“She’s worthless,” someone said.
Nyssa almost tripped over her feet.
Her stomach dropped when she looked up.
A hundred people had lined the beach to watch them, torches in some of their hands.
“Never rely on any other than our own,” another said.
What was left of her pride vanished until there was nothing left of her but a hollow shell of a Princess desperately trying to avoid reality.
One by one, she watched the people shake their heads, glaring through her, and then they turned away to go back to their homes.
Worthless.
The word echoed, and she nearly fell to her knees again.
—The water sloshed.
Violently.
Something reached out and latched on to her insides. Screams from the beach sounded behind her. She thought she heard her name, but the sight of what rose from the water startled her frozen.
Fangs.
Yellow slitted eyes.
It was the only thing she saw before the sea serpent’s great slithering body wrapped her up.
She was pulled off the jetty and beneath the water.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE GREAT SNAKE'S body only had to wrap her once, but the weight of it around her made her lungs struggle more than they already were. The circumference of the beast encapsulated her from her feet to her breasts. She’d hardly had a moment to take in a breath before it pulled her under.
Down into the darkness.
Nyssa struggled against its wrap. She pushed on the iridescent black scales and kicked her legs in the hopes she could break herself free. But it was no use, and she knew she would drown if she didn't do something fast.
She had to try and reach it.
Beneath the water. Away from the Noctuans and the eyes of the people. No noises except her own head and the weight of the water.
The ocean. One of her favorite places to be. This... This she could maybe do.
This shehadto do.
She didn’t really have a choice.
She remembered the way she had reached the Noirdiem and the Ulfram with Dorian the week before. She just needed to touch it. Push what she could into it and open up her heart.
Exhale the fire, sister.
Nyssa pressed her hands onto the beast.
And she let go.
She let go of the fear of hearing grief and rage. Let go of the tears inside her, of the hold on her insides and mind. She opened her core and pushed into the beast every blissful moment she could find in her head. Trying to make peace with the serpent and let her know she would not harm her. To show the creature love as it had not felt from a Lesser being before.
