25. Chapter Twenty-Five

"That"s it?" Kalia asked, squinting against the barrage of wind that whipped around the edge of the rocky cliff. The sun peeked through the clouds, just enough that the rays reflected brilliantly off the waves that snuck into the sheltered bay. A sugar-sand beach stretched along the coast of the isle, and the tall seagrass planted on the shore bowed to the breeze. "That doesn"t seem like a lair to me." It seemed like somewhere she would sit with a bottle of fion if anyone asked her.

Rahmi slid a second dagger into the sheath tied to his belt, the sound of leather against metal soft amongst the flapping sails above them. "No, that"s it."

Kalia glanced to the left, where Rahmi had gestured with the point of the third dagger still in his hand. "No. No, no, no." She shook her head, taking her hands off the gunnel of the ship to cross her arms over her chest. "There is no way that I"m going anywhere near that."

A split was open down the rocky cliff where the rolling waves pounded the wall. From her position on the ship, it looked barely large enough for her to fit through. Sea water entered through the fissure with a boom that sounded like thunder, the wave cresting to fill the space inside before retreating in a hiss of white foam.

"We aren"t going near it. We"re going in it," Rahmi amended, turning toward Alaric to take the compass from the quartermaster"s outstretched palm and popping it into the pouch tied around his neck.

He had to know that wasn"t better. She turned to gape at him, only to find an amused grin quirking his mouth. She scoffed, shaking her head. "You"re lying." Gods, she hoped he was lying. He had to be lying.

"I"m not lying," Rahmi replied with a laugh. "We"re going to have to swim there—"

"Pardon me?"

"There isn"t a place for us to tether a boat, and the si"lat will just steal it even if there was."

Kalia glanced back toward the cliff. A wave slammed against the rock, spraying seawater upward in a rainbow-threaded mist. The second boom thundered through the small bay like a cannon blast. They were both going to die. She could feel it in her bones.

"Don"t look so worried, ruehi," Rahmi said. He reached up to grasp the rigging, hauling himself onto the gunnel. He turned on expertly placed feet, clear assurance in his movements despite the ship rolling in the waves beneath him. "I"ll be with you the whole time," he said.

That didn"t make her feel better either, considering she had tried to end his life on multiple occasions. He seemed to have sensed the apprehension in her hesitation because he extended a hand down in compromise. She stared at it for a brief moment before flicking her gaze up to meet his.

The last thing Kalia wanted was for him to show her up in front of the crew. Her pride certainly wouldn"t allow for that. She pushed back her anxiety, the feeling like razorblades in her blood, and took his hand. Rahmi easily pulled her onto the gunnel next to him, and she gulped when she glanced over the side.

The wind hadn"t calmed overnight like she was hoping it would have, and the waves bore witness to a faraway storm that gathered on the horizon. She fixed her gaze on Elodie and Shirin, who had gathered near the front of the crew as soon as the anchor dropped. Unsurprisingly, Elodie was busy wringing her hands. On the other hand, Shirin tried to mask her unease with boredom, though her eyes still shone a bit too brightly as she watched Kalia balance on the edge of the ship.

"How are we going to get down?" Kalia asked, raising her voice over the howling wind.

"Like this," Rahmi retorted, wrapping his arms around Kalia"s waist. She hadn"t been given the chance to wriggle away from him before she felt her body tip to the side, suddenly suspending her in the open air.

Kalia screamed as Rahmi laughed, and a split second of boyish joy lit up his tanned face before they careened into the water. Kalia sunk under the surface, Rahmi"s hands ripped from her body, and she kicked upward until her head broke above the waves. She was incredibly grateful for the cotton breeches and tunic she wore in place of her dress, though the spare change of clothes plopped on the end of her bed the night before should have been a sufficient warning.

The salt stung her eyes as Kalia wiped the water from her lashes. Though the sea was warmer here than it had been near the prison, it still didn"t stop her teeth from clacking together as she took a deep, sputtering breath.

Rahmi appeared in front of her, shaking his hair from his eyes. The sodden locks stuck to his temple, brow, and jaw. Had she not been spitting angry at being tossed from the deck of a pirate ship, she would have tucked the locks behind his ear herself.

Droplets of briny water cut a path down his nose and over the curve of his lips. Lips that had explored her body, teeth that nipped at the crook of her neck. His tongue darted out to catch the droplet as it entered the seam of his lips, and Kalia realized she was no better than the ogling men of the bordello. She cleared her throat as he reached for her, turning to swim toward the cliff face. She didn"t want to feel how her skin would turn molten with a simple touch of his fingertips. And she knew that it would.

