Chapter 3
Azar
When Thunar fire-blasts Liz, my entire body reacts.
Just not fast enough.
Thankfully, when Liz throws a hand forward, a red shield erupts in front of her, deflecting the flames. “Asteria!” she shouts. “Get them all out of here. Now!”
I assume she’s talking about her siblings, and I hope Asteria listens. I care about Liz’s little sisters and brother, mostly because I can see how much she does, but the only person I really care about is currently using my magic to block Thunar’s flames while he attacks her right in front of me.
What is this? Some new magic? Thunar stops flaming her. And you said you weren’t a witch.
I don’t wait for any more talking. I launch forward and barrel into his flank, flaming him as I do. I just wish he wasn’t so much bigger and more powerful than I am.
I’ve watched fights like the one I’ve started, and they never go well for the smaller, younger blessed.
I watched as this very brother consumed the younger flame blessed, and they were older than I am. Even so, the one thing I can’t do is stand by and watch him attack Liz.
Hyperion, bless him, immediately attacks from the other side.
Thunar’s roar feels almost gleeful—of course it is. He’s probably wanted this to happen since the moment he arrived. He’s looked for an excuse to kill me for as long as I’ve been alive.
And I’m ready to die.
I’ve done what I could for my people. I found Liz.
I’ve recovered the heart. And now, if it’s time for me to perish while defending the one thing I care most about in the world, maybe that was my purpose all along.
I wish I’d have been able to recover my memories, but I’ve made some really great new ones.
It’s enough.
Thunar launches into the sky, and I should appreciate that.
He’s less likely to destroy everyone else I care about from up there.
Keeping everyone Liz loves safe is a good thing.
Maybe she won’t even get melted in the fallout from our fight.
As Hyperion and I follow him upward, I can sense her down below me, watching.
Hide, I say. Please hide.
From the corner of my eye, I see her darting away, and I breathe a small sigh of relief before I dig deep and pull on the inferno that’s always raging inside of me. I release the strongest, hottest blast I’m capable of making, and it strikes Thunar’s side at the same time as Hyperion does the same.
Maybe together, we can burn him to ash, Hyperion says. I intend to try.
Until we came to earth, Hyperion kept me safe as some kind of guilt-ridden obligation. It was always clear he didn’t like me. He just wanted me to fix whatever he was inevitably doomed to break.
It’s different now.
He’s. . .different. We’ve both changed.
Because of Liz. Thanks to her, now we feel like a team. I have a strange affection for him that I never associated with any other siblings. It’s more like what I feel for Euphrasia, or even a little like what I feel for Liz.
I’m not terrified he might be hurt, but I’m saddened by the idea.
It’s a new feeling to me, and it doesn’t help me fight with more skill or power.
Our blasts seem to do very little to Thunar, which makes sense.
We’re creatures of destruction, heat, and flame.
Why would my attack harm him? What else can we do?
I ask, finally running out of firepower. He’s completely fine.
Thunar’s been flying north and just a little east, so he doesn’t just head back to the island again, I suppose. As the water rushes past us below, I can’t help wondering what we could do that might harm him.
Water? I ask. That might do something.
But before Hyperion can respond, Thunar pivots, and a horrifyingly large pillar of flame leaves his body, aimed right at my chest. As it hits me, punching into the center of my body, I prepare to die.
The flames are so hot they’re blue. Only, the flames don’t harm me any more than ours seemed to hurt him.
Have we leveled up?
I’ve barely had the thought when Thunar flips his wings up vertically, stopping like a wall, and twists, slamming me with his massive, extended claws. I might withstand the extreme heat he can create better than I expected, but I’m not invincible to the brute force of his mauling.
His talons rake enormous furrows down the side of my body, slicing through my scales like a schooner through the ocean. Blood sprays like water, probably thanks to the heat he just hit me with. But as he finally disengages, his claws rip past my wing, shredding the end of it.
No matter how hard I pump, I can’t seem to fly properly, not anymore.
Now I’m the one who’s about to see how I do with being submerged in water. As I careen downward and the waves rise to meet me, I realize I’m leaving Hyperion to fight him alone.
No, Liz says. Don’t die!
I’m not, I say. Or at least, I don’t think so.
I’m not much of a swimmer, but now Hyperion’s up there alone.
