Page 14 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

“Healing wing,” I said roughly, nodding to Zephyr. “Astraios can clean up this mess.”

Zephyr nodded, shooting into the sky with Ana in her arms. I caught Astraios’ eye, and he nodded in understanding, shouting orders as two additional siren males were dragged forward by his men, both unconscious.

I knew where to find him once Marina had been taken care of.

With a gust of my magic, I shot into the air. Marina stirred as we flew under the canopy of twilight toward the lower cliffs where the healers worked. I released a silent breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding.

“You do seem to find yourself in trouble a great deal, Urchin,” I murmured, kissing her brow as I sailed toward the sea below us.

“I told you,” she replied weakly, her eyes still shut in pain as she turned her face toward my bare chest. “Trouble finds me.”

Blood splattered across mychest as I brought the knife down over a third finger of one of the siren males who had attacked my mate. He screamed and wept as his iron shackles shook. I hadn’t used this dungeon in over a decade, but I knew we were deep enough in the cliffs that no one would hear his screams.

“This all ends when you talk,” I drawled, the mask of the nonchalant pirate king chafing. Breaking fingers would have been more humane, butit would take longer, and I didn’t have the patience for it with my mate in danger. “Or we can keep going, I suppose.”

The healers had put Marina to sleep to prevent her from injuring herself further while her head healed. Ana was in only slightly better condition. Zephyr stood guard over them while Astraios and his crew swept the cliffs for any other infiltrators. Otherwise, they’d have been enduring this right alongside me.

“What do you want with my mate?” I demanded as the male whimpered over his missing fingers. “How did you get in?”

When he didn’t answer, I took his hand again and raised the knife.

“W-w-wait,” the male sniveled, panic lighting his eyes.

I didn’t wait.

It had been fifteen years since I’d had to be this ruthless; since I’d had to torture or kill to secure my position. I hadn’t even hurt the selkie guards when I kidnapped Marina, and whatever lies her father spun, I hadn’t taken a selkie life except in self-defense in all that time either. No siren had, on my orders.

Not since my father had I been this type of king, and a part of me recoiled, just as a darker part reveled in it. What would my mate think of me if she could see me down here chopping off fingers?

But I needed answers. I needed to protect Marina, and I would go toverydark places to do so if I had to.

The male screamed as a fresh spurt of blood splattered us, and I swallowed my bile. Later, I promised myself, I would be thoroughly sick over this. I raised the knife over the male’s thumb.

“We were hired,” he wailed, shaking and sobbing, no longer looking at his mutilated hand.

“By whom?” I sat back in my chair.

“He—he’ll kill me,” he stammered, breathing heavily as he gasped through his pain. His healing had already kicked in to slow the bleeding in the severed fingers.

“I’mabout to kill you,” I reminded him, leaning forward and toying with the sharp point of the knife. “Who paid you to come and kill my mate?”

“Not kill,” the male balked, meeting my eyes with abject terror as if this confession would be the difference between life and death. “Just take her.”

“Who,” I commanded again, teeth bared in a feral growl as I gripped the male’s throat and brought his face close to mine.

“Stormcrow,” he rasped. “Ilya Stormcrow.”

I stilled. “That’s impossible. Try again.”

“I swear it!” Snot and blood and tears ran down the male’s face, and I shook him again.

“The Stormcrow is dead. I watched him drown.”

“N—no!” The male scrabbled at my hands, trying to release my grip. “He’s alive. In Nordhavn.”

I cursed, dropping the man back into his chair.

“And why does the Stormcrow want her?”