An unfamiliar male timbre spoke first. “Malrik Ravelle is already scouring the lands, but you are all acquainted with your expectations. We are here to gather Prince Kael alongside Percival Corvathis, but his biggest demand is that, out of everyone, we bring Caspian Vayne back to Serevalen.”
Caspian?
What does the king want?—
“Vayne is a necessity for what we have planned,” a woman added, but the undercurrent of her statement contained something so malicious, something so… inhuman, that my hair stood up on end. “Kill the townsfolk, set fire to the buildings, and paint Veilmar in blood since red seems to be their favorite color. If you fail to return with the pirate, you will all be executed for insubordination. Understood?”
Bile burned the back of my throat, and I had to bring my hand to my mouthto keep myself from retching. Sure, what she said had been nauseating, but not to the point of sickness. So why was my body reacting in the way it was?
“Sorva,”Ellira snarled down our connection.“The dark goddess who resulted from the separation of my counterpart and me. She is the one whom you witnessed in that vision, the one?—”
A hand closed around my mouth as I was ripped into an alcove right as Sorva and her entourage passed.
Thatscent immediately registered.
Tobacco and leather.
“Long time no see,Levitte.”
Malrik’s utterance slithered up my spine as his grip shifted, closing around the front of my neck as he ripped me past him to meet the wall. Back dragging up unforgiving brick, I kicked my feet as he robbed me of any leverage I had.
“Did youreallythink I wouldn’t find you?” he hummed, malice lacing its tune. “Did you really think you’d be able to escape me? To run from the man who raised you? The man who taught you everything you know? The man who watched you grow into,” his ghostly gaze swept down my frame, “everything you’ve become?”
“Go…Fuck yourself,” I spat, my saliva coating his face.
Running a hand across his skin, he smirked. “You seem to forget that I don’t mind that level of foreplay,dear.”
“So it seems…” I wheezed, trying to tuck the heel of my boot into one of the crevices to grant myself air. “Someone else… wished to add to the scar I left on your face? Just… the other side.”
The carving in his right cheek had been etched during a moment of defense, and while he wore it with pride, it served as a reminder that he wasn’t invincible. Which is exactly what the near-twinned gash on his left mirrored—Malrik Ravelle was human, which meant he could bekilled.
“Seems your desire to crack foolish jokes hasn’t dimmed since your time with Caspian. Shame.”
Before I could react, he sank two fingers into the cut below mycollarbone. Nails burrowing deeper, his hold around my throat intensified just before the cry of anguish threatened to fall. As I thrashed, his grin only deepened, irises darkening like the storm that had come to try to wash the arriving evil from the island.
My head swam with the pressure, eyes fluttering as darkness lunged forward. Just as I was about to let it take me, he drew back just enough, a wave of oxygen slipping down my throat and searing my lungs. Gasping, a slew of coughs followed as I watched him pull his hand from my wound.
Bringing his crimson-coated digits to his mouth, he flattened his tongue against them and, with one swipe, gathered my essence. “Mmm. You taste just like I remember.”
“Do I?” I hummed, my narrow window shortening with my prompted distraction.
“Sweet,” he craned his head to the side, “like fresh fruit.”
“You forgot the undertones.”
His brows furrowed in confusion. “What?”
Fingers already curled around the dagger I’d kept hidden, I freed it, carving down the entire length of his arm.“Spiteful.”
CHAPTER 38
Truth Lies in Prophecy
CASPIAN
The crack of cartilage blended with the overhead clap of thunder. Attire soaked to conform to my frame, a subtle shiver rolled through my body. Each flash of lightning caught the reflection of our weapons—my twinned sabers reflecting the darkness that followed the veined explosion of light that Alastair’s short sword captured.
We’d been here before, bloodied and beaten by the others' hands. But those instances carried a jubilant innocence. We were teenagers then, foolish soon-to-be men who entertained the idea of roughhousing while commanding a ship and sailing the seastogether.And now? Now, all that remained was searing hatred.
