Chapter 34

The clear sky bears down on us, light bouncing off every angle of this island of clustered crystals, casting prisms of color across my sallow, sweat-dappled skin and striking me in the eyes.

The crisp sea air nips at me, and I hiss through chattering teeth, squinting down the narrow path chipped into the rock—kicking forward another wobbly step that threatens to tip me over the slope to my left. A slope that falls directly into a long, jagged ravine alive with the sound of gushing water.

This is a bad idea.

I’ve known it from the moment Vicious thrust this old, knotted stick at me—long and bleached, as though it weathered the ocean’s current for decades before it washed up on this shore only to bear the brunt of my torture. But saying no to her determined eyes and fierce, over-enthusiastic nod felt more catastrophic than using the last drips of my fading life force to please her bizarre whim.

But with every shiver that rattles me to the core and every labored step that threatens to buckle my knees, I question that logic a little bit more.

Vicious shuffles behind me, setting her hot hand between my aching shoulder blades, making me shiver for entirely different reasons—the contact sending a zap all the way down my spine.

“I’m tired, Vicious …”

She gives me a gentle shove.

I think she wants me to exercise. Perhaps she thinks it’ll make a difference.

I know better.

I’m fading. Day by day, hour by hour, a little more of my fight drips away. Candescence didn’t help. This arduous morning stroll certainly won’t.

I want to go back to our nest, curl around her little warm body, and fall back into the deep sleep she dragged me from. Nothing like a nip to the ear to rip you free from a cozy state of numbness that feels beautifully eternal.

Though to be fair, it would be nice to see the sea again … to taste it … feel it swirl against my skin …

One last time.

Perhaps that’s where she’s taking me.

Sliding my foot along the stone, I tighten my grip on the cloth wrapped around my waist, protecting what modesty I have left but doing nothing to alleviate this bone-deep chill rattling through me. “Is that it, Vicious? Are you taking me to the sea?”

Every word feels thick and syrupy; every step heavy and forced. My lids droop, neck struggles to hold my head straight.

I look back, right into her all-consuming stare.

She doesn’t nod. Doesn’t blink. Certainly doesn’t speak. Simply stares at me with an intensity that makes me feel seen in a way that rips my heart in two and fills my chest with a desperate, possessive warmth that almost knocks my feet out from under me.

On an island of the most precious stone in all five seas, I’d leave with empty hands if I could have her.

I would have kept her. Brought her back to my trove and shown her my treasures. The melancholy thought wrestles inside me, frantically snatching my heartstrings, tugging them so taut it feels like I might spew.

Another gentle shove, and my head lolls forward again, making something twang inside my chest. Like I just stretched the threads of something lethal. Blood breaks the seal of the scale stuck over my wound, and I feel it weave a warm, wet path down my middle, the smell too sour to be healthy.

I’m urged around a sharp bend one gentle shove at a time, and the ocean dawns before me.

Almost breaks me.

It’s so beautiful and smooth and so far down.

‘Zykanth, look at that …’

No answer.

Heaving shuddered breaths, I drop the cloth, reaching up to pat my fist against my chest in an effort to wake him up.

‘Wake up!’

Eyes cast on the glassy ocean, my steps become faster. More determined.

Vicious threads her arm around my middle, halting me.

I cast a wobbly stare to the left, down a set of stairs that look steep and unforgiving. They lead to the shallow mouth of a ravine and a rippled pool of red water that feeds into a tiny waterfall tumbling off the sheer cliff.

It all clicks into place, and I crumble, caught under the arms by a small pair of hands that help lower me to the ground until I’m sat on the top stair.

It’s the same soothing liquid that pours into the ocean. The same soothing liquid I’ve bathed in many times.

Years ago.

So far away.

I lose grip on the walking stick. Watch it clatter down the steps.

Vicious hisses, darting after it, her oversized shirt swimming around her scrambling form, her hair a trail of spindrift that leaves me breathless.

“Beautiful,” I whisper, my heavy lids easing down, the racket of my tumbling stick becoming a muffled, distant sound …

My vision of Vicious splits.

Another deep blink, and then the world is tipping sideways—toward the steep slope that falls into a clifftop overlooking the ocean I yearn to pull through my gills …

My shoulder smacks against the stone, punching a gnarled sound from my blazing lungs as I slide, plummeting toward the cliff so fast the world blurs.

My mind gives out.

Shuts off.

Darkness.

* * *

Ablast of pain tearing through my chest rips me back to consciousness, and an agonized groan rends from my parted lips, legs swaying …

Body hanging.

I look up the sheer cliff face, see a halo of wild, white tendrils brushing my stretched arm. See a hand wrapped around my wrist—fingers straining.

She caught me.

A red waterfall gushes beside me, spraying my face and the side of my body as it plummets off the edge of the island. My gaze drops to the thousands of crystal shards below, jutting from beneath the silky water.

