Chapter 31
Frelina
Her vision was blurry from tears, but it wasn’t the water that had her hands twitching to rub her eyes. She’d seen Raine train before—had seen him fight rebels on that island—but whatever he was now doing made her realize why so many Fae only whispered his name with a mixture of awe and fear.
She’d seen him struggle to get into the minds of the Oakgards’ Fae around them, had felt those thorns prickling him when he tried to find a weak spot, but Raine appeared to have settled for a different solution.
As soon as he managed to get himself free from the ropes, she realized several of the other Vastala Fae and humans around him had done the same, but as they threw themselves at the Oakgards’ Fae with a fury that left no room for fear, Frelina saw their eyes were glossy.
The humans’ and Fae’s movements were too coordinated—too perfect—and their strikes mirrored every single one of Raine’s as he slammed two Oakgards’ Fae’sheads together so hard the crushing of their skulls echoed through Frelina’s bones.
Raine was commanding them all.
A one-male army of perfect soldiers who were now backing the Oakgards’ Fae into a corner in the back of the ship. Maybe it made her a bad person, but she couldn’t help but admire the red-haired Fae who stalked in front, blood dripping from his mouth and coloring his sharp teeth red as he growled so loudly it felt as if the entire ship shook.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Raine snarled, his voice almost unrecognizable with its viciousness. “You come toourlands. You killourpeople. You hurtmyfemale. No.” Raine shook his head as the two Fae leaders halted a step before the five soldiers still alive behind them, their hands locked tightly as they stared at Raine under their hoods. “That’s not how this is going down.”
“You could have joined us.” The echo of voices of Fae and humans speaking at the same time—the eeriness of the voices Raine controlled—made a shiver trace over her shoulders, but Frelina forced herself to reach out with a foot, dragging a sharp stone toward her chair. “We could have lived peacefully together. Like we once did. But alas…”
Frelina moved both her feet, trying to grip the stone to lift it, when the cold that crept over her skin continued down her back, then over her legs, as Raine spoke again.
“Take off your hoods,” he ordered. “I want to look you in the eyes when I kill you.”
Frelina stopped her movement as the Fae did what Raine ordered, the male leader revealing brown hair so dark it was almost the color of Kerym’s raven strands,and raging green eyes that didn’t move from his mate’s face as she removed her hood as well.
Frelina caught the Oakgards’ female’s dark eyes as she rested a hand on the railing, the other lazily dragging through long red hair that was nothing like Raine’s flame-colored mane, but much darker, shinier, the shade almost reminding Frelina of spilled blood.
Frelina’s eyes darted to where Frecco lay unmoving, and she swallowed before shifting her gaze back to the defiant female with… brown eyes, Frelina decided, even if they almost looked the color Merrick’s would have been if he didn’t have those silver swirls.
The fucking female grinned at her, lifting her chin another inch.
A sharp noise left Frelina, one that had Raine stiffen before he shot her a look over her shoulder. She frowned when his eyes widened, his lips forming what she expected to be a curse, before something cracked behind her.
She couldn’t turn her head, but as Raine started sprinting toward her, she caught the female’s gaze once more, and the Oakgards’ leader threw her head back and cackled before she dropped her eyes to the hand she had wrapped around the wood and shouted, “I hope you can swim.”
A surge started deep in Frelina’s gut, flipping her stomach as her chair began falling backward, and the stone she’d kept between her feet bounced against the deck as she dropped it.
She’d been right by the portside railing, and Frelina expected it to catch her, but her chair just kept tipping backward until the legs of it slammed into the deck ofthe ship, the backrest tumbling over the side, starting a spinning descent.
There was no railing anymore. Somehow, the female had broken it all the way from over where she’d been standing—somehow she’d pulled magic from the wood in the chair to tip it.
That fucking b?—
Those were the last thoughts Frelina had before water sloshed in her ears. She hadn’t had time to draw a breath before her chair crashed into the sea, her legs and arms useless as the strong currents slammed her around in the waves until she had no idea anymore what was up and what was down.
Frelina swore to herself as white froth and bubbles blocked her vision, and she squinted, cursing again when something dark broke through the roaring water.
Something very dark. Something that the currents pushed her toward, all the while pulling her deeper down. Something that she’d be crushed against if she didn’t do something. Now.
Frelina screamed, making more bubbles form ahead, as if they could do anything against the towering black rock. Wiggling, she tried whatever she could to get out of the restraints, but the ropes were impossibly tight, the water making them even more restrictive, and tears spurted in her eyes when the little air she’d had ran out with her cry.
She didn’t know what would hurt most.
Choking or being slammed against the stone until she broke like Frecco had on that ship.
Neither seemed like a particularly good option.
Gods, she fucking hated the sea. She’d always hated it. The darkness. The impulsivity of the waves. Thecreatures hiding in it. Now she’d die by the ocean’s hand.
