by Hazel Grace
“Good, I’ll be back in a few days. Send for me if more trouble brews.” Making her way from the room, she doesn’t stop before saying, “And keep the pirate here too if he comes this way again. We’ll have to do the same, Davina.”
I nod, it’s all I can do. Two outsiders can come onto the island, both unknowns of how they are able to get passed the veil. And if I have to keep my best friend in the dark to protect my family, it’ll have to come to pass.
Because even though they are the bane of my sanity, my sisters are all I have left of my mother.
“I’m tired of looking at you,” I snap at Isolde as she gawks at me for the last ten minutes. “You’re not going to find anything that I haven’t told you already.”
“Shut up,” Brylee snaps back, sitting next to Atarah, who is gawking at another puddle of water again.
They’re trying to team up on me, Isolde reading my past memories, the twins doing some weird thing with reading my current thoughts. Kali is staring at me with her arms crossed ready to do something I guess, and Nesrine hasn’t stopped smirking. All while Rohana and Davina stand along the wall toward the back of the room.
Thing is I can still see the red she-devil.
And so fucking help me when I get free of my chains I’m going to make that girl never forget the look in my eyes when I do ungodly shit to her because I already have them all planned out in my brain.
Splashing seawater at her skin to watch it burn her flesh.
Having her chained to the floor for a couple of days.
Fucking her out of my system over and over again to shove Tybalt out of her brain and anyone else for that matter.
Brylee snaps her fingers in front of my face, ridding my thoughts that have plagued my head for days. My focus narrows in on her, blue strands of her hair swept across her forehead. Those intense indigo eyes burning animosity into my face.
“One more fucking thought about touching my sister,” she seethes in a whisper. “And I’ll rip your throat out.”
“Too messy,” Kali retorts. A knife appears out of nowhere. “Stab him.”
“I’m fucking tired of these little magical rounds,” I spit out. “If you weren’t all high and mighty, we’d be in different—” A loud, piercing shrill fills my ears as my immediate reaction is to cover them—but I can’t.
Chains are still bound along my bloody wrists as an intense pain fills my head, my temples throb immeasurably to the point where I believe I’m about to collapse on this hard floor and pass the fuck out.
Another second and it suddenly stops, my lungs heaving in short gasps of air as Kali makes a movement that has me looking over at her adjusting her jaw.
“Did you fucking do that?” I snap.
She cocks her head from side to side like she’s stretching to go to battle. “I did. And if you’re good, I’ll sing you a lullaby that’ll make you go to sleep.”
“I’m going to make you fall asleep permanently.”
“Hatred,” Isolde says, squinting her eyes through her glasses. “A people called the Highlands are his enemy.”
A wave of vulnerability hits me to the point where I feel overly helpless and vanquished of myself. They couldn’t just kill me and let me salvage my pride, instead, they had to meddle and prod the truth from me, which makes me worthless, not an emotion I’m privy of feeling.
I’ve been fighting my chains for days, my muscles ache, my wrists numb from trying to squeeze through the metal to free myself. My back is stiff from lying on the hard floor, and now with this headache, I’m just about ready to accept my fate of being here forever and never seeing any of my clansmen again.
But a piece of me begs to hold on for just a little bit longer. That maybe they’ll never be able to discover what the cuff means to the future of my people.
However, I’m playing off the conscious of the girls, killing a man who grabbed an item that his father ordered him to obtain—I don’t think so. I’m in a hell made from hopes and dreams of safety, where my death will be the end result.
“There are a lot of late-night talks,” Isolde notes. “Between a group of men, maybe elders?” My father’s council, his most trusted men to help plan out our next move with the Highlanders.
“They’re important,” Brylee adds. “He knows these men. They are vital to his people to keep them safe.”
“Stay the fuck out of my—” The high-pitched shriek sounds in my head again, and I buckle over.
The strain against my eardrums and temples is unbearable. Like being slammed in the head repeatedly with clubs on every inch of my skull.
