Page 38 of Lore of the Tides

Not long now. Lore almost smiled. Some of the sailors were starting to quiet, as their strength bled out of them. How fitting this was. For them to be the ones to die by a thousand cuts.

Relief coursed through her. She would have her revenge. And soon, this would be behind her.

Lore pushed her power outward, willing the fractal moonlight to finish the job and shred them to pieces, when a shroud of dark power enveloped her, dampening her magic. Lore struggled against the force, looking around wildly through a haze of shadows.

Syrelle.

The male was climbing over the railing of the ship, a thick, writhing vine clenched in his hands wrapped around the railing.

Now he appears?

Not in time to save her from being murdered by his guards and sailors! No, just in time to stop her from having her revenge. Fucking typical.

“Lore, end this!” Syrelle boomed from across the deck.

Lore growled in rage, urging her light to shred him, too, but he was shielded from her power. Her light reflected harmlessly off his shield and scattered like moonlight on water.

He retracted the vine and dropped onto the deck. He moved toward her, pushing through the sailors and guards scattered around him, his gaze trained on her as plumes of dark magic billowed out of his open palms, protecting him from her light. His magic shot outward like shadowed vines, writhing across the deck toward her.

“Get those away from me, Syrelle!”

“You are killing them! Stop this now. You will be forever stained with their slayings.” His voice carried over the winds, magicked to sound as if he were already standing right in front of her and not across the deck.

“They tried to kill me first!” she cried out, her voice ragged, haunted, even to her own ears.

“I know,” he crooned softly. “I see the blood on you.”

“Stop where you are,” she commanded. He was too close, gods. She needed to keep him away from her. She wouldn’t be... couldn’t be held by his magic again, robbed of her will. He was closer now. Her light was doing nothing to stop him; it barely slowed him down.

“It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Lore looked around frantically for something to hurt him with. She’d been trapped for too long, powerless, but in that moment, the power she’d siphoned from the sea beasts wavered, waned, and flickered out.

She did not have to see them to know that she had used up all theirSource. She had probably drained the creatures of not just their intrinsic magic, but their very lives in her efforts to save herself.

“No, no, no.” Lore shook her hands, trying to cast her magicagain, but it was no use, the ink stains on her hands had ceased their movement, no longer reacting to theSource.

Lore looked to the edge of the ship and back to the door leading to Finndryl and the grimoire. If she tried to race below and find them, Syrelle would stop her.

If she leapt over the edge, there was a possibility she could disappear and hide from him in Galjien until she could devise a plan to retrieve them. Lore turned and ran for the railing, but it was no use. Syrelle and his black vines were abruptlythere. A blur. From behind, he clamped his arms around her and pressed her to his chest. “I’ve got you. It’s over.” She bucked against him, trying to dislodge his hold, but it was as though he were honed from granite; she couldn’t free herself from his grip.

“No!” Lore shook her head, writhing. But his magic pushed into her mind, and she felt her struggles weaken and her muscles relax—no matter how hard she fought, she could not combat him without her grimoire orSourceof her own.

He wrapped her in vines, too tight to move, not so tight that they hurt. He was careful that none of them touched her wounds. Once Syrelle was sure that she was secure and wasn’t going to try to jump over the railing or rush him from behind, he turned around to survey the scene.

Sailors and guards alike were helping one another to stand. The deck was slick with their blood, and they were weak from blood loss, pain, and terror.

“We are saved!” someone called out.

A few cheers rose up in response, but mostly everyone looked weary. A few were crying, heaving sobs, as they tried to stop the bleeding on themselves or crewmates.

Lore had done this. With light. She’d managed to stop them from killing her, without her grimoire.

She watched them, her gaze unflinching. She was not sorry for their pain. She did not have it in her; she still burned with rage, andif given the choice, she would do it again, only this time, she would find a way to bleed them until the life drained from their eyes.

“Silence.” One quiet word from him and all quieted. There wasn’t a rustle of movement nor a whispered word.

“You disobeyed my orders, and you think I came back to ‘save’ you?”

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