Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,110

suddenly she was inhaling it with every breath.

Where Lir seemed to thrive on the additional dose, Caledonia struggled to know where her body ended and the air began. She couldn’t sustain this for long. And she definitely couldn’t win in this condition. She needed help.

Donnally. Where was Donnally? Had he survived the explosion?

Again, she tugged at her wrists. This time, she felt a hint of movement.

Time passed in a blur. Caledonia evaded Lir’s attacks but each time her feet felt slower, her lungs tighter. Her hands grew hot and wet as she fought to pull them apart with no luck. Lir lashed out, dragging the blade across her chest. A curtain of blood dripped down her front. She felt the pressure of it, but not the sting. Lir laughed, low and confident. As if he were toying with her.

It took her a second to realize that was exactly what he was doing. He was wearing her down. He would enjoy cutting her apart a little at a time over killing her with a single blow. And that was something she could use to her advantage.

Dodging again, Caledonia let her breath come a little harder, and she fell briefly to one knee.

Lir slowed his own steps in response, giving her a moment to recover. Or perhaps he was savoring her struggle. Blood shone on the edge of his knife as he stood with the sun on his face. “Bale Blossom,” he said, teasing her with the name. “Your final gift to me is your life.”

He struck, darting forward with incredible speed. Caledonia tugged at her wrists and felt the snap of the ropes. Her hands came free just in time to deflect Lir’s attack.

Surprise painted his face as Caledonia used his own momentum against him, twisting his wrist and driving him into the ground in one smooth motion.

He dropped her dagger and before he could recover, Caledonia scooped it up and drove it into his gut.

Lir’s eyes widened in surprise. His mouth gaped. Blood bloomed over Caledonia’s hand and she barely stopped herself from driving it all the way through him.

She could kill him now. Easily. His life was in her hands. Most of her wanted to take it. To kill him as she had Tassos. The world would be so much better without him lurking in the shadows.

A wind ghosted across her cheeks, bringing with it the voices of her mother and Pisces, “We can fight them as long as we don’t become them.”

For a shuddering breath, Caledonia believed that it was too late. She was too much like Lir and there was no coming back. Someone needed to end this, and why shouldn’t it be her? All of her terrible choices had prepared her for this moment. She could make one more.

But she didn’t need to.

With a shaking hand, she pulled the dagger free and stepped away.

“You said I gave you power. My resistance made you stronger, but you were wrong,” Caledonia said as Lir panted on the ground, one hand pressed to the wound in his gut. “The only thing I’ve ever given you is mercy.”

Laughter bubbled through Lir’s lips. “Mercy is weakness.”

Caledonia considered that. She’d shown him mercy and lost her family instead. She’d offered mercy to any who asked for it and lost all of Cloudbreak. If she wanted to believe mercy was a weakness, she had every reason in the world. But mercy was something else. Mercy was trust. And the only way to make this world something other than what it was now was to trust that other people wanted the same thing. Trust was the opposite of violence. And that was something Lir would never understand.

She smiled at Lir and was surprised to find some of her own anger was unraveling at the edges. “Mercy,” she said, “is more powerful than a bullet.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Caledonia woke in her bed aboard the Luminous Wake late the next morning. Her head was heavy, and her body felt slow. Hime had warned her that the after-effects of such a high dose of Silt would linger for some time. Caledonia had been glad of the drug as Hime stitched the long gash across her chest. She’d been less glad of it when it started to wear off and her first thought was how to find more. One shot of that drug and already it had laid some claim to her mind. She’d never doubted its power, but feeling it work inside her own body and her own mind