by Hazel Grace
“Because not all bad things need to be killed,” she offers. “Just their minds altered. If I believed everything that was said about your people, I’d let the girls rip your heart out of your chest.”
I furrow my brows. “But you’re not? And why should I believe you?”
Pulling up a small stool from the corner of the room, she keeps a safe distance from me and sits down.
“It’s what I just said,” she replies. “Altered minds. There’s more to you than meets the eye. I can feel it.”
I fix her with a skeptical look. “I’m just a warrior on a mission.”
“That passed the veil that I personally put up.”
I express half a shrug. “Didn’t do a very good job.”
She chuckles again. “Apparently something is wrong. And I intend to find out what. Which brings me to why I am here instead of Davina.”
Her name captures my attention. “What do you want to know?”
“Davina stated that you mentioned your father needing the cuff for your people, do you know what for?”
I weigh my options, telling her would possibly put my clan at risk. The magic that my father stated that lied in the cuff would bring creatures from it to protect us. If this sea witch knew about it, she may want it too.
“I don’t question my father,” I vouch. “I just do as I’m told.”
She bobs her head. “Fair enough, I imagine. Have you ever had any sort of extraordinary things happen to you that were unexplainable?”
“I’m not an enchanting creature,” I chide. “I’m a man who kills his enemies and protects his people. Nothing more or less.”
The sea witch/Selkie stands from her chair. “I’m trying to help you, so help yourself. If I don’t have any explanation as to why you’re here then your men that you wanted to protect so much are going to die. I raised these Sirens, but when they are pushed into a corner or threatened, not even I can get through to them. And with Davina—” she sighs. “—you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, boy.”
“Looks like I’ll have to take my chances,” I quip, keeping her gaze.
“Then you’re in a whole world of pain,” she consents delicately. “She’ll kill them. Your men, she hasn’t—”
“I don’t know anything else than what I told you,” I allude. “I can’t make something up to appease her.”
The woman takes a deep breath. “Good luck.” Turning on her heel, she leaves the room and me with my thoughts.
I’m going to need more than luck.
I’ll need a fucking miracle to get me out of here alive.
The moment I enter the room, Dagen gets on his feet and brushes his palms on his thighs. We haven’t seen each other in four days, each one of them filling my head with ways to make him speak. Actions to make him break down and crumble to his knees so that I finally get the truth. He’ll be stubborn at first, more than likely had an idea in his head that he would rather die than spill his secrets.
It’s what I’m hoping for. It’ll just make his not dying so much sweeter.
Death will be an easy way for him to escape consequences, and I want the exact opposite. I crave to watch the years go by and his pride be stripped away. His hope diminished and crushed under my bare feet so that it’ll always send a reminder of what he tried to take from me.
“Blood,” he mutters, as I step closer to him. His eyes fall all over me, studying and remembering what I look like as though it’s been that long.
It hasn’t been long enough.
Every ounce of betrayal that I’ve felt for this man has only fueled my inner rage and beast. Just the sight of him and his words of seduction and kindness prompts the revival of how my sisters were right. And I was wrong, naive even, to believe that the Viking could be someone like Tobias. Someone with a heart and conscience because, in the end, we are all just trying to live.
However, Dagen was here to take.
So I would reap everything he held dear to him. His men, his pride, his stubbornness, and, eventually, his soul.
“Why aren’t you healing quickly?” he prods, noticing the redness of my skin and the scabs that still remain from my burns.
Dumb fool, I might be a special creature but healing quickly isn’t one of them.
Stopping a few arms’ lengths in front of him, I call out to my sister, Kali, ignoring his question because it’s time to start the end of Dagen’s world.
The shuffling of boots enters in from behind me, followed by pleas of life. Dagen’s eyes lock on to one of his men, an older one with a long beard and aged wrinkles all over his face.
“Priamos,” he croaks, taking a step forward but is halted by his chains.
“My mother’s cuff,” I recite. “Why do you need it?”
Dagen hesitantly pulls his focus from his man and puts it on me. “My father sent me here to obtain it.”
“Why?”
His blue eyes fall back on the man he calls Priamos. “I don’t know.”
“Do you not speak to one another?” I snap, clenching my hands into fists. I knew this wasn’t going to be a simple feat, that it’d be like physically pulling the truths from his head. Something that Atarah and Brylee tried to do, but somehow, he blocked them.
And they’d try again.
Being twins, their energy is combined between the two. They aren’t able to read and focus without the other, and right now, Atarah is still healing from the intense headaches she’s been experiencing. Which further proves my point that there is something hidden about him.
“I do what my father requests,” Dagen tells me. “I’m loyal to him, so there was no need to question.”
My eyes narrow. “You’re a stubborn being, Viking. You weren’t the least bit curious about the reason? Your father spoke to your clan about your trip here, he had to have given a reason on what you were expected to bring back the cuff for.”
“Dagen,” Priamos urges. “The key to loyalty is a man’s strength.”
“Inside safety and danger,” they both chime together.
