Page 52

When I recovered, I would reward her loyalty.

Rada pulled away, an older, one-armed Omega helping her to gather up a bowl that had been beside the fire. It pulsed with pure energy and smelled of strengthening herbs, blood, and magic. Rada took the malachite bottle and added the contents to the mixture along with a few drops of my blood, cooking it a bit longer. “That was all I needed,” she grumbled. “Didn’t need to risk yourself on the dry.”

As she poured the final blend into another shell and stirred it, I took in the other occupants of the room, righteous fire kindling in my heart as I noted the signs of lifelong abuse and starvation.

“Drink,” Rada murmured, holding the shell to my mouth. I did, and power flowed into me, filling me, restoring me. I could almost feel it attacking the share of the dagger’s poisons that I’d taken on, though Skadi’s poisoning was far more severe. “Drink more,” she urged, and I obeyed.

The mixture was rich, intoxicating. It was a combination of herbs, her blood and mine, and seawater. I closed my eyes, suddenly trembling, but not with weakness. The tonic raced through my blood and body, lighting me on fire with a cold flare that felt like lightning striking the sea.

I exhaled mightily, thoughts flickering in my mind. I needed to take care of my mate, and these women. Feed them, strengthen them for their journey…

A shout came from the door. “Fish! So many fish!”

I fidgeted as Rada glared at me. “What did you do, Lusca?”

I swallowed, the taste of the tonic still flaring on my tongue. “Ah, I only wished to feed our hungry friends.”

The older woman with one arm stepped out from behind a curtain. I could sense another Omega there, unconscious and smelling of dying roses and burned vanilla pods. This must be the one who was in her heat cycle, though the sweat gathering on my own mate’s brow and the glossy sheen in her eyes made it clear her own was not far away.

Shame washed through me again. I had failed to protect her, believing in my arrogance and pride that fighting the ice god for his insult to her was more important than staying by her side. I was the reason she was trapped here, weakened and marked by evil.

“I am sorry, beloved. I should not have fought Skadi. I will never leave you again. I will live my life atoning for my terrible mistake.”

A flicker of grief in her gaze was followed by a taunt. “You can apologize with treasure and honeyed cakes. And by not calling my other mates idiots.”

“I will not call them names, even if they earn them,” I promised, just as two Omegas came into the longhouse, carrying a five-foot-long halibut between them, the older Omega following behind.

“All right, Emperor, that’ll be quite enough. There’s ten fish this size, and more flinging themselves onto the rocks. If the guards spot them, they’ll know the fence is damaged.”

Rada snarled. “By Her holy hangnails, Lusca!”

“Ah, I apologize. It was an errant thought.” I sent a command to the orcas carrying Skadi outside the reach of the hot currents to chase away the remaining halibut, as I could now sense a school of at least two hundred swimming at top speed toward the beach outside.

“The tonic’s working,” Rada stated, pouring a few drops more into my shell.

I drank it eagerly, ready for the kick this time. I used a bit of the new power to encourage a mist to cover the beach and hide the fish there.

“That’s enough for you,” Rada muttered in Starlakian, taking it away. “Let’s leave some for the ass god.”

“Ass god?”

I didn’t understand what she meant until she murmured, “Ice god, ass god. Both fit him perfectly.” She translated her joke to the others, and the beautiful sound of a dozen giggling Omegas filled the room.

“How did you learn to make this?” I asked as the women carried the fish to the door and butchered them outside in the concealing mist.

“Blood medicine? You’ve seen me do this before.”

“No. This is different. This is far more powerful.” I’d helped Rada create tonics when we met, in that blissful year together. I knew she used drops of her blood in them, and I had seen the effects of even a few sips on poisoned humans. But this tasted of the sea. I stood and stretched my arms high, touching the ceiling of the longhouse, and flexing the muscles of this form.

For some reason, the young sea witch closed her eyes and squeaked, “I saw nothing.”

The older Omega whispered, “The Goddess has blessed you indeed,” to Rada before slipping behind the curtain to attend to the suffering Omega. Had she been looking at me?

I glanced down. My cock had responded to the scent of my beloved as it always did, hardening almost painfully.

I tried to muster enough magic to create some sort of clothing over myself, or a belt of concealing tentacles, but the effort alone had me losing my balance again. I’d felt strong before, but the new energy was being drawn from me as fast as it had rushed in.

Drawn from me to Skadi, to fight the poison in his veins. As my perfect mate would say, fuck.