Page 4 of Waves
I’d tried to seize an opportunity when one presented itself instead of carefully planning, instead of meticulously thinking through the consequences.
Now fury curled around my throat like a snake, squeezing me silent.
That mage, Lizza, was no fool. No doubt, the undead woman had set up protections for Avia just as I’d had when I’d ruled Cheryn. She’d certainly not have wanted the queen to fall in love with anyone who’d magic her into it. And that’s just what I’d attempted to do by granting that wish she’d made; the wish she could love me.
I needed to kill something. Maim someone. Slowly extract their entrails as they watched. A good, satisfying murder would?—
A soft whisper escaped Avia’s lips, words I couldn’t quite understand, and my heart jumped, eyes drinking in her face, adoration pumping through my veins as if my own heart had turned into a fountain of foolishness.
My thoughts though, I still had control over my own thoughts. I was aware and able to criticize my own stupidly throbbing heart.
But somehow, awareness felt worse.
The way my eyes drifted longingly over her figure and the urge to sweep her into a soft hug and run my lips across the pulse beating gently at her neck—it was sickening.
Tenderness.
That was the word for all these moronic flutterings tickling me like feathers.
I needed to find a way to undo this. I couldn’t simply reverse it—wish magic wouldn’t allow that loophole. There was no returning to what used to be. No restoration of the past and my simple desire for vengeance. No quick way to balance the scales before I returned to the surface and to power.
There was, however, nearly always a way forward.
But emotional purging and repairing my sanity would have to come later when I was alone.
For now, I’d have to put up with the incessant feelings dripping along my ribs as though my heart was a leaky bucket.
Other priorities dominated.
It was absolutely imperative that Queen Avia keep me here. Without proximity to her, I couldn’t continue my attacks. The inside knowledge I had as a tournament competitor allowed me to plan ahead stealthily. Without that advantage, gathering information about the tournament alone would take up large swaths of time. Time that had become of the essence.
I had been dawdling. Drawing out this execution for my own amusement. This foolish wish made me realize the dangers of doing so. This project needed to end sooner rather than later.
The queen needed to die.
Avia’s death was the first step in my grander plan to demolish Bloss by ripping away everything she’d ever loved. And what better way to begin than by slaying the little sister she’d saved?
Ignoring the scraping pain that clawed at my lungs at the thought of Avia’s eyes going cloudy and then blank like the body beside us, I leaned closer. Spoke softly. “Your Majesty, please, don’t make me beg. Let me stay.”
I’d make her beg for death before I gave it to her.
With a flutter of her lashes and a dip of her gaze, she sealed her own foolish fate. “If you’re certain.”
Victory shone inside of me, bright and hot as the sun shimmering on the desert sands.
“I am.” I brought her knuckles to my lips, ghosting a kiss over them. “Thank you for this chance.”To kill you.
She gave a brief nod, her blond locks floating up around her face, fanning out like rays of light even as the full moon bleached her skin until it was the color of bone. Hauntingly beautiful, her iridescent wings fluttered out on either side of her, and I could almost imagine her and I ruling all the kingdoms of Kenmare together, a dark duo sweeping across the land like a shadow.
But…imagination and reality were so far apart that it was laughable.
My eyes trailed after her as she left. Bubbles danced in her wake as she swam around a sea of bodies and back down into the depths. The sight of her beauty and death in such close proximity sent a bolt of lust down my spine, one that I didn’t suppress, because the prospect of murder had always made me hard.
Oh, poor young foolish Queen of Okeanos. You have no idea what you’ve just done.
Her final moments would be a gruesome, spectacular thing.
I needed to plan something that would strike fear into the hearts of all of the other monarchs of Kenmare. Something that would live on in warning stories for decades to come, then morph into horrified legend. Turn into a dark myth.