I roll my eyes, motioning for Isolde, who snuck in moments after Kali to bring him closer to me. Shoving Priamos to his knees, I step behind him.
“Blood,” Dagen warns. “I already told you what I know.”
I look up at him from underneath my lashes. “But I don’t believe you.”
“How can I—”
“Prove it to me?” I interrupt. “Tell me why Isolde couldn’t read your eyes.”
He looks over at her. “I don’t know.”
“There isn’t anyone in this world that I’m not able to see inside their past,” Isolde informs him. “But you’ve hidden truths.”
“How would I do that?” he challenges.
“Because you’re more than a Viking,” I accuse. “You’re not just a man.”
“Then what is that pirate you have visiting here?” he counters. “He got through the veil.”
“But I can read him,” Isolde argues. “And I can’t you.”
Dagen shrugs. “I’m not anyone special but a warrior on the field.”
He’s lying to me. Right to my face and trying to use the manipulative gleam in his eyes to sway me back into believing him.
I meet his gaze, letting him see that his lies mean nothing to me. “You’re a liar.”
My hands clutch the sides of Priamos’s face, and I snap his head, hearing the loud crack that follows after it. Dagen’s eyes widen as Priamos’s body falls lifeless to the white-tiled floors, just like his dishonesty.
“Grab another one,” I tell Isolde.
Dagen’s eyes fall on me, filled with something new—fury. “You’re dead.”
“I thought you’d make me yours,” I taunt with a cock of my head. “With you deep inside me.”
“That was before you just snapped my man’s neck,” he fumes, straining on his chains.
“We’ve only just begun.” Hearing another man’s footsteps, I turn to the younger lad whose eyes are wide and frigh
tened.
Giving him a sweet smile, I make my way to him.
“Whatever you’re planning to do,” Dagen sneers behind me. “I’ll make it worse on you.”
I cup the man’s face, letting my fingertips slide over the few days’ growth protruding off his cheek, and he flinches violently.
“You’d have to get to me first,” I provoke toward Dagen, giving his man before me a gentle smile. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Please,” he quakes. “I have a family at home.”
“I’m sure you do,” I reply, patting his chest. “You’re here to keep your friend company.” I peer over my shoulder. “You want a friend, don’t you, Viking?”
He just glares at me, so I turn back to his friend.
“What’s your name?”
“Tybalt.”
“How old are you?” He tries to look over my shoulder at his leader, but I press my palm into his chest to answer me.
“I’ve seen twenty-two intervals.”
“You’ll stay here with him, okay?” He nods then Isolde takes him to the other side of the room, a good distance away from Dagen, and chains him to the floor.
“Blood,” Dagen gripes. Slowly, I turn around to see his shoulders squared up, his brows so deep between his eyes that wrinkles form. “You are mine, remember that.”
A soft scoff leaves my lips before I withdraw from the room.
If he thought watching his comrade get his neck snapped was bad, wait until he finds out what’s going to happen to poor Tybalt.
Tybalt leans against the wall by his shoulder, picking at a string on his pants and softly humming a stupid song like nothing is wrong.
Every fucking thing is wrong.
I’m starting to think the kid has gone stupid because only two days ago Priamos was killed, and he sits there as if we’re being taken care of like welcomed guests and not prisoners.
“Eat your food,” I order, taking another bite of my fish.
Tybalt glances over at me and gives a slight lift of his shoulders. “Not hungry right now.”
“You haven’t eaten in two days,” I snap. “Eat.”
“Maybe I’ll—” I throw my plate at him, and it clinks against the glass wall before falling onto the floor.
“Do what I say. You need to keep your strength up.”
“For what?” he asks with a glint of amusement in his tone, not at all affected that I just propelled something in his direction. “She said she wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“Did you not see what happened to Priamos?” I rant. “He’s dead now. And we will be too if we don’t get out of here.”
Tybalt stares back at his pants. “How you expecting we do that?”
Fuck, I don’t know. It’s the question of the last few weeks. I’ve never had the problem of being surrounded by water with no way of getting off unless I swam the hell home.
“Just eat,” I say instead as the door to the room opens.
In walks Davina, dressed in a mesh robe of mint green and a brassiere of white material and shells. She looks glorious, well-rested, and a fucking bane to my existence right now.
I meant what I said. When I get my hands on her, she’ll never get free of me. She might be able to toss me around the room, but there has to be a weakness to her. A deficiency to her strength that I can protrude through.
“Sleeping well?” she asks Tybalt as she hunches down next to him. She blocks my view, but I think I actually see the lad blush.
Zeus and everything glorious and holy on this Earth.
This kid is going to be as worthless to me as these chains clad to my wrists.
“Very well,” he replies. I see her hand rise to caress his head then she stands and turns her attention to me.
“How are we doing, Viking? Ready to talk?” When she’s a safe two feet away from me, she stops, giving me a small glimpse of the apex in between her legs.
I hit her with a scowl. “Already did.”
“How is it that your men know nothing about why you’re here? Or are they sworn to secrecy?”
