Tending to her in the aftermath.
Kore's eyes had not left the usurper draped around Vorynthar's throne. Not once. Fixed to that ancient king.
Nyxarion's father was still. Gleaming silver flooded with shock. And then, "Queen's Lightning," he whispered, watching not to the dead scholar floating before her, not to the other, who'd been thrown back, and retreated to the shadow of his king.
But to her face.
Kore tilted her head, holding that ancient gaze without bothering to flinch.
Letting him look.
Not at the girl who'd served a voiceless god.
Not a slave.
Or a victim swallowed by the sea.
A queen.
"You came to uphold the Accord," she said, her voice humming with that strange dual-tone that made Vorynthar bloom in a shower of life and color. "Came to execute me. Carve my baby from my body in the name of duty."
Silt stirred around her ankles when she took a step toward the dais, and Nyxarion's fingers trailed down her nape when she stood tall before his father.
"You came in ignorance with cowardice in your veins," she said, planting her feet. "To uphold a treaty that protectsnothing. Preserves nothing. Your own people face extinction," she murmured, repeating what Nyxarion had told her. Not knowing if it was true, but saying it anyway. "Abyssari bloodlines wither," she hissed, fins fanning out.
"You dare?—"
"I do," she said, simply. Pressing both palms flat against her belly, where gold and violet light spiraled beneath her scales. "You fear what grows inside me because it shall not answer to the Deep, nor submit to the Shallows."
Spreading her hands, Kore's chin tilted back, eyes gleaming with contempt, while the corpse of her victim drifted back toward his master.
A gift to the King of Threnakar.
"I am the stormborn flame, anchored in the poisoned tide. The promise meant to reshape black waters. The chalice filled with twin venoms. I command the tsunami that moves my wrath beyond the trench."
Ancient eyes went wide as Nyxarion's father twisted around his stolen seat. "You… you vile thing?—"
Kore's knuckles whitened. "Twice, I have tasted death," she said, silencing him. Letting her voice fill with her wrath. "Spilled blood in empty sacrifice. I know the taste of extinction and the answer to it." Framing the swell of her belly in protective hands, she bared her teeth. "Mylegacy will move between, for the sea will know her song. And rise."
Spines clicking, the old king shifted. Fluke moving water aside as he brushed the corpse of his scholar back. Disregarding the husk as he scowled at the divine flame burning at the bottom of the sea. "This is… preposterous?—"
Lifting one, elegant hand, Kore declared, "The Accord of Nisyros is hereby null."
The vow fell into waters already charged with ozone and fury, and she felt Nyxarion's grin sharpen behind her. Tasted it in the current. Felt his glee, and knew it to be a buttress against her spine, keeping her standing straight when she might've buckled.
And then, "We will draft a new covenant between the Deep and the Shallows,” she said, refusing to let the ancient king and his remaining sycophant see how she weakened. “One that will spawn a new age and forget the tomb you built around your own extinction." Scales blazing in sunset hues, Kore shrugged. "The Covenant of Twin Venoms."
It was a moment of silence where something profound was left to echo. Settling into the bedrock, where it could be still. Take root.
A moment that tasted… right.
Like prophecy.
Pressing a grin to her throat, his chin settling on her shoulder, Nyxarion spoke. "May I introduce my precious, divine flame," he crooned, molten silver eyes lifting as he addressed his father. "Vorynthar's beating heart, my sweet Siren Queen." Shifting one hand to her shoulder, he nudged her chin up with the tip of one claw. Positioning her toward something regal. "Her name is Kore," he said, and his spines spread in a deadly fan behind them. "And you are in her seat."
CHAPTER 14
Ozone laced with citrus and cooked flesh. Charred scales.