Don’t be prey.
James sank beneath the water, and his eyes immediately latched on to a massive shark circling him. Its gray body flexed from side to side as it swam, its white belly marked with countless old scars. Even as fear wrapped around his chest like a vise, James recognized that this creature was old. Far older than he was himself, and it was watching him.
He turned with the shark, vaguely seeing the ship sinking deeper. Bubbles exploded out from the vessel, and smaller splashes turned the surface to foam as the Amaridians abandoned ship. Yet the shark kept circling, ignoring the thrashing swimmers.
Then it abruptly swam toward him. James desperately needed to breathe, but he held still as the shark slowed, a mouthful of razor teeth slightly open as it passed, eyes examining him. As though it was curious rather than hungry. For reasons James could only blame on lack of air or temporary madness, he reached out and let his fingertips trail down the shark’s rough side.
It allowed the touch, looked at him one more time, and then exploded into motion. James watched in fascination as it bit an Amaridian man in two, swallowing the upper half, but the show came to an abrupt conclusion as hands caught hold of James’s arms and yanked him to the surface.
“Got one!”
James was dumped in the bottom of a boat, where he coughed and sputtered while the Ithicanians worked to pull in Amaridians who hadn’t yet been eaten. A half-drowned soldier was dropped on top of him, followed by another who was missing a leg and another an arm.
“It’s goddamned carnage,” a familiar male voice snarled. “Grab that one! He’s the last one I see alive!”
Half buried beneath sobbing Amaridians, James twisted to look up, knowing who the voice belonged to even before he fixed his eyes on the big Ithicanian.
Aren Kertell.
James opened his mouth, but someone stomped on his back. James shifted and tried to get in enough air to speak, but the screams from the injured Amaridians drowned him out.
Find her,he tried to say.Make sure she’s safe!
“Get to shore,” Aren ordered, and the Ithicanians immediately moved to obey as he added, “I need to speak to the other ship captain and explain that this wasn’t us. Katarina is going to think we double-crossed her and retaliate. We can’t afford that.”
Someone again stepped square on James’s back, driving the wind out of him, but then the boat bumped against the rocks of the shore. The Ithicanians began removing the injured from the boat as Aren shouted, “Someone get me a white flag!”
A female voice shouted back, “Aren, you are not going out to that ship yourself!”
More bodies were lifted off James, and he sucked in a breath to warn Aren. To tell him that the Amaridians were no ally to Ithicana. Aren reached down and caught hold of the front of James’s shirt, lifting him with the obvious intent to hurl him onto the bank, but James gasped out, “Don’t go out to that ship! They’ll kill you!”
Aren’s gaze, which had been on the rocky bank, slowly slid to James’s face. Recognition flared, along with white-hot rage, and before James could say another word, Aren balled up his fist and punched him square in the cheek.
James’s head snapped back, but he almost instantly doubled over as Aren’s fist took him in the stomach. “Where is my sister?”
A good fucking question, but James couldn’t get the words out as Ithicana’s king slammed him down on the rocks. “It’s James Ashford,” he snarled. “The Harendellians are here. Warn the Amaridians! There might be more explosives!”
Ithicanians went running in all directions, some shouting orders to check watch towers for Harendellian ships while others ran to warn the other Amaridian vessel.
“No!” James lifted his arm, but the Ithicanians took it as aggressionand two of them grabbed hold of his arms and pinned him to the rock even as Aren’s boot took him hard in the side. “Ahnna—”
The tip of Aren’s curved machete was abruptly pressed against James’s throat. “You keep my sister’s name out of your filthy Harendellian mouth, you fucking prick!”
James ignored the stinging pain and tried to rip his arms free from those holding him down. “You need to—”
“Shut up!” Aren screamed at him, and James went still as the blade dug deep enough that he was at significant risk of breathing through a hole in his throat.
“Aren, stop!” Lara shouted, and in his periphery, James saw the queen hurrying in their direction. “You can’t kill him!”
“Oh, I think I can. I’ll show your goddamned corpse to the Amaridians and then let the sharks get rid of the evidence.” Aren knelt on James’s chest, angling the blade so that it sliced a shallow line of fire just below his jugular. “By all rights I should do this slowly, but I need to undo the damage that you’ve done or risk my people starving.”
The king of Ithicana’s blade dug deeper, and knowing it might be the last thing he ever said, James shouted, “Don’t eat the—”
61
Ahnna
Ahnna caught hold of Aren’ssword hand as she slammed into her brother and yanked the blade away from James’s throat.
