Page 66 of Vengeance of the Pirate Queen

Thepanaceum.Thecuretoanyailment.JustwhatKayraneededtosurvive.

I was going to find it. I was going to steal it for myself. I was goingto keep my family together.

And I wouldn’t let anyone get in my way.

I know the memory isn’t mine, but I’m transfixed by it all the same. The determination and love of the owner fills my whole being. It’s akin to the warmth I remember feeling with my own family. That sensation of belonging gathers under my skin. It moves toward my chest, as though all the warmth within my veins is pulled to the very center of me, leaving my limbs numb from the lack of it.

Everything that I am, everything that I have—it’s all contained where my heart is.

And then it moves upward, a gentle tugging that I barely recognize, until there’s a pressure at my lips.

I wrench away so forcefully that I nearly drop my knife as it pulls free from the man’s skin. My eyes shoot open to find him sitting up now, and his lips were—

They were on mine.

My free hand wipes at my mouth while the one gripping the dagger prepares for another strike. Except that the last time that happened …

I halt the attack and instead back up from the tomb and the being now standing free from it.

“Sorinda, what is going on in there?” Kearan sounds exasperated, as though he’s been calling my name for quite some time. I hear ice cracking, and I think he’s trying to force his way down the tunnel, but I dare not take my eyes off the threat to check.

“Lourechnemconstrununmzchennuow.”

The words should mean nothing to me. I know they’re in a language I do not speak, but my mind offers the translation:Thankyouforfreeingme.

“Get out of my way,” I say in Manerian. No, not Manerian. The world is Maneria, and it is far larger than we ever even imagined. I am of the Seventeen Isles, so I suppose I speak Islander.

The being’s gaze lands on my mouth. His eyes constrict, his pupils growing a darker blue, and he says, this time in my language, “You taste like hope.”

“The hell?” Kearan asks, his voice echoing lightly in the cavern.

I want to repeat Kearan’s question, but the being in front of me is looking me up and down in a very uncomfortable way.

“I said move,” I say.

“My name is Threydan,” he says instead of moving. “We’re going to do amazing things together, Sorinda.”

“The actual hell?” Kearan says, “Sorinda, get out of there. What are you waiting for?”

Threydan eyes the tunnel over his shoulder, and I take the chance to attempt leaping around him, but he moves with me, keeping himself between me and the exit.

“He’s in my way!” I call back to Kearan.

“Then gut him!”

The man called Threydan says, “Yes, gut me.”

If I was hesitant before, I’m now determined to do no such thing again. I don’t feel right. It’s almost like being sick, with every limb weakened from the body’s fight with the disease.

Except, instead of feeling weak, I feel nothing.

Something is very wrong, and it happened after I stabbed him. What would become of me if I did it again?

I pull out another dagger, just so my free hand can have something to hold.

“You have nothing to fear from me, Sorinda,” the being, Threydan, says. He tries to approach me, and I bring my daggers together in an X to ward him off. He halts. “Tell me your heart’s greatest desire, and I swear to let you pass.”

The hair on my arms stands on end, and I am overcome with the need to get out of this roomnow.

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