Mage’s Legacy: Cursed Seas

by hamilton, rebecca

Terror fisted around Kerina’s throat. She spread her legs and locked her hands behind her head so that her breasts jutted out and her sex was exposed.

  Tua leered at her. “You are perfect.”

  He gripped her hair and yanked her head back. His mouth closed over hers and his tongue assaulted her. The taste of him, like rancid, rotting meat, twisted her stomach, but she did not dare move, not even when he released her hair. His hand caressed down the length of her arm. It was not painful, but there was no gentleness, no love in it—just possession, like a master staking a claim on a slave. He cupped and squeezed her buttocks, then slid his finger into her dry body.

  She gasped, stiffening as if he had impaled her.

  “Ah, you are so tight, my little one. This will be pleasurable for me; not so much for you.” He smirked as he hardened behind his loincloth, then met her eyes, watching her with vicious delight as he twisted his finger in her.

  One finger became two, the penetration wider, deeper. Kerina’s sharp inhalation was a stuttering wheeze. Pain veiled her vision, but Tua was grinning, laughing as she writhed on his fingers.

  “So dry…” he murmured. “No matter. I will fill you, and then my seed will wet you. But first, food.” He withdrew his fingers, and Kerina’s knees wobbled from the sudden departure of pain. “I will need lots of energy to deal with you.” He pinched and tweaked her nipples until they stood shamefully alert. “Lots of energy to drive from you the memory of your precious, defeated siren.” His smile tightened into a sneer, cruelty so sharp it pierced her like a spear.

  Coldness closed around her heart.

  Tua would never release Gabriel.

  Not when he could wield Gabriel’s life like a weapon, a threat, to ensure Kerina’s obedience and submission.

  Tua gripped the iron spit in one hand. His teeth—in the dim light of the cave they gleamed like fangs—ripped chunks of meat from the spit. His eyes widened, and a smile spread across his face. “You have surpassed yourself, Kerana. This is even better than I remember.”

  Please eat it all. Kerina’s fingers tightened around the back of her head. She no longer felt the shame of being naked and on display, her body like a plaything no more than an arm’s length away. Please just eat it all.

  Tua chomped his way through the meal, his appetite voracious. The serving was huge, but the herbs Kerina had rubbed over its surface and spread along the cuts she had made on the meat ensured that the aroma and flavor were evenly distributed.

  Seconds passed into minutes, each one interminable. Kerina counted each breath between Tua’s bites. The time between each extended, almost imperceptibly at first, then noticeably.

  Until finally, they stopped.

  Only then did Kerina dare peek up from beneath her eyelashes. Tua’s head slumped over his massive chest. Saliva dribbled from a corner of his mouth, and a soft snore escaped from him.

  Kerina yanked in a sharp breath. Relief flooded her. The herbs had worked! He was asleep!

  She leapt to her feet. She had to get out. Get Gabriel out. She hastily put on her dress and laced up the sides. Her body still cringed, still felt like a loathsome thing as if it could not purge the memory of Tua’s violation.

  Not now, she snapped mentally, yanking her out of her own misery. If she did not get out now, what Tua had done to her with his fingers would seem like a mercy compared to what else he had in mind.

  Especially when he woke.

  She grabbed her pouch of herbs that had been discarded on the ground by the cave entrance earlier and strung it around her waist before dashing toward the cave exit. She just had to find Gabriel and—

  Her glance flicked to the Legacy Stone—green, glowing, and serene—embedded in the rock wall, like a benediction of peace upon the demon’s sanctuary.

  No, she couldn’t. If she took the stone and fled with Gabriel, Tua would surely come after both of them when he woke. They would not stand a chance, not with Gabriel so badly injured. Their only chance of survival was to escape without the stone and pray Tua would not care enough to pursue them. Even that was a risk since Tua had been clear he wanted to keep her.

  But she couldn’t stay. She just couldn’t.

  Kerina turned her back on the Legacy Stone and hurried toward the exit, but as she crossed the threshold, she stopped and looked back.

