Chapter 37
CHAPTER 37
Rosalina
I ’m on my back, breathless and overwhelmed, as my mate lies over me. His expression is as shocked as mine must be.
Ezryn. He threw me to the ground right before the arrow could strike.
He found me. Again.
His face, framed by tousled dark brown locks—so much longer than the last time I saw him—is still so new to me. Yet as my gaze drifts over each rugged feature, I can’t help but think: Mine. Mine, now, forever. Mine.
Our eyes meet in a silent exchange—a thousand words passing between us without ever being spoken. With trembling fingers, I reach out to trace the contours of his face, memorizing every angle and line as if to commit them to memory for eternity.
“Rosalina,” he whispers.
“Ezryn.”
Our gazes linger, charged with unspoken intensity. Ezryn leans down, his lips drawing closer to mine. Time seems to slow to a crawl as our breath mingles.
I sat in prison for three months thinking of all the things I would say to Ezryn when I saw him again. How I would scream and yell and spit. How could you jump across that chasm? How could you leave me?
All that anger seeps out of me as his hand caresses the side of my face. Yes, I’ve waited three months. I can’t wait a moment longer.
I grab the back of his head and pull him to me. Our lips meet, and his touch is like lightning splitting the sky. Every piece of me is alight, electrified. Longing and belonging swirl through our bond, a contrast both painful and beautiful. I melt into him, my body molding against his as if trying to bridge the distance that had lain between us.
Cannon fire rackets in the distance, and I feel the heat of a nearby explosion. My hair whips up with the velocity of another arrow, but I don’t care about any of it, not in this moment. It’s only us, lost in this sweet surrender.
Ezryn pulls away and stares down at me, a look of reverence across his face.
“Hi,” I whisper.
“Hello, my lo—Watch out!” He grabs me around the shoulders and rolls. We tumble over one another to the very edge of the roof, barely missing a volley of arrows.
Quickly, Ezryn jumps to his feet and hauls me up. I pull on his loose shirt. “I need to get on that ship and bring it down.”
“That one?” he says glumly, looking up at the airship.
“Yes!”
“All right.” He removes the bag he was wearing on his back and starts rummaging through it. “You want on that ship? I’ll get you on that ship.” He pulls out a coiled rope attached to a grappling hook.
“Where the hell did you get that?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Turns out I’m a pretty good haggler.”
The metal gleams in the bright sunlight as he swings the hook around and around, gaining momentum. “See the descended ladder on the starboard side? We’ll use that to get on the deck. The ship is just about in position. Hold on to me and whatever you do … don’t let go.”
I sling the bow over my body, with the string across my chest and the wooden bow itself at my back. Then I wrap my arms around Ezryn’s neck. “Why do I have the feeling I’m going to regret initiating this?”
A dark shadow blocks out the light as the airship gets closer. With a practiced flick of his wrist, Ezryn launches the hook toward the ladder hanging off the side of the airship. The rope trails behind it like a lifeline.
The hook finds its mark and secures onto the rungs.
“Ready?” Ezryn asks.
“I don’t think SO!” My voice arcs into a scream as Ezryn grabs the rope with both hands and leaps off the building. The wind whips past us as we fall through the air. For a heartbeat, it feels as if we’re freefalling, the ground soaring up to greet us.
Then, with a sudden jolt, we’re pulled upward, the rope of the grappling hook taut. I scream, scrambling tighter onto Ezryn’s back. Wind lashes my hair and makes my eyes water. Corsa Tuga is a blur beneath us.
Hand over hand, Ezryn climbs up the rope until we reach the ladder. I release my vise grip on him and grab the rungs, trying to steady my rapid heart. The hum of the ship’s engine whirrs loudly. Before we climb over the railing, Ezryn stops me. We face each other, each holding on to one side of the ladder.
“All right,” he says. “I’ve got you on the ship. What’s the plan?”
I make a face at him. “What plan? I have no plan! I just want to stop this thing from shooting everybody!”
His head tilts in such a way that reminds me of how he used to look in his silver helm. “Okay then. We have to clear the deck, bring the ship out to sea, and then get to the engine. Follow my lead when we’re up there. This isn’t the first time I’ve taken down one of these things.”
I raise a brow. What have you been doing these past few months?
“Ready?” he asks.
“Ready,” I say.
With one final leap, we clamber onto the deck, face to face with a crew of soldiers and goblins.
“Take the wheel!” Ezryn cries and draws a massive blade from the scabbard on his back. “I’ll deal with this lot.”
“Take the wheel?” I repeat incredulously. “I don’t know how to sail or fly a ship!”
Ezryn’s blade moves with deadly precision, striking down two goblins with a single swing. “It’s easy!”
The wheel is a massive thing, forged from obsidian, the spokes sharp like fangs. A goblin stands on a box, arms stretched as far as they can go to hold on to each side of it. A sword dangles off its hip.
