CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
The wind stripped the storm clouds from the sky, the pelting rain dissipating with them. It didn’t matter, though, because the Ocean Mother’s hypnotized troops still stormed toward the peninsula separating the soldiers from the civilians.
The godsire slept beside the children under the order of Raveeka.
Calvin and Jun mourned in silence, both clinging to the icy fingers of Zahara’s remaining hand as if letting go would mean losing her all over again.
Tears didn’t fall anymore, only the silence that followed death, the memories of the fallen and the ache of what should have been.
They wrapped their tunics from under their armor around her, granting some sense of privacy in her passing. Her son’s faded blue shirt draped across her chest.
Jun wrapped an arm around Calvin’s violently trembling body and hauled him upright beside Zahara’s lifeless form, neither of them able to fully comprehend that she was truly gone.
Mud clung to their bare skin in thick, freezing layers, their discarded armor half-buried nearby like something left behind by men who hadn’t survived.
Calvin’s broken leg dragged uselessly through the dirt, forcing him to hop unevenly on the one that still worked while Jun carried most of his weight.
Step by step, they pulled themselves away from Zahara.
Jun turned without a word and raised an unsteady hand. Flame spilled from his palm the way it always had so easily before, but this time it shook, weak and uneven, as though even the fire itself didn’t want to touch her.
It spread across Zahara’s body in slow, merciless waves, turning the last thing they had left of her into ash while Calvin stood beside him, silently breaking apart.
Smoke billowed toward the sky, and I jerked, worried at first that it would be a beacon calling the opponents to us, but then I didn’t care.
If the Ocean Mother wanted to hunt us down, I would relish in tearing the skin from her body in a gory, brutal death.
Noctis held my hand, his thumb trailing mine in a gentle caress. I couldn’t watch Zahara’s body crisp and crumble into the earth. Every time Calvin and Jun sniffled, my heart shattered all over again.
“What do we do now?” I asked Noctis, the words barely making their way from my mouth.
“You grieve. Whatever that looks like for you.”
“I want to destroy them all.” My hand tightened around his, a minute outlet necessary for my fury.
I didn’t want to stand there any longer. If it made me seem uncaring, I would apologize later, but I wanted to fight. I wanted vengeance—for Zahara, for myself, for the people that endured any harm at the hands of both the Terraguard and Oceanwrought villains.
Jun and Calvin stood motionless with their weapons hanging at their sides, fury radiating from them so violently it felt dangerous to breathe too close.
Red blotches peppered their faces like perfect portraits of rage.
I watched as the pain transformed to wrath.
As the realization set in, the battle that surged around us, the goddess that started it all, the godsire that took our leader.
My attention trailed to Calvin as his grip tightened until his knuckles blanched white as his eyes searched the distance like he was begging for something else to kill.
Jun took off first toward the marching troops.
Calvin screamed until his face was red, cocking an arrow on the bow and pulling it back.
The pointed weapon soared through the air, finding its target in the throat of an Oceanwrought commander.
The platoon continued to march, controlled by the Ocean Mother instead.
Jun pushed through the rows, none of the soldiers caring that he shoved into them, eyes and bodies only focused on marching forward at command.
His blade cut cleanly through the abdomen of the next hovering commander.
Again, none of the soldiers were released from their mental hold.
“Keep them safe,” I ordered Raveeka, who jumped over the hill on my command.
I turned to take off toward the back—towards my primary target from the beginning.
Thal’Maruun. The Ocean Mother.
“Caelyn,” Noctis’s worried voice hit my ears.
I turned to face him mid-sprint, knowing he would attempt to stop me—he would attempt to prolong the fight to plan. But I didn’t want to plan. I wanted to fight. I wanted to win.
“Something feels… weird.” He lifted his palms, staring at them in confusion. His eyes lifted back to me, eyebrows drawn down.
Then, his face fell in a complacent stare, looking forward with no emotion. His hands dropped to his side.
“Noctis?” I asked, but he stared forward in silence. “Noctis?” I tried again, but no answer.
The god lunged, tackling me into the ground. We rolled, Noctis’s weight crushing me as we slid across the land. Skin ripped from my bicep as we tumbled, slabs of flesh hanging from my arm as blood pooled along the mud. It was the only thing I could see from my position.
Noctis ended on top, a blade resting against my throat.
A surge of ancient power flitted through my body, leaching onto the bond between the god and I.
It felt putrid, foul as if it didn’t belong to me or Noctis.
His power was warm and light like a summer breeze through lush trees.
