Page 148 of Crown of the Courtesan

My breathing becomes labored as I’m rooted to the spot.

Why is it so hard to breathe?

My esophagus tightens.

Seawater bursts from my lips, and I drop the sword.

Ashland cradles me, his grip tight, yelling to Valora, “She’s drowning⁠—”

“The fucking bond…” She sneers while looking through her spyglass at the wreckage. “The princeling is drowning. If he dies, so does she!”

Ashland lets out a string of vile curses as I taste seaweed. A pressure builds from my head to my straining lungs as water spurts past my tongue, coating it in salt. Valora is right. I am drowning.

No.

Rett’s drowning.

We’re both drowning.

Nothing makes sense. Everything hurts.

A piercing whistle rends the air, and Ashland pulls his fingers out of his mouth. Two shadow hounds growl by his side before leaping over the ship’s edge and disappearing into the waves.

My knees fold.

Strong hands catch me before I hit the deck. Ashland lifts me into his arms, holding me against his chest.

My eyes bulge as my thoughts go to a dark recess. Maybe this would help get him closer to ending his family’s curse, and both of our kingdoms will rejoice at my death. Perhaps they shouldn’t save me at all…

Silver irises lock onto mine. Tightening his embrace, he demands, “Breathe!” Shadows drape around us like a shroud of smoke, filling my nostrils, slinking down my throat, linking me to the breath of his lungs.

I gasp, drenched in his power and essence.

But it isn’t enough.

His desperate face grows more blurry by the second.

A crash of paws lands on the deck as the shadow hounds drop an emerald body at my feet with a vicious growl. Valora takes me from Ashland’s arms, supporting my limp form the best she can.

I begin convulsing just as Ashland rolls Rett onto his back and brings his fist down onto his chest; a cracking sound splits the air. Water sprays from Rett’s mouth, and he moans.

At the same time, burning liquid streams from my nose, and my throat ejects the last of the seawater until I fall over on my hands and knees, coughing next to Rett.

Sixty-Two

Rett’s bloodshot eyes shoot to mine, the veins in his neck bulging as he struggles to normalize his breathing. “I never should have trusted a whore to be my wife. You’re exactly as my mother warned. Conniving. Self-serving. And to think, I bent over backwards to provide you with everything you could have ever wanted, and yet you flee from me. You ruin everything just like a lying, ungrateful slut running to her next gullible fuck.”

Ashland readies his sword, but Valora stops him with a sharp shake of her head. “Do you care to lose a tongue, boy?” he snarls at Rett.

I flinch and cough. “You can say whatever you want about me, but you drugged me,” I cry hoarsely, my lungs still burning with salt. “You pretend to be different and kind, but you took my choice away with that nectar. You tricked me into doing and saying what you wanted!” My eyes sting with hot tears as something fractures inside me. I slowly realize who has been offering me restraint and who has been forcing me this entire time. That it matters to me, even if I didn’t know how much until now. “The Beast Tonic on coronation night was made from Mellonia, wasn’t it? You’ve been trying to control me since the very beginning, haven’t you?”

“I’ll fucking kill him.” Ashland brandishes his sword, making Valora hold him back as he snarls, “Release me now.”

Rett’s face blanches. He turns to the crowd of sailors watching our exchange. “I know exactly who caused this. There’s only one person here manipulating her—making her run away with him.” Jumping to his feet, he faces Ashland. “Filling her head with lies using his shadow magic.”

“The Witch-King isn’t making me do anything that I don’t want to. I chose to leave with him willingly and without coercion. Why is it so difficult to believe that I simply don’t want to be your wife?”

Something in my words calms Ashland, and he tucks his blade into his scabbard, stretching his shoulder muscles in circular motions as if he itches to pull the weapon back out. “She answered you,” he says evenly. “Speak to her again, and I’ll have the crew gag you.” He clenches his jaw before spitting at Rett’s feet.