I can’t focus on my breathing—only the pain.
Again, it ceases, leaving me in a worse battered state than before. Another burden of catching my breath, the same violent pulsating of my temples, then everything crashes at once in my brain like a stampede of horses.
Davina.
Her little tyranny of torture is a petty way to get back at me for stealing from her.
When in Lothbrok, if she didn’t speak within a few days, her fate would be sealed. She’d become someone’s whore, maybe a servant in someone’s household. I wonder if I’d still want to fuck her knowing what I know now. Even though the roles would be turned, it’d be—
A swift twinge of pain hits my body, but it’s against my bicep this time, a stream of blood drifting down it. I lock my jaw as I flash my attention to Brylee, who grips the knife in her hand that Kali gave her.
“I told you,” she leers through slitted eyes. “My sister.”
Unexpectedly, Atarah gasps loudly, straightening her back like she just came out of a nightmare with eyes widened in shock.
Brylee immediately comes to her aid, holding on to her arm. “You did too much,” she coos. “We did it for too long this time.”
“You can’t drift from me,” Atarah croons, her chest heaving in and out with large intakes of air. “Every time you speak to him, you break off from me.”
Brylee huddles closer to her. “I’m sorry.”
“I think it’s time for Rohana to give it a shot,” Nesrine announces.
“No,” Davina snaps.
“He’s weak,” Isolde adds. “It’d be the perfect time.”
I lean in her direction. “Go fuck yourself, Pink.” She rolls her eyes and removes her glasses, taking her leave from the chair in front of me.
It allows an impeccable view of Davina.
Her skin is a tad bit darker than I remember, her red hair braided back from her scalp to display the structure of her face.
Her eyes meet mine, worried and anxious, and I don’t know what Rohana has to do with any of those things. But I’ve seen a similar reaction out of her when King Triton introduced himself to me with his trident and a few thrusts following that.
“I can do it,” Rohana announces, raising her chin while striding in my direction.
Davina grabs her arm and twirls her around. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“I can handle it.”
Davina catches my gaze again and shifts her weight to one leg. “It isn’t going to be fun.”
Her sister touches her forearm. “It’ll be fine, you all are with me.” Turning on her heels, she continues to make her way to me. A soft smile playing off her face, which would be alarming except Rohana seems to be the most mellow and carefree of the seven.
Standing behind me, she places both of her palms on my shoulders. “This isn’t going to hurt. You might feel a tingle though.”
“How about we pretend we already did whatever it is you’re going to do?” I carp, just wanting to be left the fuck alone so I can let my headache subside.
She gives me a small squeeze. “Just relax.”
“I’m not relaxed.” She doesn’t respond, and that prickling sensation hits my flesh from underneath my clothes.
It moves aimlessly down my arms and chest, making its way to my toes. And the moment my whole body feels odd and weak, Rohana tightens her hold on me.
“Things would be
different,” she sneers, “if you didn’t have powers.”
Davina creeps closer, her focus on her sister behind me. “I have a reason to keep you here. You stole from me.”
“You don’t understand,” she retorts. “My people need safety. The Highlanders are growing in numbers by the month.”
My brows furrow.
Fucking Zeus, she’s revealing everything I’m feeling.
“You’ll need to find another way,” Davina deadpans as my gaze falls back on her. She squares her shoulders as Rohana stands in front of her. They’re about the same height, staring at each other like they are about to fight or tear each other’s hair out.
I couldn’t give a shit at this point as long as they take it outside this room and away from me.
“I could’ve told you all that,” I grumble, leaning back in my chair.
They both ignore me—shocking, the only thing I think they’d shut up for is if I told them exactly what they want to know.
“You’re going to suffer at my hands,” Rohana fumes, clenching her hands at her sides.
Davina looks over at her sisters huddled together, possibly searching for what to do, when Rohana’s hand suddenly seizes her neck. Swinging a leg around Davina’s legs, Rohana knocks her down to her knees.
