Chapter 10
Ice-cold water swallows everything, sucking me beneath the surface.
The shock is so violent that my chest seizes, and a burst of bubbles explodes from my lips. I clamp my mouth shut, lungs screaming, eyes flying open into darkness and foam. White currents twist around me, spinning me in the monster’s wake.
I thrash and kick. My boot connects with something solid, but the tentacle only tightens.
Rather than dragging me down, the beast pivots and swims parallel to the surface. The powerful suction cups burn the skin on my ankle, and the tight vise threatens to cut off my blood supply. Not that it matters. I’ll pass out before I lose a limb from loss of circulation.
My magic stirs, hot and desperate. Power floods to my lungs, unable to breathe for me but easing the crushing pressure.
It won’t last.
I need to move. To fight.
My body jerks side to side like a rag doll. My muscles quake. Salt stings my eyes.
I squeeze them shut. Power burns in my chest, but I sense how far it's stretching. It can’t help me for long. It’s not recovered. Not fully.
Water rushes up my nose as the monster picks up speed. I’m running out of time.
Please, I call out to my power. Help me!
My magic responds with a bristle, like a pulse of attitude, as if it wants me to know it is helping. Then it coils behind my sternum, a molten knot of heat, fierce and bright.
Power surges down my arm to my right hand. My fingertips prickle, electricity humming beneath my skin.
I envision bolts of lightning zipping across the sky and urge my magic to mimic the destructive force. To shoot out of my hands and strike the monster.
The heat builds, but it doesn’t release.
Cold slices into my skin. My lungs ache.
My magic tries to split its efforts, allaying my body’s immediate need for air and also conjuring an attack strong enough to dislodge the monster.
I reach toward the tentacle, hoping a mere brush of magic will hurt it, but the current’s too strong. My limbs are too heavy.
A chill zips down my spine and wraps around my torso. The marks on my arm writhe and itch my skin.
I crack an eyelid. Thick, dark shadows surround me.
Rian!
Hope flares, and my power gets a burst of energy.
The markings on my arms coil around my wrists, meeting the tendrils that wrap around me there. Together, they pull.
My shoulders scream in protest. My mouth opens with a soundless shout. I gag on the influx of water.
The monster shrieks, its cry traveling through the water against my eardrums. Shadows swirl around my body, blocking my vision, but the tentacle on my ankle holds firm.
My body spasms. My thoughts grow hazy. The end is near. I can feel it. I’m going to die.
Don’t you fucking dare. Rian’s furious roar jolts me from the brink of unconsciousness. Fight!
Ocean water continues to flood my lungs. I cough and sputter, but each effort only allows more water to rush into my mouth.
My throat is on fire. Everything burns. Even the icy water brushing my skin scalds. My nerve endings fire, my body desperate to try and find a way to survive.
There’s nothing to be done.
ELARA! Rian bellows. Fight!
My mind drifts, bobbing with the waves rolling me around like a tumbleweed blowing down a dirt path.
But then a sharp stab hits my chest.
My eyes fly open.
A shadow protrudes from my torso.
He…stabbed me?
What in the hells—
The pain of betrayal is cut off when searing heat slices through my torso.
I gasp.
The warmth in my chest roars to an all-consuming blaze as my power rears its head like a beast. Only, this beast defends me.
Rian’s shadow… It released my power.
I lean into my magic’s fiery embrace, surrounded by flexible extensions that remind me of a bird’s wings. Feathers brush against my flesh and caress my neck before my head snaps back. My lips part on an agonized, soundless scream.
A roaring inferno reminiscent of Ferria’s flames blasts from my throat. The white and blue flames spiral out from me, blurring my vision with their heat and brightness.
A horrific screech travels through the water, and the tentacle around my ankle finally loosens.
Fire singes the markings on my arms as they claw at me, as if to tug me back to the surface.
I try to kick my legs, but I’m too weak. In this vortex of power, I don’t know which way is up or down. I’m still drowning.
