Page 104 of The Hunted

“They are different, Eryx.”

“How so?”

“One is devotion to another soul. The other is devotion to your own.”

He swallowed before he nodded once. “Fair enough. I have something for you.”

If he wanted to change the subject, he was free to do it. Besides, they had forever to discuss the rest, and tonight didn’t need to be the night when they ripped it all open.

When he asked—and was truly ready—she would tell him anything he wanted to know.

Passing by her in the passageway, he headed into the bedchambers. She turned to watch him go but didn’t move from her place. She was surprised to find him press against something on the small table next to the bed, which made a drawer pop open. She hadn’t noticed that when she’d been snooping earlier.

Then, he pulled out something she didn’t recognize at first. It flattened against his hand, the ends curving a bit. Two inches wide, the leather was a buttery brown with an engraved design flaked with gold. The metal clasp at one end and the holes in the other told her exactly what the item was.

A collar.

It wasn’t so much what it was that bothered her but rather, the metal spikes on both ends that glinted under the flickering candles when he came to stand in front of her.

“The spikes,” he explained, “will fit into your gills and fill them in such a way that they will not be able to open. You will change when the sea water enters your lungs, but you will not be able to breathe. It should discourage you from heading into the water—a prevention method, if you will.”

Horror filled her the longer she stared at the item. A memory flashed through her mind—one of his mother and the metal collar that had been around her throat. She hadn’t been able to breathe before Poe had killed her. It was a terrifying thought that they could be in their natural form, and yet, unable to breathe as they should.

“On Atlas, it is the law that your kind wear a collar,” Eryx said, his hands grabbing both ends as he held the leather wide like he was offering it to her. “You’ll need to wear it until a permanent one is made. This took longer to arrive because of the season, and because I needed it made quietly.”

“Permanent?”

“Those cannot be removed once placed.”

“Like your mother’s.”

A harsh sound escaped him.

Arelle let out a shaky breath. “Do you expect a fight?”

“Maybe. I have a feeling you don’t need the collar to begin with, and I’m not particularly fond of them myself, but I’d rather not draw attention to myself or you at the moment.”

She smirked, her gaze lifting to meet his. “Put it on me, then. It’s the law.”

“Not even a little fight?”

His dark smile had her shivering.

“No.”

“Why?” he asked, fitting the collar around her throat at the same time. The spikes were uncomfortable at first as they fit into her gills; their flared bases did exactly as he said they would. “You fight everything else.”

“The purpose of this is to kill me if I run away, yes?”

“If you go in the water.”

Arelle nodded. “But see, you can’t kill me now. No matter how much you hate me for what you think I did—and you do still hate me. No matter what you want to do to me … you’ll never be able to kill me.”

His fingers stilled at the back of her neck as he fit the one end through the metal clasp of the other.

“Not unless you want to die, too,” she added with a little shrug, “because that’s the bond, and you needn’t love me for it to be, remember? I may want to please you because of it, but you still need me to do so, Eryx.”

Forever a give and take.