Chapter Fifty #3
With Will fighting alongside us, we might actually have a chance. Even the Underlings seem to cower at the sight of him back-to-back with Titus. Sylks abandon their hosts. Shifters flee the ship.
Another cannonball rattles the Starchaser.
No—not the Starchaser.
I realize, a moment too late, that the Starchaser hasn’t been struck.
And it isn’t cannon fire that shakes the very foundation of the Red Island.
I can’t see Morana, but I know she must be close—I can feel it, as if he were still connected by some invisible thread.
I know, when the island groans and magma floods the jungles, spilling out over the top of the volcano like a pot boiling over, that Morana has gorged herself on enough blood to enhance the affinities granted to her by the power of the Lightbringer.
And I know it’s with the power of the Lightbringer that she tears apart the very fabric of the island, ripping it in half.
“Maker of All!” Rook cries.
I feel the pain of not only the people of the Red Island but also the island itself. But there’s nothing I can do—nothing but watch as the Red Island begins to sink.
I think of Elsie as pieces of the island crumble into the sea. I can’t lose her again—not when I’ve just got her back.
I could save them all, I think. If I could control my power, I could fight back against Morana.
But I’ve let fear keep me from trying—too afraid to lose control to even attempt to master my abilities.
I’ve let shame keep me captive: shame for the things I’ve done, shame for never being enough—for never being fast enough, or brave enough, or strong enough to save everyone. To save myself.
And now shame is all I feel as I watch the island ripped apart by a power I should be able to control.
I’m torn between defending the Starchaser and finding a way back to the beaches to search for my little sister when a bloodcurdling scream chills my blood.
Time slows to a crawl as I turn in the direction of the sound.
Henry staggers to the left. Sways.
He’s still holding the hilt of the dagger protruding from his stomach when Margaret cuts down the Shifter who bested him. Will and Titus move, racing toward him.
But it’s too much. The pain. The blood.
And I—
I let go.
When the beast prods at my chest, I set it free. I release the notion that I have any control over my power—that I ever have. And it’s only then that I know what I have to do.
I race for the starboard side of the ship and leap over the taffrail, diving headfirst into the ocean.
My ocean. My home. My power.
I am not Aster Oberon, the pirate. The prisoner. The knight.
I am Aster Oberon, daughter of the sea, and I will not be defeated.
The rush of vitality as the water engulfs me is instant and all-consuming. The ocean surges, propelling me up, encasing me in a cyclone of water that glitters with gold dust, as if it were spun out of the fiber of the heavens.
All this time, I thought my powers were in control of me.
But that roaring beast that calls for blood, and death, and destruction…
it’s as if it curls up at my feet, purring gently, softly, a reassuring hum that I recognize now.
The song of the sea buzzes in my chest, pure and clear and strong. I never needed to control my power.
I needed to set it free.
The Manan that shimmers all around me converges, taking on the shape of a woman. She reaches out, touches my heart, where my chest begins to glow with heavenly light.
“Hildegarde?” I manage to ask, but I don’t recognize the sound of my own voice—loud and full and ancient.
She presses her forehead to mine, the gold dust heating my blood from head to toe.
“You can call the stars down from the heavens,” she says, and I realize why her voice is so familiar—I’ve heard it since I was a child, whispering to me on the waves, in the language of the sea. “You need only believe that you can.”
At her touch, images sear my mind, bright and warm.
My family, safe aboard the Lightbringer.
Riding Caligo across the fields surrounding Bludgrave Manor.
Dancing with Titus at the Reckoning Day ball.
Jack kneeling before Margaret on the beach of the Red Island.
Henry’s laughter. Elsie’s smile. Mother and Father, my siblings, and all our friends gathered for a feast.
Owen’s kind eyes.
My happiest memories seem to take on a life of their own, living and breathing, pulsing in the Manan that encapsulates me.
I feel the life leeched from my bones, feel myself giving my power back to the island, feel the moment my affinity becomes a separate thing, striking down the Underlings on the ship below until our enemy is decimated, reduced to nothing more than clouds of red mist. But I don’t try to control it.
I hold on to the feeling of happiness, allowing the memories to comfort me.
I see Titus, lying beside me on the stone ground in Hildegarde’s cavern. See our clasped hands. And then the Manan grows so dense that all I see is light.
The light explodes, scattering like millions of stars, and I fall. But I do not plummet toward darkness and red eyes and teeth.
And I smile as the ocean welcomes me into its embrace.