Adrenaline flows out with my power. Whatever tendril of my magic that had been suppressing the effects of oxygen deprivation flickers out like an extinguished candle.
My eyelids shutter closed. The waves pull me down. Even if I wanted to, I’m not sure I could save myself. I can barely swim.
Someone grabs my hand.
Shadows dive into my mouth. I gag, but relief fills my collapsing lungs. More shadows wrap around my torso, and I’m yanked through the heavy water and into the air in a blur of darkness and a shift of gravity that leaves my head spinning.
Wind slaps my cheeks. Water drips from my body.
I’m lowered onto a hard surface. A shadow shoves me onto my side and strikes my back. Once. Twice. On the third hit, I cough up seawater and bile, wheezing, gasping.
I force my eyelids to part. Debris covers the ship’s deck. Broken crates. Shattered glass. There are no shadows in sight.
Time blurs between my coughs until air finally fills my chest. The scraps of magic I have left gather and press gently against the damaged lung tissue, softening the lingering pain.
Exhausted, I lay on my side, and my pulse begins to slow when a striking, tan face appears above me.
“Elara?” Rian’s wild eyes search mine. “Can you hear me?”
“Y-yes.”
His features soften.
Then they harden into a fierce scowl. “What the fuck do you think you were doing?”
I roll onto my back with a groan. “W–what?”
Fangs descend over his bottom lip, pressing against his chin. “You stopped fighting. You gave up. Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Are you kidding?” I croak. “I almost died.”
“Because you refused to use your magic!” Shadows whip off his shoulders.
“Rian… Relax.” Jaxon steps forward, hands outstretched, as if to pull his prince back.
“No.” I push myself upright, unwilling to sit beneath Rian while he speaks to me this way. “I tried to use it. I did use it. I just—”
“Waited too long and almost lost your life.” Silver flares in his glare.
“Don’t you dare ever fucking do that again.
Do you hear me? You are not allowed to give up.
You are not allowed to die. If you do, I swear to The Mother, I will follow you into the underworld and rip you out of its depths and make you pay for daring to leave me. ”
His words sink under my skin, stirring something I can’t name.
As a healer, I’ve heard so many different responses when loved ones are hurt or sick. Fear. Sadness. Anger. But I’m not a loved one. Rian has no reason to be so…rattled.
Unless this isn’t about me at all…
Rian needs me to cure Darius.
That’s all this is.
I think.
“That’s enough.” Silas steps forward. His soaked shirt is askew, and water drips from the ends of his hair. “Control yourself, Rian. Before you regret it.”
Rian snarls, but his eyes never leave mine. One of his shadows coils at my ankle, the one the monster grabbed. The dark magic caresses the sensitive flesh. It’s gentle. Tender.
And confusing.
I pull back. “Don’t touch me.”
The shadow dissipates.
The markings on my arms flicker with disapproval.
I glare at my skin, then suck in a breath.
Despite the burn that ravaged my body, my skin is unmarred. My clothes are soaked and heavy, but also not burned.
Was it all in my mind? Was there no fire?
Or, like Ferria, am I immune to my power’s flames?
I can't be sure.
My twin sister is resistant to fire in general, and after foolishly sticking my hand in a candle’s flame when we were thirteen, I know I’m not.
Rian’s forceful stare continues to press against my face. I lift my chin and narrow my eyes.
His voice weaves through my thoughts. Don’t look at me like that.
I gasp. “What in the—”
Careful, Sunshine. We have an audience.
I stiffen and shift my gaze. All of the sailors stand outside the semicircle the Shadow Fae have formed around me and Rian. Their wide eyes scream of awe, terror, and uncertainty.
One man, who looks to be in his late fifties, sees my attention and barks, “Are you a magic wielder, girl? Did you summon the beast from its slumber?”
I rear back as if slapped. “What? No! I-I didn’t do anything—”
“Pelagors only rise when called upon by sea witches!” a different man cries, his youthful face darkening. “We all saw how the beast fixated on her. It recognized his temptress.”
