Page 69 of Unrivaled
My head spun.
They turned back to me, laughter in their eyes.“It’s a joke, princess.We looted a ship adrift nor-nor-east from here.Full of plagued bodies.I’ve got plenty more like this one that I’m going to sell you, but it hurts to look at someone with such beauty crushing themselves into,” they waved a hand to the west.“Expectations.”
Their eyes ran up and down my body—not in a suggestive way, but as if they were measuring me.“There’s two kinds of predator, Audrey.”They walked over to the table where the jug of tisane sat before the empty hearth.“One that camouflages itself and strikes when their prey is unaware, and one that announces how dangerous it is loudly and takes what it wants.”They poured us both a drink.“Your camouflage is so bad I could see it from leagues away.”
But it wasn’t.I wouldn’t be alive if I couldn’t camouflage.
I settled in the chair, taking the drink they’d poured me.“You got the children.”
“I got the children,” they agreed.“There were more than I expected.Younger, too.Older ones must’ve been protecting them.”
“Can you tell me?”I asked.
Elnyta obliged, kicking one leg up to rest their ankle on their knee, telling me about the seas, the good conditions, the way they’d slowly coaxed out the scared children.I listened while I turned the camouflage comment over in my head.
I’d lived under my father’s nose all this time by making myself small.I presented only what he wanted to see: the worst parts of myself, the malleable parts, the vulnerable and foolish parts.It wasn’t an act.An exaggeration, mayhap, but not an act.And that brought me shame, that Iwasn’tpretending to be scared of him, or feigning overwhelm when he called on me.
The thought of crushing myself down to be that person again made me feel sick.
I could do it.I knew I could.
But…would theybelieveit?
And, if they did—could I live with that?
“I’m sorry to bore you,” the Captain said.I started.
“You didn’t.”I reached out without thinking, squeezing their hand.They’d removed the rings from their fingers or opted not to wear them today.“I was thinking about what you said.”
“About how I saw nothing but you from across the waves?”they asked me, swirling their drink lazily.
The delightful fizz of anticipation low in my belly was lovely.But the twinge I felt behind my ribs was…unexpected.
“About the camouflage,” I admitted, choosing to be honest.
“Damn,” they sighed, but there was no real disappointment in their tone—nor the laughter I expected.“Did youwantto be an orca, then?”
The question made me revisit my knowledge of the sea animal.They were predators, and efficient; I wasn’t sure if they were ambush predators, but, going off Elnyta’s context… “It’s safer.”
“Don’t know about that,” they drawled.“Krakens are pretty safe, princess.”
The idea made me laugh.“Am I a kraken?”I asked them, amused.
“No orca I’ve ever come across has taken a whole city,” they told me, topping up their drink.
“And you’ve come across a kraken who has?”
A quick, small wink was followed by, “Do I have some tales to tell, if you’ve got ears to listen.”
“You won’t call me a siren?”I asked, enjoying the change in tone as I tried to pull myself back.“Hypnotic, beautiful?”
“Why would I tell you something you know?”they asked, scoffing.“T’would be a waste of time, and that’s not my intention.”
“And yet you’ve been so well-mannered, sitting over there, regaling me with tales.”
They tilted their head.“A princess ought to go first.”They straightened their leg and, with their empty hand, patted their knee.
The anticipation was there, coiled tightly within my muscles.The set up was perfect.But for a moment I was back in the orchard, the wind howling outside and the cold sinking its talons into my soul.
