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“I choose to believe your actions rather than your words,” Azar snapped. “To me, you are as treacherous as the goddess.” He must have summoned the other Astra; they appeared behind him, one after the other.
Scowling now, Rathbone lunged, grabbed Neeka by the pinner, and teleported her—hmm. They were still in Harpina. A place called Last Stop Island, in the middle of the Broken Sea at least a hundred miles from civilization. A strong wind blustered, whipping tornados of sand through the air. Icy raindrops trickled from a cloudy gray sky.
Rathbone released her as if she were toxic and peered out at the choppy waves beating upon the shore. For a long while, neither of them spoke. Dismay began to fray her nerves. She wasn’t going to enjoy what happened next.
“The Astra was right? You lied to aid me?”
She read his lips in profile, and she knew. He was decidingherconsequences.
Hope withered inside of Neeka. But she squared her shoulders and marched onward, unwilling to backtrack. She’d chosen a path, and she would walk it out. Moving in front of him, she said, “I’ve never lied to you. I’ve always told the truth.”
A muscle ticked beneath his eye. “Have you ever used truth to misdirect me?”
Raindrops splattered over her face, and she swiped them off. “Yes. Often. And I’m not sorry I did it, only sorry I hurt you. So very sorry.”
A long while passed without a word from him.
“Say something,” she beseeched.
He did. The death knell. “You’ve forced me to agree with my enemy. I cannot trust you. And if I cannot trust you, I cannot keep you.”
Her heart and stomach traded places, both curdling. “In my defense—”
“You have no defense,” he interjected.
Oh, but she did. “I’m trying to save our lives! That’s the best defense there is.”
“You’re trying to saveharpylives, and you’re doing it while scheming to cause the eternal death of someone I considered my fated.” Absolute, utter rage glinted in his eyes.
A cold sweat beaded on her nape. “Not just harpy lives,” she whispered, her wings buzzing beneath the pinner. “I’ve seen you die twice. No telling how many other times I’ve seen it and forgotten.” In for a penny, in for a pound. “That’s not all. I’ve attempted to use a mystical elixir to override your bond to Lore with a stronger bond to me.” Keeping secrets hadn’t done her any good. “You didn’t drink it, though.”
Rigidity descended over him. The kind of stillness that gripped a predator just before an attack. Again he lapsed into silence, which told her plenty.
Neeka flinched. They were over before they’d started, weren’t they? “I won’t beg you to forgive me.” She’d tried that with her mother and gotten nowhere. “Do you believe me about Lore’s evil at least? Or do you still want her?”
“What do my feelings for her matter? I don’t want you,” he snapped.
Ouch. That cut deeper than expected. Fighting a sudden well of tears, she clasped his shoulders, desperate for some kind of connection with him. More desperate to make him understand. “You know me, and I know you. You’re strong and loyal, and when you aren’t flaying my character, you’re fun.”Do it. Tell him the rest. “I doubt Lore is your fated because I think... I think you are mine. My consort.”
He jolted as if she’d struck him. But he didn’t speak.
“Rathbone—”
He shrugged her off, the finality of the action worse than any physical wound. “You didn’t complete your job, so you won’t receive your payday. If ever you approach me—don’t approach me, harpy. You won’t like what happens if you do.” That said, he vanished, leaving her pinned and weaponless, fully vulnerable.
The fight drained from her, and hot tears gathered, stinging her eyes. Rejected. Again.
As if the storm had waited for her total defeat, it opened the clouds and deluged the beach with hail. She didn’t move, just stood there, getting hit, bleeding inside and out. Another male had washed his hands of her. Granted, she’d contributed greatly to the demise of this particular relationship, but wasn’t she worth a battle or two?
A harpy-mermaid pierced the surface of the water. The first of many. Neeka groaned. There were at least twenty with an assortment of sharks thrown in the midst. The army displayed unmistakable glee. They must sense her weakened state.
Harmaids despised harpies without tails. Or anyone. They were basically feral water cats with scales.
A vibration behind her. Rathbone? Hope sparked as Neeka spun.
She wilted. “Oh. It’s you.” Her mother sashayed through the island foliage, grinning. “Have you come to gloat or kill me?”
“Gloat,” Grenwich said. She stopped at Neeka’s side, but true to her word, she didn’t strike. “I enjoy seeing you this miserable. Things will only get worse for you when I find the remaining bones.”
