Page 104 of Claimed By the Depths

“Sorva did that to you, didn’t she?” I whispered, though there was nothing gentle about it.

Caspian paused, glancing over his shoulder in shock. Almost as if he had never wished for me to know. “Ro, I⁠—”

“No, that”—I pointed at yet another piece of him she’d violated—“is not your fucking fault, nor is my rage directed at you. But she did it, didn’t she?”

He nodded, crimson gaze meeting the floor. Attention drifting, he scratched his chest as if he were peeling something from his skin. It was a level of dissociation I was far too familiar with, one I slipped into whenever Malrik, or whoever he’d handed me off to, was having their way with me.

Closing the small gap between us, I caressed the side of his face. “Hey. Hey, I’m right here, Cas. You’re right here, with me.”

Lids fluttering twice, he lifted his chin to meet my stare. “I… I’m sorry.”

“What was it you just finished telling me?” I questioned calmly, keeping the billowing animosity within me contained. “Something along the lines of not apologizing when it is unnecessary.”

The light that’d dimmed in the shadows of whatever recollection haunted him returned. “I suppose you have me there.”

Offering him a smile I knew didn’t reach my eyes, I brushed over his cheek. “Just as you have me, I have you. If you need anything—comfort, reassurance, release—tell me. Okay?”

What had she fucking done to my Mizani?

“Okay,” Caspian agreed, the infamous lines marking both sides of his mouth returning.

Hand traveling down his arm, I grabbed his hand and squeezed. The feel of his calluses molded to my memory, every hill and valley of his body chiseled alongside it. He was perfect for me in all the ways my mother promised he was, and I would do anything to ensure he experienced the happiness he deserved.

The same joy he brought me.

If that meant giving that cunt a taste of her own medicine, then I would serve it on a silver platter just as chilled as my essence, and watch as she choked on it.

CHAPTER 52

The Damned and Disgraced

CASPIAN

As we drifted toward the shoreline, Rohen and I moved to the bow, expecting to spot at least a handful of dockhands as well as a variety of men disembarking from their lengthy sails. But with our attention fixed on the port, all that welcomed us was a nightmarish hell—one I had feared would come to fruition the moment Sorva completed her ritual in the belly of the palace.

Flames climbed hungrily from rooftop to rooftop, devouring homes and market fronts until they collapsed in a shower of ash and ember. Thick columns of black smoke tainted the sky, blotting out the sun and leaving the Capital cloaked in a grim, suffocating haze. Even from the ship, I could feel the heat rolling across Ellira’s waters, carrying with it the bitter stench of burning timber and cinder.

Overhead, wingbeats thundered, and I squinted into the cloud of desolation to decipher which creature they belonged to. Spotting a shadow, my vision fought to focus. At first, I thought the sudden plume belonged to nothing more than smolder, but then it unfurled.

Unlike any of the monstrous beings from the Other realm, its neck was impossibly long. Snaking through the air with sickening grace, it ended where a head crowned with jagged black spines began. Two flaring maroon eyes searched the village below with an intelligence that chilled me to the bone. It harbored a sentience, a comprehension of how to decimate while simultaneously inflicting as much anguish as possible. Jaws parting, rows of needle-like teeth gleamed amongst its inferno, their prevalence more for shredding through enemies than simply eating.

Its body was lean, almost skeletal, as though every inch of flesh had been stripped away to leave behind muscle stretched taut over bone. Ragged, blood-red wings spread wide enough to cast entire streets below into shadow, their thin membranes glowing whenever the fires below pulsed against them. Each intentional flap stirred the smoke into great columns that roared across the rooftops.

It did not roar because it did not need to, but the silence it carried was somehow worse, broken only by the crackle of snapping wood and the screams of heightened panic rising from below. It circled lazily above the palace as though admiring its own destruction. Folding its wings flush against its body, it plummeted with horrifying precision.

Head lowering toward the village, its throat ignited with a molten orange. Frozen, I watched as its maw opened to exhale a blazing river of annihilation. Its flames struck rooftops with such force that the still-standing buildings imploded, debris and structural members scattering as if they were made from nothing more than parchment.

None of my men reached for weapons. Instead, we stared, and for the first time since I’d taken to the sea, I understood what true horror felt like. We had not merely sailed into a village under attack. We’d arrived at the hunting grounds of what appeared to be a dragon.

“Holy gods…” Rohen whispered from beside me, fear slithering between each syllable.

“What the fuck is that thing?” Turning to glance at Syoran, I caught sight of Kael, who seemed far more ready to answer.

“Based on the ancient texts that I’ve read, it looks like a wyvern,” the former prince muttered. “My guess is Sorva drew inspiration from our lands and created her own entities to match.”

“We haven’t seen wyvern on Wraelira in centuries,” Rohen countered, her emerald eyes catching the potent sheen of the flames beyond. “At least according to shared word. Maybe it has to do with the veil?”

“Maybe.” Stepping up to the gunwale, Ignis glanced between us. “The once-worshipped beings left this side of the realm long ago, as many of them were Shifters who migrated between Narvendor and Wraelira. Once conflict began to simmer in the mirrored continent beyond the veil, they departed in hopes of aiding in the war. Which, as you are all aware, led to the eradication of a large portion of our race and sparked the feud between the Damned and the Others. The latter have drawn inspiration from our ways of living, including the creatures deemed divine.”