Mist rained down on them as they approached the fissure, and the rolling waves tossed her around, a beast threatening to pull her under the surface. Kalia was not a natural swimmer, quite the opposite, but Pete had taught her well enough when she was a child, and she harkened back to those lessons with every stroke of her arms or kick of her legs.

The sea rose again as Kalia clung to the top of the aperture, her fingernails digging into the wet rock, and she managed to dip inside the cliff just as Rahmi"s hand planted heavily on the wall next to her own. The top of Kalia"s head scraped against the ceiling of the passage as she swam deeper inside, the water rising and falling as though the passageway were a living, breathing thing. There was a scent in the air, one that she couldn"t quite place, just as her knees collided with a sharp stone.

The wind whistled through breaches in the rock above them, thin shafts of light illuminating the small area. Kalia had come to a stone-made platform of sorts, one layered with a thin gloss of water. It was colder than it should have been, considering the humidity, and it only set Kalia"s nerves further on edge.

"Low tide," Rahmi said gruffly, flattening his hands on the rock before them. He pushed onto the platform, water sluicing from his shoulders and down his back.

Kalia"s mouth went dry as she spotted the corded muscles beneath his wet tunic. When he finally turned to face her, she was a bit too transfixed as water droplets slid through the smattering of hair on his broad chest. She really was no better than the men at the bordello. She briefly wondered how often Rahmi had to work the rigging or sails for his body to look…well, like that.

"I"m sure I can find a painter for you," Rahmi"s voice echoed above the water. "Isn"t that what you said to me?"

Kalia scowled through his smirk, ignoring his extended hand as she pushed herself onto the stone platform. She swatted at it entirely when he wrapped his fingers around her arm to assist her. Bent low to avoid knocking his forehead against the hanging rock that clung to the ceiling, Rahmi slid around to lead them through the passage.

"Try not to stare at my ass."

Kalia"s scowl deepened. "Your eyes are too close, and you should consider shaving more often."

Rahmi only sent her a feral grin in return, one that, if they had not been in the midst of a cave, would have set fire to Kalia"s core. She tromped after him, her boots sloshing through the water, thinly layering the rock they had clambered onto.

"What did you mean when you said low tide?" Kalia finally asked after an unknown amount of time had passed. The passage twisted deeper, the crevices above them widening. Wisps of white clouds against a stark blue sky peered at them through the cracks in the rocky ceiling. She dared to look up from watching for her footing, surprised to find that he had been looking at her, too.

A slant of sunshine poured over Rahmi"s face, his brown eyes glowing with the light. "The entrance and most of this passage is only accessible during low tide." He said it too calmly, something that Kalia latched onto.

She blinked. "And what happens when it isn"t low tide anymore?" The casual shrug of his shoulders almost made Kalia"s eye twitch. "What happens, Rahmi?" The question came out sharper than she intended.

"Not calling me captain any longer? That"s a shame." Rahmi"s focus markedly narrowed on her as though he were, indeed, recalling how her mouth moved when she said it. "We should move faster unless you desire to find out." His stride lengthened, forcing Kalia to quicken her steps.

The passage turned downward, the water eddying against the small stones along the path. Moss grew against the jagged rock wall, and Kalia surveyed it closely, keeping her mind away from the inevitable climb back up. Never in her life would she have thought she would voluntarily follow someone into a mysterious cave, let alone follow a man, and here she was…doing just that.

Rahmi"s rumbling tone broke through, pulling her from her thoughts.

"You"re from Sha"Hadra, aren"t you?" Rahmi asked, leaning to the side to avoid another low-hanging rock. "Why hide in a bordello?"

Kalia gently touched the stone wall, feeling the jagged edges rasp against her palm. "I didn"t hide," she said, slipping past the low-hanging rock. "It was my home."

"Was the madam your mother? Do djinn have mothers?"

The question coiled in her chest, squeezing her heart. Her mother never made her prove her worth. Her mother was kind, quiet, compassionate, and strong. The madam was never any of those things, only furthering Kalia"s need to return to the desert city. "Yes, we have mothers. No, the madam wasn"t mine."

Rahmi made a noise of interest at the back of his throat. "Where is yours then? Surely she wouldn"t have wanted her daughter to work as whore."

