Chapter 59
Draevyn
Draevyn’s grip tightened on Esmyra’s arm. He forced her behind him for just a breath, his eyes snapping to the horizon where the sails bled through the fog like a phantom army. His chest clenched, heat rising in his veins.
Atlas.
The silhouette of the lead ship was unmistakable, its banners rippling against the crimson sky.
For a heartbeat, hope flared in his chest. Maybe this was salvation. Maybe, just maybe, his brother would come to stand at his side one last time.
But that same hope twisted bitterly in his gut.
He had carved a piece of velsinyte into Esmyra’s spine. The vision of everything Draevyn had watched her endure enveloped him. The memory of the agony he took from her thanks to that potion, now knowing first-hand how godsdamn unbearable the pain truly was.
Draevyn couldn’t tell whether those ships were their salvation or damnation. And right now, he was more than aware they didn’t have the strength left to survive the latter.
Esmyra’s crew fought like demons, their strange magic bending through the air as the sea itself obeyed her call. And still, it didn’t seem to be enough. Every time an enemy dropped, another two surged up from the depths.
The deck was slick with seawater and blood, the air thick with smoke from his flames.
They were losing. Even with Esmyra wielding her power, even with her crew’s unnatural force at their backs—the enemy’s numbers were too great.
His jaw clenched as his brother’s fleet drew closer like a tide of fate rushing toward them.
Draevyn’s flame-lit blade was a blur, each strike meant to kill. Every muscle in him burned, his lungs raw from the smoke and salt in the air. The ship lurched beneath his boots, timbers groaning under the weight of the madness.
A shadow eclipsed the Blood Moon then.
His brother’s ship surged up alongside Valor, its hull scraping against theirs with a teeth-grinding shriek of wood on wood.
Then darkness consumed everything around them.
It started as a rolling tide of shadow, spilling over the rails like a living fog. Dark tendrils clawed across the deck, and for a heartbeat, Draevyn thought they were turning on him. At the last moment, they slithered past, wrapping around the throats of their enemies.
The soldiers of the sea kingdom barely had time to scream. The magic shoved down their mouths, choking them until they convulsed. Their bodies writhed as if drowning on dry land, and their eyes rolled back before collapsing onto the ship’s floor.
The deck stilled where the shadows swept, everyone halting in place as it left corpses in its wake.
An ear-shattering whistle sounded, and movement from the other ship caught his eye as a taut rope hissed through the air.
Atlas swung across the gap between ships, boots slamming down thunderously onto the deck. The boards shuddered beneath him as he rose from his crouch, cloak billowing as his dark eyes swept over the battle.
Atlas’s stare met Draevyn’s from several feet away, grinning. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
The crew froze for the briefest breath before the world detonated back into motion.
His men followed him, vaulting the rails and dropping onto the deck with steel flashing as they helped cut down their enemies in waves.
What the fuck is happening?
From the flanking ships, volleys rained down into the sea, bullets hissing as they struck water. The surface boiled with shrieks as sirens broke from the depths, their once haunting songs turning into screams. One after another fell silent, their blood churning red swirls through the waves.
Draevyn caught Esmyra’s wide-eyed gaze as they were thrown back into the fight.
“Kae has an idea!” she shouted before blasting her opponent back with a jet of water so strong it impaled him.
He gave her a short, grim nod. “Be careful.”
Her lips curved into that reckless smile he both dreaded and adored. “When am I ever not?”
Fucking always.
Before he could fire back, she was already sprinting toward the railing.
Without hesitation, she vaulted onto the rail and dove, her body shifting into her siren form before cutting clean into the sea below.
The water swallowed her whole in a silver spray, and for a heartbeat all Draevyn could do was stare after her.
His knuckles whitened around the hilt of his blade as he spun, intent on carving a path through what remained of their enemy’s fleet, only to catch sight of his brother instead.
Atlas wasn’t looking at the battle, nor was he looking at Draevyn.
He had been watching Esmyra, eyes following her as she vanished beneath the waves.
A hot, wild rage ripped through Draevyn’s chest. It was raw, blinding even.
The man who had driven the cursed shard into her spine, who had left her writhing in pain and nearly broken beyond saving, had the gall to stare after her as if he could catch her again.
Something inside Draevyn snapped.
Flames ripped from his back like molten, searing chains uncoiling, until wings burst forth in a blinding eruption of fire. They arched wide beyond his shoulders, each feather a roaring blade of flame. The air shimmered around him, warping like glass about to shatter from the heat.
Draevyn was wrath incarnate—he was the Phoenix.
Across the deck, Atlas faltered, his expression dissolving into horror.
Others around them dropped their weapons, shielding their faces from the inferno erupting from his back, while others stumbled, tripping over one another in a desperate bid to escape.