Of all the idiotic accusations…
“It tried to drown me.” I throw a hand out toward the sea. “You saw it attack me.”
“And yet you sit here, unharmed.” The original man spits on the deck. “Cursed sirens. We should throw you back into the—”
A shadow wraps around his throat, choking off the words.
“Draven,” Rian drawls, tone bored, but the darkness writhing at his fingertips paints a different picture.
“On it.” The stoic Fae faces the sailors.
“No!” I scramble to my feet. “Don’t!”
I take a single step before Draven’s dark power flies across the ship, splits into over a dozen strands, and plunges into each sailor’s ear.
As one, they stiffen, and their eyes roll into the back of their heads. My heart leaps into my throat.
In seconds, the sailors shudder, then their gazes refocus and tension disappears from their bodies.
“What…” I stare, slack-jawed, as each man moves away.
One calls out orders about what needs to be done to clear the deck, and the rest follow.
“What did you—”
“Mindspeak.” Draven’s dark eyes meet mine. “Remember?”
I snap my mouth shut. Oh…
“So.” Silas clears his throat. “This ship is destroyed. We won’t be finding the Sea Fae on this vessel.”
I frown. “What about your power?”
Rian’s stare continues to bore into the side of my face, but I keep my attention on anyone and everything but him.
Silas offers a placating smile. “Shadows can’t mend masts, nor can they propel a ship across the ocean.”
“So…we’re stranded?” My stomach twists at the thought of being easy prey for the monster if it decides to seek retribution.
If it survived my fire, that is.
“Not quite.” Silas motions to the left side of the ship, to tarps concealing large objects. “There are dinghies to take us to shore.”
“What shore?” Draven crosses his bulky arms and scowls at the expanse of blue that spreads out all around the ship. “We’re in the middle of the sea.”
Instead of answering, Silas turns to Jaxon. “We are close to one known landmass.”
Jaxon stiffens. “No.”
Silas sighs. “We don’t have a choice—”
“We do. And I won’t step foot in that shithole.” Jaxon’s shadows writhe around him.
“You will,” Rian says, authority steady in his voice, though I catch the regret beneath it. “As Silas says, there’s no choice. If there were, I wouldn’t ask you to do this.”
A hiss blows past Jaxon’s lips. Without a word, he stomps away. The shadows at his back snap.
One second passes before Rian sighs and follows his friend to the railing at the front of the ship.
A breeze rolls over the deck, and I wrap my arms around my shivering body.
A cloak falls over my back.
I turn as Draven steps away.
I grip the sides of the fabric. “Thank you.”
He nods.
Rian and Jaxon continue their heated exchange. A few minutes later, the prince places a strong hand on his friend’s shoulder. Jaxon hangs his head.
“What is that about?” I ask.
Silas sighs. “It’s not our place to say.”
I purse my lips. “Can you at least tell me where we’re going?”
Until today, I’ve never seen a map of any land aside from Astloria, and that was only the territory that exists beneath the border between the old human kingdom and the northern Fae lands. My knowledge of the world outside my continent is extremely limited.
Draven huffs. Shadows gather at his boots like restless smoke. Silas shifts his stance, gaze fixed on the planks instead of me.
“Really?” I groan. “It can’t be anywhere that bad.”
The Fae exchange a loaded look.
Eventually, Silas exhales and says, “Yes. It really can be.”
My blood chills. “How so?”
Silas’s voice drops to a whisper that I strain to hear over the groaning ship. “It’s a land where Shadow Fae are not welcome.”
The marks on my arms quiver. “Then why would we go there?”
“Because it’s the only place the king can’t follow.”
Draven’s voice is rough when he adds, “And a place where most who enter never leave.”
His eyes lift to the horizon, the light catching on the edge of his jaw, hard and grim. The formidable Fae looks…vulnerable.
A cold certainty lodges deep in my gut: Draven and Silas are afraid.
And if what awaits us at this mysterious destination terrifies the Fae…what can it do to someone like me?