Page 2 of Slayer

“Ye don’t do a thing. I will have her raised and trained.” He strokes a finger over her soft cheek and furrows his brow. “She is dripping with sinister magic I can’t place. She must learn to protect herself from it.” He looks up and out at the ocean. “I will find a home for her, a safe one,” he says clearly, as though he knows I’m listening. I risked everything for her—my crown, my life—just to bring her here, this child who should not be breathing. This child who will have to fight in this world just for a chance to stay alive.

I watch as Bleu opens his captain’s coat and slips Neressa inside, keeping her warm against his body heat. My heart clenches at the sight. And I know right here and now that I will find him in the future. That if he could love some tiny human rejected by even the sea herself, then he could love me. A siren.

I stay there, watching, waiting, making sure he doesn’t suffer a change of heart. But he never returns. He takes Neressa and makes his way into the loud, colorful pirate city of Magda. She will be safe there. As long as she stays on land, she will live. She will be all right. I repeat these assurances to myself, knowing that I will always be watching over her.

Chapter one

Blood & Steel

Neressa

“Have you completely lost your mind?” he spits, blood slipping from the corner of his mouth. I tilt my head, studying him, trying to read his soul. Trying—unfortunately—to read my own. Then his comment triggers a thought.

“What a peculiar thing to ask…” My voice is soft, curious even. His eyes widen. Terror blooms across his face like a bruise. His worthless body is propped against the stone wall. I step closer, bending down close enough for him to feel my breath at his ear.

“Did you mean my mind?” I whisper. “Or my heart?” I pull back so he can see the smile that doesn’t quite reach my eyes. “Because it seems I never truly had either. But gods… what a lovely fantasy that would be.”

His eyes follow my hand as I take my blade and stab it into his thigh. A bloodcurdling scream rips from his throat, one that I’m very used to, one that would make others flinch. I twist the blade deeper until I feel the artery give beneath it. He jolts, a wet gasp catching in his throat. Blood spills fast now, rushing, pulsing, like it can’t wait to leave him. “I would’ve given you a cleaner death,” I say, mocking tenderness. “All you had to do was answer my questions.”

Hale Marrow chokes on his own blood. Crimson stains his teeth, smears the corner of his mouth. It pools beneath him, seeping into the cracks of the stone floor. Slow and satisfying. A color I’ve seen spilled too many times to let it shake me. “I always knew it would be you,” he rasps, voice fading. His eyes go glassy in the light of the hanging lantern above as he croaks out, “You never did know when to let things go.”

I rest my elbows on my knees, like I have all the time in the world. Blood drips from the dagger in my hand as I watch his life drain from him in the Slayers Academy, the very place I trained with him for so many years. Bled beside him, trusted him. Once, I might’ve even cared for him. Though caring for anyone is far-fetched for me.

I reach out and gently brush the matted, sandy-brown hair from his forehead. He’s still breathing, for now. “You shouldn’t have betrayed us, Hale. But if it makes you feel any better”—I lean in again, close enough for him to smell the salt on my skin—“you were always meant to die by my hand. At least your bloody destiny is finally being fulfilled.” He opens his mouth to spit more venom at me, but then closes it.

“You sold out Captain Bleu to the King of Vespera. Leaked the private coordinates of a royal, slayer, and pirate negotiation like they meant nothing. You slaughtered trust for coin. Chose royal blood over pirate blood, over your very own.” I drag out the last two words, gritting my teeth. “You fucked with the one pirate who actually matters to me. Now that, love, was your biggest mistake.” It suddenly occurs to me that the only time I can ever bring myself to reveal how much I care is in moments like this, confessing to the dying. They can’t tell anyone if they’re six feet under or burned to ash.

He laughs, or tries to. It comes out wet and broken, the sound of dying men make when clinging to their pride. How small they look when they do. “That deal was doomed to fail before I touched it,” he rasps. “And so was he.”

My eyes narrow. “And yet… you still interfered with something you should have never been a part of.” I wonder if now he feels the weight of what he’s done.

“Every trusted royal guard at that meeting is dead. The treaty? Shattered. The king now knows we’ve been aligning with the royals, his own guards. Knows there are traitors in his court. You’re lucky they were able to crown the new pirate lord before the slaughter.” My voice drops, razor sharp. “You burned the only bridge we had left, Hale.”

He tries to speak, but blood bubbles up his throat, turning his words to sludge. “I don’t regret what I did,” he chokes out, tasting death with every syllable. I tilt my head, almost impressed.

“Tell me, who the fuck are you working for? Who is worth giving up your pathetic life for? For selling out the pirates, the slayers?” I ask, my voice unshakeable. He doesn’t respond, testing my patience. “Now you’re speechless?” I press.

“We both know I have maybe minutes left. I’m happy dying knowing you won’t complete your job.” He coughs as he tries to smile, his teeth stained with thick blood.

I drag my blade up his bare chest, slow and precise, leaving a trail of crimson in its wake. He moans, painful and broken. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. What’s important is that you’re dead. Now that’s my job. Not so much the information,” I snap back at him. That infuriating smile finally fades from his face. “So I will complete my job, because like you said, you really only have a few minutes.” I smile as the tip of my blade finds the surface where his heart is, and I break it through the skin. He screams out in pain. What a silly little thing, a heart. So fragile, and in such a vulnerable spot.

“You weren’t able to kill Bleu,” I say softly, “but you struck a catastrophic spark.” I lean closer. “And now it’s burning everything.”

He blinks at me, pupils blown wide, skin pale and slick with sweat and blood. “Any last words, love?” I ask.

His lips part, but I rescind my offer and drive the blade straight into his heart before he can speak. I hold his gaze as his body stills, as his final breath shudders out of him. Blood spills freely, striking the stone floor in wet, hollow splashes.

I pull the dagger free and wipe it clean on his clothes before standing and turning away. He’s not worth a second more of my time, neither alive nor dead. I gather my things, reach up, and blow out the flame in the hanging lantern. I leave him here, alone in the dark. Then I walk away.

The shadows in the corridor swallow me, and I move through them with ease. My boots click softly against the stone floor, the sound echoing off the walls. Lanterns hang crooked from the ceiling, dimly lit, but I don’t need the light. I know every inch of this place. These halls raised me just as much as they ruined me. I’ve seen death in every corner of the Academy—sometimes forced to stand there and watch it dealt, other times forced to deliver it. Even now, I’m not sure which scarred me more.

I pass one of the training chambers. The worst of them all, if I were to rank them. Scratches mar the iron door from where I once clawed to get out, where many young slayers like me tried to escape. The memory flashes through my mind of being left to die. Bound. Drugged. Disoriented. The only way out is to be smarter than the one who put you inside. Freeing yourself is harder than it sounds. I was only eleven when they threw me in, the youngest to ever complete the trial. That was five years ago. I’d been so proud of myself then, for surviving.

I turn to make my way up the winding stairwell. A thick, metallic scent hits my nose. It wouldn’t be home if it didn’t smell like blood.

My thoughts are racing. How are we possibly going to get back in league with the royals? And how the hell am I supposed to explain any of this to Silas? He rules us with brutality, but I still find myself wanting to make him proud after all these years.

Bleu couldn’t take me out to sea, but he found skilled people to raise me, to train me. He knew I needed to be strong, so he enrolled me in the Academy when I was young. It’s all I can remember looking back, this damned place. Silas raised me with steel and blood, whether it was mine or someone else’s.