Page 107 of A Curse of Salt

‘Oh?’ There was nothing gentle left about the sea’s cruel, serpentine beauty. Her brow arched like the crest of a wave, her fingers curling into talons. ‘I watched, year after year, as the Heartless King came to deserve his title. The powers I gave him were only an extra temptation to become the monster I knew he would. Three hundred years of blood taint my waters now, and you still believe him capable of redemption? Of love?’

I looked down at Sebastien. His final expression held nothing but anguish. I can’t love you, blackbird. Those had been his very words. I knew it – and loved him anyway.

How was I supposed to convince a god if I couldn’t even convince myself?

‘That’s it, then.’ There was a triumphant gleam in Bane’s eyes as he moved closer again. ‘It’s over. Come with me, Ria. This is your last chance.’

‘I told you to leave, human,’ Nerida snapped, her eyes still fixed on me.

Bane didn’t heed her command. He strode closer, cutlass still held warily ahead, glancing between the sea and me. He was trying to help, I realised faintly. Giving me a chance to escape whatever doom was settling over this moment. There must’ve been some small part of him, some kernel of the boy he’d once been, that still cared for this crew. For Sebastien. Because Bane was still here, extending a hand slowly towards me. The wind tugged at his chestnut hair, his untucked shirt. I remembered his words – we don’t have to be enemies. But that was before.

I curled my hands into fists, glaring with all the anger I had left at the traitor bastard who’d thrust his sword through Sebastien’s chest.

‘C’mon, love,’ he coaxed. ‘I’ll take you home.’

Before I could speak, the goddess whirled on him. Strands of pure, crystalline water flared through the air as she spun. ‘Enough,’ she snarled.

‘Ria—’

My name was scarcely out of Bane’s mouth before his entire body froze. His emerald eyes flew wide as Nerida raised a hand. A trail of water leaked from his eye, as though he was crying. My stomach churned. Something wasn’t right.

The dread swimming in his gaze evaporated into sheer terror. His mouth gaped but all that came out was a gurgle. The goddess curled her hand into a fist and water poured from Bane’s mouth, his nose, his eyes. Throttled cries punctured the air and he convulsed, his knees hitting the planks with a crack.

She was killing him, I realised in horror.

Water surged down his throat, ripping through his body, drowning him from the inside out. Bane thrashed, his screams caught in the flood. His hands clawed at his neck, scrabbling for air that would never come. I met his eyes, red and running with tears as salty as the sea that choked him.

So this was vengeance.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Una reach for Aron, but her fingers fell limply back to her side. There was no comfort, only stone.

I stifled a cry, watching as Bane writhed against the planks. Nerida tightened her fist. With one last gargle, he slumped against the wood. Dead.

I gasped in a lungful of air, realising I’d been holding my breath with him. My head spun, the planks swaying beneath me. He was dead.

Nerida’s laughter scattered like pearls across the deck. Just like that, she’d killed him. This man whose name had haunted me for months, whose campaign against my uncle might have brought the continent to its knees. Dead, now. All of it.

Murmurs rumbled through the crowd of pirates gathered around us.

I glanced down at Sebastien, the stone slope of his shoulders, the stone hair that hung across his stone face, casting him into an eternity of shadows. My gaze shifted back to the sea, heart thudding in my chest.

‘Please,’ I said, my tongue dry as bark knowing she could end me, too, at any moment. ‘If you love him, let him live.’

The laughter evaporated from her eyes. ‘Why let him live, when I have so enjoyed watching him die for the last three hundred years? He doesn’t love you. That makes him mine.’

You own nothing, I wanted to snarl. But my knees felt so close to buckling, my mind too fogged to think. Bane’s glassy eyes stared at me from across the deck, a reminder of how quickly she could bring us all asunder.

‘Please,’ I whispered, knowing that I couldn’t fight a tide so devastatingly cold. ‘He loves me.’

Nerida’s gaze turned to harsh, jagged glass. Her words, too, could have drawn blood. ‘Prove it.’

My heart sank. He’d said it himself. He wasn’t capable of love. Everything I felt for him, it meant nothing, changed nothing.

I reached out a hand and laid it on Sebastien’s shoulder, feeling the sting of the rough stone against my skin. He was cold. He’s never cold.

This wasn’t working, only bringing me closer to throwing myself at the goddess’s feet and weeping until I drowned us all.

I forced myself to look at Aron and Golde through the blurring threat of tears. If they were still alive, they’d have the answer – even if it was only bloodshed. But they were lost to me – lost to the battle I’d been left alone to fight once more.

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