Snake,Frelina thought.
“What?” Raine asked as he continued staring at the already healing mark—mesmerized by how damned right everything felt, and so fucking high from love it bested even the most potent liquor.
“I said snake!”
Something high-pitched worked its way into Frelina’s voice, but Raine didn’t fully register it as he responded, “I mean… we can choose a nickname for my cock if you want to, but I thought you hated snakes.”
“No!” Frelina snapped her fingers before his eyes, forcing them to her amber ones. “Snake. As in there are so many fucking snakes beneath us.”
Oh. Raine blinked a few times before the shadows of black coiling serpents materialized into real snakes, slithering their way out of the water and onto the cliffs beneath them.
“Raine.” Frelina’s voice shook. “What do we do?”
The disgust and hatred burned so bright in her mind, Raine thought it was his own feelings at first. He almost couldn’t stop himself from laughing when Frelina held a dagger so tightly her knuckles were nearly translucent, sidestepping from foot to foot, raw panic in her gaze.
The snakes stopped at the sight, and something… a memory from his time with Rioner tickled Raine’s mind.
These snakes had been bred to protect Rantzier blood. They had followed both Rioner and Alarin around like pups whenever Raine visited the castle and the brothers were there, barely letting their own guards get close.
“What are you doing so far from Vastala?” Raine asked, and he pursed his lips when Frelina gave him a hard look, her eyes so round he worried they might pop out of their sockets.
A hiss sounded as the dozen or so large serpents lifted their heads in unison, snapping their long tails in Frelina’s direction, then back to Vastala.
“I see.” Raine’s eyes softened as he followed their glittering eyes south, where Merrick and Elessia should just be leaving the lands Raine had grown up in.
“What do you see? What is happening?” Frelina had started to try to climb up higher, her voice so tainted by fear it quelled Raine’s final wish to chuckle.
“I think your sister sent them,” Raine said gently, watching as Frelina stiffened, her head turning his way again.
“Why?”
Raine studied the snakes for a moment, and somehow he knew he was right. “Because if she can’t be there to protect you, she wants someone else to be.”
Gratefulness tugged at Raine’s heart in that moment.He wasn’t surprised Lessia had thought to send whatever help she could, and now? Here? The snakes would be able to get them to the ships.
Realization dawned on Frelina’s face at the same time as the two largest of the snakes moved toward them, the wet, creeping sound sending shocks of disgust through her that made Raine turn away to hide his smile.
“No,” Frelina declared. “Absolutely not. I would rather die here.”
“Well, darling,” Raine responded, “I can’t allow my future wife to do that, so you better suck it up, put that knife away, and get on the back of one of these lovely snakes.”
There was heat in Frelina’s eyes when she bore them into his—and not the good kind. “Says the male with his trousers still down, showing his ownsnake. Maybe I have another use for this dagger.”
He couldn’t stop the laugh from bursting free then.
Raine laughed the entire time he pulled up his breeches, as he managed to convince Frelina “to get the fuck on,” and as the snakes started their slithering through the water, moving slower than the wyverns but so much faster than the ships—and more quietly, which was equally important.
Chapter 37
Lessia
Lessia hovered by the door, keeping one hand on the wall and one on her forehead as she drew breaths against the dizziness that had taken hold of her as she stood up.
She was glad Merrick had already left the cabin—apparently he needed to send a letter, given that Aixle had offered him one of his birds that lived behind the house.
After what they’d just heard… he didn’t need to worry more. It was clear from his jerky strides that he was already furious, and rightfully so.
Lessia was angry too. Angry that there were no clear answers. Angry that she’d been given this gift she’d never asked for. Angry that she was torn between what she believed was right and what she knew she needed. Angry that love—of all things—was what might kill her in the end.
