Lila’s POV
The moonlight broke through the clouds, casting a slanted glow on the ship’s stern deck.
Derek’s and Jasper’s shadows were stretched long, pinned to the slick tal floor. One was black, the other a deep gray, their edges blurred like two strokes of wet ink.
A wind carrying the stench of salt and sea spray gusted in from the stern, hitting the back of my neck and sending a faint shiver down my spine.
Derek’s right hand was wrapped around my throat, his knuckles white. His thumb pressed directly against my windpipe.
The pressure was precise—enough to suffocate, but not to crush bone.
I could feel the temperature of his fingertips. They weren’t hot, but they had a bone-chilling steadiness.
His chin rested on the crown of my head, his breath brushing over the whorl of my hair—slow and even, as if asuring the curve of an object.
Jasper stood three steps away, unmoving.
His hands hung at his sides, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms. The gash on the outside of his left forearm had already clotted, a dark red line like a seal.
He wasn’t looking at Derek. His gaze was fixed on my face, quiet, like a reef exposed at low tide.
The gash on the outside of his left forearm was from a tal doorfra. Its edges were slightly raised, no longer seeping blood, leaving only a dark red line that followed the curve of his muscle before disappearing into his sleeve.
Derek spoke first, his voice low, yet grating like sandpaper on rust.
"So the new firearms from Black Water Town... couldn’t even touch you. What a sha."
Jasper didn’t answer.
He just raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the hand Derek had clamped on my throat.
Derek let out a short laugh, tinged with the scent of blood.
"Even our clan mbers who took the Enhancer couldn’t withstand more than a few of your moves."
Jasper finally spoke. His voice was deep and flat, yet it seed to quiet the entire sea for a mont.
"Derek."
The corner of Derek’s mouth quirked up. He didn’t respond, only pulled tighter against his side.
His five fingers clamped down on my right wrist, his nails digging deep into my skin, leaving four crescent-shaped red marks.
His left arm wrapped around my waist from behind. The force was imnse, yet he avoided all my bony protrusions, like a well-trained captor who knew how to control without causing serious injury.
Jasper’s gaze fell to my wrist, pausing for half a second before he continued.
"Ten years ago, you started a rebellion. According to clan law, the sentence should have been death."
He didn’t make a sound, just stared into Jasper’s eyes.
The moonlight hit his pupils but reflected no light, only a dark, almost transparent green.
Jasper’s voice remained steady.
"But seeing as you are the Great Elder’s only son, the Elder Council showed you rcy and commuted your sentence to exile."
The wind died for a mont.
The sound of the waves faded, and even the buzzing from the distant ergency lights seed to grow faint.
Only the mooring lines trembled slightly in the wind, letting out a soft hum.
Jasper didn’t look away.
"But you stole the ancient texts, secretly created potions, and controlled our people."
He paused, his gaze finally shifting from my wrist to Derek’s face.
"This ti, you even kidnapped my Queen. We will settle the score for each and every one of these cris."
Derek didn’t get angry.
He just let out another soft, short laugh, like a blade scraping bone.
He lowered his head, nuzzling the skin behind my ear with the tip of his nose, then raised his eyes to look directly at Jasper.
"Oh? Your Queen? From what I hear, yours is just a marriage of convenience."
A hush fell over the sea.
The sound of the waves faded, and even the buzzing from the distant ergency lights seed to grow faint.
Only the mooring lines trembled slightly in the wind, letting out a soft hum.
Derek suddenly threw his head back and, without warning, began to laugh.
It was a high-pitched, piercing laugh that made the mooring lines at the edge of the deck vibrate.
The laughter stopped as abruptly as it began.
He stared at Jasper, his pupils contracting in the moonlight into two points of eerie green.
"Why not let her be my Queen instead? What do you think?"
Jasper’s pupils constricted, and golden flecks exploded within them.
He didn’t lunge or roar. He pushed off his left foot, sidestepped, and swung his right elbow up like a sledgehamr, slamming it into Derek’s right side.
