His scent enveloped me.Even as the Bazrian Seven filed into the darkness with me, I could pick him out from among all the rest.
He smelled like too many things at once to name, the combination strangely familiar, as if we’d known each other for ages when I’d never met him before.
I would never forget anything about an enemy—and Alobaz had been my enemy long before he murdered my brother.Before he conquered my kingdom, my home, and my subjects.
Alobaz had become my enemy when I’d been trapped under the ocean, leagues away from him.The very moment he’d been rebirthed into the Rubor Dynasty, he’d become my mortal enemy.My sworn adversary.A villain in my personal saga.
The D’Arcos and Rubors had hated each other for thousands of years.Since the royal families had first alighted on their respective shores, when the Rubors had immediately envied what the D’Arcos had already claimed and tried to take it by force.
Rafaela had dispatched me to kill Rubors—whenever it was possible to pick them off without obvious culpability—and those who supported them more than any other group.If Alobaz hadn’t killed Teo, I still would have found myself hunting him eventually—after careful planning and surveillance, after my edge had receded enough to quell my temper.When I wouldn’t have made the mistakes I made this time—rushing to claim my chance, risking everything without a backup plan…
Alobaz stopped beside the table that bore me.My body, which had scarcely stopped trembling since I first approached the abyss, settled into the occasional quake, my teeth finally ceasing their endless chattering.
My entire body responded to him.My skin pricked in sudden awareness, flushing with a welcome heat.
A lumoon surged to life in the palm of his hand, illuminating his face and those of the six soldiers at his back.The soldiers wore hard eyes, projecting accusation.
Alobaz, however, merely gazed down at me, his face a practiced mask I couldn’t penetrate.He’d asked his companions to save me.That, I remembered before the memories became hazy, dreamlike.
He wanted me spared so he could later enjoy my punishment.I had, after all, tried—and failed—to kill the commanding general of Junot’s far-reaching empire.
According to my books, Rafaela, and Marina, Alobaz was merciless.I had no doubt he intended to torture me.The slices across my waist that had done their best to split me in two were just the beginning.
The Bazrian Bitches stood like a wall behind him, filling the air with a combustible tension.Their muscles were clenched.
Alobaz only continued to gaze down at me, his eyes raking my body over and over, slowing to study my face and the wounds he’d inflicted.Without being able to look down, I guessed the cuts along my abdomen were long, pink, angry welts, a full day away from healing to completion.
“I guess I’ll have to do a better job of killing you next time,” I said, urging my hatred to dance across my face.
His eyes narrowed on me.His irises flashed, like the sun beaming the ocean swells they so reminded me of, then clouded over, a roiling storm threatening to thrash the sea.
Good.That was much better than the faraway look from earlier that I couldn’t interpret.Anger and loathing, those I knew exactly what to do with.
Aziza slid to Alobaz’s right and lunged for me, clutching a pair of curved blades the length of her hands.Mordaris.Blades rumored not to be of this world but to have been born in the Igneuslands, forged in its ever-burning fires, fueled by the long-suffering torment of its residents.Weapons not easily wielded.Deadly when used to their full capacity.Rumored to claim a piece of a person’s essence when they bonded with their owner.
One of the leaner males—Levin or Félix—caught her around the waist, careful not to get in the path of the mordaris.She growled like a jagune, as if she were as large as the fearsome jungle cat, and sliced at the open air in front of them over and over again.
“Whoa,” the male said.In the glow of the lumoon, his hair was a shoulder-length dark, rich blue.When it slid, it revealed ears that pointed into crests—but not as sharply as for the elves.This was Levin, then.
“Easy there, Zi,” he said.“We don’t wanna kill her fast.We wanna take our time.Make her pay for what she did to Baz.”
Baz.
I detested the nickname.It was too familiar, too friendly, for a mass murderer who’d ravaged all of the Opalese.
Aziza growled again, then screamed as she murdered the air instead of me.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, babe,” Levin said with a grunt as Aziza attacked her invisible opponent with full force and he fought to hold on to her.“Keep some of that for later, when you can really rip into the cunt.”
Levin pointed a mean smile at me, showing the tipped points of his fangs.“Enjoy the show.It’ll help you envision just a tiny taste of what’ll be coming for you later.”
“No,” Alobaz said.
“What?”Aziza, Levin, and the other female, Edwidge, squawked.
“Whaddya mean, no?”Levin said.
“I mean, no,” Alobaz said.“No one’s to hurt her unless I say so.”
