Page 92 of Her Cruel Redemption

Before I could retort, Goras reached us, panting quietly as he pressed into the shadowy crevice beside me. His eyes darted over the docks, scanning for any sign we’d been noticed.

‘Last one,’ Dorne murmured.

The soldier hesitated, his hand gripping the edge of the post he’d been crouching behind. I bit the inside of my cheek, willing him to move. Every second he hesitated felt like an hour. Finally, he bolted. His boots struck the boards too loudly, a frantic rhythm that echoed over the water. My stomach clenched as I spotted something I’d been dreading: a beam of light arcing over the docks. There were guards approaching.

‘No,’ I breathed. My fingers twitched with the instinct to summon my power, but Daethie caught my arm, her grip firm. ‘Wait,’ she whispered, her tone sharp enough to cut through my panic.

The soldier made it to us, barrelling into the shadow, his breath coming in shallow gasps. We huddled closer together, holding still as we listened for the pound of boots, the cry of voices demanding we give ourselves up. But when I finally caught the sound of voices, they sounded at ease, though they were drawing closer.

‘—too bloody cold for this tonight.’

‘Yer jokin’, right? Time we send you home to toughen you up a bit. Yer mother’d be cryin’ with shame.’

‘Shut up, you old pickaxe. Just because I’ve spent half my life freezing my balls off doesn’t mean I need to like it.’

We drew further into the shadows, back into the alley. I pressed myself against the wall. There was nowhere else to go. They were about to walk past us. If they turned their heads to peer into the dark, we were done.

The sound of footsteps stopped. ‘Where’d Emmet and Herrin go?’

Shit. The two guards currently floating in the harbor. I thought of the smears of blood on the pier. If they went looking, it wouldn’t take long to realise there were people on this dock who shouldn’t be. The footsteps began up again, and slowly two figures meandered past the mouth of the alley.

‘They promised me a game,’ one of them continued. ‘If they’ve fucked off before shift change again, I will damn well report them this time.’

They passed by, their voices drawing away again. We waited in tense anticipation for a stretch. My shoulders knotted with the strain and my feet ached from crouching low. I didn’t realise I was biting my lip until I tasted blood in my mouth. Ihatedthis, the waiting. The feeling of being at the mercy of mere notice. And magic was already tingling beneath my skin, rising with the expectation to use it.

A light flashed on the water. The signal! I sprung out of my crouch, but Dorne grabbed at my sleeve, drawing me back down.

‘That isn’t ours,’ he hissed, gaze glued to the rapidly flashing light, brows drawn together. And I realised what he meant as distant shouts broke out along the docks. Our signal was three quick flashes, then three minutes of darkness, before the pattern repeated in case we hadn’t seen it the first time. This blinking light was too sharp, too bright. Drawing too much attention. Designed to alert the shore patrols to trouble on the water.

One of our boats had been seen.

I swore as the noise of activity on the quay rose. A figure darted past the mouth of the alley, then another. A bell began to clang. Dorne was having a whispered conversation with one of the other men, their words a fast, tense hiss. What were they doing? We had to act! We couldn’t just crouch here, waiting to be caught!

‘What now?’ I whispered at Dorne when he turned to me.

‘We retreat. Find a way off this dock.’

‘And abandon the whole plan?’

‘It’s too late to do anything else now.’

Too late?I couldn’t accept that. Our boats had been out in the harbor for ages. Surely they’d spread enough oil and tarred enough hulls that we could still set the fleet alight.

‘We should try to ignite the oil. If we retreat, we’ll likely be caught, and this will all have been for nothing.’

‘We don’t know that they’ve even managed to spread enough flammables. If we attempt to light it, we might only succeed in giving away our position.’

But the anticipation was already thudding in my head. I could feel that insistent demand pounding in my chest.

Strike, strike, strike.

And now I’d risen from my crouch and my feet were moving in time with it. I could feel it rising, feel it burning through me, clawing against my skin, angry to be caged. Demanding release. Dorne tried to grab at me before I could reach the mouth of the alley, but he jerked back when magic surged into him at the contact, releasing a small yelp. There was movement in my peripherals as I crossed the quay. Men’s voices clamouring at me to halt. But I didn’t even turn my head. Out there, on that black slick of an ocean, oil was wafting around, catching starlight. Waiting for a spark.

Static began to build around me. I would give it more than a spark.

I raised my hands. Lightning leapt around me, a web of sizzling, crackling light, and I could feel the air around me responding, feel all that latent energy above coalescing, drawn to the vortex of magic spinning thick and fast around me. Thunder rumbled. The first bolt of lightning struck out on the water. Immediately, fire roared to life where it had touched, spilling across the water, bathing the surrounding ships in the flickering glow of flames. The next strike was closer to shore. The flames licked up the hull of a ship close to the pier, before quickly jumping across to the dock.

A sharp pain tore through my shoulder. I gasped, hand immediately going to the graze crossbow bolt had torn as it glanced across my skin. I looked around, finally paying attention to where I was and what was happening around me. Goras and Dorne and the others were around me, trying to fight off a thickening barrage of enemy soldiers who were stupid enough to be trying to attack me. The pain in my shoulder twined with the sweet, gnawing pain of the magic, feeding it, winding tighter and tighter inside me, sparking a rush of anger because they’dstruck me. The static fizzed at my hair, running along my skin, wrapping around me, crawling inside me and humming until my very bones thrummed with energy. Sparks crackled and popped up and down my arms. Everything was bright, blurry, like I was shimmering with an apocalyptic rage. I wanted themdead. I wanted them alldead.Another bolt struck the pier ahead of me, and this time the blast was so loud that it pressed against my eardrums like water rushing in, making them ache, the flare of light further blinding me. I blinked the glare away as the charge crackled through the ground beneath the dozen fallen soldiers, leaping up into their bodies as they screamed and spasmed. Others were staggering away from the blast site with their hands clasped to bloody ears, unseeing as they tried to stumble away from the danger.

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