She scoffs, eyes glittering with malevolence, but wisely does not move. “As if you won’t kill me the instant I tell you.”
“A risk you’ll have to take.”
The phantom blade presses deeper for emphasis, drawing a thin red line of blood.
Now shedoespush up from the boulder on a sharp breath, her tail curling beneath her to keep her upright, as the blade grudgingly moves with her. Eyes narrowing, she touches the small scarlet mark.
Seconds pass as she stares at the blood on her finger—and then she laughs again. My teeth clench so hard, they might crack.
“You really are stupid,” she says.
I reach forward to grab her—to snap her neck and silence her for good, Mortem’s heart be damned—when my wings bristle. They register the sting of pain before I do, curling around my body with strange fervor, as if to—as if to look at something. My brow furrows at that stinging pain. At the trickle of warm liquid that follows. Still staring at Zephyra, I lift a hand to it in a sickening mirror image, and my finger comes away with blood.
I stare at it.
She stares at me.
What. The. Fuck.Lip curling, I smear away the trickery—or rather,tryto smear it away, but the cut on my throat remains. I can still feel it there, a dull burning, and when another drop of blood trickles from Zephyra’s, another trickles from mine as well.
My gaze snaps to her face, searching.Thinking.But—no. My jaw hardens. No matter what magic she might possess, I’m not letting this fucking mermaid get the best of me. “Do you really think a bit of blood is enough to hinder a warlock?”
“Ithinkyou might want to pay attention towhyyou’re bleeding.” She glances between our throats, our matching wounds. “If you kill me, you’ll only be damning yourself.”
“Liar.” Magic sizzles in my veins—a riot of lightning beneath my skin—and I release it with a short breath, slicing her once more, this time on her right hand. She seethes. And so do I.
Because my right hand—it bleeds in time with hers.
Fuck.
“Do you know what it means to save the life of a merrow?” She tilts her head, and damp waves cascade over her shoulders, over her breasts, down to the narrow of her waist, as her gaze burns with unbridled condescension. “Do you know what it means tostealfrom your beloved Mortem?”
I don’t respond. I can’t—because I don’t have a single fucking clue what she’s talking about, and not knowing… it’s unacceptable. It only makes me want to kill her more.
“Of course you don’t. Humankind destroyed most of the knowledge we shared with you.” She waves a hand to the shore-palace. The tower is no more than a half-demolished limestone staircase now, and the open remnants of a broken building, like an eggshell cracked and stomped on. But it has nothing to do with Zephyra or herpeople.
“Merrow are linked to the waves, the seas, the tides of the moon, the pull of water in every living being.Life.Our magic is linked tolife. Saving a mermaid gifts you the magic running through their veins. Just a bit of it, and just until the debt is repaid—but it’s enough to link you. To… to linkus.” She inhales deeply, and any remaining humor vanishes as she frowns. “You saved my life, Arion, and now…” She swallows hard, her hands curling upon the rock. “Now I am in your debt. Your blood is my blood. We are as one until the debt is repaid and I save your life.”
Already my head is shaking. “Bullshit.” Because she’s lying. Shehasto be lying. “I’ve never read anything, neverheard—”
“Rescued any merrow from sudden death lately? How about the rest of yourbrethren?” She hisses the word, then picks up a rock and hurls it at me. My wing bats it away easily before ruffling in indignation. “If you’d just let me save you from drowning, this wouldn’t still be happening—”
“If I’d left it up to you, we’d be sliding through a shark’s intestines right now. You were helpless, and useless, and you’re lucky I had enough magic to save us.”
She bares her teeth on yet another snarl, but I ignore it. I ignoreher, turning away to pace at this new information. As much as I’dlike to discard her explanation as trickery, just another deception, I cannot ignore how my throat and hand still burn. I cannot ignore my own blood.
Loathsome mermaid.My knees lock with tension as I turn, as my chest aches with the desire to throw her back to the sharks. I shouldn’t have rescued her from the noose. I should’ve watched her hang. I could’ve found another way to Abysses—I could’ve done more research, spent the next week reading something, anything,everything, scouring over maps and poetry. Riddles. The answer could still lie in one of them. I could still find it without Zephyra. I could have waited for another mermaid to happen upon, a mermaid not yet killed by the king or his men, a mermaid willing—no,forced—to work for me.
A shudder racks my spine, and I glance beneath my tunic at the web of black veins whirling out from my heart. Death’s touch reaches my abdominals now. I don’t have another week.
I don’t have another choice. I need to find Mortem’s heart.
I need her.
I have forsaken my kingdom, abandoned my vows, fled my home. There is no more time to search for another path, another merrow, anotheranything. I am dying. I am dying, and there is only one way forward.
I need to rely on a mermaid who has already betrayed me.
She glowers still, her gaze flicking between my wounds and my wings as though she’s debating something herself. I don’t give a single fuck what it is, or how she’s feeling—if her throat still burns like mine, if bone-deep exhaustion has settled over her too.
