“You told me to bring her to you, and I was. She was injured when I found her.”
“And so you transported here instead of to Wyngel, an island with renowned healers, to tend to her?”
“I need your promise, Talon. That you won’t hurt her further. She is an amazing young woman.”
“Careful, Icarus. I might think you doubt my ability to care for a woman.”
Icarus cursed softly, but didn’t answer.
“Why does she matter to you? You imagine you could be her friend?”
“No, she’ll hate me for this. As she should. But if you swear an oath to treat her well, then I won’t stand in your way. I’ll go quietly, back to the others.”
Talon’s voice was a hiss. “What others?”
I paused, and I waited to see how deep his betrayal went. Would he tell his brother about Thorn, Kavin, and Altair? But Icarus replied, “My men. It doesn’t feel right to leave them alone on the island. Only two to sail the Younger Brother back to Wyngel?”
“Well, be my guest and fly back, Icarus.” I heard a short, mirthless laugh. “I didn’t think so. I was shocked you could fly all the way here. I used to have to bribe you to do flying lessons with me. You’ve been keeping up your practice on your own, then?” The king’s voice held a faint touch of nostalgia, or longing.
Icarus’s did not. “Why ask? Do you care?”
“Not really. Just making conversation until my bride-to-be stops feigning sleep and decides to talk to us.”
Shit. Wyvern senses must be strong enough to detect heart rates. Quickly, I made a rough plan. Thorn wouldn’t know where I had gone, so I was on my own. I had to get back to him, and that meant incapacitating the asshole who had taken me. But he was strong. I would need him to get very close.
I bit down on my tongue hard, and felt the hot, metallic rush of blood fill my mouth. A few drops dribbled out onto the deck, and I bit again, needing more.
“Talon, she’s bleeding. She’s hurt! Didn’t you check her?” I kept my eyes shut, listening to the sounds of struggle. When an arm lifted me from the deck, I took in the scent: it was the same one as before, harsh and overpowering with a faint floral note. I let my head loll back and my eyes roll when he lifted me, allowing the hot blood to drip from my mouth.
“I didn’t think I hurt her that badly. I only knocked her out—” The king’s voice was strained, but Icarus’s cursing drowned him out. Distracted him.
In a second, I had flipped over his arm, grabbed a dagger from his belt, stabbed him in the hand to get him to let go, and gotten free. My bare feet hit the deck, and I ran to the railing, prepared to jump.
“Stop, Roya!” Icarus shouted. Yeah, sure. As if I would listen to the man who’d betrayed me. But I was no more than halfway over the railing when I was yanked back onto the deck, Talon himself holding me in place while a brute of an Alpha wrapped me in rough hemp ropes.
My head was still spinning when they dumped me at the base of the main mast, tying the rope around it tightly.
Fucking sailors and their knots.
“I’m going to cut your balls off and feed them to the sharks, Icarus.” I struggled against the ropes that bound me to the enormous mast. My cloak was twisted behind me and tied to the mast as well, so I had no access to my best weapons. My boots were back inside my hut, so the slender blades I had cunningly hidden in the wooden heels were also gone.
I had grown complacent on the island. Trusting. I had neglected to put the steel garrote wire in my hair for two days, choosing to let my hair dry down after we bathed in the ocean. I was ashamed of myself, but anger was a more useful emotion than shame.
Anger gave me energy.
I glared at Icarus who stood on the deck next to his brother and used the only weapon I had left. “I swear on the Goddess, I will see you both suffer for this. I will choke the life from you so slowly, you—”
The king strode forward and struck out at me with one open palm, quick as an adder. My cheek exploded with pain, and my head whipped back, he’d hit me so hard. Incredibly hard, for so little movement. Of course, he was probably a wyvern like his brother. Maybe I shouldn’t piss off dragonkin.
Nah. Why change my basic nature now? “Fuck you,” I gritted out, spitting blood to one side.
The scent of my blood on the air made Icarus go wild, and eight sailors had to hold him.
“Shut your foul mouth, little Omega,” Talon spat.
Icarus cursed then, too, still fighting to get free and attack his brother. “Too little, too late, asshole,” I muttered at him, and glared at Talon.
He was a giant, dark-haired, bearded man with a missing eye, obviously younger than Icarus, dressed in clothing too fine to be anything but a king. He glared back, pressing a cloth wrapping around the cut I’d made on his hand. The men behind him glowered at me, most of them Betas. But two were Alphas, almost as tall and broad as Icarus.
