. Aegir stalked toward the sound, but Sindri was already there. He turned toward Aegir, calling across the barren rock. “Drones. Headed east.”