Algernon Black

(Chapter 65) You Think I Can't Kill you?

Algernon was running off pure adrenaline as he fought against the current and the soaking wet weight of both his and Lucy's body to drag them ashore.

Once on land, he noticed Lucy wasn't breathing and lowered an ear to her chest to listen for a heartbeat but the thick fabric of whatever contraption of a corset she was wearing underneath made that impossible.

His hand drew to the end of Lucy's skirt and felt upwards along her thigh until he found the opal dagger he witnessed her using earlier.

He ripped it free from its leather casing to cut through Lucy's shirt and the front lacing of the corset.

With her chest freed from the constraints, Lucy woke up as water rushed out of her lungs. She tried to breathe but chocked on air until she coughed up what felt like gallons of burning saltwater.

Algernon sat back in the sand watching on while panting deeply.

Lucy was still bent over on her knees, every muscle in her body tensing to expel the water from her lungs, when Algernon said in breathy derision, "Can you for once, not be at the center of every problem I have?"

Lucy couldn't respond as she was only just done spewing up water but stared at Algernon hoping her eyes expressed just as much annoyance in them as she felt.

"I mean honestly," Algernon added, gathering enough energy to be angry as he thought about how close to death she had just come. "With how weak you are there's no sense in you being in a battle like this, let alone Attwood."

Lucy bit the insides of her cheeks and despite her exhaustion stood up. "If you want me to leave, then kill me yourself," she said, straining to put as much strength into her words as possible with the coarse saltwater drying out her throat.

Algernon got to his feet, reacting to her challenge and storming over to her. "You think I can't kill you?"

"I have no doubt you could," Lucy said, refusing to back down from Algernon even when he stood so close to her, she could see herself reflected in his black eyes. Her voice was still weak, but Lucy meant it when she said, "But you won't."

"I should," Algernon replied, finding Lucy capable of making him intensely and instantly outrage beyond anyone he had ever met before. "All you are is a liability. Not only do you constantly need to be saved from every sort of danger, but you go out of your way to be a part of it," he snapped, hoping to wake Lucy up to reality. "When you're so weak you can't even protect yourself."

Lucy's eyebrows furrowed. He didn't frighten her when he spoke like this but the truth in his words stung like saltwater in an open wound. "You know your criticism would actually mean something if it didn't make you a hypocrite."

"A hypocrite?" Algernon repeated, the accusation soaring his anger to new heights, "Who do you-"

"Why did you jump in and save me?" Lucy yelled over him before he could finish another insult. "With everything you accuse me of being, it would make much more sense to leave me to drown. Instead of keeping me around if all I do is drag you and everyone else down." For once Algernon was quiet as he tried to find a response that thwarted hers but couldn't.

His silence swelled Lucy's frustration, while Algernon's own had not yet been settled, though now as he looked down at Lucy, he noticed for the first time how her ripped white shirt soaked with water clung to every curve on the top part of her half-exposed body and became slightly opaque.

His emotions filled with irritation as much as they now enlarged with something else.

"Answer me, Algernon!" Lucy demanded, as she pushed his chest. He only stepped back a little, not because she was strong enough to actually move him, but because he was off-centered and unfocused for a myriad of reasons. "Or am I not even worth a reply."