  The Legacy Stone would save Gabriel’s people.

  It was the only reason Gabriel had sought her help, after all. It was the only thing that mattered to him. He had come all this way, risked his life countless times, for that green gem.

  How could she accept the risk of Tua chasing them down for her but not the risk of getting the stone? Was she still the same selfish woman who had lied about being the mage?

  Kerina’s hands curled into fists. Her fingertips were cold against her palms.

  It really wasn’t a choice, was it?

  She darted back into the cave and sprinted toward the rock wall. The sides were jagged, and she clambered up the side as easily as she had climbed the cliffs near her home. Her gaze searched ahead for handholds and she reached the Legacy Stone without much difficulty.

  Getting it out was another matter entirely. The gem was embedded in the wall, and she could not get enough of a grip on it to pull it out. She reached for her dagger, but in that instant, her right foot slipped. She swallowed the yelp of panic as she dangled from her left hand. She kicked against the wall, trying to find a foothold. They were too narrow. There was no place to safely stand to pry the gem out of the wall.

  She still had time to find Gabriel and run away.

  The longer she spent fiddling with the Legacy Stone, the lower their chances of ever being able to escape.

  But Gabriel needed that damned gem!

  Gritting her teeth, she used her toes to probe along the wall until she found a marginally wider ledge on which to stand. The extra inch was better than nothing, but no guarantee against not falling to her death. The knuckles on her left hand were white as she clung to the wall and used the dagger in her right hand to pry along the edges of Legacy Stone.

  She had scarcely loosened one side of it when a low grunt made her freeze in terror. Kerina glanced over her shoulder as Tua stirred. She held her breath when he turned on his side. His snore rumbled as he settled back down to sleep.

  But not for long, she knew. The herbs had put him to sleep, but he was a demon. They would not keep him asleep.

  Run, run, run, her mind chanted in a panic. She could still get away, without the stone. She did not have to live naked, exposed, and humiliated, her body displayed like a trophy and violated. Tua was going to rape her, again and again until he got her pregnant, and then he was going to rape her again, for the sheer pleasure of hearing her scream, of seeing the tears of shame spill from her eyes.

  She couldn’t live like that.

  She just couldn’t do it.

  Run, run, run.

  Gabriel...

  Kerina swallowed past the terror that clawed at her like a living thing. Her jaw set and her hand steadied as she went back to her task of prying that glowing jewel from the wall.

  “Come on, you stubborn thing,” she muttered under her breath. She dug the edge of her dagger into the sliver of space between the gem and the rock and then pressed down on it.

  The Legacy Stone popped loose. She tucked the knife away and pried the stone into the palm of her hand as she stared at its hypnotic green glow. Was it her imagination, or was it glowing more brightly in her hand than it did in the wall?

  “Shh,” she irrationally hushed the stone. She tucked the stone into her pouch, then leapt down from the wall, landing soundlessly in a low crouch.

  She cast a glance over her shoulder as Tua grunted in his sleep and shifted positions.

  Not much longer, she realized. We’re almost out of time.

  She raced out of the caverns, twisting down the increasingly narrow corridors to the cave where she had left Gabriel.

  She skidded to a stop when she entered.


  It was empty.

  The only evidence that he had ever been there was the blood-stained cloth she had placed over his chest wound to keep the medicine pressed against his injury.

  He was gone.

  She blinked, her jaw slack.

  He had escaped.

  He had left.

  Without her.

  The crushing pain in her chest almost drove her to her knees. Her eyes so filled with tears that she could hardly see, she followed the faint scent of the ocean down a small passageway tucked behind a rock cluster. She emerged out on a ledge and into the pink hint of dawn. All this trouble, and there was this opening so close to Tua’s lair?

  Then again, it was a dangerous fall to the ocean below, and a seemingly impossible climb up.

  In the horizon, the ocean touched the sky. Far below, waves smashed against jagged rocks, then thinned into white sea foam. The clean air and light breeze reminded her that not all the world was dark, twisted, and filled with pain.

