Page 48 of Claimed By the Depths

The knife bobbed as she swallowed. “Sorva has tightened her leash, Rohen… She is commanding his movements now, and I am unsure how… how long it will last. Her strategy is sporadic… and doesn’t make any sense, as she cannot seem to make up her mind on whether she wishes to see him free or wield him as her weapon.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Syoran’s rage filled the gap. “Where the fuck is he, Saph?”

“Wreaking havoc on the town… H-He came for you specifically, Rohen, which means Sorva wishes to see an end to something.” Sapphira winced as my hand trembled at her utterance, another drop of scarlet slipping down her throat. “I tried to talk sense into him… H-He was distraught, and she’s been using this… This new mark she etched into his flesh. I don’t know how it works, but the pain it causes…” Nipping at her bottom lip, tears welled at her lash line. “I-It’s an anguish I do not wish to see him in. But I fear the only one who may retrieve his soul… Who will make him desire to keep fighting is you.”

Nostrils flaring, I pulled my dagger from her skin and sheathed it at my side. “Save your pitiful fucking tears,” I spat, the heel of my palm greeting her sternum as I leveraged her to stand. “Sorrow is a right you do not have, not when you have contributed to his condition and remain useless in pulling him from the depths that have claimed him.”

Stepping over her, I stormed toward Lorelie. Driving two fingers into her chest, my words came with just as much ire as I felt. “Control your cunt, or so fucking help me, I will carve her intestines from her gut and hang you with them.”

Not giving her the opportunity to reply, my shoulder slammed into hers as I continued toward the docks. Toward the chaos that the crown was causing, and toward the man who had haunted my dreams ever since I dove off his ship.

CHAPTER 26

Asphyxiated Truths

SAPPHIRA

Syoran angled his sword at my throat, peering down at me beneath furrowed brows. “You handed him off without question! As if he were nothing more than mere goods to exchange with greedy hands!”

The wrath that clung to his near-black irises was warranted. I had turned my back on them. I had offered Caspian to Sorva without a second thought, and because of my stupidity, guilt threatened to devour me whole. Did I regret giving myself to the enemy if it meant seeing Lorelie again? No. But contrition coiled around my throat like a starved serpent, ready to asphyxiate my essence for what I had done to the two men who had pulled me onto their ship and nursed me back to health.

Yet my decision to turn my back on them had come without pause or a moment to consider the repercussions of what would follow. It was as if the devious Other had opened her palms to reward me with a reality I knew was too godsdamned good to be true, and I had jumped anyway. While my logic flared at the recollection, something ancient stirred within me, whispering temptations in languages I didn’t understand but acted on.

Something dark.

“I know, Syoran. I know,” I breathed, swallowing all the uncertainties swathing my mind. “No apology can justify it. What I did was treasonous, irrefutable, and I know the Damned will judge me accordingly. I’ll take whatever punishment they place upon me without rebuke, for it is deserved after all Caspian did for me.”

“Perhaps we should proceed with your repentance early,” Syoran growled, angling the edge of his steel where Rohen had placed hers.

A sound that mirrored his came from my right, but where his clung to humanity, hers seemed far more animalistic. “Kao”—Lorelie moved in front of me, wrath billowing from her in thick plumes—“I would suggest lowering your weapon.”

“Or what?” he spat, his dedication as Caspian’s second beyond apparent. “You wish to shield her from the consequences of her wrongdoings? If that is the case, I have no issue laying you to rest alongside her.”

“I would prefer to avoid showing you a side of myself I can promise you will not want to see.” Shoulders rising and falling with every attempt to level herself, Lorelie took a step toward Syoran. “Put it down. I will not prompt you again.”

He started to speak, but a soft touch stopped him, fingers curling around his forearm with the ability to rival even the most formidable storms. Honeyed locks brushed back by the stroke of his hand, the male’s seafoam gaze settled on Syoran. Where I expected the connection to draw forth more ire, Syoran seemed to melt in its wake, as if the former prince were the only one able to coax him from the cliff of destruction he toed.

“As much as it is tempting,” Kaelivan Marellan hummed, offering me only a glance with his utterance, “we have far more important people to focus on. Rohen has stormed off with a death wish, and we hold the God of Luck’s blessing. Rage cannot cloud our senses right now, Syoran, not when we have an entire continent riding on our shoulders.”

Exhaling heavily, my friend slowly dropped his blade, but his loathing remained. “Fine. Though I cannot consider kindness as soon as she sets foot on my ship.”

Metal slid against the scabbard as he guided his sword back into its home, his lethal glower fixed on me even as Kaelivan spoke once more. “And it is not expected, for there are things I wish to see done to her after the decimation her idiocy caused.”

“I want to apologize to you as well⁠—”

Shadows cloaked his frame, once-vibrant irises transforming into a violent storm. “It is not your sorrow I want,” he snarled. “If there is anything I wish for, it would be to carve your still-beating heart from your chest and feed it to the God of Death in exchange for my lover’s return. Consider yourself lucky that I elect to be so kind.” His chin snapped toward Lorelie, potent venom coating his tongue. “Considering both Syoran and I would rather see the woman you desire to protect dead, I believe the two of you should continue your trek⁠—”

“No,” my other half interrupted, knuckles whitening as she clenched her fists at her sides. “I will not be escorting any of you to the docks. My attention is needed elsewhere.”

“What?” I asked, peering at her incredulously.

Glancing over her shoulder, her mystical honeydew stare found mine. “I have vows I must uphold.”

“Vows?” The single syllable carried the pitch of my unease. “To whom?”

“The Goddess of the Sea,” she answered without pause. “Ellira has entrusted me with her daughter’s safety. I cannot allow Rohen to stumble into a place of vulnerability. Her heart and mind continue to battle, and with Sorva’s unrelenting hold on Caspian Vayne, she may very well be stepping right where Sorva wants her—in her snare.”

“Wait,” Kaelivan redirected his pointedness to her, “what would you know of Rohen and Caspian? You’ve hardly been around long enough to form such⁠—”