One by one, the hold filled with sound again—movement. Voices. The shuffle of chains falling away. Hope surged louder than the battle above, rising like tidewater through a cracked door. I swallowed hard, forcing the last lock open. The scaled creature uncoiled, muscles rippling. Its eyes met mine—predatory, but not unfriendly.
Moriko exhaled low and steady. “Now we are many.”
I closed my hand around the keys and found her eyes. “Let’s show them what many can do.”
Iron rang above us. Footsteps. Shouts. The hatch slammed open, spilling blinding lantern light into the dark. I froze with the others, breath ragged, stolen keys biting into my palm. I would not go back in shackles without a fight.
Boots struck the ladder, steel ringing with each step. “Nerina!?”
My chest seized.
That voice—rough, familiar. Relief tore through me so fiercely I nearly sobbed. I saw him in my mind—storm-gray eyes, a crooked smirk, a hand outstretched.
“Ala—” My voice cracked on his name.
The man dropped into the hold like a shadow torn from the storm above. Too broad for the ladder, shoulders filling the narrow space, eyes like ice lit from within. Runes inked his skin in jagged marks, scars threading across muscle—every inch of him radiating war. His body was covered in blood—some of his own, some of it others’. Not Alaric.
Veyrion.
“Neri.” My name left him like a prayer dragged from his chest. He stepped forward, chains at his feet rattling in answer. “Godsdamn me, I thought we’d lost you.” He looked at me like he’d found something he’d been hunting for too long.
Of all the things I’d braced myself for—wrath, judgment, that cutting calm he wielded like a blade—his relief was the last thing I expected.
But there it was. Raw. Unguarded. Softening the hard edges of his face.
I moved to shield myself, small and instinctive—but he was already pulling off his cloak and wrapping it around me.
“I stole your ship,” I rasped, my voice splintering in my dry throat.
His laugh came rough and disbelieving, cracking through the hold like thunder. “We will discuss that later,” he said, eyes never leaving mine. “For now… all things considered—”. His attention moved over my burns, my ragged state, the welted skin at my wrists. Then back to my face, fierce with something I couldn’t name. “—I’m just glad to see you alive.”
His attention lingered one beat longer than it should have.
Then he turned and climbed back up the ladder with that same steady, unshaken weight he carried everywhere. The hatch light carved him in gold until it swallowed him whole.
My legs moved before I could think, keys clenched in my fist. I meant to follow—to leave this rot behind and climb into the chaos above.
But a hand caught my wrist. Moriko’s grip was surprisingly strong for someone half-wilted by salt and chains. Her eyes narrowed. “Wait.”
I stilled.
“Sons of the gods don’t smile at thieves,” Moriko pressed softly. “not like that.”
I opened my mouth—then closed it again.
Son of the gods.
The words snagged long after Moriko released my wrist.
But even as they gnawed at me, another thought struck harder.
If Veyrion was here… Was Alaric?
The idea twisted in my chest. I’d expected Alaric’s voice when the hatch opened. Stars, I’d wanted it to be his—reckless and furious, burning with the need to tear the world apart when he saw me chained.
I’d thought it was him. But it wasn’t. It was Veyrion’s voice that found me in the dark. Veyrion’s eyes that lit with relief. Veyrion’s hand that reached without hesitation. A hollow ache pressed beneath my ribs.
Moriko’s mouth curved.“Shall we?” she purred.
