Page 49 of Waves
“It doesn’t matter if he’s withdrawn if I don’t figure out this idiotic wish,” I murmured to no one. Plucking out a strand of the quill’s feathers, I sighed. “I can’t wish to hate her because I did before.” My eyes traveled up the walls and to the ceiling before falling back down. Releasing the tiny bit of feather silk,I watched it drift in the current. “If I wish for her to hate me, I might be released from the tournament…” I paced, circling again and again, gnashing my teeth when each idea I had fell short.
Wishing for her crown wouldn’t get me her kingdom. Wishing for her kingdom wouldn’t get me the loyalty of her subjects and I might end up right where I had with Cheryn. And I wasn’t certain that depriving her of either of those things right now would make her suffer.
Of course, the mental image of Avia in anguish made me grip the back of one of the chairs, bending over it, my head bowed, as my own chest erupted into a traitorous imaginary grief. A horrid howling, keening sorrow ripped through me over something that hadn’t even happened.
“Shite!” I snapped the quill in half, dropping it. Immediately, my mind replaced that terrible image with another that was equally nightmarish, Avia cradling a small child. A half djinn baby. My baby. A radiant smile lit her face, and all of my bones were plucked from my body, the entirety of me going soft and tender.
Mad.
I was going mad. Thinking wasn’t helping. I had to do something else, had to get away from these wretched emotions that were wrapping me up and dragging me down. Intoxicating my logic.
Smashing through the door and stomping down the hall, the familiar need to hurt and maim rose up. Pulsed. Throbbed.
Finally, an emotion I could deal with. Something reasonable. I left the inn and hurried out into the bright cold sunshine, determined to find some wretched person and wring his neck. Someone who wouldn’t be missed.
I crossed three bridges, need building, air tight inside my lungs, anger brewing and heating my cheeks. Quickly, almost onthe verge of running, so much so that my breath became quick sharp pants.
Finally, near the outskirts of town, I saw some dilapidated buildings carved into the mountain. Crumbling edifices that seemed old and unkempt, uncared for. The roof of the first building had caved in and a glance through the window showed that no one was desperate enough to use it for refuge. The second building had a ragged red curtain streaming in the current, but no inhabitants. Someone had, however, left a stone axe inside. Instinct drew me to it.A handy thing.As soon as I held the solid weight in my hands, it was like a spur to a horse. Violence reared up on its hind legs, stamping. Demanding.
Stifling a growl, I rounded a corner, nearly ready to hack a hole through the stone itself to vent my spleen.
But a familiar voice stopped me. A smug voice. One of the other competitors was here.
Curiosity temporarily overcame my fury, and I froze in place, careful not to make a sound as I listened to a conversation drift through the window.
“Yeah, it was easy to lift. She didn’t notice a damned thing.” The dolphin shifter, that fool with pink hair, spoke in a casual tone.
She? What woman was he dealing with? Was he out whoring? My fingers tightened on the shaft of the axe, not because I minded prostitution but because I was trying to decide if that was an executable offense or if I should move on to another target. One I wouldn’t have to explain.
“You’re not that good,” a nasal voice spoke dismissively. “You got lucky.”
“Luck alone doesn’t get you an elven chain, my friend.” Valdez retorted, a bit miffed. “And I’m gonna get a pretty penny for it down in Sedara. Enough to disappear. Told you this game was worth it.”
My spine stiffened as though someone had put a torch to it.Elven chain is rare. Powerfully protective.
It wasn’t the sort of thing some random whore in town would have.
No. It was the sort of thing royalty wore. The sort of thing a queen wore.
My body was no longer my own. Faster than a bolt of lightning, I shot through the door into that room.
I hardly had time to register the shocked fear in Valdez’s wide eyes before my axe came down in a satisfying thump that split his skull diagonally, the blade chomping through his forehead on one side and ending on the opposite cheek. The bloody gash only widened when I jerked the weapon back up, brain matter floating toward the ceiling like chum for fish, blood dancing through the room in pink rivulets.
My mouth widened into a sordid grin, and then through my curved lips, I tasted the coppery flavor of Valdez’s life force.
Delicious death.
Valdez’s companion gave a squeaky yelp before my axe sliced through his vocal cords, neatly lopping the head off his body. It was only after his head completed a slow roll through the current that I bothered to glance at his body. He’d been a siren dressed in leather with a badge on his breast to indicate he was a pirate.
Pirates. Stealing from Avia. Raiding the queen like she was some ship. Bastards.
Violent, merciless pleasure overtook me.
A ferocious thrill.
Fierce and feverish bedazzlement at the sight of so much gore.
My axe crashed down on Valdez again, his lifeless body flopping under the force of my blow. Still my fury wasn’t sated—it roared in my ears. Again. And again. My pulse thundered, cock hard enough to burst as I yelled, “You stole from her!”