The sisters rush to her aid, but Rohana is already expecting it, raising her free hand to start a sudden gust of wind in the room. The puddle on the floor rises from the ground, mixing with the strong whirlpool of air to block the sisters from impeding on her hold of Davina.
Everything happens so quickly, with so many bodies, that it’s hard to watch every detail, but my gaze always lands back on Davina. She’s already punched Rohana in the gut, weakening the spiral of wind to let Kali through the barrier.
Kali yanks Rohana away from Davina but receives a backhand to the side of her face. Davina tries to ram her, but the vortex picks her feet off the ground and whips her around. A flash of white and black hair meshes within the mess, a bunch of shouts and grunts fill the air.
Then Davina’s body is thrown across the room, skidding to my feet. Her arm is outstretched above her body as she slowly pushes herself to sit. Then an animalistic roar releases through the room, and my attention jerks to Rohana, holding off her sisters with the strong vortex of wind, but it’s what she’s holding that gets my heart to drop into my stomach—the knife.
Davina is already on her two feet, hands on her knees to catch her balance, and when Rohana’s eyes narrow in on her sister, I’ve seen it all too many times.
Standing from my chair, I heave my body in front of Davina and give my back to her sister. It doesn’t take long for the knife to intrude into my shoulder. For the abrupt ache of pain to start penetrating through my back. Followed by a sharp exhale of air on Davina’s face as she peers up at me with expanded green eyes.
My rage—it’s gone. As though Rohana sucked it out of me and drew it into herself. But it doesn’t change the fact that I stand here in chains with a knife in my back that was meant for her or that she wants to make me a pet to torture mentally and physically.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she whispers.
I wince when I move to lean closer to her. “I told you that you’re mine. And I’ll be the one to punish you.”
“This is going to hurt,” Nesrine warns, suddenly at my flank, then tugs the knife from my back.
“Fuck,” I bellow, making Davina flinch.
“Put pressure on his back,” Isolde chides, before doing just that and sending another wave of pain down my spine. “Or he’ll bleed to death.”
“Geezus fuck,” I seize. “Stop touching me.”
“Oh my goodness. Did I do that?” It’s Rohana, her voice timid and upset. Now I know why Davina didn’t want her to use her powers. Every emotion I felt, Rohana acted it out, and if it wasn’t for Davina’s sisters, she would’ve been fucked.
“It’s fine,” Nesrine replies nonchalantly. “He’s a big man.”
“That’s a lot of blood,” Rohana conveys.
“How deep did you go?” Isolde asks. Then I feel something insert inside my wound, a gut-wrenching twist in my stomach before blackness takes over my whole body and takes me to some peace and quiet.
Standing in front of a large fireplace, I can feel the heat dry my already dehydrated skin. But the flames remind me of the pain and mental suffering I’ve endured over the last few years. The sacrifices I’ve made to keep my sisters and father safe, as well as our kingdom from the Hunters, and the desired spell that wanted to cease their freedom.
Our people used to come to this island freely, able to roam the land, but after so much time had passed, I envied their being able to go home. So I banished the amount of Sirens that could come here.
I’m the lost princess of Lacuna that they never see anymore, and I miss my friends. I miss the creatures I adopted and the underwater cove that holds all the things I found in shipwrecks. I endured the loss of the sea for so long that it feels like I don’t belong anywhere anymore. A restless and lost being who roams a piece of space with no purpose or use of anything.
The patter of footsteps softly echo off the hall outside the study, allotting to my sisters’ presence. They were going to see if they could drag anything out of Dagen while he was in and out of consciousness. Isolde tells me he’s sweating profusely, that it’s called a fever and some humans don’t make it afterwards.
I guess I won’t fully get my revenge after all.
That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. All the things that happened to him were his own fault, and he had no one else to blame. Nothing on this island belonged to him.
“You need to step away from the fire,” Atarah mutters softly, her hand wrapping around my arm to gently pull me away. “You’ll burn your pretty skin.”
