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“Not for long,” I yelled back. “Take them.”

The Alpha army put their foul god’s torches to the longhouses as they retreated, though a dozen of the Alphas stayed as well. I waited until the raft and canoes were far enough out to sea, then waded ashore to face them.

I still had battle rage coursing through my veins, a boy to rescue, and a mate who was getting farther away with every moment.

There was no time to waste.

RADA

It was too quiet when I woke up. Not just around me, though the only sound I could make out was the dripping of water. But quiet inside my mind.

My bonds were silent, as if all my mates were sleeping. But that couldn’t be right.

Lusca didn’t sleep. Krakens hibernated on the deep ocean floor. And my kraken had admitted that he wouldn’t need to sleep for thousands of years, if ever again. “I slumbered for many centuries. Why would I give up a single second of awareness, now that you are in the world?”

I took in my surroundings, trying to remember what had happened. I’d been knocked out with a powerful drug by the longhouse just before the rescue operation. Edan had used some other priests’ bodies to speak. He must’ve used his hands to put a blindfold on my eyes and tie my hands and feet as well.

Not that I was worried about a few bindings. But I was naked. There were cushions under me, the fabric slightly rough, but the pillows comforting. My dagger was gone, along with the many small stones and shards I’d tucked into my clothing.

More worrying, the faint cramping in my core that had woken me began to grow and swell, and when a warm gust of air blew across my body, it became a stabbing pain below my waist.

“You’re awake.”

I blinked behind the blindfold. “Serak?”

“For now.” His voice was subdued, but sounded healed.

“Where are we?”

“A room Edan built for you. It’s new. He had his minions fill it with everything I told him to.” Guilt colored his tone.

“Pillows and dried fruit?” I asked when he went silent. “You didn’t try all that hard to court me on his behalf.”

“I didn’t,” he admitted. “But he found out what you needed anyway.”

Something heavy pressed on my heart, and my throat pulsed. “What do you mean?”

“When my courting didn’t work, he stole into your mind and took your secrets. You taught him all he needed to know. What he was doing wrong.”

“I don’t understand.” I coughed, my throat too dry to speak properly.

“Drink.” A warm hand slid under my neck and lifted me up, and something that felt like the lip of a clay bowl touched my lips. I drank, the water only slightly sulfurous.

“How did he steal into my mind?”

“After he marked you. When you slept.”

I fought to stay calm. “All right. What do you mean, what he’d been doing wrong? Is he not possessing you right now?”

Not that I would believe him if he said no. I assumed the blindfold was to keep me from seeing who I spoke with. It had to be Edan, though his hands felt cooler than Edan’s, and the sadness in his voice was all Serak.

“Do you remember back in Turino, when you poisoned me?”

“With candellia. I apologized, Serak. Are you still holding a grudge?”

He laughed softly. “I didn’t need you to apologize. Those months, knowing you, watching you interact with the queen’s children, playing chess with you⁠—”

“Flirting with the parlor maid in front of me.” I scowled into the blindfold.