Page 87 of The Song of the Void

I heard another, quieter whimper before Vaetrik withdrew his sword, only to stab my dearest Human friend twice more in the stomach before kicking him to the ground. The sound of flesh ripping made sickening warmth rise from my stomach up my throat.

Vaetrik chuckled. He chuckled.

All the breath and life left my body in one scream that could have torn my vocal cords to shreds.

Vaetrik slashed at me as I scrambled backwards in the gravel, flicking bits of warm liquid from his sword onto my face.

I touched the droplets that landed on my cheek. Blood. Ash’s blood. It dyed his chest and the gray rock around him in a languid, spreading pool. Gasping, labored breaths that were too weak filled the cavern as Ash reached for his gun. His scarlet-stained hand shook, but he was fighting still. Fighting to live. Fighting for me.

Vaetrik stomped hard on his wrist, and with a gruesome snap of bone, destroyed any hope of Ash grabbing his weapon.

The entire world around me was a haze. All I could focus on was Ash’s pained gasps and the blood. All the blood. I had to help him. I could slow his bleeding if⁠—

Vaetrik stood between us. There was no way around him to get to Ash.

“Please…Please let me save him. I have to save him! He’s just a kid!”

“There’s no saving him,” Vaetrik said. “You can sit there like you always do and watch him die.”

My nails bit into the flesh of my palm. I got to my feet, pointing my rapier at Vaetrik once more. When our gazes met again, I saw his change.

He knew I wasn’t the spineless, naïve Siren girl he had fooled time and time again. He saw the fury that blazed inside me. Not even for my misfortune at his hands, but for the way he hurt my dearest friend. And he knew I would be his end.

So, Vaetrik tried to come at me first, sending a wild swing of his cutlass at my stomach that I danced backwards to avoid. He slashed at me so haphazardly that it was easy to dodge. All I had to do was keep walking backwards. The wooden bridge creaked beneath my boots as our blades finally met with a clang of metal, one that had my rapier trembling like a blade of grass. The pool of water surrounding the dock bubbled, but I didn't hazard a glance at it.

“Give up, pet. It’s over for your friend, and it’s over for you,” Vaetrik panted, glaring at me over our locked blades.

I shoved his cutlass away and stabbed at his throat, blind to his smirk of victory. He sidestepped and swung his sword against mine with such power it almost felt more like a metal club. The weight and strength he threw into the attack shattered my rapier into pieces that clattered onto the dock and rolled into the pool. I stumbled backwards at the edge. The water behind me churned. I tossed away the useless handguard and yanked my Obsidian knife free, my one remaining tool to keep him from winning.

He inched closer.

There was nowhere for me to go—nowhere but the water.

I faced Vaetrik, my expression set in defiance of his cruelty. “You made me fear you all this time, and yet you are the one who should have feared me. I'm a sister of the Abyssal Deep, untameable as the waves. I have never once been yours to claim, and no man like you will ever make me feel like nothing again.”

There was no way he was afraid of my knife, but he hesitated for a moment, and a moment was all I needed. The roiling water around us heeded my call and rose in a wave taller than either of us, crashing over us and sweeping Vaetrik and me into the pool.

It was murky, bottomless, and unquestionably hot. Vaetrik struggled and tried to swipe at me, but the water slowed his movements pathetically.

Finally, I had the upper hand. I glared down at him as he moved to swim for the surface, but with a flick of my finger, the water dragged him deeper, deep enough that the shadows in the depths began to writhe and move. With one push, I shot up close to him and slashed my knife across his throat. The cloud of blood billowing into the surrounding water and that horrified stare—they felt like rewards I had been waiting to see for years.

He struggled for a moment, slamming his hands against the wound to stem the flow of blood, but it was pointless. His mouth fell open, a bubble of air leaving him as he went still. The hat he always wore drifted upwards to float atop the pool. Those shadowy, skeletal hands grasped at his arms and body, dragging him further and further into the depths, leaving behind a trail of red-stained water. Wiped from the earth forever.

The water scalded my skin and eyes as I swam for the surface and pulled myself back onto the dock, for once relieved to be on dry land. My steps were unsteady, as if the world tilted, but I staggered to Ashkade’s side.

Blood drenched the front of his shirt and vest and trickled out of his mouth, despite the dazed half-grin he gave me. His eyelids drooped, half closed.

“You’ll be alright. I’ll slow the bleeding.” I gently set my hands over the gaping wounds in his stomach and chest, pleading with the water in his blood to slow. A cold shudder swept through my body.

Too late.

Heat built in my eyes, but I rubbed at them with my wrist to make it stop. “I’m going to have to put physical pressure on them to⁠—”

“Better this way…I think,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Even if I didn’t get to…”

“Shut up. It’s going to hurt, but I can⁠—”

“Nothin’ made me happier…than bein’ a family with you and Rei.”