Something inside me broke.
I didn’t hear the clash of steel or the roar of the crew anymore. Just the thunder of my pulse, the red haze swallowing the edges of my vision.
I was on him before he could raise his axe again. My blade punched into the gap in his armor at his side, the bite of steel grinding against bone. He grunted, twisting away, but I drove him back with blow after blow, sparks and blood flying in equal measure.
"You touch her again," I snarled, every word a growl from somewhere deeper than my curse, "and I will tear your heart out with my bare hands."
His lips curved into something between a grin and a grimace, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. "Ah, so that’s it,” he said. “All this… just to prove you can still love something.”
His gaze flicked past me to her—deliberate. “She must be somethingreallyspecial.”
32
Nerina
The Black Marrow
“Rion?”
The name tore from my throat before I could swallow it back, raw and disbelieving. My palms stung as I pushed myself off the deck, splinters biting into my skin. The world tilted—blood and salt choked the air, the scream of steel on steel ringing in my skull.
The same hard lines of his jaw. Only now his hair was a pale banner, unbound and whipping in the wind, and his eyes… colder. Harder. The man who had smuggled me through the alleys of Shadeau, who washed Silver Salt from my arms, who helped me secure the Eye of Nareth, was here—trading blows with Alaric like they meant to kill each other.
I staggered forward, the ship lurching beneath me, every instinct screaming to pull them apart.
He caught sight of me between swings, a flicker of joy cutting through the bloodlust in his face.
"Sirena!" His voice was maddeningly warm for a man who had just been trying to kill Alaric.
He parried one last blow from Alaric, then stepped back as if the fight had only been a friendly spar. The corner of his mouth tipped up in a smirk, eyes sweeping over me like he was cataloging every detail, every change since the last time we met.
“Miss me?” he added, almost in jest.
Before I could answer—or before Alaric could cut him down—Rion gave a harsh whistle.
The sound cut through the commotion and every Covenant fighter stilled. Swords hovered mid-swing, shields locked in place, the entire deck frozen except for the creak of timber and the pant of ragged gasps.
Alaric’s chest heaved, blade still angled toward Veyrion’s throat. His eyes flicked from me to him and back again, confusion flashing as the edge in his grip.
“Sirena?” Alaric repeated, the word tasting wrong on his tongue. “Care to explain why the bastard trying to gut me is calling you that?”
I opened my mouth, but Rion beat me to it, his grin deepening like this was some private joke.
“Oh, she didn’t tell you?” he said lightly, eyes never leaving mine. “I’m hurt,Sirena. I thought what we had meant something.”
“What you had—?” Alaric’s voice was low, dangerous, but there was something else beneath it. Not just fury.
All around, the Covenant crew stood silent and waiting, weapons still drawn but unmoving, holding their breath for what would come next.
Alaric didn’t lower his sword. “Start talking,Nerina.Now.” His voice was flat, but I could feel the storm building under it.
Veyrion tilted his head like a man watching two predators circle. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, old friend. We’ve met before, your mermaid and I. Had a drink, shared a few secrets…” His smile turned dangerous. “She’s better company than you ever were.”
Alaric’s jaw flexed, his knuckles whitening on the hilt. “You stay the hell away from her.”
“Bit late for that,” Veyrion murmured, his eyes on me now—pulling, testing. “Besides, she came to me.”
“That true?” Alaric’s question hit me like a blade between the ribs. There was more in it than doubt—there was hurt.
