Page 91 of Those Fatal Flowers

“Go, Thelia! Run!”

The pain that radiates from my wound, Cora’s plea, even poor Jeremie—they can’t distract from the singular truth that this, right now, is my moment. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate this man, not even Dis, who at least had the excuse of being a god. That hatred fuels me as I stretch out my wings and prepare to dive.

The horror of my full form erases the grin from Thomas’s lips. His fingers shake as he tries to reload the musket, but there was never going to be enough time for that. I soar down to him, my talons outstretched. Thomas abandons the gun, and Cora pulls herself along the deck to curl her fingers around its barrel. Once it’s safely in her hands, I begin my song.

This time, the notes are desperate and hurried, full of rage. They call back my sisters, who appear above. Now that they’re in sight, there’s nothing to stop the men who linger freely on the deck from jumping into the waves to try to reach them.

“You’re a monster!” Thomas shouts. “A demon!”

I beat my wings a few times to lift myself higher, surprised by how good this body feels, how natural. I missed it. My talons find him easily, an owl snatching a mouse from beneath the snow. They dig into his shoulders and flex between his muscles. Thomas shrieks with pain, and my grip tightens.

The sound is so pleasing that I toss back my head and laugh as my fingers move to claw the wax from his ears. When I speak, I want—no, Ineedhim to hear the triumph in my voice. “You’re the true monster,” I hiss down at him. “Or your god wouldn’t deem it fit to punish you so. Tell me, Thomas—do you think he’s going to save you?”

“Damn you, damn you!” he cries. I take to the air, carrying Thomas with me. Raidne and Pisinoe circle above. I don’t hear their song; they’ve been holding their breath.

“What’s going on? Are you bringing him to shore?” Pisinoe asks, tilting her head to Thomas.

“No,” I growl. “This one’s mine.”

Thomas struggles to break free, but he can’t flail too much without causing my talons to constrict tighter. I wiggle them inside him, slicing through tendons as easily as a knife slices through butter.

My sisters nod knowingly. There’s something ugly in Thomas’s core, a rotting pit they recognize from their memory of how gods would let their gaze linger too long on our young bodies, of how Jaquob defended his actions. They didn’t see Dis or his power, but I did. Thomas shares something with him, just as Jaquob did, and as all those men did years ago. Dis might be the ruler of darkness, but there’s a darkness, a little piece of sin that can fester if it goes too long untreated, in some mortal men as well.

Some, but not all.

“A little boy jumped. I need you to save him.”

There, in the raging water below, Jeremie struggles to keep himself afloat. Raidne, my violent, vicious Raidne, doesn’t ask for an explanation: She simply dives to rescue him.

Finally, there’s nothing left to hold me back. I drop Thomas.

He falls into the sea like a stone, the force of the fall sending him deep beneath the waves. They hold him below for the span of several breaths, but I don’t panic. How many times have I seen this happen before? Sure enough, Thomas resurfaces, his arms flailing for something, anything, to keep him afloat. He unleashes a scream for help, but I’m the only one who can answer, and I let the ocean pound him. His pain, his fear, they send a victorious shiver up my spine.

The blood loss from his wounded shoulders will speed along his demise, and when he’s at risk of passing out, I lunge for him again—I need him awake for what’s coming. He screams up at me as I descend, but there’s nothing he can do to stop me.

See my strength,I think.It was here the whole time.

My talons find his back again, and a thrust of my wings pulls us both from the water. We begin rising, rising, rising, until we are a silhouette against the sun, then I turn toward Castle’s dangerous rock formations. The three spires glow red in Aurora’s dawn, covered in countless jagged protrusions, thousands of tiny blades. They’ll easily tear his body open. His blood will be the sparkling rubies in its crown.

Thomas moans, realizing what I have planned for him.

“No, Thelia…!”

I’ve fantasized about this moment since the night he took me without asking. Now I’ll take from him. My grip loosens, and I can feel his skin sliding off my claws when I look down to theEndurance’s deck one last time. There, balancing a soaking wet Jeremie on her hip, is Cora. Her free hand points desperately at me in warning, and though I find the sound ofher frantic cries amid the chaos, I can’t make out their contents.

By the time I understand, it’s too late.

A sudden pain in my side snaps my attention to Thomas. I release him in shock, but the agony tears down with him as he falls. There’s a knife in my flank, right beneath my left rib. He’s stuck it in deep, and Thomas is keeping himself from falling by holding on to the handle for dear life.

My fingers move to claw at his hands, and he releases the knife but grabs on to my waist. I growl, and he looks up at me, a mixture of disbelief and pleasure washing over his face. There’s no sight of Raidne and Pisinoe. They must be on the beach with our captives.

I throw my entire body to the left, sending us spiraling down, and then to the right, and then up on an air vent, trying to loosen his grip on me with sudden and unexpected movements, but he doesn’t relinquish his hold. I tear at his face, but he uses my fury against me and takes the opportunity to pull the knife from my side.

This time, he sinks it into my stomach.

I scream. The sound pierces the air, and Thomas howls triumphantly as he twists the blade in deeper. I feel every excruciating second as it tears through my muscle, as it punctures my organs. My fingers find his eye sockets, desperate to stop him. Thomas releases his hold on the knife as his eyes burst from their orifices with a sickeningpop.Now the shrieks that fill the air are his, but this brings me no comfort.

I’ve gutted enough men and animals alike to know that the blow Thomas dealt is fatal. With willing ears and blood, we can turn back time. But we’re not immortal. He’s sentenced me to death.

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