I look back up to the straining tendons in her arm …

My feet tingle, stomach lurches.

I’m going to pull her over, too.

“You have to let me go!”

She snarls, as though she understands me for once.

Her grip tightens.

“Vicious!”

I kick my feet, trying to wiggle free from her iron-clad clutch.

Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head.

“Let me go!”

She closes her eyes and yanks so hard her face reddens from the strain.

I’m lifted, little by little, until I’m high enough to punch my arm up while screaming through the hack of pain plowing through my chest. More warm wetness dribbles down my front as I grab hold of the cliff’s sharp edge.

Vicious reaches with her other hand and grips a fistful of hair at the back of my head, using it to haul me up—ripping a roar from my throat as she hoists me until I can shift my weight forward and scramble over the lip. I fall in a heap on the smooth stone, chest heaving.

I look up at the pale blue sky, stomach churning, mouth gaping, breath sawing in and out. Heart hammering so hard it’s crippling.

In a scurry of white hair and golden limbs, Vicious straddles me, planting her forehead against mine.

We absorb each other’s labored breaths as her soft hands come up to cup my cheeks, and I thread my arms around her back. Tangle my fingers with her fluffy hair.

She goes stone still, breath halting.

I open my eyes to see hers wide and staring right into me, and the world seems to stand still.

Though she has no words on her lips, I feel the weight of her thoughts pour upon me, a crush that shoves the air from my lungs. Her lashes flutter closed as she melts against me, my pain paling in significance to this.

She’s so warm and smooth and soft … then taut and tight as her back arches.

She growls, sharp and fierce.

Frowning, I open my mouth, but before I manage to say a word, she dips her face and snatches my bottom lip between her teeth, biting down.

Hard.

Her hold on my face tightens, stare digging, and I feel her teeth pierce my flesh. Feel the growling sound she’s making rattle through her chest to mine.

Warm blood dribbles down my chin, and every cell in my body locks.

“Phishious—”

She bites harder.

“That hurts.”

Keeps snarling.

Her eyes are wide and fearful, ferocious and accusing all at once. She blinks, snarls, and a tear escapes.

My heart flips, almost choking me.

Holding her stare, I trail up the line of her spine, feeling her smooth skin burst with goosebumps as my fingers glaze the side of her neck. I thread them through her soft tendrils, skimming her skull. Once my entire hand cradles the back of her head, I clench a fistful of hair, tugging gently.

Her lids flutter.

“It’s okay,” I battle out. “I’ng orite.”

Her sound softens.

“You can let go.”

So fucking slowly, she eases her jaw open, though I keep pulling her head back—seeing my blood coating her teeth and chin and throat.

Fuck.

I suck my bottom lip into my mouth, tasting me. Tasting her—smooth like the ocean and just as crisp and clear.

From somewhere deep inside me, Zykanth stirs. One small slither of movement that has my heart leaping high into my throat.

‘Zyke?’

Silence.

But that tiny slithering motion … it’s everything.

Vicious rips away, leaving me bereft, cold, and drained.

Empty.

She scurries down to my feet, wraps her hands halfway around my ankles, and begins lugging me along the clifftop, toward the red pool gurgling near the edge.

“You’re very … emasculating … sometimes,” I battle out, feeling the stone grate at my skin. Watching the sky slip by between heavy-lidded blinks, not even bothering to fight. Not even sure I could.

She hooks her hands under my arms and tugs me forward until I’m folded with my face in her neck, groaning from the strike of pain that stabs through me.

I blow a shuddered breath. “I want to sleep,” I murmur. “Please.”

Her hands slide around my waist and, taking my weight, she pulls me into the swirling warmth, a sigh easing out of me that morphs into a whimper as she lowers us onto a smooth stone ledge—submerged until the bold, red water laps at my clavicle.

Her hands weave between us, fiddling with something. I don’t realize what until the material swirling against my skin is suddenly yanked away, leaving no buffer between our bare flesh.

I don’t pull from her neck, even as her bareness straddles me. Presses against me. Does things to me that I can’t bring myself to be ashamed of.

There’s a wet plop behind me, and she eases me back until my head is resting on the pile of her sodden shirt.

My eyes drift shut, lacking the energy to voice my protest as the scale is peeled from my wound in slow increments.

Water seeps in, its soothing warmth a pleasant balm.

I reach for her blindly, but she beats me to it, leaning forward, sealing her body to mine. Her heavy heartbeat thuds wildly against my chest as she nuzzles my neck, her breath a soothing patter on my prickling skin.

“Don’t leave me,” I whisper.

Please …

I don’t like being by myself.

I don’t want to die alone.

Her hand weaves around the back of me, settling on the left side of my body where she taps.

Tap.

Tap.

… Tap …

I drag my fingers up and down her ribs, her silky skin a dream I want to fall into …

Oblivion sucks me under.