Stormbreak (Seafire #3) - Natalie C. Parker Page 0,107

whatever he said with tight bobs of his head. Between them sat her pack of mag bombs and a small collection of weapons they’d removed from her body.

Nausea swirled in her belly. They weren’t supposed to be here. Lir was supposed to be on the Mors Navis in the thick of battle. And Donnally— She had hoped this moment would never come. He’d made his choice and now she had to consider him a Bullet instead of a brother.

Spitting the blood from her mouth, Caledonia struggled to sit up and climb to her feet. Lir watched her as if her presence relaxed him. As if the sight of her delighted him.

“We’re so glad you could join us.” A smile touched Lir’s star-pale eyes as he savored those words.

A spear of ice shot down Caledonia’s spine and she searched Donnally’s expression for any sign that Lir was lying. Muscles flashed in Donnally’s jaw and he kept his eyes resolutely away from hers, letting Caledonia’s worst fears take root. This was a trap. One laid by both Lir and her own brother. Lir always knew how best to take advantage of her weaknesses. Her mercy.

They’d anticipated her perfectly.

“This started all those turns ago with the two of us on an island,” Lir continued. “It was always going to end the same way. You and me.”

“It won’t end the same way.” Caledonia struggled against her bindings.

“Have you come to surrender to me?” Gunfire sounded relentlessly in the distance and Lir shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like surrender.”

“It will soon,” she promised.

Lir’s eyes narrowed in sharp amusement. “Donnally,” he said, taunting and cruel. “I’d like a moment alone with Caledonia. Take her mag bombs and sink them.”

“No, Donnally,” she said, fighting to keep her voice from betraying her terror as Donnally stooped to collect the bag and swing it over his shoulder. “Donnally, don’t do this. Use those bombs instead! I know you think he’s your brother and maybe—maybe he is, but if that’s true, he’ll be your brother even if you destroy this place.”

Donnally paused just long enough to raise his eyes to hers. They were a deep brown, just like hers, but where she expected regret and submission, she thought she saw something more defiant.

“From Silt comes strength,” Lir said. “My brother knows that as well as anyone.”

“You were strong before,” she said, pleading with her brother to remember.

Only a few days ago, they’d walked the streets of the Holster. They’d shared a memory of their mother and Caledonia had dared to think that for a moment, Donnally might come back to her. Now, as he tugged the pack onto his own shoulders, she didn’t know what to believe.

“Hoist your eyes, Nia,” Donnally said. “I know who I am.”

Nia. She hadn’t heard that name in so long.

“Go,” Lir commanded.

Panic spiked in Caledonia’s blood. Donnally turned to give her one last look, then he was gone, and Caledonia was alone with Lir.

Sweat made quick tracks down Caledonia’s back. It slicked her palms and made the ropes around her wrists bite into her skin. She adjusted her stance watching the way Lir spun that knife around and around, but to her surprise, he put it away, tucking the blade into his waistband.

For a moment, he stood across from her without saying a word. His eyes traveled from her hair to her lips to either side of her hips where her guns should have been. He took his time consuming the sight of her and then he took three slow steps forward.

It took every bit of willpower she possessed to stand as if planted in place. Her mind rang with the memory of Donnally calling her Nia. It was his name for her. Not even their parents had used the nickname. It had only ever existed between a brother and a sister and Caledonia couldn’t shake the terrifying hope that it had been a message: Sister, I am with you.

Maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t dropping her bombs in the ocean, but planting them as she’d meant to.

Doubt coated the thought. It could be another trap. Just a ruse to toy with her heart. But hope was all she had left.

“It took me a long time to understand that I needed you,” Lir said, as if they’d been in the middle of a conversation. “You are the reason I survived to take the Bullet Seas for myself. And you are the reason I’ll keep them now.”

The distant sounds of battle rushed to fill his silence.