“You’re welcome to test me,” Fedic said, his smile even wider. “But I was selected to join the Hird for my skills in weaponry.” He patted his tunic with his other hand, and metal clinking followed. “I have more playthings here.”
“Kilia,” I said. “Just… I’ll talk to you later.”
“I want to talk now,” he growled.
My fingers tightened around the railing, and when Kilia took a step toward me, the plank he’d stood on tilted, sending the silver-haired man backward until he had to use both hands to keep his balance. “See,” I said calmly. “Even the ship agrees this is not the time.”
My skin prickled with fear at what battled across Kilia’s features, but I couldn’t let it show.
Fedic wiggled his fingers when Viljan’s hand wrapped around Kilia’s neck.
“I’ll drown you in the fucking sea if you touch her again,” Viljan snarled.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her.” Kilia’s face went dark. “I just wanted to know why she let him die! I don’t understand why she didn’t help him.”
Viljan’s eyes widened for a moment before his other hand wrapped around Kilia’s throat as well, but his arms trembled and his eyes shut as he began choking the twin.
It wasn’t the first time Viljan had killed for me, but it was the first time he would do so to someone undeserving, and we both fucking knew it. There was no honor in this death—there was no god who would look upon it favorably.
Besides, Kilia didn’t know. Not yet, at least.
“Let him go,” I ordered quietly.
My guard shook his head, and I cleared my throat against the ache starting in my chest.
“Let him go,” I said again. “Now.”
Viljan only closed his eyelids harder.
Fedic stumbled backward when I shoved him in my haste to reach the two men. Kilia was starting to turn blue, his thick arms, which had pushed and raked down Viljan’s chest, becoming weaker.
“I said let him go.” A sneer curled my lip, and my voice dripped with the disdain of a woman born to be obeyed—the exact tone Lika would use with me when he pulled rank. “If you don’t, you’ll be released from my service and shipped home for our other guards to deal with.”
Viljan’s mouth parted. “You wouldn’t.”
My laugh was as cold as the blood in my veins. “Try me.”
He lowered his voice into a whisper. “You know why I need to do this.”
“He doesn’t know,” I mouthed heatedly.
Viljan’s nostrils flared.I don’t carewas easy to read in his eyes.
Kilia’s eyes bulged, red filling the white, but he was still following our conversation.
“I can deal with akarl,” I spat. “I don’t need your help.”
I wanted to let the emotions behind my mask slip—show him that Kilia’s suspicion that something was off was my mess to clean up, not his—but we had gathered a crowd, so I only made the smirk overtake my entire face.
“Now.Guard.”
Viljan took a step back, and Kilia’s hand flew to his neck, where dark bruises had already bloomed.
“Leave,” I ordered the twin. Kilia dazedly shook his head, but thankfully he listened, shuffling away while the crowd let him through. Viljan hovered, something unfamiliar and haunted filling his hard face.
Something shattered within me when I waved an impatient hand. “You as well.”
“No—”
