Arms banding tight around her middle, Nyxarion clutched her tighter to his chest.
But Thalos pressed closer still. "The Chain of Breath begins on the next tide," he said, head tilting to the side. "I do hope the unfortunate creature has had her fill of breathing underwater."
He paused then, taking a breath of water perfumed by the flavor of something exotic. Hating the way his vent pulsed. That he sent another breath over his gills, just to claim another taste.
"Gills won't save her where we're going," he drawled, letting Cymareth's blade sing as he lifted it anew. And then, "Separate them," he ordered. Voice ringing with the full weight of his authority.
For a moment, there was silence.
Calm.
And then Nyxarion snarled, his roar of subsonic fury enough to lift the current. Sending the youths scattering into the dark, while the Siren's eyes snapped open. Terror shining in those beguiling depths. Delicious.
"What—" she gasped, dainty fins flicking as she tried to press back against Nyxarion. "No! I… I need…"
Grip growing tight, Nyxarion's fingers dimpled her skin. "Touch her, and I'll?—"
"You'll what?" Nerissa hummed, her aged voice cutting through the tension. Sharp. A single decisive blow that saw Nyxarion's spines flick. Cold. Heavy with frost. "Violate Spiral law? Here? Beforebothcourts?"
The Abyssari king went utterly still, then.
"Go back to your heretical kingdom," Nerissa murmured, ancient fins fluttering as she floated down to his level. To Kore. "Or finish your threat. Give me a reason, Korrides. Just one, and I'll end this charade and your bride will belong to the Hollow Court by the lifting of the next tide."
For a long moment, Nyxarion did nothing. Said nothing as he watched Nerissa from beneath a furious scowl. And then, tucking his fins, the Abyssari exile let himself drop.
"No—" The creature twisted, reaching for him with tiny webbed fingers. "Please… I can't… I need…"
"Take her back," Thalos said with a callous flick of his fingers. "Let her recover. She'll need the strength."
Already moving, gentle hands working to soothe the Siren's frantic pleas, Nerissa propelled her forward with a flick of her tail. "Hush," she sang, petting fins that were too frail. Scales that were too thin. "It is the law, sweetling. It shall be obeyed. Come now, hush."
Thalos caught Nerissa's elbow as they passed. His voice tight. Clipped. Too low to carry to any but her when he said, "Not a word, Nerissa."
Pale eyes flicked to his. Milky with age, yet rich with understanding.
The Queen's Lightning.
Nerissa had seen it. Recognized what that flash of violet light meant. And with an elegant nod, she murmured, "Understood," before she was gone. Guiding the trembling Siren into the depths.
Eyes chips of calculating frost, Thalos watched as the gloom swallowed them both. The Siren's biolume lingered long after the pair had vanished.
But the memory of what she'd done?
With his fingers a breath from claiming her?
His bones ached where the violence had been etched in his marrow. Written in his sinew with a pen forged of pure, unadulterated power. From a creature unfit to so much as understand what she'd done. A thing made to take Abyssari cock, in possession of Queen's Lightning?
It was… a marvel.
A violation.
Fingers flexing, knuckles blanched white under the weight of his grip, Thalos clenched Cymareth's hilt and called thewaveblade into being once more. Letting the ancient blade anchor him.
It's song soothing his nerves.
He'd been expecting to put down some… twisted, half-formed beast forged by Nyxarion's cock. Thought he'd arrived to deliver mercy upon a creature not meant to exist, even as he pulled evidence for their grotesque nature from the wreckage of its corpse. Proof that Sirens were abomination, not salvation.
But this creature?
