Page 67 of Waves
But I didn’t give her the chance to finish because intuition was already tugging at me with clawed fingers, pulling me into a dark and haunting reality. I’d thought I was being clever, butI’d never been more foolish in my entire existence. “It’s Raj, isn’t it?”
Why else would the unending king come beneath the water?
Why else would he stay?
Why would he kill a girl for speaking to me? A girl who could reveal his presence?
Though I had never done a single thing to him, there was no other reason he’d be here. There was no other reason he’d stay.
Not unless he was my true enemy.
Had the unending king secretly declared war on me?
Like puzzle pieces that clicked into place, the galvanized rebels suddenly looked different to me, and I wondered if their hatred had been whipped into a frenzy by the djinn bastard. Yes, Watkins and his kind had loathed me. But throwing squid ink and attacking caravans were leagues apart. I’d assumed the escalation had been natural. But what if it hadn’t been? What if it had been unnatural?
Speaking of unnatural…
The whirlpool yesterday had appeared out of nowhere.
That could have been wished into existence…couldn’t it?
The sultan had my heart.
And he was trying to kill me.
The irony ripped a mournful laugh from my lips.
I’d been at war and hadn’t known it.
Now I did.
And if Raj wanted a fight, I’d be sure to give him one.
Chapter 29
Raj
Pain screamed up my hand, buzzed along my arm, rattled through my neck, and detonated inside my skull. Loud, belting agony.
Reactively, I jerked up in bed, panting and blinking, confused. After over a full day at Avia's bedside, I'd collapsed onto my mattress fully clothed and fallen into a deep sleep.
But now... I blinked up at two figures who hovered over my bed. One wore a massive black cloak with a hood so deep that I couldn’t see their face. The other figure was male, his profile highlighted eerily by the orange light cast by the orb floating in the corner of my room. Panting, I didn't truly register his face because my attention raced down my arm to see a cloud of red mist enclosing my hand. Lifting it, I realized my ring finger had been severed.
It spun through the water above my face, pointing accusingly at me as if this entire situation was my own fault.
My djinn ring!
Searing panic screamed louder than my excruciating wound.
The figure over me moved and my eyes bolted up as a gloved hand reached out and snatched up my finger, holding it aloft ina rude gesture. Though the face inside the hood was well hidden, the teeth glowed as my tormentor gave a wicked smile.
The water around us seemed to grow denser and thoughts slashed through my mind, the type of thoughts that hadn’t cut me for a very long time.
This was it.
I sensed resolve from the cloaked figure in front of me, the same sort of violent, unyielding resolve I’d had when I first took over Cheryn.
My gaze traveled to the male figure, who stood closer to the door, leaning against the wall. Recognition rolled over me at the sight of the thick, silent blue shadow.Tart? Tuft? Taft.His name finally came to me as I watched his face contort in pain. One of his hands clutched at his thigh, where a heavily bandaged wound leaked fresh blood. He’d been too injured to visit Avia, and I hadn’t bothered to check in on him because I frankly didn’t care.