She knows it won’t. I can burn myself alive and nothing would happen. Somehow I can pull from the sun’s heat and radiate it from myself. Dagen was the first one I’ve ever tested it on, still didn’t get him to talk so, again, the worthless part sinks in a little deeper.
“We have some news,” Kali offers as all my sisters find seats to take in the sitting area. I glance at her to begin, but her amber eyes fall onto Atarah.
“Go on with it,” I urge, sitting in between the twins.
“He came to for a few minutes,” Kali states, twisting her orange hair around her finger. “Atarah and Brylee were able to seep into his thoughts to see if he was contemplating anything.”
“And what did you find?”
“Confusion,” Brylee mutters. “He was trying to remember what happened before he fainted onto the floor.”
“Then you,” Atarah resumes.
My brows furrow. “Me?”
“He remembers looking down at you and into your eyes,” Brylee sets forth. “How he wished the tables were turned. And how his coming here was a mistake.”
“It was a mistake.”
“Things are getting worse,” Isolde pipes in, clasping her hands into her lap. “He’s starting to care for you.”
“He hates me. Lusts for me, yes, but isn’t that what men do?”
Brylee places a hand on my knee. “It’s not just that. He wondered how you were doing. Then his concentration went to the cuff.”
Of course it did.
“It’s to summon something. And we don’t know what that something is.”
“We think it’s magic,” Rohana voices. “Since the cuff already holds half the power of the sea next to Father’s, it could only be used for something like that.”
“Remember when Taysa mentioned Norse magic?” Nesrine asks across from me. “We looked it up in one of your books. It’s sorcery from the north. The Viking is from there.”
I look around the room at my sisters’ full attention on me. They know I have some sort of connection with him. That I let him go because I didn’t want him to die. I despise my poor judgment and weakness, which could’ve caused the death of everyone I love.
But
never again.
The only person outside my sisters that I fully trusted was Tobias, and that was the way it would always stay. Not some burly man with a lewd mouth and secrets that he won’t reveal.
“So, we have a plan,” Isolde recites, her coral-colored eyes glancing between Atarah and Brylee but not me, which sparks caution. “Seduce the Viking.”
I begin to leap from the lounge. “Are you out—” Atarah’s hand shoots out to sit me back down.
“He cares for you,” she says with a squeeze to my thigh. “And as much as I loathe the idea of him touching you, we aren’t able to delve any deeper into his head. We thought with him being weak right now it would make it easy but something is blocking us.”
“The Norse magic,” Brylee adds. “He got through the veil. He knew where to find us. The seeress would have enough magic to pinpoint us, possibly a locator spell.”
“But what would Vikings want with the sea?” I challenge. “I’ve read that they are warriors and farmers. They don’t sail around like Tobias does. What would be the reason?”
“We don’t know,” Atarah states. “Maybe they made a deal for protection. We’ve seen these Highlanders mentioned in his head over a dozen times. They are a real threat to his people in his mind.”
“We know it’s not something you want to do,” Rohana utters softly. “We all don’t want you to submit to someone who has betrayed you.”
“I’d do it,” Nesrine claims with a smirk. “But he already knows all my tricks.”
I mean, what choice do I have?
“I’ll do it.” I receive a bunch of voices at one time, asking me if I’m sure and I don’t have to do it if I don’t feel comfortable, but I ignore them. “I’ll get the information.”
Then he dies.
The sound of soft snoring pulls me out of my deep sleep, followed by the thudding in my skull. I’m assuming the girls let me fall lifeless to the floor because I feel a large bump on the back of my head.
Slowly, I perch my weight on my right elbow, the moonlight streaming into the room to slightly illuminate it. The wheezing still continues, and I glance through the room only for my eyes to fall on a body laying on the floor with a pillow under their head. Slim legs, the hump of a curvy hip and flat torso, it describes all the sisters, but I’d know this one anywhere.
