CHAPTER 22
The dark waters ran thick with the scent of blood.
Gills flaring as she watched the horrific display, Kore was aghast. Jaws hanging slack. Bewildered by the violence, the sheer, baffling carnage of these males tearing each other to shreds. At the gore spilling from gaping wounds she hadn't imagined possible, much less something that might be survivable.
Nyxarion's gills… they were shredded on one side. Torn and ragged. A grotesque wreckage where Thalos' claws had split them asunder. His every breath laced with a plume of red bleeding into the black.
And Thalos.
She couldn't look.
But couldn't stop seeing it.
Her every blink was poisoned with it. The shadow, an imprint of wicked spines lodged deep in his belly.
Glacial eyes wide, rimmed in the white of cold shock as he tried to comprehend the impossibility of Nyxarion's spines embedded under his ribs.
All of it.
For her.
Tearing pieces off each other for the privilege of breeding her.
Stomach churning with nausea, Kore's fingers grew tight on Nerissa's.
And then Nyxarion turned.
Molten silver eyes shining with a savage heat found her in the gloom. In an instant. He extended his working hand, and in a subaudible hum, said, "Kore."
It was a pitch that made the jelly behind her eyes shiver. Dancing with the promise of the violence he meant to claim from her flesh—the spoils of war.
A summoning.
She flinched.
A full body recoil.
Aged fingers anchored her, then. Nerissa's grip curled around her digits in a firm squeeze. "Make him work for it, child," she murmured, lips brushing at her ear. "Make him work to claim his prize."
It was spoken in a voice absent pity or judgement, a command from one female to the next.
A farewell.
Throat flexing on a thick swallow, Kore hesitated. Tearing her eyes from Nyxarion, ready to beg, plead with the ancientVirelii.
But Nerissa was smiling. Her milky eyes glassed and shining with something Kore had only read about in ancient texts. Only parsed in dusty tomes dedicated to silent gods.
Devotion.
Faith.
And then, in a blink, she understood.Intrinsically. Deeply.
This was sacrifice.
Ritual offering to a cause Nerissa believed to be greater than herself.
Anguish twisted behind Kore's ribs, then, but she banked her tears. Stowed her rage, and simply returned that beatific, serene smile. Embracing Nerissa's choice.
