“I’m the fucking Merrow King,” he said pleasantly. “I breathe water like you waste air.”
He stood in one fluid gesture and extended a hand to the sailor.
Pike stared up at his outstretched fingers, lips sagging with utter horror. But Kai felt better than he had all night, even with the lack of sleep and the injured shoulder. The weight of the pendant, the sting and pressure, had worked into the fibre of every limb. It was the same satisfying ache of working a muscle and feeling it heal, thicker and stronger than before. He couldfeelthe waters, their call clearer than ever. If he twisted his hand just so, he was certain he could pull them from the air itself.
The pendant gave a cool pulse of agreement.
“Now,” he said to Pike. “Would you like to climb aboard that ship, or shall I have the crew tie you to the prow as our strapping blond figurehead?”
Pike took his hand.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Gerard
It wasn’t as though they had a formal agreement.
For the next week or so, Ger justhappenedto take his lunch in the kitchens at precisely the same time every day, and Jack just happenedto be working. They bothhappenedto be on late shifts every night, too; perhaps the porter preferred it that way. Ger hadn’t asked. All he knew was that Jack was always around at dinnertime, and coincidentally, there was always a fresh bread roll on his plate when he arrived, buttered straight from the oven so its fluffy insides soaked up the golden glaze just the way he liked it.
It made his stomach feel inexplicably warm, full of more than just buttered bread.
That night, though, there was no bread roll waiting for him. No Jack, either. He didn’t say a word when Marie doled out his stew—a little more watery by the day, even if his portion did still have a few chunks of clandestine potatoes—but she fixed him with a knowing look.
“He’s due back any minute,” said Marie.
“Who?” Ger said—verynonchalantly, he thought.
Marie just snorted.
And so Ger ate alone, his back to the stove because it was warmer—not because his seat faced the door. He was well-placed, though, when it burst open, and Jack finally tumbled through. His black hair was dusted with snow, nose and cheeks viciously pink, and his chest heaving visibly even beneath his heavy cloak as he gulped down wild-eyed breaths.
Ger did not remember standing, but he found himself on his feet before he knew it, already darting around the table and nearly colliding with Marie as they both rushed to meet the spluttering, breathless porter.
“Are you alright?” Ger said, at the same moment that Marie asked, with equal urgency, “Did you find the scallions?”
“No—what?Yes. Yes, I’m fine,no, I didn’t get any bloody scallions.”
Marie gave him a half-hearted cuff with her teatowel, but he batted her away.
“Stop, listen! It’s the Merrow King. He’s here.”
Ger’s heart seemed to catch on before his brain did, plummeting into his stomach even as he blinked stupidly back at Jack.
“What do you meanhe’s here?”
“He’s back,” said Jack. He’d plainly sprinted all the way through the snow, and nearly every word was interrupted by the panting breaths he hadn’t stopped to take. “I just saw Benan and Doran dragging him through the courtyard.”
The floor fell away beneath Ger’s feet, mind whirring painfully in an endless downward spiral. Kai was back. Kai was here … which could mean nothing good for Adeline.
“Just him?” Ger heard himself ask, as though from a great distance.
Jack nodded, dark eyes round beneath his pinched brows. “Just him.”
Without another word, Ger turned on his heel and stumbled out of the kitchen.
???
He didn’t come across another living soul.