Kalia didn"t want to talk about her mother. She didn"t want to bring the memories screaming to the forefront of her mind. She didn"t want to remember her mother"s body crumpled against the floor, blood bubbling from a slash in her throat. She could still see her brother"s angry shouts as he tried to muscle past the guards to the neighbors who had turned them in before he was finally cut down, too.

"She"s gone," Kalia said shortly, keeping the details to herself. "She"s been gone a long time now."

"So you were a whore then?"

Kalia"s eyes snapped up. First, she found his easy grin before lifting to meet his gaze. "What makes you say that?" She held his stare and didn"t bother to look pleasant while doing it.

Unyielding cockiness rolled from him, stifling the already stale air around them. "You didn"t answer my question."

"You didn"t ask that question," Kalia corrected him. Being polite was an exhausting inconvenience. "You asked me about my dead mother."

Rahmi held up his hands, a huff of a laugh escaping through his nose. "Take it out on me then."

"Why do you want to know?" Kalia asked, rubbing the spot on her forehead where she had scraped it against an exposed tree root as they approached a wide archway that opened to a shaded oasis just beyond. "Do you have something against whores?" She didn"t know why she was getting defensive. She had never been a whore. Nor had she gotten particularly close to any women who worked at the bordello.

"You"ve been on my ship for nearly six weeks now. I don"t know anything about you. Call it curiosity, if you will." Rahmi pivoted toward her, a rush of humid air following his sudden shift. His feral grin had returned, bearing down on her. She refused to step back despite his insistence on being in her space. She knew it was a game to him. And she refused to let him win. "I"ve tasted you. I like to know about the women I know intimately."

Kalia quirked an unimpressed brow, tipping her chin up to keep her gaze planted on his. "You don"t need to know anything about me other than the sound I make when I come. And you already know that." His eyes darkened, a shadow of desire boring into her. She took a moment to wonder how he might sound if her lips were wrapped around his cock.

Instead, she took a step back. Information was deadly. She knew that better than anyone. The more someone knew, the easier it was for them to destroy you. She had been taught that lesson at a young age and had learned it repeatedly on the streets of Sha"Hadra before it finally sunk in.

Kalia could have sworn disappointment followed in the wake of his desire as she put that much-needed space between them.

"Who are you, Kalia Salam?" Rahmi asked softly, his eyes desperately searching hers. She didn"t like the tone that underlined his question. It was…gentle, a plead for vulnerability, not the unfiltered anger and roughness she had already associated with him. It wasn"t them, and she couldn"t allow for that.

Luckily, she wasn"t forced to wallow in it for much longer.

There was a sharp hiss and a whack against the rock wall. Rahmi surged forward, shoving Kalia behind him. A crack sounded from beneath her boot, and she looked down, her stomach lurching in shock. She saw a broken spear lying haphazardly under the thin sheen of water trickling down the passage. Dust still fell from where it had hit the wall above her head.

"A meal,"a female voice hissed from the opening. "And two of you. The fun I could have."

Tall and lean, the female"s top half was human. Her round eyes were lined with heavy layers of kohl, and the unnatural vertical slits for pupils seemed to swallow the light streaming in from the opening in the wall behind her. Her black, silken hair was thick and tangled, sliding over her exposed breasts as she moved. As she moved.

Kalia"s mouth fell open in horror as the woman entered the passage. The slow glide was too smooth, and she immediately saw why. Instead of a pair of legs, the bottom half of the female was that of a giant snake. The thick trunk was broader than Rahmi"s shoulders, a robust set of muscles that were built for one thing: death. Gleaming, dark scales the size of Kalia"s hand covered her hips to the tip of the tail. They glimmered in the sunlight, each a beautiful purple contrasting the monstrous appearance of the creature they were attached to.

Rahmi unsheathed his blade, pointing the tip at the si"lat. "We"re only here for one thing. The orb around your neck."

Indeed, a milky, white orb suspended from a leather rope was settled in the valley of her breasts. From Kalia"s angle, the contents seemed to be swirling. A gurgle of water sounded from behind her, and the water streaming down the passage began to rise. It quickly surpassed the tops of her boots.

The si"lat tilted her head and grinned, showcasing a mouth full of sharp teeth. Kalia"s stomach lurched when she spotted the bloody sinew stuck between two fangs in the top row. She didn"t want to know what, or who, that could be.