  And Gabriel had returned to his world.

  He had abandoned her.

  Despair clogged her throat. How could she have expected any differently? Different worlds. And how could she blame him for acknowledging the helplessness of their situation when she had done the same?

  She dug the Legacy Stone out of her pouch and stared into its brilliant green light. What good was it now?

  Love had cost her everything.

  “Kerina?”

  Gabriel? She shoved the gem back into her pouch and spun around.

  He stood at the small cave mouth. His eyes were wide, but the shock in his expression melted into relief as he strode forward and threw his arms around her. “You’re alive. Where were you? I looked for you—”

  She shuddered against him, breathing in his clean scent, sinking into the safety and protection of his arms.

  “I…where were you?” She pulled back from him and stared at the blood staining the edges of his injury. “What happened to you?”

  “I got turned around in the tunnels, didn’t know where you’d dragged me, didn’t know where you’d gone. I thought you might have escaped, then realized that thought wouldn’t have even occurred to you.” A faint grin curved his mouth.

  If only he knew…

  Kerina bit her lip. If only he knew how many times she’d thought of running, of fleeing—with or without him.

  But she had stayed, hadn’t she? In the end, actions mattered, not hopes or dreams.

  And in the end, he had stayed, too.

  Gabriel continued, “I went looking for you, but found Ao Ao instead. It’s hard to run quickly when blood keeps leaking out with every beat of your heart.” He grimaced. “But the lizard-dog with seven heads—”

  “The one that liked sweet figs?”

  “He saved me. He set Ao Ao on fire and sent him running for his life.” Gabriel refocused on Kerina. “You’re trembling. Where were you? What happened?”

  She stared up at him. How could she ever have thought that Gabriel would leave her? He wouldn’t. He would stay and fight for her until he was killed—

  And she would not be able to bear it.

  There was, at best, only an hour left before the herbs she fed Tua wore off, and Gabriel would not leave. Even if she told him to.

  Not unless…

  She reached into her pouch and took out the Legacy Stone. It glowed in her hand, the green light spreading over their faces. She saw the disbelief in Gabriel’s eyes slowly give way to wonder, then hope.

  “There’s not much time,” she whispered. She set the gem in Gabriel’s hand. “Take it. Take it and go.”

  Chapter 21

  Gabriel stared at the faceted jewel in her hand. Its green glow defied the simplicity of the word “green.” Its smooth edges were so dark, they appeared almost black; its core was iridescent, a green so pale it was almost white. The interior of the jewel was not smooth, and its jaggedness had the appearance of almost having been shattered—but not quite.

  The Legacy Stone had survived a great deal.

  Like he and Kerina both had in their quest to retrieve it.

  He flung his arms around her, crushing her to him. “You did it.” His whisper was a breath of incredulous disbelief. He stepped back but did not release her hand. “Hurry, let’s go.”

  She shook her head and resisted when he would have pulled her to the edge of the cliff. “I can’t go.”

  Her words struck him with almost physical force. Breathless from shock, he turned slowly to face her. “I don’t understand. You’ve got the stone. You’ve got what we came for. Let’s go. Before Tua finds us.”

  “That’s why you have to go.” Her eyes brimmed with tears, and her voice shook. “Tua’s unconscious, but he will wake soon. If he realizes the stone is gone, he will pursue you. Kill you.”

  “In the water, I’m a match for him.”

  She shook her head and laid her free hand on the herbs smeared over his injury. “You’re hurt. You’ve lost too much blood. You cannot defeat him. Your only chance is in escape—in returning the Legacy Stone to the sacred place—before he realizes it’s gone. I can…”

  Gabriel stared at her. Terror stole his voice, and he had to try a few times before he could force the words past the tightness in his throat. “You can’t stay.”

  Her eyes met his. She bit down on her lower lip. “I have to.”

  “He thinks you’re Kerana. He’s going to…” Gabriel clenched his fist against the rising fury. “If you stay, he’s going to...hurt you.”

