Page 177 of Storm and Sea

Leo’s fists clenched at his pants until the fabric burned in his hands. He wanted to jump into the waves and let the rocks beat him to a pulp.

“Answer my question, pet. You know how I loathe waiting.”

Adrenaline spiked, and a cold sweat broke over Leo’s brow.

“The beach. With the necklace. Standing by Signore Marcello,” Leo gritted out through teeth clenched so tight they might crack.

“Ah, the fishmonger’s stray. Interesting,” Alvise said, smiling through another puff. “Such a beauty. And right under my nose. How interesting.”

And before any shred of self-preservation could stop him, the words spilled from Leo in a desperate yell.

“You can’t have them!” And he supposed he was a masochist because once the words escaped, he couldn’t stop the flow. “They will never be yours. You have nothing on them. No power. They don’t owe you a fucking thing.”

The smile on Alvise’s face slowly slid into an expression of sinister neutrality.

“Come down here.” When Leo didn’t move right away, Alvise sighed as though he’d spent all his remaining patience. “Edgar is in the hospital. Sprained wrist. Bump on the head. Scraped bruises.”

“Don’t—”

“I’m sure the famous Doctor Romano must have missed something, fool that he is,” Alvise said, flicking the ashes. “Perhaps a broken ankle. Maybe a missing finger. Maybe two. I’ll have one of my men check, just in case.”

Leo slid from the rock, feeling his clothes tear as he descended haphazardly. When he stood beside Alvise, the smell of spices and smoke singed his nose. Alvise took a long pull and blew the smoke directly into Leo’s eyes. As he blinked, eyes brimming with tears, a searing pain erupted on the side of his neck.

“Scream, and you’ll draw attention to us,” Alvise warned.

Leo held in the cry as the cigar’s white-hot bud pressed into his flesh. It was over before the smoke had time to clear.

“My estate. One hour.”

Alvise left him on the beach, his half-used cigar burning in the sand. Leo clutched at the side of his neck, whimpering with pain. He slid against the rock until his knees hit the sand. The burn was only the beginning of what was to come. He’d pay for his outburst. Leo trembled, his body already rejecting the promise of more pain. The suffering. The humiliation.

He looked into the surf, watching the various shades of green heads bobbing up and down with the waves. Leo searched them frantically, hoping to see a flash of scarlet. A blood-red fin. Slitted eyes that saved his life once before. But there was none.

Nobody was coming to save him now.

With one hand still clamped over his swelling neck, Leo rose and walked to the valley.

Alvise’s obedient pet.

The Marca Stella burned between his fingers, its wisps of smoke stolen by the ocean breeze. Nephi took another drag from the small cigarette, savoring the burn in his lungs.

He’d barely restrained himself while watching his little brother’s stunt on the beach. Atreus had let that oversized human get way too close. Things could have gone south fast.

If it had been Nephi—if he had Spirit’s blessed weapons fused to his body like the other halfling—that human would’ve lost his head in two seconds flat.

His time on this island was up. He’d known it the moment Bluey leapt over the edge to save the little boy.

Idiot.

Yet, hadn’t Nephi been the idiot first? Hadn’t he done the exact same thing? And for what—more heartache? More pain? Maybe the Spirits thought he hadn’t suffered enough, that he needed to endure more before his soul left this mortal plane and departed for Thalaren.

If he was meant to suffer, he might as well find answers. Answers to the questions that haunted him since before his fins matured.

I know where she is. I could find her. Even if it’s just to hear her denounce me.

But what good would it do to track down his birth mother? Donato had taken him the moment he was born and fled. If the RaMaa had found them, they would have killed Nephi—baby or not—then his mother.

Even now, nearly three decades later, if her Leviarch ever learned she had broken her vow, she would be executed on the spot.