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“Did you love him?”

“I could’ve, if we’d had time together. I’ve always thought… Well, Serak’s a good man, but E—” I broke off, not wanting to say his name. “The fire god, the one the Omegas call the one who watches… He’s evil.” Something like shame washed through me. “He’s a god, but he’s using Serak to make my body respond. He said he’d give me until the new moon. Kellin, when he touches me, it feels like I’m going into heat.” I held my left arm up. “He burned off Goran’s tattoo.”

“Does it hurt?”

“No, but it pisses me off. This is my body, damnit!”

His breathing grew louder, and his grip on my hands was almost painful. “Rada, my queen, please let me take you to safety.”

“You know I can’t.”

After a long moment, he rasped, “Can you prevent your heat?”

“I think so. I gathered some herbs today for an Omega who’s making a nest. But I took some, too.”

He didn’t speak again, but pulled me forward gently to lay kisses along my brow and cheeks, then my lips. His hands shook on my cheeks, and I wasn’t sure if it was seawater or tears that I tasted, but the pure affection he lavished on me almost broke me.

The darkness was the only reason I could speak my next words aloud. “I’m afraid, Kellin. The Goddess isn’t with me, and that’s my fault. If I go into heat and accept him⁠—”

“I will destroy him. I would kill him for touching you, but for frightening you? I will destroy him.”

“He’s a god,” I whispered, knowing I needed to go, but afraid to leave. What if this was the last time I had to spend with Kellin? “I don’t want him, but when he touches me…” I let out a shuddering breath. “He’s said he’ll wait for the new moon to force the issue, but he’s going to check on me before it comes. So I don’t have long to figure out how to steal every one of his prisoners and get the hell back home.”

Kellin’s voice was raw. “I can’t leave you here, Rada. Please come with me. We can flee; we can swim to where he can’t reach you.” I couldn’t see his face in the darkness, but his fear pulsed through me.

“Don’t forget, selkie. I’m an excellent thief. I can steal the fire out of the maw and be home by suppertime. Sneaking out to build some rafts, and stealing a couple dozen children and Omegas? Child’s play.” We both knew I was lying, but he let it go.

“Five days.” The sliver of moon chose that moment to appear again, and I looked up at it, though Kellin’s eyes never left me. Something in his gaze settled me. Confidence, maybe. But also pure devotion. “Four nights after this, then on the fifth, tell them to come when the tide begins to rush out, three hours past sunset. Bring them all.”

RADA

The Omegas took the news more calmly than I’d expected. Of course, Mirrim was the one who started telling the others what to do and preparing a nestlike carrier for Rielle, who was still sleeping. She woke up once that day, crying out for help. I wondered at the wisdom of keeping her sedated for five more days, with only short breaks for water and soup.

Hells, I would be committing an even more foolish crime sending her to sea at the beginning of a heat, but there was no other way to save her. When Mirrim asked if she wanted Frol, even in her heat-blurred state, Rielle panicked at the mention of bringing him to her. She clung to me all afternoon, and I had to take off my cloak and promise she could keep it before she would take more of the medicine. Finally, she slipped back into a deep sleep.

“You’re just like your mother,” Mirrim said quietly that night, as we watched the sweet-faced Omega breathing. “As beautiful, and maybe more generous. That cloak is more than a piece of cloth to you.”

I nodded. “It was my identity for a long time. Almost a friend. When I wore it, I knew I was protected, if not by the Goddess, then by the poisons and blades I kept inside it.” I sighed, knowing it was time to go. “Maybe it will help her feel protected on her way to Starvale.”

If she lived that long.

I whispered goodnight and slipped out the door, padding across the beach to the iron fence. On the hill above, a flame burned outside the barracks, but the moon was behind a cloud, and I was hidden in the darkness. I slipped off the disgusting sealskin shoes and flexed my toes. I was up and over in a moment, and moving soundlessly through the jungle the next. I found another large obsidian shard by the stream and picked it up, knowing I’d need something to cut vines to bind driftwood into rafts.

The jungle became beach between one step and the next, the waning crescent moon gleaming weakly over the black sand. Five more nights after this one, and it would be the new moon.

“My kingdom for a sword,” I whispered, too quietly for anyone but myself to hear.

Though someone answered. “I’ll give you my kingdom for a kiss, ma bohinya.”

I whirled, the shard in my hand falling to the ground as I leaped into my husband’s arms. “Goran, you gorgeous idiot. You already gave me your kingdom.” He opened his mouth to reply, but I was already kissing him, his pine and musk scent comforting me.

I’d never relied on him to protect me, but knowing he was here to fight beside me began to unravel the ball of tension I’d carried in my gut for the past week.

“I’ll give you another one,” he murmured against my lips when we finally stopped to breathe. I ran my fingers over the braids that lay over his shoulders, finding the beads I’d put there, the gemstones that I’d given him when we made our vows long ago.

“I’d rather have a raft,” I admitted, my core clenching as I reminded myself of the task at hand. My legs were wrapped around his massive waist, and as I loosened my hold on him, I wished my torn trousers and his robe didn’t exist.

Wait. “Where did you get a priest’s robe?”