Page 58 of Waves
I was away from the crowd. From Avia’s eyes. From everyone but the judges, who were three shark shifters circling overhead and watching us like vultures.
With one hand braced on the stone, my other reached over and traced across the ring there.
Subtle.
A wish would need to be subtle to work here. That meant that I couldn’t simply wish for this stupid rock to be as light as air. Or for this giant to suddenly develop some crippling disease that made him hunch forward in horrific pain. That would have been my preference.
Glancing to my left, I saw the nixe struggling to even push his stone at all. His hands braced against it, and his breath huffed out in flurries of tiny bubbles just as useless and weak as he seemed to be. His one leg looked oddly twisted. Curiosity hooked my lower belly. I wondered what sort of trouble he’d gotten himself into that had injured him so. Then I wondered if he’d bring that trouble to Avia’s doorstep.
Dammit.
No.
But the need to protect her was violent and fierce and it rose inside of me like a shadow that settled on my shoulders and cloaked me in darkness. It was overpowering, just as my rage at Valdez had been.
I took a single step toward the blue man before stopping myself.
To attack now was foolish. There was an audience. And no direct threat, no harm, no violation of Avia’s safety. Perhaps the idiot had simply been drunk and mouthy and gotten what he deserved.
I didn’t really think so. Didn’t reallywantto think so.
Without proof or at least privacy, gutting him would be a mistake.
“Hey! Are you competing or not?” A sharp voice lashed out at me, and I glanced up to see a judge glaring.
“Just getting my bearings,” I replied with a false grin before tilting my head down, reaching for my ring and muttering, “I wish that tomorrow, your left testicle would explode.” I didn’t twist though, because that sort of wish was one I’d have made a peasant waste for me. Petty. Undeserving of my royal magic. But muttering it made the fact that I had to press against a stupid rock far more bearable.
To my shock, the boulder moved when I put my shoulder into it. Not much, not easily. But it did move. It might have had something to do with the weight of things in water. I didn’t care. Didn’t analyze further, simply threw my back into the loathsome task so that the man above would shut his mouth.
My legs strained as I pushed harder, tensing my muscles and digging my boots deep into the sand as I built up momentum and a rough plan formed in my head.Faster. I need to roll this rock faster.
Breathing hard, I smashed the stone right into the base of the giant’s spine. Sound deeper than a whale’s bellow rolled through the water before a wave shoved me backward as the island man moved his massive arm, sweeping it behind him to protect the base of his spine and bat my stone away.
Smugly, I went toward the boulder after it settled, not even angered by the extra rolling I’d need to do. The island man had reacted exactly as I’d expected. His arm was still there behind him, protecting his ass…and providing me with an easy ramp.
That taste of triumph fueled my muscles as I shoved and pushed and braced my body against this gray rock, the skin on my shoulder slowly grated away as I rolled and rolled and rolled.
Behind me, I Taft also noisily made use of the ramp. With his injuries, his progress was stunted, and he provided no real threat. That left me focused on my own ascent. I had no idea whether the idiots on the other side of the island were doing well. No idea if they?—
Pity moved, the arm I was on shifted, and the entire world slid sideways beneath my feet. Water swirled and gravity confused itself. Up and down became mixed and twisted and my lungs froze—I couldn’t breathe.
Suddenly, I didn’t control the boulder. It controlled me. Rolling backward, threatening to smash my feet—I had to dive into the current and swim sideways to avoid being crushed.
Gasps and sounds flared up from the crowd as I stroked my arms furiously, kicked hard against the unruly waves displaced by his motion.
Then, breathless, I spun around, floating in the middle of the ocean only to see the bastard island man settle himself into a more comfortable position, so that a thin streak of sunlight landed on his shoulders.
Nostrils flaring and heat rising on my cheeks, I glared at him as his hands lowered, protecting his spine, but this time, his arm was at a steeper angle than before. It felt clear to me that his movement was a deliberate slight against me. Just when I’d gotten close to his elbow joint, he’d sent me tumbling.
I could wish he cracked apart. That his innards simply oozed out through those cracks, and he died slowly…feeling every second of agony possible.
My eyes closed as I imagined it. His aching bellows. The high-pitched screams of the children and women watching. The curling steaming water hissed up in a rush for the surface.
It was almost as beautiful to imagine as the face Avia might make when she came undone beneath me.
But I had to choose. Him or her?
I’d killed thousands.