Derek grunted, his fingers instinctively loosening their grip on my throat for a split second.
In that three-tenths of a second—
my body pitched forward from the montum;
the blow sent Derek stumbling back half a step, his right foot landing on the hilt of a recently dropped dagger;
the hilt flipped up, catching his ankle;
he lost his balance and fell backward, his right hand still locked on my wrist, dragging off the deck with him!
The sound of the wind roared in my ears.
Cold.
Salty.
Foul.
I was flying.
Not leaping, but dragged.
My body was weightless, my eardrums throbbed, and my vision flipped—Derek’s contorted face, Jasper’s suddenly wide eyes... all of it was thrown overhead.
And then—
SPLASH!
The seawater was bone-chilling.
The taste of salt and gri was overwhelming.
I was being dragged down by Derek.
A sharp pain shot through my right wrist.
My lungs burned.
My vision went black.
I instinctively opened my mouth—and took in a gulp of icy seawater. I choked violently, my body convulsing.
Bubbles stread from my nostrils.
My fingers clawed wildly in the water.
—
SPLASH! SPLASH!
As I was dragged into the sea by Derek, two figures quickly and deliberately dove in after .
’It must be Jasper, right? He’s always so reckless.’
’Who’s the other one?’
’I’m running out of air... starting to lose consciousness.’
I saw Jasper swing his left arm, his elbow striking Derek’s right side—THUD!
Derek’s body seized up, and the arm clamped around my waist loosened by half an inch.
Jasper’s left hand shot out again like lightning, his fingers like a hook, grabbing the inside of Derek’s right wrist. His thumb pressed hard on the artery.
Derek’s entire arm went numb instantly, and his fingers were forced to release my wrist.
My body went limp, sinking unconsciously.
Another dark figure cut in from below and to my right.
It was Caleb.
He grabbed my collar with his left hand, supported my forearm with his right, and kicked hard, dragging toward the speedboat.
The current was incredibly strong. His breathing was ragged; every ti he broke the surface for air, he only managed to gasp in half a mouthful before being subrged again. Throughout it all, his arm muscles were taut, veins bulging, and his shoulders heaved violently, like a machine on the verge of overload.
Jasper was still tangled with Derek. He struggled to turn in the water, kicked off the steel plating of the ship’s hull to propel himself forward, and blocked a strike from Derek’s short blade with his left arm.
The tip of the blade grazed the outside of his forearm, and threads of blood blood in the water.
He used a reverse grip with his right hand to seize Derek’s knife-wielding wrist, his thumb digging viciously into the ulnar nerve bundle.
Derek grunted in pain, the dagger slipping from his grasp and sinking into the deep.
anwhile, the current repeatedly slamd against Caleb’s left shoulder. His right arm trembled, the muscles in his forearm twitching. I was nearly unconscious, my dead weight adding to his burden.
He broke the surface for the third ti to breathe. His lips were purple, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, but he only managed to suck in a mouthful of salty air.
Suddenly, a wave crashed over them. He was swimming slower and slower, his movents growing heavier.
At the critical mont, Jasper burst from the water.
He reached out with his left hand to support my waist, and with a surge of strength from his right arm, he hauled both of us onto the deck of the speedboat.
The deck was wet and slick, covered in a thin layer of salt frost.
Caleb collapsed onto his back, his chest heaving violently, his breathing faint and broken. His right hand was still locked around my forearm, knuckles white, muscles rigid.
As for , I was like a small animal, draped over Caleb. My face was buried in the hollow of his soaked shoulder, my arms locked around his neck, my fingers digging deep into the skin on his nape.
Jasper looked at clinging to Caleb in my delirious state, his expression a mixture of grief and fury. He knelt down, placed his right hand on the back of my neck, and pressed down hard with his thumb—
My body shuddered, and my arms instinctively tightened, holding on even closer.
"Caleb, don’t leave ..."
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