Page 31 of Brine and Bone
A different diagnosis.
Nyxarion's lips opened.
Closed.
Absolute silence filled the space, sudden and suffocating.
Molten silver eyes found hers across the dim space, and in them she saw the thing he would never say aloud.
He didn't know.
CHAPTER 8
For several long, suffocating breaths, there was nothing.
But the sound that left Nyxarion's throat was wrath.
Retribution.
A subsonic detonation.
The voice of the Black Sea.
The angler fish that had been drifting near the upper arches scattered. Their lanterns winked out in the same instant their primitive brains registered the vibration of a predator beyond their comprehension.
Caelith Mare's scholars were next.
Ancient gills pressed flat, fleeing the throne room with graceless, terrified strokes, the elders vanished into the tight corridors.
Only Thalos remained.
The Shallow King hung motionless, opalescent scales gleaming in the antechamber.
Not a single fin twitched.
That perfect, infuriating stillness. Every inch of him vibrating with smug arrogance.
"Leave," Nyx spat, grinding the word between his molars. "Now."
Thalos' lips curled around a smirk, the cocky little prick. Frigid polar eyes slid from Nyxarion to the trembling Siren curled against him, and that smile grew savage.
Cutting.
A thing meant to be witnessed.
"I'll be waiting," he murmured, absent urgency. "The mid-ground. Neither your trench nor my shallows. Neutral waters, Korrides." A pause, weighted with the precision of one who understood exactly what he was taking. And just to be cruel, he added, "For the child's sake," loud enough to make Kore flinch.
For an instant, his grin widened. Just enough to show Nyx that he knew.
That Nyxarion's wrath was merely the shape of his defeat.
And then Thalos' scales lifted. Flexed. And the Shallow King vanished into the shadows.
Gone without a sound or a ripple.
Chest heaving, every muscle in his body coiled for pursuit, for violence, Nyx snarled.
A sound stopped him.
