All the Stars and Teeth(84)
“Did it get you, too?” I ask as he wipes the sweat from his forehead. “You look like you’re about to fall over.”
“No, I’m just tired.” He doesn’t need to elaborate that it’s because of how far we’re traveling from Keel Haul. Bastian tugs his shirt away from his chest, fanning himself. And even now, when danger breathes down our necks, heat stirs within me and I struggle to take my eyes off him, remembering the way his skin felt beneath my fingertips last night. “What did you see?”
I think back to the fox that stood looming over me in Father’s crown and cape, and shiver. “A fox,” is all I say, not wanting to remember the details.
The tension in Bastian’s jaw loosens as he nods. “Foxes are tricksters. Sounds like it’s an advanced curse, one that’s made to take advantage of the victim’s biggest fears. Honestly, I’m surprised you escaped the curse at all. Let alone so quickly…” His voice trails off as he side-eyes me.
Unlike him, I’m less concerned with how I got out of the curse than I am about what the curse showed me: Father, a monster in disguise. I swallow hard.
As we journey deeper into the woods, a smattering of homes spreads out before us, tiny cabins surrounded by dead trees. Though the place looks desolate, smoke lifts from a fire pit that sits between cabins. The fire itself has been snuffed out, but the coals still burn hot.
It’s clear this land was once beautiful; it sits at the base of a mountain, with the roar of a nearby waterfall offering a peaceful ambience. The buildings are similar to the one on the main shore—white and sleek, with large glass windows. Half of them have been burned away, while the others are in shambles with broken windows and peeling, rotting wood. I step toward one of them, and there’s a flash of movement in my periphery.
“Did any of you see that?” I ask, lowering my voice.
Though no one answers, they don’t question me. As Bastian shifts his gaze across the terrain I start to doubt myself, thinking maybe I’m still hallucinating from my curse when another flash of movement crosses the trees.
Bastian flinches; this time, he’s seen it. He grabs hold of my shirt and tugs me against him as something hot and sharp whizzes by my ear. It hisses as it passes, smacking into one of the houses behind us and striking the wood.
It’s a knife. Gooey, thick sap oozes from it and drips down the wood.
Poison.
Vataea readies her steel dagger with deft fingers, and I mirror the action by drawing my newest blade—Rukan. A name inspired by the jellyfish whose poison is said to cause the worst pain a person could ever experience.
I force every distraction away as five figures emerge, some of them jumping from the roofs while others encircle us from the sides. Their eyes gleam with calculation, bodies coiled with muscle. They wield strong weapons—knives, swords, and a dagger that looks to be made of bone.
I hold my poisonous blade tightly, ready.
One of the girls, a lithe blond who carries the bone dagger, rakes her hungry eyes over me.
I lift my blade to her in warning, and her eyes shift to examine its strange blue hue. If I were her, I’d be nervous to see such a strange weapon. If she’s smart, she’ll back away.
But she doesn’t.
I glance at Ferrick as the group surrounds us. He and Vataea stand back to back, him with his rapier and her with the dagger.
“We’re here to talk to Kaven,” Vataea says. “Let us through.” Her words are greeted with immediate scorn as those surrounding us laugh. Vataea’s out of her element with a blade as her weapon instead of her voice, and she looks it.
“Let you through?” One of the men laughs. He’s hardly twenty and yet his voice is heavy with a rasp. “After what Visidia’s king did to our island? I don’t think so.”
“We want to help reconnect Zudoh to the kingdom,” I say, never looking away from the girl who clutches her blade before me. “But to do that, you have to work with us.”
The girl before me twitches her hands. I swathe my magic around me and immediately see the vengeance her soul craves with its entire being. Sensing danger, she coils tight and readies herself to spring.
“We don’t want your help,” she growls decidedly. Around her, the others hold their chins high in agreement.
“Drop your weapons and walk. We’ll see if Kaven has time for a chat.” She’s lying. I sense the very moment the girl decides to kill me because her soul turns a deep, muddy red—the color of congealed blood. The corners of it crack, threatening to peel.
In my mind, I see the blood of my first kill sliding down my fingertips. I remember the monster within me thrashing to life for the first time. And for a moment, I hesitate.
Perhaps I was a monster to kill her. Perhaps I was a monster to kill all of them.
But everything I’ve done, I’ve done with the goal of protecting Visidia. And I won’t be sorry for it any longer.
Perhaps a monster is exactly what this kingdom needs.
This girl has made her decision, and I’m not about to wait and let her strike first.
Clutching Rukan tight, I lunge forward and plunge my blade deep into her stomach. Her eyes go wide and she sways, the blood swelling out of her and painting her shirt red. It’s a fatal wound, poison or not. Her green eyes go glassy. Blood dribbles from her lips down to her chin before she staggers and chokes on it. She falls a moment later, spasming on the ground.