Alaric
Covenant Ship
Seeing his hands on her—tending her burns—the way she leaned into it, too weak to refuse. Something feral snapped beneath my ribs, clawing at the edges of reason.
I had seen men gutted in battle. Seas choked with corpses. Curses that rotted flesh until nothing but bone remained. None of it hollowed me like she did. Nerina. Bruised. Burned. Shackled in silver salt until her skin split open. Too pale. Too thin. Her light was dim—but not gone.
And I hadn’t been the one to find her. That failure lodged in me like salt in an open wound—one I would never forgive. In her eyes, for that heartbeat, I was nothing more than a miracle she hadn’t dared hope for.
It was jealousy. Guilt. Fury so sharp it carved me hollow. My hands shook before I curled them into fists. The thought turned my stomach. That she could think him more constant. Morecertain. That my storm, my fury, my cursed devotion would falter where he did not.
Veyrion knelt in front of her, eyes fixed on the raw ruin of her wrists. His hands were steady as he wiped away the residue, his voice low and sure—calm that sounded like certainty.
I stood a pace away, fists clenched, watching him fill the space I had left. She didn’t flinch from his touch. Didn’t pull away.
Not long ago—though it felt like another life—she had looked at methat way. Had found safety in my presence, even when the sea itself turned hostile.
I remembered the way her eyes steadied on mine during storms, like my voice could anchor her. The way she once pressed close in the dark, seeking warmth she’d never admit aloud.
She had trusted me. And I ruined it. The loss twisted deep in my chest—worse than jealousy, worse than rage.
I hated him for it. I hated myself more.
I should let her go. She had seemed… happier in Ymirskald. Not with me—not fully—but freer than I’d ever seen her aboard theBlack Marrow. Among people who treated her mark as something more than a curse. She laughed there.
Letting her go would have been the first selfless thing I ever did. The thought didn’t bring relief. It brought panic. I couldn’t.
I stood there—the man who might set her free, and the monster who never could.
Veyrion finally straightened, wiping his hands clean. Calm. Infuriatingly composed. The neat white bandages, the ease of his movements—it was obvious he’d done this before. Too many times.
I knew enough to stop bleeding. Not enough to look that calm while doing it. The silence stretched, heavy, and before it could smother me, my mouth twisted into a crooked smirk. “Figures,” I said. “Lose enough battles and you learn your way around a bandage.”
Veyrion didn’t flinch. His eyes stayed on mine, cool and steady, though I caught the flicker of something colder beneath them. Then he stepped back. Her breath eased. Her shoulders sagged. But when she lifted her eyes—
Our eyes locked, and every thought I’d buried clawed its way up. She looked at me with that bruised face, swollen lips, wrists bound in white instead of iron—and all I could see was how close I’d come to losing her. I wanted to drag her into my arms and swear she’d never feel chains again. I wanted to scream at her for leaving me. When Veyrion turned away to bark orders, the air shifted. The storm between us dimmed, leaving only the thrum of the sea and the ache in my chest.
I crouched low, close enough to see the tremor in her hands, the hollow hunger in her cheeks. Her pulse flickered beneath her skin, and I forced myself to look away.
My voice came rough. “You can’t expect me to stand here and watch you throw yourself into certain death.”
Her eyes lifted—tired, defiant. “I didn’t ask you to come.”
The words cut. I shook my head, a bitter laugh escaping. “You shouldn’t have had to. You should’ve known I would come. Always.”
I reached out—didn’t touch her. Just hovered. “I’d fight curses, storms, the gods themselves if it meant keeping you alive,” I said. “Damn me for everything else, Nerina—but don’t ever doubt that.”
Her fingers tightened weakly around mine. “I didn’t think you’d want to see me again,” she whispered.
My chest ached with guilt I could no longer carry. “Nerina,” I rasped, my thumb brushing her bandaged hand. “Even when you hate me. Even when I’ve given you every reason to.” I leaned closer. “I will come for you. Through storm and blood and ruin. I will cross every cursed tide, break every law that binds me.” My gaze locked on hers. “Until the sea itself takes me—and even then, it will have to fight me for you.”
She flinched and looked back at me, eyes bright with exhaustion. “I don’t want you to die for me, Alaric.”
I swallowed, forcing the storm down. “You are the only thing in this cursed existence that matters to me,” I murmured.
For a heartbeat, the world stilled. No Veyrion. No crew. No failing Veil.
Just us.