  In fact, Tua’s going to do so much worse. Gabriel’s stomach knotted. He had to squeeze his eyes shut against the mental image: limbs entwined, her delicate body spread wide for Tua.

  His muscles tightened until the veins stood out in the back of his hand. He couldn’t. He could not let Kerina stay. Didn’t she know that Tua would rape her?

  The bleak despair in Kerina’s eyes told him that she knew perfectly well what would happen to her if she stayed.

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You have to,” she said, her voice quiet and—to his astonishment—utterly calm. “This is what we came for.” Her hands trembled but her voice did not. “You have it now. You have to save your people.”

  “I am not leaving you.”

  “You cannot come all this way, only to fail at the very end, when hope, when salvation is literally in your hand. You have to take the Legacy Stone, Gabriel. Save your people.” Kerina placed her hand against his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch. “It’s why we came.” She forced a light laugh. “Don’t let me down.”

  Only then did her voice tremble.

  She wasn’t just afraid. She was terrified.

  How much courage did it take to hold her position? To willingly enslave herself to a brutal demon so that his people could live?

  If he accepted her sacrifice, how could he live with himself?

  How could he explain to his people that he had personally delivered the woman he loved into sexual servitude just so that they could live?

  Leadership...responsibility...duty...had never weighed so heavily on him. Whatever choice he made, he would have to live with for the rest of his life.

  He looked at her. It was strange how she had changed in his eyes. She was not pretty in the way the siren women were pretty, but nothing matched the compelling blend of quick wit and warm empathy in her eyes. The now-familiar birthmark was a part of her. To him, no one was as beautiful or as unforgettable. No one was more worthy of the risks.

  A muscle ticked in his cheek, his decision made. “We’ll take our chances.” He grabbed her wrist and drew her closer to the edge. “Whatever Tua throws at us, we can face it together.”

  Kerina wrenched her wrist free and shoved him hard. His arms swung wildly as he fought for balance, but he was too close to the edge. He tumbled off the cliff and plunged toward the ocean.

  His mind stuttered over curse words, but they caught in his throat. She pushed me?
Still falling, he stared up at the ledge, as Kerina raised her hands to her lips and blew him a kiss. She threw him a jaunty wave—no doubt more for his benefit than her own—then she was gone.

  Grief punched a hole through him. Sorrow blasted his thoughts apart. Instinct, and instinct alone, forced him into a mid-air turn, positioning his body, arms outstretched, for his dive into the sea.

  He cut into the water as cleanly as a sharpened blade through paper. The immediate shock of the cold vanished as water once again surrounded him, embraced him.

  He was home.

  The waves brushed against him as he stared up at the sheer rock cliff—at least three hundred feet high—that separated him from Kerina. Even if he had wanted to, there was no way to reach her now.

  No way, but to leave her to the fate she had chosen.

  It was what she wanted. He stared down at the priceless green gem in his hand, then his fist clenched around it. It was the choice she forced upon me. She pushed me off the cliff and into the water.

  Grief-stricken, bittersweet laughter pierced his thoughts. Only Kerina would have done such a thing to him.

  Now, all I have to do is to honor her choice.

  Easier said than done. It took all his willpower to swim away from the shore, to not turn around, to not look back, to not wonder if perhaps he, a siren from sea, could scale the heights.

  For a woman who wasn’t even a mage.

  Gabriel’s chest ached as if he’d been pierced by a spear. For the woman I love.

  Had he even told her? Had she known?

  He expelled his breath in a trembling sigh as he swam, his body undulating with the current, toward the fallen statue. After he restored the stone to the sacred place, surely he could return for Kerina.

  No, he realized, defeat bitter in his throat. The extensive network of Tua’s caves had wound through the countryside, and he had emerged many leagues from the underwater statue. It would take too long to reach it and then return to Kerina. By then, Tua would almost certainly have woken up.

  The water rippled a warning, and he stopped, turning toward the motion. From the deep blue, five lithe shapes snaked through the water. Familiar shapes.