Instead Ottoh shook his head. “You knew a different Lika to us.”
It was the echo of pain in those words that had ice cascade down my spine. It also made me wonder what my brother had done to the Briggen heir for such a darkness to shade his features.
The fighting behind Ottoh continued; a group led by Ivren and Rakkel drove a dozen captives out to sea, claiming a bank of the beach as their own. On the other side, Adrion fought a massive man, the initiate bound to him slowing the heir’s movements as he stumbled behind him, injured from something sticking out of his thigh.
Above us the ship floated proudly with Darcke, Torden, Guner, and several other men watching as the brothers and sisters of the Hird fought and died and swam.
I sensed something in the air a second before the bastard warrior’s lips twitched.
I whirled so swiftly the water splashed around me—exactly like it did around the man with a salt-hardened spike barging right for Oscri. A sound left Kilia, and I took only a second to decide before I ripped the driftwood away and threw it with every ounce of energy left inside me.
Even without my father’s strength, the sharp edge pierced theattacker’s chest, and there was a hollow plunge as his body met the water and was claimed by the current.
Had it not been for the fighting, the world around me would have gone quiet.
Ottoh gaped, and identical gazes captured me. Kilia’s lips pressed together, his hand wrapping around his neck for a moment before he lifted the palm to his face, eyeing the blood covering it.
I caught my breath. “Blood for blood,” I got out.
His jaw worked as he turned to his brother, then to me.
I lifted my chin.
Finally, Kilia’s head dipped. Only the slightest inch. But it was enough.
“You’ll stop trying to kill me,” I demanded breathlessly, still surprised I’d managed to kill that man. “I saved your brother. So you will spare me.”
His eyes were on Oscri when he hissed, “For now.”
I had no idea why I smiled, my face turned to the tinted waves churning around us.
“Touching.” Darcke drew out the word until it sounded like the most vicious of insults as he came striding through the water as if it wasn’t there at all.
I turned away from him, suddenly regretting having thrown the weapon. But I still knew he spoke to me when he said, “You’ll all be killed unless you stir your fucking bones.”
My back jerked straight at the same time Kilia’s did. Viljan and Stefen were fighting several captives in the middle of the beach. Rakkel and Ivren were surrounded, their attackers driving them against the tree line, away from the water. Adrion was out of sight, while a group of karls tried to board the ship Darcke had just come from but were chased off by Guner’s men.
More enemies came our way. Ottoh gave me a cocky smile before he spun to tackle two oncomers, then began sprinting through the sea while waving at the rest of us to follow him and his partner toward a bend of the island.
I stiffened when a touch grazed my cheek. Kilia’s nostrils flared, and his hard features didn’t mirror the gentleness with which he dragged two bloodied fingers across my face before doing the same to himself.
“Don’t slow me down,” he ordered.
I raised my brows. “Don’t slowmedown.”
A shadow of amusement crossed the silver-haired twin’s face.
“Any time before the gods come to reap us all,” Darcke drawled. He’d already turned to wade through shallow waters, shoving an enemy aside as if he were a mere piece of flotsam, discarded and nameless against the tide, but I still caught a glimpse of his face.
If I didn’t know better, I would have thought there was a shard of respect in the way his mouth hooked to the side.
Fourteen
Iwas definitely the one slowing Kilia down as we followed Ottoh through the hip-high shrub that clawed at our thighs like the fingers of the drowned.
“Come on,” Kilia hissed under his breath. I wheezed for air, trying to keep up with his strides while fighting the thick bushes. “There are more of them over there.”
I groaned to myself when long shadows flickered over the forest bed.
