Page 16 of In Rising Tides

Silence.

The guards were dead.

All of them.

Yet Drystan and Lyra were still alive. Completely unscathed and now not even on the menu.

Drystan faced her. The smug smile twisting his features had understanding slamming into her chest and taking her breath away.

“You weretestingme?” she asked, her bottom lip quivering as the terror in her veins subsided and an icy chill took its place.

New—alive—guards emerged from behind the ship, all bearing golden hair and green tails that were common for this territory.

One approached Drystan and held out a circle made of sea urchin spines. The sharp, black spines shimmered in the watery light and struck fear into the core of her.

Waving off the guard and glaring at what he held, “You were never in any danger.”

“How dare you!” Lyra screamed, lunging for him again.

Guards restrained her as she struggled to reach him.

“I fucking hate you!”

Drystan grinned at her, and it crinkled the corners of his eyes.

“You know they say there’s a thin line between love and hate.”

He said it so joyously, and it was such a stark contrast to the grotesque scene they still stood in.

Glittering scales littered the seabed, and Lyra spied what she thought might be a piece of a finger sinking into the seabed.

Drystan picked up the finger and studied the ring that was still wrapped around it.

Lyra’s mind was still grappling with pieces.

He had butchered his own guards.

“Why?” Her voice trembled as she worked to calm her body from the ill effects of fearing for her life.

Drystan pulled the ring off and let the finger sink back to the sand. He tossed the ring at her, and she caught it as it floated in the current.

She twisted it in her fingers to see her father’s seal.

A trident among the waves, emblazoned in gold.

“They weren’t loyal to me.” His attention shifted from her to the finger he stroked along the shaft of the trident. “And now your secret is safe again.”

The guard never took his eyes off Lyra, as if she were the biggest threat to his king.

“I don’t want to collar you, Lyra. But I will, for your safety and mine.”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed. “When I kill you, it won’t be with my magic. I can assure you of that.”

More guards slipped into position, and she ripped her arm out of their grips as they tried to take hold of her.

“How did you do it? How did you take the throne?”

Drystan scanned her face as if he were looking for something.