Page 157 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

A crack of light flared as he said the words, summoning a blurry memory in my mind. Maren, swathed in her island bark at a captain’s table, swearing herself to Thaan, the promise of murder in her gaze. I didn’t have time to reflect further on it—Aegir called a thin stream of water from his pool, letting it wash across the dais before me, the clean shark tooth tumbling to a stop near my hand.

My eyes swerved to his. “You’ll release Maren first.”

His attention was on his thumb, rubbing his fresh cut against his other fingers. “She will be released today. You have nothing to fear. I swore it in my blood. Our agreement offers my colony no protection should she attack to save you, so I’ll hold her until our deal is finished, I think, and absolve her of that particular temptation.”

My blood spiked, heat crawling over my skin. I hadn’t realized Aegir would force her to watch as he fucking killed me. “Give her back control of her body at least.”

“I will. After we are finished.” Aegir ignored her, even though she stood between us, fuming. “I’ll take your Sola gift now.” He pointed again to the tooth.

It was ancient. A souvenir from some creature that lived thousands of years in the past, almost half as large as my hand. Small, sweeping waves had been carved into the root, which I held like a flat hilt. I ran it gently over my wrist, considering which vein to open. A little half-moon weal under the heel of my hand, my eyes drifting to it.

Dark hair and shining night-sky eyes. A vineyard of frost, the taste of winter greens on my tongue. The sound of laughter in my ears, soft and sweet like drops of honey.

I’d held myself together until then, a commander negotiating for a prisoner from the enemy like a business transaction, holding the thought of trading my own life away behind a barrier of stone. A trick I’d learned in my youth, where emotions were a weakness and rationality a weapon. The scar unraveled that barrier like it had been constructed of sand, crumbling under the stroke of my thumb.

I breathed in, and it hurt.

My chest refused to expand, even as I pulled air in. It tightened instead, a serpent coiling around my torso. I finally let myself look at her, locked behind Aegir’s command, and though I hadn’t yet drawn blood, my body was already bleeding.

“I love you,” I said.

She didn’t answer, but her eyes had locked into mine, staring at me like she was trapped underwater, struggling for a surface she’d never reach.

The edge of the tooth was cold against my vein. I only sliced a fingernail’s length, but my blood welled faster than I’d thought it would, streaming like a lightning strike over my forearm and dripping to the floor. My eyes closed, and I thought of the power within my blood. The blood of Aalto, once King of the Sola.

I offer my power to Aegir of the Venusian Sea, I thought to myself.

When I opened my eyes, my blood ran gold. The glow under my skin had brightened to a burning radiance, fully awakened at the words. A fucking taunt if I’d ever seen one, that it might stir to life now, even as I couldn’t reach it myself, at the mere thought of giving it away.

A goblet waited in Aegir’s fingers. He held it under the stream like a fountain, my drops of gold dispersing like luminous clouds of dust as they fell into the silvery wine. Aegir swirled it softly before lifting it to his mouth.

The moment it touched his lips, my legs buckled.

A woozy tide swept over my head like I’d been struck by a hammer, the throne room tilting, swimming oddly around me. Someone made a choking sound, just beyond my sight, and I couldn’t see who. I leaned into the cool ledge of the dais, but it only took a moment before I was too weak to do even that, and I slid to the floor, landing hard on an elbow and knees.

I watched the light flicker under my skin and couldn’t remember why.

It all turned strangely around me, revolving like the sun crossing the sky. The floor was smooth under my fingers as I slumped into it, though I wasn’t sure if it were floor or wall or ceiling. I wished it would still so I could stand.

A knot wound in my stomach like a cord, pulling me forward.

I forced my eyes open as the spin began to slow, watching as a man with braids in his hair and oceans across his chest gazed in wonder at his open palm, the air above his fingers melting and vibrating like waves of heat.

That’s mine, said a voice in my head, though I didn’t know why I’d thought so.

No, it answered just as quickly. You gave it away.

The man looked down at me, the awe dissolving into flat tolerance. “Are you dying, human?”

Was this what dying felt like? I had died once before, I thought, but it had been fast. Sudden, like a crystal vase shattered on the floor or a candle flame lashed by wind, alive and then destroyed within a single moment. The man reached for a large white tooth, holding it like a knife as his eyes left mine. I let my gaze trail his, clumsily pulling my attention to the person standing beside him. A young woman stared at me as tears stained her cheeks.

She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever laid eyes on. The world darkened around her, but she shone like the moon in the evening sky, stars in her dusky black eyes.

“Please,” she said, the word wavering like she’d spoken it miles away. I realized they’d been talking to each other while watching me, and I tried again to push myself up. There was no strength left, just a slick pathway of shimmering gold, a puddle expanding around my body. Shame fell across me like specks of ash, dusting my cheeks and lashes. I’d found the most beautiful woman in the world only to flop over the floor at her feet, too feeble to even speak to her.

“I’ll free you to hold him as he dies,” the man said, clamping silver cuffs over her wrists. He stepped back, angling the tooth-knife at me as if he didn’t trust her.

But she didn’t even spare him a further glance. Her body convulsed, snapped from rigid iron to flight like a horse breaking from its tether. She dropped beside me on the floor, gold staining the silver of her dress, and gathered me into her lap. Her fingertips swept the hair from my face as she turned me to look at her. “Are you in pain?” she asked, which I found strange—she gazed at me as if she were lost in a sea of agony.