My own—now that I wielded it once—felt like a bottomless pit of energy, fresh like the needed rainfall after a drought.
Then, realization hit me.
The Ocean Mother was commanding Noctis through our Blood Tie.
I tried to lift my head, but his elbow shoved into my temple, holding me in place.
The ground drained the warmth beneath my cheek, but I couldn’t move under the forceful grip Noctis had against my head.
My eyes shifted into the distance at the horizon as the sun began to dip to the other side of the realm.
Silhouetted in the shadow, the Ocean Mother stood with arms crossed, facing us.
Her slim figure drifted across the land with her troops, but her focus had shifted.
Noctis sat atop me, blade at my throat unmoving for far too long. I hoped it was because he fought the control internally. Using it to my advantage, I gripped the hand that held the hilt of the weapon and shoved it outward. I rolled, throwing Noctis to the ground with the momentum change.
He flipped but quickly shot to his feet, blade swinging at his side.
He pounced like a beast finally being freed from captivity. His knee slammed into my stomach, and I bent only for his same knee to meet my nose. Shit. It crunched, bone cracking. My eyes teared up from the hit, but I managed to pull away before his blade went through my chest.
I didn’t bear a weapon. I couldn’t hurt him even if I wanted to.
“There was a moment in time I didn’t believe love was ever a thing,” I choked out, swallowing the bile that rose in my throat. “That people only care about others because there was a benefit to the relationship. Coin, power, blood.”
He jumped at me, arms outstretched to tackle, but failed miserably.
Crashing to the ground, he slammed his fists into the mud and regained his emotionless composure.
His footsteps were slower, less calculated than normal.
I knew every trick he normally played in training, but he wasn’t using them.
His motions were foreign, sloppier, more frantic.
And I’d take advantage of it, knowing the goddess that controlled him was getting fearful—even desperate to kill the threat. And I was the threat worthy of the goddess’s attention.
Noctis growled, low and raspy, so I continued.
“Yet every time I’m around you, I forgive every person that’s ever claimed love and hurt me.
” His blade jabbed toward my face, but I dropped backwards, scurrying away from the strike.
I managed to get back to my feet before he swung again.
“I forgive them all, because each second of betrayal and pain led me directly to you.”
His eyes widened only slightly, a sign he could hear me, but his body didn’t care—the being that puppeteered him didn’t care. His blade cut across my face, and I barely dodged it. As he worked to pull his long sword back up, I tackled him.
My nose nearly met his, chests heaving together in sync. Warmth seeped into us with the lack of our armor. Our eyes met, and I could have sworn his gaze softened as I looked at him.
“I love you, Noctis. And I hope you forgive me.”
The wyrmsteel shackles I hid beneath my vest clicked around his wrists.
He couldn’t use his powers to stop me from taking on the Ocean Mother alone—at least that was the plan Raveeka and I conjured up.
The metal bands that held Noctis would hopefully keep him in place, imbued by the titan to subdue his powers and become boulders of weight when clamped shut.
It had to be me that fought the goddess. Because only I could wield the trident. Only I could sever the bond between the god and I if the plan didn’t work. And only I could conjure power that would shock the Thal’Maruun.
It had to be me. Because Noctis admitted to the Threnai that he’d seen the world die at his fault. He had to remain behind. And it had to be a surprise.
Noctis fought against the restraints, but it didn’t help. His legs flailed, trying to gain purchase and pull his outstretched arms up, but they only shoved him back into the ground.
I took off toward the hill where Raveeka planted the trident and ran toward the approaching Ocean Mother. She was still so far away, her eyes glaring upon me for besting her tactic of controlling my Blood Tie.
I slid down the hill, advancing closer to the lines of soldiers, careful to keep my distance in case the Ocean Mother ordered them to attack me.
The goddess did nothing to stop Calvin, Jun, and Raveeka from surging through her commanders, but I wasn’t them.
I held and was power from the same bloodline as the goddess.
I could finally feel it within me—the immense, surging well of magic swelling deep inside my chest, vast enough to drown everything else.
The sky split rapidly, hues of orange and red streaking violently like clouds of flame. Deep, animalistic roars pierced the air, breaking up the synchronous marching that plowed through the land. Winged shadows covered the ground, every troop cast in darkness. When I looked up, I nearly sobbed.
The Aetherkin armies came to join the battle.
Dragons circled the masses from above, each bearing an armored Aetherkin Bound soldier. I glanced back, hoping to see fear in the Ocean Mother’s eyes, but the goddess was gone.