Page 129 of Wicked Tides
Vidar huffed a laugh as if the thought was too outrageous to fathom.
“She has her reasons,” I clarified.
There was another bout of silence as he mulled over my words.
“Do you believe that I am a monster?” I whispered.
“I believe you are as monstrous as you’ve needed to be to survive this shit world we’re in. And you are no more monstrous than I.”
“Two monsters in a shit world sound rather formidable.”
“And dangerous.” He paused, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “There are worse creatures than us, Dahlia. Much worse.”
“I know.”
“I don’t intend to let them live.”
I studied his face, trying to find what was behind his eyes when he said those words. It was unclear at first until my mind crawled reluctantly back to our shared nightmare.
“That dream we had. Was it my nightmare or yours?” Vidar asked, as if reading my mind.
“I don’t know anymore. Being overtaken by the sons is my worst fear, though.”
“Maybe not being able to stop it is mine.” He paused a moment and I could practically see him returning to that dream. “I felt something in the darkness. Something awful. Something not of this world.”
My brows knitted. “You felt him. Akareth.”
“That can’t have been my nightmare.”
“No. No, that’s mine. Then, who was that man who ate my tongue?”
“Governor fucking Whitton,” he sighed.
“You want him dead.”
“I want plenty of people dead, but he holds a special place on the top of my list.”
“Why?”
He perched an elbow on his raised knee. “Because he’s the worst of us. He’s what people are becoming. Ignorant. Entitled. Cruel.”
“No worse than most, I’d wager.”
“Worse in different ways. The world was simple. Violent and horrid, but simple. Men like him will complicate it. Before I left, he ordered me to stop killing and start capturing. For your tongues and for your bodies. Under the control of men like him, the brothels will be full of your kind.”
“You cannot keep a siren in chains. Though I’m not surprised you are trying.”
“Not me. I want no part of it. My men have been on the fence about the whole thing since we set sail.”
“You wanted no part of it? Even before us? This?”
“Even before this. Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t out of kindness that I disagreed. I wanted every siren dead. Outside of you and Meridan, I think I still do.”
“I don’t know what I want.”
“You want something different. That much I know. Otherwise, all those girls would be dead.”
I slid closer to him, my nails lightly caressing his bare back. The wound where Uther had shot him was healing nicely, despite my tearing the stitches in the woods.
