"To Pelagorn," he murmured, explaining, "venom is lineage, just as much as seed. Every dose leaves a claim. A mark. That is how I made you." A tremor passed through his throat, those scarred, delicate filaments flushing crimson with a measuredexhale. "It's whathewanted when he invoked the Spiral." On massive hand moved to cup her face, thumb sweeping back to trace the blade of her cheekbone. "To usurp my claim. Corrupt it."
Scales lifting, Kore shivered.
And, as if to condemn her, the colors of both lineages skated through her scales.
Thrumming, letting his purr rattle her ribs, Nyx threaded his claws through her hair. Anchoring her. "To feed you more of his venom now," he murmured, "while the babe grows?" He shook his head, silver eyes heavy with something she couldn't name. Had never seen in him before. "It is toensurethe child develops Asterion traits."
And then, Nyx turned that molten silver glare up. Pinning Thalos in place with a low snarl. Lips peeled back to expose the points of his canines.
Silence pooled between them.
And then, "Have another sun clam, Kore," Thalos crooned, a low song meant to coax.
Turning, she looked at the Shallow King. Confused. But she followed his gaze down, to the bag of mollusks clenched in her fingers.
"Sun clams," Thalos explained, a frosty gleam reflecting in his gaze. "A delicacy for pregnantVirelii," he murmured, heedless of Nyxarion's warning thrum. "Thalassari females crave them when they're gravid…" he murmured, voice careful and low as he trailed off. “OnlyThalassari females.”
Horrified understanding flushed through her veins, and Kore's eyes widened.
The helpless way she'd gulped the meat down. Crooning high at the back of her throat as the flavor exploded on her tongue.
A trap.
The sun clams were a test. One she had failed and passed with a single, desperate swallow of succulent indulgence.
And then her hand slid from Nyx's forearm to her belly.
Both palms, now. The bag of sun clams dangling from the tip of one finger. Pressing flat against the taut little curve, where violet light chased gold in a lazy, relentless spiral.
As if to acknowledge Thalos' gift, the child squirmed. Stronger now.
Throat growing tight, Kore swallowed. Tasting that tender flesh. "Nyx…" she whispered. "It… it's too late," she said, pressing her lips together.
Saying it.
The part neither of them wanted to voice.
Nyx flinched.
A full-body contraction.
She turned into his heat. His strength.
Clinging.
Because she knew.
"It's too late," she said again, holding his gaze, refusing to let the words drift into the current. "My scales… the colors. It's too late. You know it's true." The biolume along her veins brightened, tracing electric cyan and silver-violet in competing rivers beneath her skin. Colors so different than those that ran through Nyx's scales. "What if refusing his venom now is what puts the baby at risk? What if starving it of one?—"
She couldn't finish.
The possibility, the looming catastrophe, hooked behind her ribs. Barbs setting deep.
Tearing at something vital.
At the edge of the dais, Thalos exhaled. A long, measured breath through his gills that stirred the water between the scholars. His polar blue eyes softened—brows drawing together, mouth pressing into a line that almost resembled concern.
Almost resembled grief.
