Chapter 43 Frelina
Frelina
Frelina wiped grime and sweat from her forehead as she dragged the wounded Fae to the middle of the ship, trying not to flinch at the daggers and arrows and whatever else was flying over her head.
The battle never relented. To her left, Raine was fighting like she’d never seen before: his jagged blades slashing—again and again—tearing through any Oakgards’ Fae who tried to get onto their ship.
They’d been lucky that when the first wave of enemies struck, the ship they’d sneaked onto had been in the middle, protected from being broken apart like the others around them.
Frelina and Raine had understood quickly that they needed to keep those Oakgards’ away, as the foreign Fae didn’t seem to care that many of their own fell with the Havlands folks as they ripped through vessel after vessel in their quest to sink their entire fleet.
The Fae she’d grabbed by the arms groaned as she settled him against the wall, and Frelina wished she could do more than rip a piece of her stupid dress off, tying it around him to quell the blood oozing from a deep gash in his side.
But there were too many injured—too many deaths happening everywhere she looked.
Around the Fae, whose face seemed worryingly pale, she’d already placed dozens of barely alive Fae and humans—even a shifter who’d curled up into a ball as he fell from a broken mast, both his arms dislocated and one leg so shattered that Frelina was sure it would have to be amputated if he survived.
She had tried to fight in the beginning, but after she ran out of daggers to throw, Raine had growled at her to stay behind him—to hide if she could—which she’d ignored when she realized the state of the people littered across the deck of their ship.
Amalise and Zaddock had been on the same ship as them, and Frelina shared a look with the tired and sooty blonde when she also pulled a man to safety, pressing her palm against a wound in his skull that was so deep it revealed the white bone beneath, as she caught her breath.
Frelina was just about to turn around, try to get out again on the deck that seemed like it kept refilling regardless of how many Raine and Zaddock and the rest took down, when a shadow cast their ship in shade, dimming the blue shining in Amalise’s eyes.
Whirling, Frelina spotted the ship with a dark green sail, and a flag in the same color with a white tree sewn onto it, racing toward their own. She cried “Get down” as a shower of arrows fell from the lookout towers and spots sticking out from the several masts.
Raine must have heard her, because the warrior left his place for the first time in the hours they’d fought here.
After sprinting a few steps, he threw himself in the air, tackling Frelina to the floor, slamming the air out of her lungs as he pressed her against the wooden planks—just as the whistles of wood reached Frelina’s ears.
Moans and screams and cries rang around them as the arrowheads found their intended targets, and though it had been there before, the scent of blood now wrapped all around them, even quelling the smoke and salt swirling in the wind.
When she felt Raine jerk, it was as if something deep within her awoke, and Frelina snarled as she got out from under him, shooting to her feet and glaring wildly around, unsure what her body thought she could do without a weapon.
Raine must have had the same thought, because despite the arrow settled deep within his shoulder, he was on his feet a second—if not less—after her, and he shoved her so hard against the wall of the quarterdeck that she finally remembered to breathe again.
“You do not try to save or protect me,” he growled so angrily she felt the emotion rumble through her body. “Do you hear me? I will never forgive you if you get hurt trying to do something for me!”
“I won’t promise that!” Frelina screamed back as the ship behind him came closer. “There are more of them on that one! You can’t take them down all by yourself, Raine!”
Tears stung her eyes as she battled his hazel ones.
Not for herself. Not for Raine. But for the impossible situation around them.
For the soldiers screaming in pain and fear as they approached the ship—knowing very well what their fate would be as soon as those Oakgards’ Fae staring back slammed down a brow.
The Oakgards’ were too many. They’d come too abruptly. Surrounded them too quickly.
Green sails were everywhere when her eyes darted around, and their own white ones seemed to disappear one by one. Frelina knew… there soon wouldn’t be any left.
“You can’t,” Frelina said again, her voice breaking. “You can’t kill them all.”
“Watch me,” Raine snarled back as his eyes shot first to the ship, then to the stairs to his right, leading up to the captain’s quarter, where Frelina knew Kalia and some of the younger Faelings were hiding.
“I will tie you to this staircase if you try anything, sunshine. Don’t fucking think I won’t. ”
She was about to smack him when Zaddock flew around the corner, dragging a pale Amalise behind him. Sliding to a stop, one hand holding on to the bend of the quarterdeck, he panted before managing to get out, “Th-there is another ship on this side. They’re trying to trap us in.”
