Page 36 of The Ocean's Heart
Vaarin cried out again, but this time, the sound was filled with pain. My stomach clenched hard, and I peered around the edge of the cabin to see several cloaked figures surrounding something. The figures stepped back, forming a loose circle, and my heart squeezed in panic at the sight of Vaarin lying on the deck, his hand clutching his bloody chest. His lips were bloodless.
“Come out, Princess,” the Obsidian Pearl said, their unified voice swelling to fill the cavern. “Come out or he dies.”
Vaarin let out a raspy laugh. “She’s gone, you fools. In safe waters by now. You lost.”
“Then there is no use for you.” The crackle of power singed my senses as they prepared to attack him once more.
He lifted his chin, defiant, prepared to die, and something inside me snapped and broke. My own defiance. My own will. The shell that lived around my heart.
“Stop!” I stepped into view, sword held loosely at my side. “I’m here. Let him go.”
They could have me. It didn’t matter.
Vaarin’s head snapped my way, his eyes wide with shock. “Thalia…No….”
I wanted to tell him the truth then, that all was not lost, because I wasn’t the savior he thought me to be. That it didn’t matter whether I lived or died. But these bastards needed to believe otherwise.
“Let him go, and you can have me.”
Laughter, low and resonant, filled the air. “There is no reprieve for the sea king.” One of the cloaked ones pushed back his hood. “But you may watch him die.”
It was him…the cloaked sea fae that had attacked my ship. “You…”
“My brigands mistook you for dead, the fools. But blessings of the deep ensured that you live. Your blood will fuel the true gods.”
“Leave her be!” Vaarin cried.
The sea fae released a jet of power that hit Vaarin in the chest. He convulsed, eyes slipping closed as he fell onto his side.
Dead.
“NO!” My scream shattered the silence.
He was dead. Like Bryony, like my crew. Dead, all of them dead, and this fucker, this cloaked bastard was responsible for it all.
A tsunami of rage swelled inside me, eclipsing all reason, all thought. I attacked, senses in a red haze of fury, not caring whether I lived or died, wanting only vengeance. Wanting only the bastard’s head. All their fucking heads.
My blade found its mark, slicing and stabbing, but they refused to fall. Their laughter rang out to mock me, fueling my impotent rage.
“Why won’t you fucking die!”
“You cannot harm us with mortal weapons, human. We are almost gods, and we cannot be put down by mere steel.”
Amidst the fray, I caught a glimpse of Vaarin, still and pale in death, and by his side, glowing and pulsing, was his trident.
His weapon.
A sea king’s fucking weapon.
I ducked in time to avoid a blast of red power. It hit the cabin behind me with a soft fizz.
They wanted me alive, so that blast must have been some kind of disabling power. I had to get to the trident.
I feigned left, then went right, slicing at a cloaked one’s throat to force him out of the way, then ducking to avoid another blast of power before sliding across the deck toward Vaarin’s weapon.
“NO!” the Obsidian Pearl cried. “It will kill you!”
My hand closed around the weapon’s hilt, and a pulse of power rocked through me, fire lancing down my spine, stealing my breath so that my scream was nothing but a strangled gasp.
