CHAPTER FORTY
Please don’t harm the soldiers, I begged at the sky.
I couldn’t bear more blood and death. Bodies already littered the ground—innocent ones we couldn’t protect fast enough during the initial onslaught of war.
Their unknowing, unseeing eyes imprinted in my mind, swirling with the sight of Zahara’s limp body in flames.
The smoke that billowed in the sky like Throk’nawan’s dark storm clouds.
I worked to blink it all away, but it stuck to me, fusing into my very essence as a part of who I had become on the cusp of battle. Would I ever be able to live a normal, happy life after all the anguish the gods have dealt? Would I even survive what I faced alone?
Frantically scouring the field, I searched for the waist-length silver hair that flowed across the Ocean Mother’s back.
Although she was not in sight, her power held strong to the approaching armies.
The peninsula was thin, thankfully not wide enough for the rows of troops to enter the villages with ease.
I had time. But not much.
I couldn’t find the goddess, and as the minutes passed, my unsteady heart nearly exploded.
I became so proud of my new family, their willingness to protect.
Raven obediently watched over Noctis, who continued writhing against the wyrmsteel shackles holding him down.
Calvin and Jun—with the protection of Raveeka—pushed through the soldiers, killing the commanding generals without a second thought.
Fifteen dragons soared in elliptical circles above, each a brilliant hue of scarlet, amethyst, and jade.
They drifted apart almost instinctively, circling Zahara’s ship in the distance as if pulled by something unseen.
It hovered offshore, anchored just far enough out that its hull never scraped the seabed, while everything that mattered was happening aboard it, high above the water and out of reach of the chaos on land.
I altered my path, instead running the opposite direction from the marching armies.
I only managed a few steps before something huge closed around me—massive claws gripping me without warning—and I was yanked clean off the ground and hurled into the air.
There was no pain, only a strange, almost gentle pressure, like being lifted instead of seized, as if whatever held me didn’t want to hurt me at all.
My breath caught as the world dropped away beneath me, and my mind stuttered instead of screaming, trying to make sense of the sky suddenly swallowing everything I knew. With a quick toss, I flew upward and crashed into a set of strong, bare arms, the trident at my back shoving into my spine.
Lucine.
“Thought you might need a little help,” she yelled over the rushing wind. Lucine gripped reins guiding her wine-red dragon, her legs barely able to straddle around the beast's massive back. “We saw her take off in this direction.”
“Don’t hurt them,” I begged. “Please don’t hurt anyone other than the Ocean Mother. Let everyone know.”
I worked to carefully throw my leg over the dragon, holding fiercely to Lucine. I was going to die. My heart would surely give out.
The woman chuckled. “We are here merely to deliver you where you need to be, when you need to be there, merfolk.”
“Will you all watch over Noctis?”
Lucine nodded as she looked over her shoulder at me. “You’ve done well. He will be safe. We will ensure it.”
If the wind wasn’t drying my eyes fiercely, I would have cried. I would have shaken with sobs, my heart in my stomach. No amount of comfort or words could have brought me back. Instead, I faced forward, trusting the Aetherkin Bound to protect him, and prepared for what awaited me.
Because battles may be won with might, but wars are survived with trust and sacrifice, Finnegan told me after the Maerjko trials. I was inclined to believe the Bound who traveled amongst realms to fight at our side, knowing it would cause further disconnect between the kingdoms.
Suddenly, chaos halted below. The soldiers froze their synchronous marching, instead aimlessly searching around in confusion. Armor clanked to the ground as they removed the bulky metal from their bodies, taking off in every direction, cries and screams reaching my ears.
“She released her hold, but it won’t be for long,” Lucine yelled over the wind. “They’ll march again soon if we do not hurry.”
Why? Why would she release them?
The dragon dove downward, and I nearly flew off the saddle. We swooped across the coast where the tides rippled through the land.
“Time to jump,” the woman demanded.
“Jump?!”
“Or get pushed. Whichever you prefer.”
I steadied myself against the dragon, leaning out to gauge the drop, but Lucine’s hand struck my back before I could decide.
The world tipped. Air tore past as I pitched into open sky, the distance collapsing beneath me.
I tumbled, weightless for a heartbeat, then dragged downward with brutal speed.