I hold back my look of shock because everyone was there when my father announced the gold cuff. My fear has been that someone would’ve already spoken about the dragon through ways of torture and fear but, apparently, they haven’t.
“Because there are no secrets to tell,” I rebuke.
She smirks then looks over her shoulder at Tybalt. “He hasn’t been eating.” She would know that because I’m sure people are reporting back to her about us. Her men come in here to take us to relieve ourselves then bring us right back into this room.
“Pity how he doesn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“That he’s starving himself to death,” she mutters.
It hits me upside the head the moment the words sink into my brain. She’s making him do this, and he has no idea. No fear or consciousness of what he’s doing. Davina said she wouldn’t hurt him, and she kept her word, making him do it all on his own.
“What did you do?” I growl.
She squats in front of me, still keeping a clear distance of my reach. “I’m giving you something. A little piece of what’s to come. The days and weeks you’ll spend here watching your men die one by one.”
“When I told you I’d torture people that trespassed on my land, I didn’t mean for you to do it slowly.”
She smiles. “Where’s the fun in that?”
I push myself onto my knees so that my height towers over here. “Remember what I said, Blood, you won’t like it when I’m in charge.”
“You keep dreaming about that.” She straightens her spine. “Don’t worry, I have something planned for you later. Wouldn’t want you to think I was playing favorites.”
“Can’t wait,” I reply through my clenched teeth.
The jingling of chains emits through the night, reminding me that Tybalt is in the room with me. That he still hasn’t eaten and is still in good spirits as he continues to sit in his corner. I’ve run out of ways to threaten him to take one fucking bite of food, that it’d make me satisfied as his commander for him to do so.
Nothing.
A soft moan exhales through the air, but I keep my eyes closed, needing my rest for whatever Davina has planned for me. If it involves more stares and my having to look into one of her sister’s eyes again, I’m going to lose my shit.
“Fuck,” mutters a voice within the room. Cracking my eyelids open, I look over to the corner, where Tybalt crawled into a ball and fell asleep.
Except he’s not the only one in the corner.
Red hair illuminates from the moonlight that seeps into the room. Her head falling back as her body rocks back and forth.
I close my eyes and reopen them.
This is a dream.
It has to be because I’ve thought and fantasized about it too many times. However, it was me underneath her as she rode my cock, not Tybalt.
“Holy mother of Athena,” Tybalt groans. “You feel amazing. Is this real?” He’s answered with a delicate chuckle.
“It’s real,” she whispers loud enough for me to hear. “So fuck me like it’s the last thing you’re going to do.”
I hear his grunt and see his knees bend as he pounds into her. Into the woman who drove her nails inside my skin to the point where I wanted to strangle her with my bare hands and do exactly what the lad is doing right now. My resentment has passed its peak, surpassing the level of being able to stay calm.
Yanking on my chains in frustration, I set myself to stand, all while seeing Davina’s head turn in my direction.
“Didn’t mean to wake you,” she coos, letting Tybalt continue to drive his dick inside her. She looks down at him, her hair cascading over her shoulders. “Don’t stop.”
“Stop,” I deadpan, my eyes boring into his body.
But he doesn’t, my words mean nothing. It’s her that possesses him, body and soul, and she’s trying to get into my fucking head.
She’s already there.
She’s been there. Now she’s using her little antics and tricks to drive me fucking crazy. To the point where my fingers are itching to clasp around my own man’s neck.
I can’t see Davina’s eyes when she turns in my direction, but I can make out the look on her face—defiance.
“Go back to sleep,” she croons then lets out a harsh exhale, dropping her chin to her chest. “Yes, Tybalt, like that.”
“Yeah?” he utters, suddenly confident. “You like that, beauty?”
“Yes,” she breathes. “Mhm, you’re so good at this.”
I jerk at my chains, forgetting for a split second that I’m bound. She wants this reaction out of me, the rage and thwarting, which will pose a problem for her in the long run. The moment the opportunity presents itself she is going to wish she never did this. Wish she’d thought harder about keeping me here.
Regardless of the cuff, she took this too far the moment she snapped Priamos’s neck. She should’ve just killed me and got it over with.
“The big, bad beast is up,” Davina mutters. “Show him how you fuck a woman properly, and with respect.”
“I’m going to,” Tybalt says eagerly, clasping her hips. “My God, you’re so tight.”
“Blood,” I seethe. “Your game isn’t going to make this thing between us be over.”
“Keep talking,” she voices on a shaky breath. “Your deep voice is going to make me come.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I rally. “My cock inside you instead of his.”
A mirthless laugh leaves her lips. “I don’t know. Tybalt is doing a really good job, aren’t you?” Leaning forward, she places a chaste kiss to his lips. His cock slowing as he relishes in their moment that I’m firsthand witness to.
That I don’t want to be in.
“I’m going to come,” he stresses urgently, pumping himself faster. Davina lets him continue a moment longer before she pries herself from him.
Standing, she straddles him between her legs, watching him pump his cock and freeing his seed over his stomach.
She rakes her hand through her hair and leans forward. “Wasn’t that worth dying for?”
