House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J. Maas

“I want to be one of your prize fighters.”

She slowly turned her head toward him. “I don’t take freelancers.”

“Then buy me.”

“You’re not a slave, mer.”

“I’ll sell myself to you.”

The words sounded as insane as they felt. But he had no other options. His alternative was another form of slavery. At least here, he’d be away from that stifling court.

The Viper Queen set down her tablet. “A civitas selling himself into slavery. Such a thing is not done.”

“You’re law unto yourself. You can do it.”

“Your queen will flood my district for spite.”

“She isn’t dumb enough to fuck with you.”

“I take it that’s why you’re rushing into my care.”

Tharion checked his phone. Ten minutes left at most. “It’s either be trapped in a palace down there or trapped up here. I choose here, where I won’t be required to breed some royal offspring.”

“You are becoming a slave. To be free of the River Queen.” Even the Vipe looked like she was wondering if he’d gone mad.

“Is there another way? Because I’m out of ideas.”

The Viper Queen angled her head, bob shifting with the movement. “A good businessperson would tell you no, and accept this absurd offer.” Her purple lips parted in a smile. “But …” Her gaze swept across the room, to the Fae males standing guard by an unmarked door. He had no idea what lay beyond. Possibly her bedchamber. Why it needed to be guarded when she wasn’t inside was beyond him. “They defected from the Autumn King. Swore allegiance to me. They’ve proved loyal.”

“So I’ll do it. I hereby defect. Give me some way to immerse myself in water once a day and I’m set.”

She chuckled. “You think you’re the first mer fighter I’ve had? There is a tub a few levels down, with water piped in right from the Istros. It’s yours. But defecting … That is not as easy as simply saying the words.” She stood, rolling back the sleeve of her black jumpsuit to expose her wrist. A tattoo of a snake twining around a crescent moon lay there. She lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit, and blood—darker than usual—welled where her teeth had been. “Drink.”

The floor began rumbling, and Tharion knew it wasn’t from the fight. Knew something ancient and primordial was coming for him, to drag him back to the watery depths.

He grabbed her wrist and brought it to his mouth.

If he defected from the River Queen, then he could defect from the Viper Queen one day, couldn’t he?

He didn’t ask. Didn’t doubt it as he laid his lips on her wrist, and her blood filled his mouth.

Burned his mouth. His throat.

Tharion staggered back, choking, grabbing at his neck. Her blood, her venom dissolved his throat, his chest, his heart—

Cold, piercing and eternal, erupted through him. Tharion crashed to his knees.

The rumbling halted. Then retreated. Like whatever it had been hunting for had vanished.

Tharion panted, bracing for the icy death that awaited him.

But nothing happened. Only that vague sense of cold. Of … calm. He slowly lifted his eyes to the Viper Queen.

She smiled down at him. “Seems like that did the trick.” He struggled to his feet, swaying. He rubbed at the hollow, strange place in his chest. “Your first fight is tonight,” she said, still smiling. “I suggest you rest.”

“I need to help my friends finish something first.”

Her brows rose. “Ah. This business with Ophion.”

“Of a sort. I need to be able to help them.”

“You should have bargained for that freedom before swearing yourself to me.”

“Allow me this and I’ll come back and fight for you until I’m chum.”

She laughed softly. “Fine, Tharion Ketos. Help your friends. But when you are done …” Her eyes glowed green, and his body turned distant. Her will was his, her desires his own. He’d crawl through coals to fulfill her orders. “You return to me.”

“I return to you.” He spoke in a voice that was and wasn’t his own. Some small part of him screamed.

The Viper Queen flicked a hand toward the archway. “Go.”

Not entirely of his own volition, he stalked back down the hallway. Each step away from her had that distance lessening, his thoughts again becoming his own, even as …

Ariadne peered up from her book as he stalked past. “Are you mad?”

Tharion retorted, “I could ask the same of you.” Her face tightened, but she returned to her book.

With each step toward his friends, he could have sworn a long, invisible chain stretched. Like an endless leash, tethering him—no matter where he went, no matter how far—back to this place.

Never to return to the life he’d traded away.

Ithan sat on a park bench in Moonwood, a few blocks from the Den, still reeling from the world-shattering revelation the Prime had dropped on him.

The wolf mystic was a Fendyr. An Alpha Fendyr.

Ithan hadn’t been able to get any more than that out of the Prime before the male’s gaze had gone murky, and he’d needed to sit down again. Hypaxia had worked some healing magic to ease whatever pains ailed him, and he’d been asleep at his desk a moment later.