Closing my eyes, I let sleep tumble me down. And prayed to the mother goddess we would both make it out of the Deep alive.

CHAPTER 7

We slept through much of the next day, our bodies drugged with whatever Ayu had given us both to help speed our healing. When I woke, Belladonna was already up and searching through the closet. Actually, it had been her exasperated grunt and the thump of something large hitting the ground that snapped me out of my deep sleep.

“Lark, the clothes they have here, they are ridiculous. Look at this.” She tossed something toward the bed. It was a dress made of fish net. I picked it up by one edge. “Maybe it’s supposed to go over something else. Like layers.”

“That sea worm wants us to dress like common prostitutes.” Her outrage was all the more amusing because of our previous conversation. Maybe she’d decided she wasn’t going to tease the men to get her information now. Then again, maybe even Belladonna had standards when it came to those she was willing to taunt. Requiem was not one she wanted to get any closer to than she had to. I certainly didn’t.

From the bed, I watched her move, amazed that she barely limped. The bite marks in her leg were mostly healed with only tiny pink lines marking where they had been.

I slid from the bed with a groan. My thighs burned and I rubbed a hand over each. The furrows from Mako’s claw-tipped toes were ridged, sore, and itched like fire ants had been nipping at me all night.

“Lark,” Bella’s voice was soft as she stood in front of me. “No one has ever fought for me.” She looked away, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard. “I thought you were going to leave me there to die, but you didn’t.”

I shrugged. “Family is family. I promised I wouldn’t let you die. Maybe it’s been too long since we’ve spent time together, but you should know I always keep my promises.”

She gave me a weak grin and swiftly changed the subject. “We both have to dress for the dinner.” She held up two pieces of fish net, one in each hand. “Do you want to wear the fish net or the fish net?”

I stood and shook my head. “I’m your bodyguard. I’m not going anywhere without my—” I reached for my spear and found nothing. A quick check of my body, all my weapons were gone except the tiny knife tucked into my vest. The knife Ash had given me for just this reason. Our only weapon that stood between us and Requiem was a wee tiny knife.

Not exactly the protection I was hoping for.

Belladonna lifted a sheer piece of silk, light green and shimmering. I put a hand on hers.

“Bella, we have to play this right or no matter what Requiem said, we’re going to have our heads handed to us on a platter.”

“I know.”

“He thinks you caused the earthquake on the island.”

Her eyes widened. “Why would he think that?”

I took the sheer green material and folded it in half, then motioned for her to turn away from me. I spoke as I wrapped her body in the silk. “It makes sense. Father doesn’t know what I am capable of, no one does. So to Requiem it looks as though Father has sent an ambassador who can cause tsunamis. An ambassador to be feared.”

She glanced over her shoulder as I tied off the silk. I’d wrapped her from just above her chest to just above her knee. Scrounging in the closet I found a second cut of sheer material, a pale blue dotted with seed pearls.

“Lark, that means he’s afraid of me,” she breathed. “It gives us power.”

I wasn’t so sure. “Maybe. But he’s wary of me because I killed Mako.”

A slow smile slid across her face and for a moment she looked so like her mother that I stopped moving. “We have more power than you realize, Lark.”

“I don’t give two worm shits about power. We just need to survive as long as it takes to get us the hell out of here. I think we can both agree that if Father is to back anyone, it should be Requiem’s sister, Finley.”

I took the seed pearl material, tied a swath of it over her breasts which finally gave her decent coverage, then wrapped it in a slow loop down her body, tying it off at the bottom.

“You missed your calling, Lark. You could have been a fabulous dressmaker.”

I snorted. “I’ll keep it in mind if this job doesn’t pan out.”

She giggled and then stopped. “You look terrible. We need to clean you up too.”

There was no denying she was right. I was covered in blood, bits of Mako’s gills hung from my hair and my leather was crusted with dried salt.

“No. Let them see me like this. Covered in their champion’s blood. Requiem . . . I don’t think he’s afraid of us, Bella. Not for an instant. He is not a stupid man.”

“He should be afraid of us,” she said, her haughty tone telling me her arrogance was back full force. Which in that instance was a very good thing, seeing as we needed to face him down at dinner.

I helped arrange her hair so it hung in long loose curls around her face. The length spooling down her back helped to give a bit more skin coverage. The only jewelry we had left between us was Griffin’s gift to me. The tooth corded on leather that kept me safe from the lung burrowers. The tooth of a griffin was a powerful talisman.

I slipped it off my neck and over hers. “Here, put this on. A reminder to them that while you may wear their pearls, you are a child of the earth. A child of the beasts and a power to be reckoned with.”

Her back straightened and she covered my hand with hers. “Thank you.”