I draw my bow and nock an arrow. “Care to move or will I have to shoot you?”
The goblin drops the wheel and faces me, maw open in a horrible snarl. This isn’t one of our local moss-covered Briar goblins, but one of the Green Flame, its eyes glowing with infernal hatred.
“Too slow,” I growl and release the arrow with a sharp twang. It finds its mark right in the chest. The goblin staggers back. I rush forward and snatch its blade from the scabbard, draw back my arm, and sever its head from its body.
“Good luck coming back after that ,” I growl. Quickly, I run over to the wheel and grab the spokes. “Okay, I’ve got the wheel. What now?”
“Get us out over the open water!” Ezryn cries, parrying the blow of a spear-wielding soldier. He swings his blade back, swift and sure. Already, bodies litter the deck.
“Get us out to open water,” I murmur. “Sure, can’t be that hard.”
There’s nothing left to do but try. I tighten my grip on the spokes and spin the wheel as hard as I can to the left. The ship careens to the side, deck angling upward in a sharp diagonal. A goblin screams and falls over the side of the deck to the ground below.
Ezryn steadies himself on the mast, while kicking one of the soldiers backward. He follows the goblin, tumbling overboard. “Hold her steady, Rose!”
“I’m trying!” I cry, correcting the other way. The ship balances out with a thud.
Okay, nice and easy. I can do this. I relax my fingers on the wheel and concentrate on the sea below. The ship is over Corsa Tuga, but I’ve got to get it out past the harbor. Slowly, I spin the wheel. The ship follows my command.
“That’s it!” Ezryn says. He ducks under the legs of one soldier, his blade up to cut them down the middle, before leaping to his feet and spinning in an arc that downs three goblins.
My chest heaves as the airship surges over the destroyed dock and out over the ocean. There’s only one other ship going in this direction. I recognize its crew.
Dayton runs back and forth across the deck, pointing up at us. His voice carries over the wind and hum of the engine: “Keep up with the airship! Don’t lose it!”
Delphia at the helm snarls back, “ I’m the captain! I make the orders!” She spins her own wheel, following right after us. “Keep up with the airship! Don’t lose it!”
With a grunt, Ezryn takes the head off the last soldier. The deck is quiet as he stands amid the pools of blood, his white shirt stained red, face speckled.
“What’s next?” I ask.
He gives a half smile. “Now, let’s crash this ugly thing. Come on.”
Warily, I leave the wheel and follow behind Ezryn. He leads me over to a metal hatch and flips it open. “My brother may have been the engineer behind these airships, but he didn’t have a way to power them. That was until he joined with the Below.”
He jumps into the hatch, not even bothering to use the ladder. I scoot down the rungs into the dim underbelly.
“The engine room is this way.”
“How many of these things have you been in?”
“I took one down on the outskirts of Hadria and another just over the border. Once you clear the crew, it’s not hard.” He opens a door, and the humming grows louder. A brilliant emerald light shines into my eyes. “You just have to take out the energy source.”
I step into the engine room. A huge green crystal sits atop a dais. My face reflects in the fractals.
“How do we destroy it?” I ask.
“Smash it.” His voice is a low growl. He draws his blood-soaked blade and presents me the hilt. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“Better back up,” I mutter. Ezryn complies, and I hoist the blade up, gritting my teeth. With a roar, I swing the blade and crash it into the crystal.
“Good work.” Ezryn takes back his sword and slides it into the sheath. “Now that the engine is broken, we’ve got to get off this ship.”
I let him pull me back up through the hatch and onto the deck. With a cry, I see the ship is nosediving through the air, heading straight toward the water. We have maybe ten seconds before we’ll be thrashed among the waves.
“Jump!” a voice screams from below. Dayton’s standing on the railing of The Deathly Sky Dancer , gesturing to us. “I’ll catch you.”
Ezryn and I exchange incredulous looks. “I’m out of ideas,” he says.
“Then let’s trust him.” We leap up onto the railing. Ezryn grabs my hand in his. I squeeze.
“One,” I count.
“Two,” he says.
“THREE!” We jump together, careening through the air. A salty spray and the bracing gust of ocean wind billows toward us, and my heart surges into my throat.
Dayton roars from down below and a giant wave comes up to meet us. Ezryn and I are swept up in the water. Salt stings my eyes and my lungs fight for breath.
Then we crash onto the deck of Delphia’s ship. The water splashes away. I push up onto all fours, coughing. A giant crash sounds, and I look over the railing to see the airship hurtled into the waves, the mast splitting in two.
I look at Ezryn, also on all fours, dripping water. He meets my gaze and smiles.
“Welcome back,” I say. “Missed us?”
For the first time since we consummated our mate bond, there’s a lightness in his eyes. “You have no idea.”