“Fuck!” Raine cursed as he glared at Loche’s dark-haired soldier. “All right… you—”
Blood spluttered from Zaddock’s mouth, spraying over Amalise, whom Zaddock had pulled before him.
Frelina would never forget the sound of Amalise’s blood-chilling cry as Zaddock fell to his knees with a thump that echoed in Frelina’s bones, a dagger sticking from the back of his neck.
She screamed as well then, her hands flying to her ears as if, if she could only continue crying, she could block out the noises of what was happening right before her eyes.
Like the horrible sound of Zaddock trying to get air but only managing to draw in blood, his eyes flying to Amalise as she fell with him, holding him as he choked. Or the wail tearing from Amalise’s throat as her hands cupped Zaddock’s cheeks, pulling his paling face to her own.
“I love you,” Amalise cried. “I— No! I love you! Please!”
Amalise’s hands moved from Zaddock’s cheeks to his throat, over his chest, and back to his face, never settling—as if the blonde didn’t know where to try to start healing him first. As if she could help him.
Frelina couldn’t stand it.
Not when Amalise lifted her face to the sky and her voice filled with raw panic as she bellowed, “Please! I’ll do anything! Please!”
There was no help that would come. Frelina knew that. And when Zaddock’s blue eyes went dark—the mischievous light that always shone there vanishing… she couldn’t… No.
Her hands pressed harder against her ears, and she screamed until Raine dragged her to him, shoving his face into hers. “You need to fucking snap out of it!” Raine snarled. “I know! It’s not fair. I know…”
She continued screaming, hearing Amalise’s muffled ones join her.
She didn’t want to do this anymore. She wanted it to be a nightmare. She wanted it to be over.
More arrows whistled through the air. She could hear them even with her hands over her ears, and her throat closed up at the fear that took hold of every part of her as she watched Amalise break apart beneath her—the blonde’s chest shaking so fiercely from crying it should have taken down the entire ship.
“Raine,” Frelina cried.
“Sunshine,” Raine said in a hushed voice as he removed her hands from her ears. “I know. It’s… I—”
There were no words. Frelina shook her head as she watched Raine search for them, and she knew the gold and green whirling in his eyes was his own pain—one she would not be able to take from him.
“Fuck!” Raine screamed when sobs cracked through Frelina’s raspy cries. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
An arrow landed right by her, and despite the urge to curl into a ball and wait for the end, Frelina jumped to the side, her cries finally dying out.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” Raine’s eyes went over her entire body—as if it wasn’t just her heart that was bleeding. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled again. “But we can’t…”
Frelina’s throat was raw when Raine turned to Amalise, dragging her upright by her dress from where she’d leaned over Zaddock’s cooling body.
“Listen to me!” Raine ordered. “I’m so fucking sorry, but you can’t break right now. You can’t!” His head whipped to Frelina. “Neither of you can!”
His hands went to the two dark ships now both visible—casting their entire vessel in shade—before his fingers wrapped around each of their arms again. “We will die as well if you panic!”
“We will die anyway! We can’t win this!” Amalise screamed back, spit flying from her mouth as she struggled to get back to Zaddock’s crumpled body. “They killed him… they killed—”
Frelina watched Raine’s face go ashen as he stared at the two of them, holding their arms so hard his knuckles were white, before moving his gaze to the ships and finally to the soldiers sparsely spread out around them—every single one looking like any ounce of hope drained from their bodies with every inch the vessels came closer.
It scared her even more when Raine stopped cursing.
Frelina jerked when Raine just lifted his head to the sky and roared—a primal sound of rage and frustration, and… yes, there was fear hidden deep within it—an emotion she felt resounding in herself when Raine’s golden and green eyes found hers.
“Raine,” Frelina whispered, the feeling that she was about to lose him so sudden it almost sent her to the deck. “Please.”
“Hold on! Just hold on!”
Frelina could barely believe it when Elessia’s voice broke through the panicked tension in the air, and it was almost too much for her eyes when she looked away from Raine to find her sister atop Ydren, Auphore by their side, and several other wyverns—one blue, one gray, and another violet—racing in a half circle toward their ship and the two vessels trying to crush it between them.
“Get down!” Elessia screamed as Frelina and Raine only stared at her. “Get the fuck down!”