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He doesn’t have a chance to react; my clone leaps through the door and onto his back, sending him to the floor. I know how to kill Boreans—pin their wrists, ensure they can’t use their powers. His mind control could work on me from this distance if I hadn’t already been blessed by the priestesses on Alamancia, but I’m stronger now than I was when Lamia had me in her grip.
And I don’t give him time to do much of anything.
My clone tears at his spine, shredding into his back, and he lets out one last gurgling breath as Elixir drains from him in buckets. What a waste…but once it’s been metabolized, there’s no point in trying to salvage it. I don’t join in the carnage, staring down with my clone’s eyes at where I’ve mauled him.
The clone continues while I seek out the comm station. Boreans need to be killed with a thousand cuts to ensure they have no more Elixir to heal.
I find the comm station just as another shudder rocks the ship, and then I hear the tearing of metal. The creature is truly upon us now—attracted by my attack and drawn to Xanthos’ power and the scent of Elixir, no doubt. If there’s anyone else onboard, they won’t be able to use this ship to pursue Fiona. I lean against the comm panel and finally dismiss my clone, that lost energy crawling back to me slowly.
I put my hand on the control panel and find the nearest signal…and I hail the Wrath.
Fiona’s face appears on comms, her eyes wide.
“Orion—is that you? I can’t see you.”
“It’s dark here,” I say, getting closer to the comm. “Listen—you need to leave without me. There could be other Boreans headed here, but I’ve laid a trap for them. I’m going to find a way out myself.”
“I won’t do it,” she says.
“Fiona,” I say quietly. “I’m not saying goodbye; there should be an escape shuttle somewhere onboard, and if I can’t find it, I’ll make my way to the nearest Merati refinery on the coast to rendezvous with Cressida’s fleet.”
It isn’t a lie; I know how to survive circumstances like this. But she’s used to saving her men, so I cut her off before she can speak again.
“Trust me, as I trust you,” I say. “You know that I don’t do anything by accident.”
Her mouth curves in a brave smile, and something in my chest clenches. My people aren’t supposed to feel this kind of heat, building in the pit of my stomach, expanding out to my limbs…but she’s always made me feel this way.
“Okay,” she murmurs. “I’ll see you soon.”
And then the signal terminates.
I have to trust that she’ll do the right thing.
A barbed talon punches through the ceiling, almost skewering me, and I know that time is up in terms of finding a shuttle. I race for where the escape pods would normally be held in the hull of the vessel, evading the stabs of taloned, tree trunk-sized feet through the ceiling. This ship will be nothing more than ruins in a matter of seconds, devoured by the forest, maintaining Scylla’s reputation as a planet of monsters.
But I am the victor of the Wild Hunt—slayer of monstersandmen.
And I promised my queen I would see her again.
So no matter what, I will.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
FIONA
I’m sick of them putting their lives on the line for me.
Dinner is…tense. We’re back in Merati space now, having escaped Scylla thanks to Orion, and it’s time for us to rendezvous once again with Cressida’s crew. We even managed to get a signal out to Cressida about Calypso’s planned betrayal.
She told me she’ll see to it that Calypso is taken care of.
I don’t know exactly what that means.
But we still haven’t heard from Orion, and I’m starting to think it may have been goodbye after all. Taln puts a cup of tea in front of me after we finish our meal, and I grip it nervously as I look around at my remaining men.
I can’t bear the thought of losing them.Not a single one of them.
“We should probably try to get going soon,” Kye murmurs from the other side of the table. “The hunter told us he would rendezvous with Cressida’s fleet…we should trust him.”
