Theodoric clawed frantically at her ankle.
“Pity it had to come to this.”
His hands slumped to the deck, and Sephardi slipped her boot from his neck. She nudged his cheek with the tip of her boot, and Amaris’s chest caved as his head rolled to the side. She couldn’t tell if he was still breathing. She bared her teeth as anger swept over her. She dropped the bow at her feet and sprinted. Instinct consumed her movements. She threw herself at Sephardi.
They rolled and slid over the planks. A nail caught Amaris’s shirt and ripped it. She came to a halt against the center mast, striking her hip. A grunt escaped her, but she was on her feet in a moment, because Sephardi was already on the move. Amaris turned and ran.
Sephardi wanted her dead, not Theodoric. She’d give him time to wake up, or she’d lure Sephardi to the beach. She didn’t allow herself to think of another outcome. Sephardi hadn’t killed him. Theodoric wasn’t dead. Amaris wouldn’t accept anything else.
Her legs carried her in an awkward limp toward the railing. She’d be forced to dive into the ocean, but they were close enough to shore that she could swim to land. A sharp pain shot through her leg, and she pitched forward, slamming hard into the deck. Amaris turned over her shoulder. A dagger protruded from the back of her thigh.
Her eyes widened, and her muscles went rigid as Sephardi approached her. A sword was in her hand as she twirled the blade. The muscles ofAmaris’s leg twitched and spasmed as she attempted to shuffle back.
“What did I do to you?”
Sephardi laughed, placing the tip of her blade against Amaris’s chest. “I know who you are.”
Amaris’s lips parted.What the hell is going on?One minute a pirate had riddled her into a tailspin, and now Sephardi pressed her cold sword to her skin. It wasn’t possible. She’d said she didn’t believe in magic.
Amaris forced back the tears waiting to fall. “I didn’t kill Lord Freville.”
Sephardi kneeled, her eyes scanning Amaris and the blood starting to form under her thigh. “I know that, but you’re still an abomination. Wicked sorcery is what you are.”
Amaris’s hand curled against her thigh, fighting the sting pulsing in her leg. Sephardi wanted her dead because she was from a different world? Why did it matter? Is that what Drauna meant by a blade one day slashing Amaris’s throat?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sephardi couldn’t possibly know who she really was.Unless… “Are you working for Drauna?”
Sephardi’s brows knit together. “Drauna?” Her sword paused as it barely pierced the skin of Amaris’s chest. “There is only one god I bow to.”
Amaris bit down on her lip to suppress her scream and tried to peer around her to spy Theodoric, but she couldn’t see beyond her menacing glare. Sephardi was crazy. What did gods have to do with this?
“Think of Gris and Theodoric. Don’t turn on them.” She was desperate, clawing at anything to humanize her and bring Sephardi back to reality.
“Do you even know him?”
Amaris paused.
“Has he told you about his time overseas, what they called him?” Sephardi asked.
Amaris didn’t care what they called him. He’d survived. Theodoric had lived through the loss of his squad and his friend.
Sephardi bent down and drew her pistol, resting her elbow on her knee as she cocked it and pointed it toward Amaris. “They called him the Hydra.”
“Why?” Amaris found herself asking the question, but she wasn’t certain she wanted the answer. She’d learned too much in the last hour but had more questions spinning through her head than she could begin to process. But she needed to keep Sephardi talking.
“You cut off one head, and two more will take its place,” she said. “When one of our soldiers was slaughtered, he grew more ferocious, cutting down the enemy. With each fall of one of our own, he killed two of them. He butchered hundreds of soldiers. His hands will forever be stained with the blood he spilled.”
Amaris swallowed. She knew he was a soldier in a war, for fuck’s sake,but hundreds of people? Her mind flashed to the montage of duels and fights with the soldiers back on the grounds, the way his body moved without thought or pain.
His soul is diseased, devouring him.Drauna’s words repeated in her mind.
“I don’t care,” Amaris said.
“You should.”
Sephardi’s eyes widened and she spun. Theodoric was there with his sword trained on her. The look that warped his eyes was one Amaris never wished to see turned on her.
Chapter 44