A scream clawed its way up my throat as the ground rushed closer, details snapping into focus—stone, cracks, unforgiving edges—rising to meet me until there was nothing left but impact waiting.
Dragon claws jerked my body abruptly and lowered me safely to the ground with a speedy landing. I rolled, not able to stop myself when my feet first hit the ground. Lucine and her scaly beast tore through the sky back toward Noctis.
Keep him safe, I begged no one in particular, fingers trailing the Sunder Coin in my pocket.
The shores remained empty, aside from the waves that ferociously crashed into them, depositing tiny crustaceans into the sand.
Why would Lucine deliver me here? I thought, looking around and finding nothing to help.
A laugh floated across the wind, landing harshly in my ears. It bounced off the air in sharp, malicious pitches, one that was enough to haunt anyone in their nightmares.
I threw myself around, only to find the Ocean Mother in a lifeless heap along the tree line.
No pulse. No breath. No life. And yet, no wounds. No blood. Nothing that could truly prove she was dead. Her hair fell around her head, caked in mud. Her cerulean armor dug into her flesh as she laid out across it.
I waited, blade in hand, for the body to move—for it all to be a mad joke—but the goddess laid still and lifeless. The breeze fluttered her silken hair, strands flowing across the wind like a kite caught in the sky. Ironic how such beauty could express so much hate and hideous intent.
Raven cawed above me, spiraling toward me like a beacon of dark feathers.
“What is it? Did Noctis escape?” I asked, hoping that with Thal’Maruun dead, he would be back to himself—that it was the reason the soldiers halted.
Raven flapped his wings hysterically, as if warning me, but I didn’t understand why. I reached out my hand, intending to run it across his back in a soothing gesture, but he cawed, threatening to snap my fingers between his beak if I touched him.
“Raven, what has gotten into you?”
The bird leaped into the sky and gripped a piece of my hair, pulling me savagely. I turned with the yank, and that’s when I noticed what Raven tried to tell me.
Evelyn walked gracefully from the depths of the water to shore, the distance from Zahara’s ship and coastline. The water lapped at her waist as she trudged through to me.
I gasped.
“Evelyn?” I cried, my body weakening at each step my sister took as if she had not been unconscious for days prior.
My drenched sister walked calmly, coming face to face with me.
But the smile that split her cheeks was far too wide, its edges cracked, her eyes wild with madness. The exact face I saw in the water at the Mirrored Sky Festival.
“You know, your Blood Tie’s powers are… intriguing,” she drawled, inspecting her legs like they were foreign to her.
The voice was Evelyn’s. The body was Evelyn’s.
But what lay within was not. “Switching souls? I should have done this a long time ago. The body of my great niece, but the ferocity of Thal’Maruun? Undefeatable.”
“Where’s Evelyn?”
“Oh, I can hear her screaming. It’s like music to my ears, honestly. She’s in here. Buried very… very deep. I must have done it wrong, I guess.”
“Release her,” I ordered, trying to force confidence and falling short.
The goddess smiled through my sister’s face. I should have been accustomed at that point seeing beings take the form of my family, but knowing the goddess controlled my sister’s actual body stood my back straight in rage.
“You wanted her back,” Thal’Maruun chided. “Now take me out of her.”
The Ocean Mother knew I would never hurt my sister, even if Evelyn was getting lost within her own body. The goddess would win, knowing she would be able to walk freely without me even giving a scratch.
“What do you want?” I whispered, accepting the defeat.
Accepting that the plan Raveeka and I conjured would not work.
I was supposed to attack the Ocean Mother from behind as Raveeka distracted the goddess at the front lines.
I was supposed to surprise her with the trident, the weapon Raveeka never allowed another being to use.
Yet, it was all ruined as I stared into the eyes of my sister who unwillingly was controlled by the goddess.
“I want your blood.”
“But why?” I breathed, tears filling the crevices in my eyes. I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t go back to being drained of my power. Of my life.
I had two choices—kill my sister and hope the Ocean Mother couldn’t switch her soul back to her own body fast enough… or let the goddess drain me and the power within to use in destroying the realms.
Thal’Maruun approached slowly, bare feet dragging sluggishly through the sand. It was as if she enjoyed taunting me. Her lips curved in a wry smile that didn’t fit my sister’s face, arms outstretched at her side as she tiptoed through the beach front.
“And if I refuse?” The tremor in my voice became prominent.