ablaze with cold, inhuman intelligence. It would kill him. Probably kill them all.
Niko clutched the exterior trim and climbed onto the roof. The wind rushed by, flicking dust into his eyes. He laid flat, fingers digging in, and caught his breath from Vasili’s kicks.
Vasili’s white hair flailed wildly. Yasir was beside him, but when the captain glanced back, the flame lived in his eyes.
Then the beasts were his? They were together. Caville and sorcerer, just as Vasili had planned. Did that mean the beasts were for Niko?
After everything he’d done for Vasili, this was how the prince repaid him?
Niko was done being his dog.
The carriage skipped and danced, the streets rushed by, people fled from its path, and ahead, the many masts from docked ships thrust upward like beacons.
Niko crawled forward, one solid handgrip at a time.
The carriage swooped down a steep, narrow street, scattering traders in its path. The beasts were out of sight behind, but they’d be close. The sound of the horses’ hooves hammered on stone. The carriage rattled and groaned, jarring Niko with every jolt and bump.
The old road tilted downward. The carriage picked up speed. Niko lifted his head to see between Vasili and Yasir, where the road plunged, ending in a sharp left turn around the dock. The carriage wasn’t going to make that turn.
“Yar!” Vasili cracked the whip using his unbroken left hand while Yasir mastered the reins.
They weren’t slowing.
They were speeding up.
Vasili glanced behind him, hair lashing, his blue eye glittering with the knowledge of what was about to happen.
“Don’t!” Niko cried.
Vasili’s lips ticked. He faced forward, and the whip cracked again.
This was insane.
Niko scanned the rushing street for a place to jump. The shadow beasts lunged and snapped, desperate for their prize.
The horses screamed.
No time.
Niko stared ahead. The road veered to the left suddenly, and for a few precious seconds, the carriage plowed on. The horses screamed again and pitched over the dock edge. And then the world was falling. Vasili dove to the side. Yasir jumped. But Niko clung on. Brackish waters rushed up. The horses hit first in an explosion of water. Niko jumped. Water slammed into his shoulder first, making it pop and blasting a wave of heat down his side. He thrashed, gasped air, then saw the carriage roll midair and plunge toward him.
A gasp and he dove down. A hard and sharp something stabbed into his side. Water spilled into his mouth and down his throat. He choked around it, desperate for air. His heart was a drum, beating down every dying second.
Smoky light rippled above. He kicked toward it. His heart thumped so hard it threatened to hammer its way out of his chest. Just a few more kicks. He reached out a hand, grabbing at a length of thick metal chain, and hauled himself to the surface.
Small waves tried to dash him against the enormous black wall. He breathed. In. Out. In. Out. He lived. Agony helped remind him he was alive by washing up his arm and trying to empty his guts into the harbor.
Debris from the shattered carriage drifted in the water. The horses were gone, pulled down by their tack. But so were the shadow beasts.
The dark harbor waters bobbed.
“Haul the anchor!”
The chain he clung to clunked and began to rise. Niko kicked off from the ship’s hull and swam to the harbor wall, dragging his damned burning arm with him. He’d dislocated the shoulder. Bastard thing hurt like one of Vasili’s kicks to the gut.
Walla’s Heart.
Niko scanned the dock for her distinctive blue hull and spotted her still safely moored. Between him and the ship, the dock waters churned. Still no sign of Vasili and Yasir.
Vasili wouldn’t be dead. It took more than a plunge off a dockside to kill the prince, but Yasir was a concern.
He hauled his battered body from the water, took a few moments to catch his breath, and limped toward Walla’s Heart. If anyone saw him, he really didn’t give a shit.
Lamplight shimmered inside the captain’s cabin. “Vasili, you fucking eel, face me!”
The door flew open, and a wet, ragged Vasili stormed out. He lifted a finger and pointed it at Niko, protecting his wounded right wrist against his chest. “One word from Amir and you turn on me?!”
Niko reached for his sword and found it gone—lost somewhere in the harbor. Vasili saw the gesture. His nostrils flared, and he stalked forward, stepping so damned close Niko could feel the anger radiating off him. “I