Page 19 of Claimed By the Depths

I moved from the doorway, stepping between them. With a sharp glance, I addressed Rohen first. “Save us both the headache and shove your attitude aside before they kill you. You and I can talk about what unfolded on the deck later.” Swiveling, I offered Parran an apologetic look. “I’m sorry for the misdirected contempt. She’s upset with me for dragging her out of Serevalen because she wished to go back for Caspian. Her anger does not reside with you.”

“But it does,” they argued, lilac tongue darting out across their matching lips. “Whoever has issues with you, has issues with me.”

Sighing, I raked my fingers through my wet, tangled locks. “Can you please inform both of us what happened to Kael?” With the tension simmering, I glanced around Parran’s frame to the prince.

He rested on the cot, chest rising and falling with slow, steady breaths. His skin, paler than his usual complexion, ignited a spark of concern. It was easy to tell that he’d lost blood, but with Parran’s innate ability to heal, it was impossible to tell where or how he had been harmed.

Where the fuck is Percy?

As if sensing my query, Rohen sighed. “Percy’s dead.”

“What?” My attention snapped toward her, sorrow already clinging to my timbre. “What… What happened?”

She peeled her gaze from mine, a deep-seated ache settling in her features. “Sorva, the leader of the Others, ordered Caspian to carry out his execution.”

Mournfulness trickled into an endless sea of wrath, and it was swallowed before it could even take shape. My shoulders rose with a fractured inhale as I spun on my heel, heading back the way I came. “I’ll re-route this fucking ship and go kill Caspian fucking⁠—”

A palm slammed into my chest as those rage-filled irises met mine. Emerald mixed with a splash of gold, clashing with the vibrancy of Rohen’s auburn hair as she held my stare. “You already forced me from those lands, and so help me, if you go back there after the man who has been forcefully shoved into a state of compliance, I will slaughter your crew just like I did his.”

I trained my glare on hers. “He murdered Percy.”

“No,” her statement wove into mine, “she murdered Percy, and Caspian was coerced to wield the sword.”

A weak voice piped in from behind us. “She’s right, Alastair.”

Turning toward it, Kael’s seafoam gaze carried an exhaustion that only came with loss. He shifted, hissing under his breath with the action, but Parran was there, settling their hand over his forehead.

“Easy, prince. You awakened something even you do not recognize.”

Rohen and I exchanged a glance before I prompted, “What are you insinuating?”

Parran kept their attention settled on our friend as they answered with certainty, “He tapped into power that exists outside of this realm, because he was born of the land beyond the veil and has never once shared lineage with your corrupt king.”

CHAPTER 10

Binds that Brand

CASPIAN

“Did you truly believe you could escape me?”

Sorva gripped my hair tighter, her foot slamming into the back of my leg as she forced me to my knees in the ritual room once more. Hand flattening, she dug her taloned fingers into my scalp, and an indescribable agony rippled from the top of my spine and shot down its length.

My irrepressible scream only humored her as she clamped down even harsher. “Because of you and your pitiful fucking father—who still fails to protect you—one of my Calyxirs is dead.”

Shoving me forward, my palms slapped against the parquet floor. My attention settled on the relic they’d used to summon creatures from their realm. Seeing it still lined in my blood brought bile to the back of my tongue, the realization settling with a heavy weight. Because of my ties to not just one, but two of the Damned, the nuances of my essence had destroyed the lands I once roamed. I was the reason the townsfolk were dead, just as I was the reason Rohen had nearly joined them.

“I am glad you are well aware of your faults,” Sorva hummed as she stepped around me. “Ellira may have believed herself to be clever in her decision to save you that day, but now you and your very lineage have become a valuable tool in ensuring Wraelira’s fall. You wish to protect her daughter? You yearn for her, yes?”

My lips parted, denial blooming in my mind, but before any of it spilled, that familiar burn snuffed my ability to speak. At the same time, searing heat lashed at my back, and my nails clawed at the muted floor. Shoulders heaving, I retched, but nothing came out.

“Are you that fucking foolish, Caspian Vayne?” Another bloom of affliction carved through my skin, warmth sprawling across the uniform I still wore. “You believe that your escape to rescue Ellira’s daughter had nothing to do with your capabilities as a mercenary and the power your father has lent you.” She cackled, every syllable carrying a seething poison. “You adorable boy. The only reason you left this room is because of me. To test your intentions, I loosened your leash, only to find out they reside heavily with the woman who butchered your men. Which you were just seconds away from lying to me about. So let me ask you again. Do you yearn for that woman?”

My throat bobbed, and the billowing anguish etching its way through my flesh blurred my vision. “Y-Yes.”

“Do you love her?”

The question shattered something in me. “I-I don’t⁠—”