Page 16 of Across an Endless Sea

The rope wrapped around Caed’s hand snaps taut as my rescuer—Bree—beats his wings furiously. Waves of air snap across the deck with each flap, sending some of the crew flying.

Thank the Goddess.

My relief hits hard, followed by worry. Why is he alone? Where’s Drystan?

I’m caught between him and Caed in a tug of war that feels like it might rip me in two. Neither of them is holding back, and the cuffs tear at the skin of my wrists.

“Let me go,” I growl at Caed.

“Not happening,” he snaps back, before turning and yelling over his shoulder. “Someone put some iron in that púca.”

“Crossbows!” Prae yells.

“No!” I hiss, glancing up at my green-eyed mate in panic.

Being a captive again would destroy him.

Caed’s men are already scrabbling to reach for their weapons.

“Let me go,” I whisper, this time to Bree.

I can survive whatever Caed has planned for me. What I can’t live with is knowing that I’m the one who would bring that kind of pain on my púca. Bree has suffered enough in his lifetime. More than anyone I know.

I would rather die than see him in chains again.

“No.” He rejects the order with another powerful sweep of his wings that nearly pulls my arms from their sockets.

The mechanical whirr of a weapon being cocked fills my ears.

“Let me go.” I put as much urgency and command into my tone as I can.

His grip is slipping, but he’s still holding on. On his arm, the snake tattoo starts to uncoil, heading towards his hand, like it can bind us together.

In a burst of motion neither of them are expecting, I twist my body in mid-air, wrenching myself out of his arms. Caed barely has a chance to catch me before I slam into the deck. The sudden loss of my weight means that Bree’s wings carry him high into the sky on their next beat.

His new position is just out of range of the enormous metal bolt that soars through the air where he was a moment before. My heart thunders in my chest as another passes a hairsbreadth from his left side, taking with it a single feather. Those wings are huge, but that also makes them a giant target, and the Fomorians are well trained.

“Go!” I scream, meeting Bree’s anguished gaze. “Please, Bree.”

I can see he’s debating swooping back in, and so can Caed. His hands tighten around my waist, reflexively. My hands reach out, as if to banish my púca, and that’s when all three of us see it.

A black snake is wrapped around my forearm, keeping its distance from the iron bracelets at my wrists. Under our gazes its tongue slips out, tasting the air, then it disappears in a cloud of black mist, forming a matching tattoo on my arm.

Bree… gave me his tattoo?

His eyes flare bright in panic a second before he’s forced to dodge another bolt.

I swear, I’ve never been as relieved as I am the second he tugs his glamour around him and disappears.

“Is he gone?” Caed demands, his hands digging into me as he puts me down.

Only he doesn’t set me back on the deck—probably afraid that if he releases me, Bree might appear from nowhere and snatch me again. This time he deliberately puts his feet beneath my own and uses his bone-crushing grip on my waist to hold me up.

Shielding me from the iron.

It’s a bit late for that,I think to myself angrily. The soles of my feet are sore, burned, and blistered. Even contact with his boots is painful now.

“Answer me.” His voice grows angrier with each syllable.

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