"You"re here to barter then," the female continued in a low hiss, coiling her thick tail behind her. A predator preparing to strike. The orb swayed with her breasts. "For her? She looks lovely." Droplets of green venom leaked from her gums, dripping onto her bottom lip and trailing onto her chin. "It"s been so long since I"ve had a woman. I miss how they taste. The warmth, the beauty, the pleasure—"

Kalia sent out a blast of her power, a wave of rippling magic that carved a warning into the si"lat"s mind. The si"lat stopped her slow slither forward, blinking those round eyes for the first time. A single brow arched as a gust of wind blew, ruffling her hair against her two dusky nipples. Her knuckles tightened around the second spear still clutched in her hand, each finger ending in a long talon that Kalia knew would easily open her belly with a single swipe.

"Ah," the si"lat purred, "a Voyant." Her venom came quicker, leaking in slimy streaks that dribbled onto her chest. "It"s been centuries since I"ve had one of you."

Kalia remained still, her stomach dropping with dread, as her eyes darted from the si"lat to Rahmi. The si"lat"s smile only grew, like a cat toying with its food.

"Give me the orb," Rahmi said slowly, calm and confident. He held out his hand, palm facing up. He couldn"t have expected the creature to drop the orb there, not with the way she was already feasting on Kalia with her eyes. Rahmi hadn"t seemed to notice. Or, if he had, he hadn"t made any moves to show it.

Despite the water rushing down the passage, hitting just above Kalia"s ankles, she couldn"t help the charge of relief that flooded her veins. When comparing the two, the si"lat came in dead last with her taloned fingers and venomous bite. Kalia had seen what Rahmi could do when provoked.

Rahmi lunged, the tip of his cutlass plunging toward the si"lat. The orb bounced against her chest as she slithered to avoid him, her thick tail swinging around to clip him in the back of the knees. Rahmi landed with a dense splash on his back, his face momentarily dunking under the water. He surged upward, the water now nearly Kalia"s knees.

"You"re stuck here with me, little dove," the si"lat said playfully. "My sisters will be ecstatic when they get home from their hunt. We"ve lived on what the sea has brought us for so long."

Bones floated by, rats or fish by the looks of them, and each etched with the sharp bite marks of the si"lat"s fangs. The water raced into the cavern beyond the si"lat, and, for the first time, Kalia noticed the set of gills protruding from her neck. She was waiting them out, knowing they would either need to get past her or fight to stay alive.

Kalia released another blast of her power as Rahmi swiped his cutlass, lashing the blade through the air. The sunlight glinted off the metal, brilliant and bright as though the captain had recently sharpened it. She was sure that he had. The si"lat turned toward Kalia, her round eyes narrowed as those unnaturally long slits for pupils dilated.

"Let me taste you, little dove," the si"lat said, swiping a hand toward Rahmi. Her set of talons collided with the cutlass, and she let out a hiss of pain as one of the talons was cut clean off. Blood spurted from the end of her finger, but she didn"t pay it any mind. Not when Kalia was so close. "Let me get my fill of you."

The water was past Kalia"s hips, quickly approaching her waist. Rahmi"s movements had slowed, the rising tide keeping him from using his legs to put power behind the blade. Kalia plunged a tendril of her magic into the si"lat"s mind, sifting through the layers as the creature"s subconscious thrashed and bucked beneath her grip. Kalia hooked another tendril of magic in, pinning the si"lat"s mind into place.

"There"s no escape for you," the si"lat said, her cool voice filled with rage. As though the sounds were coming from above water, the garble of metal against talon clanged once again. "You"re mine."

Kalia hadn"t done it since she was young and never wanted to again. But the water was well past her breasts, approaching her throat quickly. They were dead if she didn"t and would most likely still be dead out of pure exhaustion even if she did, but she had to give them a chance. She dug into the si"lat"s mind, finding the glowing ember of the creature"s soul.

The si"lat thrashed again, but Kalia already anchored herself against it, the heat and energy of the soul scorching a path of resistance that she could feel heating her very blood. Grimacing, she grabbed onto the threads that held the soul in place and pulled. It took more effort than she remembered, possibly because the si"lat wasn"t human, but Kalia finally uprooted the ember.

Kalia withdrew from the si"lat"s mind as it began to blacken, the creature jerking to a standstill. With one final breath, blood gushing from a puncture wound along her ribcage from Rahmi"s cutlass, the si"lat slunk beneath the surface of the water.