Page 83 of A Vow of Wrath and Ruin

She gasped for air, clawing at my hand. A strength I had never experienced before radiated through me, fueled by my rage.

“Please, Aelia, it’s just business.”

I gritted my teeth, wondering if I should crush her windpipe and be done with it. I tried to be cordial—tried to be her friend. This was our end.

I shook my head. I was no longer the mercenary. I was the Hand to the Alder King. I couldn’t just go around killing whoever. I’d already fucked up by beheading Calypso. Another dead body wouldn’t do me any good.

I released Ursula.

She leaned against the bed, clutching her throat, gasping for air.

“What… the… fuck… Aelia?”

I laid my head on the table beside the bed, examining the body lying face down beside her.

“He’s dead, Ursula.”

“What?” She turned to the body. The sapphire necklace sparkled around her long neck. “No, he’s… just asleep.”

Pulling my dagger from its bandolier, I stabbed it into the man’s back.

He didn’t move—didn’t even flinch.

“He’s dead, Ursula.”

I grabbed her shoulders, turning her face me before yanking the necklace from her collarbone.

“You’re heartless. You know that?” She narrowed her sea-glass eyes at me, and I felt nothing.

“Yeah, well, forgive me if I don’t feel anything for a man I didn’t know.” I leaned in so close our noses nearly touched. “You left me for dead back there. You’re lucky I don’t break your mind right now.”

There was a part of me that wanted to—wanted to see the consciousness slip from her eyes. A great assassin reduced to a vegetable. I could do it. Could wipe every memory she had. Her parents, her lovers, all gone.

A chill ran up my spine and I shook the urge away. I was not that person anymore.

“What about our bargain?”

“It was complete when you pulled the stone from my neck.”

Her mouth fell agape. “How…”

“That’s how magical bargains work, Ursula. I made the bargainto secure the songwith you, not your queen. And the second your hand pulled the necklace from my neck, it was complete.”

“That’s not fair.” She put her hands on her hips.

“Take it up with your queen. She’s the one who had you make the bargain, so if something went wrong or neither of us fulfilled our end, you’d suffer the consequences and not her.” I shrugged.

“She would never.” Her nostrils flared.

“She would, and she did.” I clasped the song around my neck. “You can take Calypso’s head back to your queen. Tell her I will give her the song as soon as I return safely from the Isle of Fate.”

For a brief moment, I again considered snapping Ursula’s neck, to steal the whisper stone from her ear and communicate directly with her queen, but I stopped myself.

Ursula nodded; her eyes fixed on the corpse splayed out across the bed. “She will not be pleased.”

“I don’t really care as long as she clears the waters.”

I left the room, leaving Ursula with her dead lover and the head of her queen’s sister, a stark reminder that AeliaSpringborn, Traitorous Queen, Mind Breaker, Commander of the Army of the Dead, and now Slayer of Sirens, was not to be trifled with.

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