“That doesn’t sound very?—”
“Godly?” she crooned, craning her head to the side. “In your eyes, it may not be, but do not be fooled, boy. We are merciless when obeyed, but relentless when opposed. I can promise you that is something you do not wish to experience. Your ex-best friend is already coiled around my finger, even if he may not realize it, and I wouldn’t mind having your fate bound to me as well.” Tapping her two fingers, her tongue clicked against her mouth. “Consider this a warning, a caution my counterparts could execute me for. So consider that the last extension of charity I will grant you.”
With the finality of her words, my inability to move evaporated into nothingness. Stumbling forward, my knees collided with the ground harshly. My chest rose and fell with gasped breaths, inhales and exhales that I’d somehow forgotten about under her hold.
Swallowing once, I lifted my chin, every part of me screaming in protest over the reply that left me. “Then consider it done. I will hunt down Caspian Vayne and bring him to you.”
CHAPTER 22
Broken Promises
ROHEN
My footfalls stilled, heels digging into the wooden walkway that was a step away from turning to concrete. Shadows loomed, singing for me in ways I’d become familiar with in the days Caspian had me stowed on his ship. The recognizable chime of chains echoed overhead, reminding me of the imprisonment that awaited me and how the gods never desired to grant me an ounce of freedom.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t steal it for myself, as I’d become a thief of lives ever since I could remember. What difference did it really make?
The fire that flared in Caspian’s eyes as he read the letter reignited my hope of experiencing autonomy. If there were someone out there who hated this man just as much as I did, then there was achance.
An opportunity for me to capitalize on their wounded history and escape the shackles of falsified ownership that Caspian had wrapped around my wrists.
Forcefully, I ripped my arm back. A searing burn erupted across my skin, Syoran refusing to break his unrelenting hold.
Snarling, his chin snapped in my direction as his nails dug into the bony sides of my wrist, threatening to bruise. “Levitte.”
I met his glower with a grin, refusing to move through the threshold and back toward my cell. “Syoran,” I crooned, batting my lashes with feigned sultriness, “let go of me before this becomes a larger problem than it needs to be.”
“Is that a threat?”
Allowing my open-mouthed smile to form, I cocked my head to the side. “If you’d like it to be.”
He scoffed, a humored smirk mirroring my amusement. “Adorable, truly, but I am uninterested in entertaining your advances. So either use your fucking legs, or I’llmake you.”
“And how would you?—”
He shifted his hold faster than I could react, his fingers closing around my elbow as he ripped me toward him. One second, I was facing him, and the next, my back met his chest, cold steel nipping at my throat.
“Clear enough?”
“I don’t know,” I hummed, positioning the dagger I’d stolen off one of their men against his prick. “You tell me, because honestly, I have a thing for neutering men.”
“And I,” he breathed, his lips brushing my ear, “have a thing for slitting throats. Who do you believe will survive this affair, Levitte? Are you convinced you’re quick enough to cut my cock from my body before I slice you ear to ear?”
“I’m surprised you’d ask a question filled with such naivety.” Laughing, my tongue flicked against my canine, drawing forth the smallest drop of blood to remind me that I was still alive. The tang of a lineage that made me feelsafe.“I am Malrik’s favorite for a reason. Did you forget thatlittlepiece of information,co-captain?”
I roped them in, leashed them to the ideology that I was just as weak as any other woman they’d encountered, because Iwantedto. It gave me a leg up, positioning myself in the light of exaggerated innocence so that, when I finally decided to strike, they’d never see me coming.
There was a reason Malrik called me his little viper, and Caspian and his crew had yet to taste my poison. But they would, and with their piece of shitcaptaindistraught enough from a mere piece of parchment, it was time I finally played my hand.
Metal glided into its sheath, and serrated teeth were replaced by the palm that’d been adamant about containing me seconds ago. Syoran’s fingers coiled around my throat with ease, a near bone-chilling reminder of the danger I’d cornered myself in. Yet somehow, fear was the furthest thing I felt, for sweltering flames of revenge burned far brighter.
“I willnotrepeat myself,Rohen.” The sharp bite in his tone spoke loud enough; his patience was thinning. “Start. Fucking. Walking.”
“You’re really not versed in how to treat women, are you?”
“Oh,darling. You happen to be speaking to the man who is the furthest thing from interested in women.” He rolled his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching to form a picture-perfect sneer. “So consider yourself ill-informed and an unlucky recipient of my ever-growing apathy.”
His palm slammed into my shoulder, shoving me forward. The unforgiving cement greeted my bare feet, nipping at them with the same warning I felt at the center of my being:If they get you back in that cell, you will never see daylight again.
