To Kill a Kingdom(93)
Bullets cascade around me, shooting through the air like fireworks. The water is riddled with them, alongside the floating bodies of sirens. I hear the battle cries and death cries. My crew is dying, the sirens are dying, and I can’t seem to tell which screams belong to who.
I gasp a breath when I finally reach the fork of land in the water. My feet pound across it, but I barely have the chance to get close enough to the Sea Queen before something slams into me, lifting me off the ground. My cheek cracks on the ground.
It’s not a siren. It’s a merman.
The creature flips back into the water and roars with the splintered teeth of a shark. I choke a little, but when it attacks again, I’m ready. I’m a tornado of steel and fury, slicing clean into its rubber flesh, across its branded chest and deep grooved stomach. But the merman doesn’t relent no matter how much it bleeds.
It grabs me by the throat with a webbed hand and roars loud enough to split my ears. I drop my sword. The edges of its spiked fingers puncture my neck and it lifts me off the floor with one muscular arm. I scramble, fumbling blindly as I gag for breath. When my hands latch around the screaming blade, I don’t waste time.
I slam my knife through the base of its chin, driving the blade up until the handle slams against bone. The power surges back through the steel, like no kill before. It is pure animal and instinct and as my knife drinks it up, I do too.
The creature falls to the floor by my feet and the Sea Queen’s nostrils flare.
“Tha pethánete,” she barks.
“Sorry, I rub a hand over my throat. “I don’t speak bitch.”
The water boils in fury around her. “When you die,” she says, “do you think my daughter will weep?”
I lift my knife. “Kill me and find out.”
39
Elian
I KICK MY SWORD up off the floor and catch it, holding both blades before the Sea Queen.
She hisses. “Just like a human, to rely on weapons to make a kill.”
With a raised hand, the Sea Queen hoists a body of water up and sends it thrusting toward me. I dive out of the way, but the edge of the great wave clips my ankle and sends me spinning through the air. I land with a skid, ice burning through the fabric of my leg.
She regards me with an impish look of satisfaction and then raises her hand once more. I ready myself for the impact, but the hit never comes. Instead she sends a hammer of water toward a line of half a dozen of my men. It envelops them instantly and then drags them into the clawing pit of sirens.
I snarl and throw my sword in her direction, but it bounces from her glass skin.
“Fool,” she spits. “Ilthia anóitos.”
“You’ve lost already,” I tell her, heaving myself to my feet. “I have the Crystal of Keto. Lira couldn’t take it from me.”
But even as I say the words, I’m unsure. The crystal may have been humming before, but if anything, it feels like dead weight in my pocket now.
The Sea Queen recoils at the sight of the crystal in my hand.
“I’ll make sure Lira is punished for that when this is over,” she says, sliding backward. “In fact, I think she already is.”
I follow her line of vision and freeze.
Across the way, Lira is fighting Yukiko. The princess shoves her roughly against a pillar of ice, and Lira lurches forward to slash her sword against her chest. I don’t have to hear them to know Yukiko is laughing. Lira may be a killer in the ocean, but Yukiko is a Págese warrior, and on land and on snow and especially on this mountain, that means so much more. The Págese are trained to be merciless, and to Yukiko, Lira is just another siren. Only now she’s easy prey.
A few members of my crew surround her, their blades eager to take a stab at the traitor. I’ve lost sight of Kye and Madrid, but even if they were near, I don’t know what they would do. If they would help Lira or Yukiko.
Yukiko raises a hand to keep my crew back. Signaling that she wants Lira for herself.
Lira twists her arm up to punch, but Yukiko dodges and then backhands her hard across the cheek. I can almost feel the impact. Lira spits, and in the next moment, Yukiko grabs her roughly, ripping the material across her shoulder. Lira kicks out, but when Yukiko hits her this time, she slams to the ground.
The Págese princess removes a pistol from her holster and the Sea Queen makes an admonishing sound. “See,” she purrs. “Just like a human.”
The lack of concern in her voice shocks me more than it should. It’s a game to her. Everything from this war to her daughter’s death. She would let Lira be killed so I could carry the guilt of it. She would refuse to save her so I could be disgraced when I did.
I’m hurtling toward them before I think of a solid plan, and the Sea Queen lets me abandon her in the watery depths. I don’t need to glance back to know she’s watching me with a satisfied smile. Grinning as I do her dirty work, like another one of her subjects.
I arrive too late.
Something crashes into Yukiko, sending her skidding ten feet across the snow. The siren growls, yellow hair curling in front of her eyes. She arches her shoulders, licks her lips, and then springs once more. Shots fire out, but the beast is too fast for bullets to keep up.
Ribbons cut across Yukiko’s body, and I choke back a gag as the siren snarls and presses her hand against the princess’s chest, poised to take her still-beating heart as a trophy. I fist my sword, breathe in a low rumble, and ready for the killing blow.