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Kallie jerked her head toward the direction in which the sound came from and her heart sank. Two soldiers stood at the back of the stern, wiping their hands on their trousers as they turned away from the railing. They saluted Sebastian and walked off.
She shoved past Sebastian. He shouted her name, but she didn't turn back, didn't stop. She needed to see it for herself. She needed to know what that splash was. As much as she didn't want her intuition to be true. But her brother's body no longer lay on the floor. All that remained was a puddle of blood smeared onto the old wooden boards.
She pressed herself into the railing, the metal slamming into her gut, but she didn't think about the resulting pain. Everything already hurt anyway. She could only think about what she saw in the water.
Ripples formed on the surface of the sea, spreading as the boat began its slow descent away from the shore. And in the center of the ripples, a hand bobbed on the surface, then a body.
Fynn'sbody.
They hadthrownhim overboard as if he was an empty barrel of rum that the sailors no longer needed and had thus discarded. As if he was unnecessary cargo rather than a human being.
Her stomach turned.
As the ship began to push away from the shore, his body floated over the waves that crashed into it and headed toward the shore. The water darkened around him.
And a hysterical laugh left her lips.
Kallie wanted to scream. She wanted to shout. She wanted to yell at Sebastian and his men. But her throat was dry. And then someone out on the shore screamed for her.
At the edge of the shore, not even fifty yards away, two figures stood on the beach hidden by the shadows of the trees. She squinted past the layer of dried-up tears coating her eyes. One of the figures collapsed onto their knees, shaking. Screaming.And Kallie knew who it was even with the moon casting a shadow over their features.
Dani, who knelt on the sand as she watched the love of her life, her husband, her partner, her soulmate ride the waves of the Red Sea. His body mutilated, destroyed. The beauty stripped from him. His humanitystolen from him by Frenzia's soldiers.
Kallie wanted to reach out for her, for the woman she had grown to care for over the past few weeks even though she knew she shouldn't have. She wanted to jump over the railing. Drop into the water, let her knees crash beneath her weight as they hit the sand for the woman who was by law, her sister. And in another life, her best friend.
But instead, Kallie remained pressed up against the railing.
The second figure crouched down beside Dani, wrapping her into their arms as if they could shield the pain away from her. The moon's shadow hid the person's face. Since the two figures melted within each other's forms, it was hard to identify the figure's body.
Fynn's body floated closer, and Dani shoved the other figure aside and ran to him. Water sprayed all around as she stomped into the water, her arms in the air to balance herself. The fish beneath the surface scurried away as the woman shook the sea.
When she finally reached him, she raised a hand to her face, and Kallie could have sworn she saw it shake in the darkness. Knee deep in the water, a scream caught in her lungs as Dani looked upon the man she loved. Her knees gave out, the water scattered and sparkled in the moonlight, tears falling from above. Her scream pierced the night as she pulled him closer, his head cradled against her chest.
The second figure then joined Dani. The broad shoulders, the lean build were all too familiar. As he came closer to Dani and toward the ship that began to sail away into the wild sea at a painfully slow pace, Graeson stepped into the light. His sun-kissed skin glowed under the moonlight, his dark hair covered in ash dulled its normal sheen. And those eyes, even with the sea separating them, pierced her soul.
He would never forgive her for bringing the enemy to their shores.
He would never forgive her for the destruction tonight had brought onto innocent lives, the destruction of his homeland.
He would never forgive her for the death of his best friend, Dani's husband, the next in line for the throne. Herbrother.
And she didn't blame him for that. She didn't hate him for the rage she knew boiled in those iron-clad eyes.
It was never supposed to be like this. This wasn't a part of the plan.
She hated what tonight had brought. She hated that he had distracted her from her original plan. Because as the ship pulled away and the three figures in the Red Sea shrank into the distance, Kallie knew it would never be the same. These weeks would be a distant memory and nothing more.
These stolen moments together were never supposed to happen.
Soon, the scent of smoke and whiskey surrounded her, and a heavy hand pressed against her shoulder. Her heart skipped. The familiar scent coated her senses, cocooned her. She would know it anywhere, but she hadn't expected it to be here on this ship. She hadn't expected to be in its presence so soon. Not until she had returned at least.
"You did well, Kalisandre."
Shivers ran down her back. Those words, despite everything she had just seen, despite everything she had to work through in her mind, brought a small smile onto her face. Those words were filled with honey and soothed her aching heart.
Those words were what she had waited for her entire life.
And as she turned away from the shore and looked into those deep brown eyes, she saw the pride that swam in them.
