“It is usually a busy river,” Valor said. “In summers past, boats heavy with the autumn harvest made their way to the seaport, while boats carrying goods made the journey upwards into the city. There are posts every few hours where rowers can disembark and be replaced with fresh men, so they do not halt even once upon the river.” His gaze fixed on a black shape on the opposite shore. Grass and weeds grew over the gutted, burnt ruin of an old dock.
“You destroyed the posts?”
“All of them.”
“Even though Aridia is starving and needs food shipments?”
“Yes.” There wasn’t a hint of shame in Valor’s voice.
Nick studied the man’s profile. His city was starving, but he had worsened their situation, and Nick finally understood Valor and the warning Kit had given about him. Nick was looking at a man willing to do anything to achieve his goal. Leave a child behind with a monster. Strangle an already starving city. “Your men aren’t in the city. They’re out here where they don’t need shipments to get food.”
Valor inclined his head, a yes.
“Did Seche’s scouts even see any merfolk in the river?” Nick asked, voice sharpening with worry. He had chosen trust because he could see that these people cared for Kit, but from what he’d just heard, Valor’s care was a deadly thing.
Valor turned from his perusal of the river to Nick. “I was informed of the conditions you offered Seche in return for your aid. Death, not capture.”
Nick met Valor’s eyes, aware of the way the man’s tail was held, perfectly still. Cold blue eyes bored into Nick, like the answer to this question dictated what was about to happen.
Nick clenched his jaw, lifted his chin. “Kit won’t be safe unless she’s gone.”
“It is not vengeance for your abduction and treatment?” Valor queried.
Nick blinked in surprise. The thought hadn’t occurred to him, that he might want payback for his own trials. Desre was the one who’d ordered him taken, the one who had him whipped. But when he thought of the night he’d been abducted, it was the memory of her breaking her fan against Kit’s hand that swam behind his eyes. At the memory of his whipping, it was the way Kit had whined, agonised that he was being made to do it, that left bruises upon Nick’s heart. He couldn’t stand that an abuser had power over Kit. Hewouldn’tstand for it. And he didn’t mean it in a noble, good way, like how his dad protected Connor. It was a vicious fury. A rabid promise.
“She’s never touching him again,” Nick said, his voice hard and unrecognisable.
Valor’s tail swished, a shine of approval in his eyes. “Merfolk were spotted a few miles from here. We have timed our intercept to the minute.”
A large tail fin broke through the slow-moving water, a kaleidoscope of colour that Nick recognised in an instant. A tail he usually scowled at for breaking their furniture beneath its immense weight now filled his heart with relief. Nick raised a hand, shielding his gaze as the sun glinted off glittering scales of blues and greens. His lips parted to call out but gasped in a shocked breath instead; an invisible force took a thousandneedles of burning metal and hammered them into his arms. Pain seared through every tattoo, arms lighting up in pain as heat drove between muscle and skin.
“Adonis,” Nick gritted out through the pain.
Valor’s head snapped towards him as Nick curled forwards, entire body shaking. He clutched at the tattoos, digging fingers into skin, desperate for relief.
Adonis’s tail disappeared into the water, and his head popped out, hair wet and blond. He turned in a slow circle, dark-blue eyes seeking. His gaze swept past Nick on the shoreline, as if he wasn’t a stone’s throw away and nakedly visible.
“What is wrong?” Valor put a steadying hand on Nick’s shoulder as he trembled.
Nick’s eyes watered, and he stared straight ahead, not even blinking. Someone was running boiling water over his arms, and Nick didn’t know which way to recoil for relief. His head began to feel light, his vision going hazy around the edges. “Adonis!” Nick called again, louder.
Adonis looked right at him. He drifted close enough that Nick could read the confusion on his face. Close enough that Nick understood Adonis couldn’tseehim. Adonis let out a soft, questioning sound from his throat, the gills beneath his jaw flaring out pink and vulnerable.
Nick sank to his knees, vertigo violently spinning the world. His body trembled uncontrollably, teeth rattling together. “This hurts worse than getting whipped,” Nick ground out.
Valor descended with him, his steadying hand the only thing keeping Nick upright. “Your spells bleed,” he said.
The iron stench invaded Nick’s nose. With a Herculean effort, he raised his heavy head, his gaze lining up with Adonis’s. Their eyes should be meeting, but they weren’t. Adonis’s nostrils flared, and his brow scrunched.
“Sir,” Valor called. “Your kin is here, yet it is as if you look right through us.”
Adonis didn’t answer. His tail fin flicked out of the water behind him, and after a long look at them, he turned, continuing on his path up the river.
Nick barely registered his departure, the pain in his arms too immediate to put aside. His blood came out bubbling and blackened against his skin in a burn. Valor hauled him into the river, submerging his arms, making the fresh water sizzle.
Nick shut his eyes in relief.
He was half aware of time passing, and when he finally peeled his eyes open, the sun had moved across the sky. Nick was kneeling in the water with Valor crouched at his side, watching him closely. “I hate that it doesn’t get cloudy here,” Nick muttered.
