The water around us brightened as I swam towards the surface, and the rays of golden light mocked my efforts. One last push and my head broke through the waves.
I gasped, hauling him with me. His body was heavy, dead weight in my arms, but I clung to him.
“No,” I whispered against his jaw, salt lingering on my lips. “You don’t get to die here.” For a heartbeat, the waves stilled. I pushed him up on one of the large rocks, pulling myself up next to him with shaky arms. His head lolled to the side. I gripped his shoulders and shook him. “Come on!” I begged, my voice cracking with an emotion I refused to name. I pulled a knife from his belt, slicing a deep gash across my wrist.
Gripping his face with one hand, I shoved the cut against his mouth.
For a moment there was nothing. Just the frantic beat of my heart. The pull in my chest as though my heart was about to break and the dull crash of the waves.
Then he coughed. A ragged, broken sound. The air rushed out of me in relief so sharp it almost hurt. Water spilled from his mouth, and when it finally cleared, I pressed my wrist back to his mouth. His throat moved with every swallow, my blood pouring into his mouth. His eyes sprung open, endless darkness staring back at me. He sat up, blood smearing across his mouth and chin as he shoved my arm away.
“Why did you do that!” I yelled at him, “You know the waters are cursed?—”
“You were in pain!” he shouted, his hands locking around my shoulders like restraints. “Ifeltyour pain and nothing else fucking mattered.” His eyes bored into me, holding me captive and threatening to devour me.
Darkness rose around us, tearing through me in a familiar, terrifying embrace as it tore me apart. Everything pitched into darkness for a moment until we burst into existence on the cliff that was above us. My scales prickled against the grass uncomfortably. That was the only warning I got before blinding pain gripped me.
Crack. Crack. Crack.The noise was more sickening outside of the water. A scream tore through me with each snap of my bones. Warm arms embraced me, holding me through each wave of pain. Just as I thought the pain was unescapable, it finally ebbed away. The only thing holding me together washisarms holding my now naked, trembling body.
“You absorbed the Relic, didn’t you?” the Commander murmured, running hands through my hair. He looked at me with fascination, but his lack of shock unsettled me.
“Yes,” I whispered into the quiet peace between us.
His arms tightened around me. “Hold on to me.”
His shadows tore through me again. My stomach dropped as I pitched into the darkness, blinking a moment later against the dull light of the room at the inn.
Thirty-Two
Surrender
The Commander lit a candle on the bedside table, as I stood there holding the blanket he had draped around my shoulders and dripping water on the hardwood floor.
The muscles in his back bunched with every movement, and the aching in my chest made my breath hitch.
“I cannot be killed, you know. Not even by the cursed water.” He paused and let out a heavy sigh. “Like you, I have tried to die many times.”
I gripped the blanket tighter, knuckles turning white at the seriousness in his voice. He was comparing us. A monster and a princess, and as much as I didn’t want to admit, we had more in common than we should.
“You thought I was going to die, didn’t you?” he asked, turning to look at me.
“Yes.”
“And you tried to save me?” he said slowly, mulling the words over in his accent as if he were worried that they would get lost in translation.
When I nodded and looked away from him, he took a step closer to me, and for the first time, I didn’t retreat.
“Why?”
“I’ve never been good at doing what I’m supposed to do,” I admitted softly. He grunted in thought, moving to light another candle.
“I was not soft enough to be a princess, nor was I strong enough to be a soldier.”
“That is because you are neither of those things. You are a goddess.”
My breath caught at the word.
He had known the whole time, hadn’t he? I composed my features and pressed on. I did not want to talk about what I was. “I’m not good at being your prisoner, either.” I took a slow step towards him, the blanket trailing on the floor.