The wings beat once, sending a rush of embers through the air.
Atlas’s eyes flared as he lifted his blade in response. “Wait. Drae, wait!”
He would do no such thing.
Draevyn launched himself forward, teeth bared, blade singing as it arced through the air. The battle around them dulled into background noise, the roar of cannons muffled by the blood pounding in his ears.
His strike aimed was fueled by the memory of Esmyra’s pained screams, by the fact that the person he had once trusted most in this world dared to set eyes on harming the woman who’d become his everything.
“Stay the fuck away from her!” Draevyn’s voice ripped from his throat, hoarse with fury, as their blades met.
The ring of their weapons cut sharper than the surrounding screams and gunfire. To Draevyn, the battle had already shrunk to only the two of them. Nothing else mattered.
Every strike was rage made flesh. Every parry was fueled by the love for his Wildfire and his vow to protect her.
“Draevyn, listen to me!” Atlas begged, blocking a slash that would’ve cleaved his shoulder. “You don’t under—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Draevyn barked, driving him back step by step. His blade tore against his brother’s, teeth gritted so hard his jaw ached.
He would hear no excuses. There would be no reasoning.
The fight dragged them across the blood-slicked deck, weaving through pirates and soldiers who leapt aside as the brothers tore into each other. Their blades locked, their eyes only inches apart.
Then the groan of timber split the air.
They barely dove out of the way in time as Valor’s main mast shattered under cannon fire, crashing across the rails of Atlas’s ship. The deck shook under the impact, ropes snapping like whips as wood splintered from the heavy beam lodged between the vessels.
When Draevyn came up, his brother was already climbing, boots rushing up the fallen mast as if it were a bridge.
He bared his teeth and followed, leaping after him.
Flames ignited just before Atlas in the center of the make-shift bridge.
Atlas whirled on him, eyes wide with shock as his jaw hung agape. “Really, Drae?! This is the thanks I get for saving your ass?”
Draevyn’s wings beat, sending more embers scattering in all directions. “The saving wouldn’t have been necessary if you had never stolen her!”
Atlas’s shock morphed into his own rage as he rushed toward him in tandem. “Esmyra took Elowynne first!”
They met in the middle, blades ringing once more as the mast swayed dangerously beneath their weight, the sea foaming hungrily below them.
The real battle barely existed around them. There was only brother against brother, their duel balanced on the edge of ruin, each strike threatening to send one or both of them crashing into the abyss.
Draevyn swung high, his blade whistling down, but missed as Atlas ducked. He followed instantly with a boot to the chest, sending his brother staggering back across the swaying mast.
Atlas caught his balance and lunged, stabbing forward. Draevyn parried and locked their blades together. For a breathless moment they strained chest-to-chest, their weapons grinding.
“You’ll never touch her again,” Draevyn snarled, driving his shoulder into him.
Atlas wrenched free, spinning with a desperate slash that nicked Draevyn’s arm in warning. He barely flinched, using the pain to fuel another savage attack as he pushed him closer to the ledge.
“Drae, listen to me!” Atlas barked, batting away the rain of blows. “It wasn’t me! I didn’t put the shard inside of her.”
“It was at your command then!” Draevyn roared. “You’re just as guilty.”
“No!” Atlas boomed, the veins in his neck straining. “It was Varis! He went against orders.”
Draevyn’s strike faltered mid-swing, his sword hovering an inch from his brother’s throat. His eyes wavered, his breaths ragged as fury warred with confusion.
“What?” he hissed through clenched teeth. He barely registered Atlas’s words.
Then a guttural roar shook the ship, reverberating in his chest and rattling the wood beneath their feet. They stumbled, almost losing their balance as every surrounding vessel shuddered violently.
From the opposite side of the ship, the sea itself seemed to boil and churn, and Draevyn’s eyes widened in disbelief as a massive draconis head broke the surface.
An enormous sea serpent rose from the depths, its sheer size dwarfing Valor.
Navy scales shimmered like jewels in the blood-red light of the rising moon, its eyes glowing a vibrant silver.
Jagged horns curved backward like spires, and steam hissed from its gills.
Its body was impossibly long, its tail whipping the sea into a frenzy, threatening to capsize each nearby ship.
And then there she was—his Wildfire.
Esmyra held onto the base of its horns as if she had been born to command the beast. Her hair whipped around her face, her eyes blazing with unyielding, silvery-teal power as lightning shot across the stormless sky.
A feral grin spread across Draevyn’s face.
Esmyra was a force of nature, a goddess made of flesh and sea.
“Holy hells,” Atlas breathed from beside him.
A breathy laugh left Draevyn. “That’s my fucking girl.”