“She was a mer?” I question, looking upside down at Moyrie. I find my stomach starting to quake, so I take my time sitting up. She offers me her hand. My cloak—Moyrie’s cloak—that I borrowed is gone. The thin strips of material covering my body are now see-through and waterlogged, clinging to my naked form, my nipples peaked from the chill in the air. I hug my chest, grasping my broken hand with my good one, a wince crossing my features at the sharp stabs of pain.
Moyrie seems to have lost all of her clothing, unfazed by the turn of events.
“I have only heard stories, but from what you described, she is probably a mer. I have heard tales of them being multicoloured with sharp claws and teeth, with slits in their skin that help them breathe underwater.”
I never saw slits in the pink-haired woman’s skin, but I definitely saw and felt the sharp claws and teeth. “Why didn’t they just kill us?”
“Maybe they wish to interrogate us?” Her shoulders come up and down. “I don’t presume to know what goes through the minds of such savages.”
I almost want to laugh, considering I once thought the princess before me was a savage, with her scaled body and thin eyes. She is akind of resplendent I would never have known if it wasn’t for my need to fight for my people.
My people.
The whole reason I’m here.How will I help my people if I’m stuck in a cage? This is all happening because I needed Fury’s help. Look where that has gotten me, caged and broken in a dark, damp underground lair.Water trickles around us. It doesn’t stop the sudden ire that moves through my stomach, startling a groggy Argus awake.
When I lay eyes on that daemon God, I’m going to throttle him with my bare hands, broken bones be damned.
A wash of embers tears through my heart at the thought of the God who has put me here, reaching out and sizzling my limbs, finding a clear path down one half of my bond, raging towards him. Argus perks up more, his nostrils flaring. However, for the first time, I notice no fire spurts from my make-believe dragon. No, this time, it grows from me, from the vestiges of my heart. My dragon smiles, resting his head back down before his cave, a deep understanding in his eyes as I see my strength come back to life.
“Dove?”A relieved, pained, almost-cry works through me.Does he care?
“Of course I fucking care, Pet. You shut us out.”I didn’t know I could do that—shut him and Rivern out.
In my anguish, I once again locked the doors of my heart until the inferno of my soul had forced them wide open. Even my body feels stronger with this new fire in my veins.
“Don’t expect an apology because I barely had any idea what I was doing. I only just woke up.”If anything, he should be grovelling at myfeet, not admonishing me for shutting him out when I was being taken captive.
A grumble comes down the line.“You’re hurt.”It’s a statement, so I don’t answer, which only makes him more agitated.“Now you have reopened the connection between us,I want you to focus on the bones in your hand knitting back together.”
“That’s it?”I question.Surely, just imagining my bones working their way back together won’t fix my broken hand.
“Just do what you’re told, Pet.”His tone is trite, like he’s dealing with an unruly child. My waterlogged boot itches to stamp down. Instead, I breathe through my anger, focusing on my painful hand.
Trying to forget the hole in my heart that is unmistakably shaped like a certain fae prince and dyre wolf shifter, I focus on the fine bones within my hand, imagining my fingers calcifying together. At first, nothing happens, but after thedrip, drip, dripof nearby water lulls me into a state of deep concentration, the pain in my hand suddenly grows worse.
“GODSDAMMIT, ORION.” I fall to my knees, screaming. Moyrie comes to my side, asking me what is wrong, but I ignore her, the pain all I can focus on.
Black eyes swim in my vision.“It’ll pass, Pet. Use the pain. Turn it into fire.”
I breathe deep, wanting to ignore Fury’s suggestions.
It’s hard.Too hard.My instinct is to push the fire that builds in my chest and coat my hand in one final anguished wash of rage, so I follow it, letting Fury’s power rush over me.
Squeezing my eyes tight, I release my hand. Stretching it slowly out, I find it fully mobile. The once broken wrist and finer bones are perfectly formed as if nothing was ever amiss. I sag forward.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”Fury is joking. I know he is. I feel the tight beads of worry down the bond at my condition. His joke lands flat.
“I fucking hate you.”I don’t know where it comes from. I’ve never felt this type of rage where it spews into hate-filled speech. Fury brings it out in me.
“What sweet words of love you whisper to me, Pet,”his voice lingers over the oversensitized parts of my skin. I clench my teeth.
He is sick.
Fury is exactly what I imagined—a daemon.
And I fear he is taking me straight to hell with him.
My core is wet for a whole new reason now. A deep thunder comes down the bond, rousing a need I never want him to suspect… One I never want to admit.