I snap my head up as my body hits the water, and I can barely make out Thunar blasting Hyperion.
I assume he’ll do the same thing to him that he just did to me.
Soften with flame, slice with overwhelming force.
After hitting the water like a freight train, I plow downward, down, down, down.
Things are moving alongside me—fish? Other blessed?
Whales? I have no idea. I’m going too fast, and it’s too dark, and I don’t love the water.
The ribbons of blood streaming away from my body aren’t a great sign, but most importantly, I have to figure out how to slow my motion downward. . .and then move my way back up.
Hyperion needs me.
Here. A strange pulse of magic rushes through my bond after Liz’s message. Heal your body and your wing. Go help him.
I’m not sure what we can do. Even flaming back and forth repeatedly, we can’t harm Thunar.
But you can wear him down. Remember what happened to Gaia after building your wedding platform?
When I was planning on mating with Asteria.
It was a terrible time, but she’s brilliant. We don’t have to kill Thunar. We just have to survive while he burns through his energy reserves while not yet bonded to a human. Another pulse of magic shoots through the bond. Where’s that coming from?
The heart stone. I ran in and got it.
I wish she was just hiding, but I appreciate her help. I shove raw magic at my wing, and it starts to heal just as I start to choke on the salt water all around me.
Turns out, water and flame aren’t the best mix.
For an all-powerful demon with wings, you’re kind of pitiful, Liz says. Portal out. Kick your thick, squatty legs. Do something, anything so you don’t die under there, you big lump.
Kicking proves ineffective, and I start to feel. . .not great. Portaling requires a clear image of where I’m going, and the wherewithal to—
You’re lecturing me on magical theory right now? The bond practically bristles with irritation. Hyperion’s DYING. Figure it out!
I try, and I thrash, but everything I do shoves me down farther in the dark, confusing water until.
. .Euphrasia shoots past, spinning around me in a tight circle.
She does what she did when I was much smaller and somehow sends me breathable air under here.
Then another blessed joins her, and another, and within a few beats, I can breathe easily again.
It’s so much easier to heal when I can actually process the air around me.
The water blessed each take one part of my body—a ridge, a claw, the joint where my wing meets my back—and they begin pulsing upward, dragging me along with them. As we move up, it grows lighter and brighter, and I feel less buried.
He flew out over all this water for a reason, Euphrasia says. He knew if he could simply knock you under. . .
He’ll do the same to Hyperion.
Euphrasia has gotten me back up to the top of the ocean. He just did. We’ll go help him next.
Then he’ll attack you.
Euphrasia blinks, seemingly unconcerned. I’ve lived a long time. I’m willing to take the risk.
As am I, a water blessed I don’t even know says.
And me, a water blessed I vaguely remember says. Wilhelmina, I think?
Euphrasia’s sister’s there, too. And a few others I don’t have the energy to identify.
But then they’re boosting me out of the water, and I’m shaking off, and launching back upward into the air. For a moment, I worry I’ll plunge back down, but then my wings dry, and I realize they’ve healed, thanks to Liz’s magic. Take care of Hyperion.
He’s worse off than you, Euphrasia says. Go save your human bonded. We’ll take care of Hyperion.
But I don’t see Thunar anywhere.
In that moment, I know where he’s gone. He was merely getting rid of Hyperion and me so he could do what he really wanted. I swear, I don’t know a single creature in the universe who gets more targets painted on her back than Elizabeth Chadwick.
I fly back toward the coast as fast as I’ve ever flown, portaling the rest of the way once I’ve recovered enough to do it.
I’m still too late. Thunar’s already landing up ahead, and he doesn’t wait to blast a large column of flame. . .right at where Liz is standing, apparently waiting for him.
Can Liz block it again?
Before I’m close enough to do anything at all, I realize that Liz isn’t facing him alone.
She’s surrounded by earth blessed. In fact, more are winging their way to her side in droves, coming from as far out as I can see.
Some of them have humans on their backs, and some don’t.
But they’re all screaming their defiance at Thunar.
He’s laughing. What do you think you pathetic fools can do to me?
I blast him from the side. Would you kill your own people just to attack one human?
I destroy anyone who defies me. He spins, his eyes flashing. As should you.
You picked this fight, and now you won’t let go even though she has more allies than you expected? Don’t be stupid.
I doubt it’s my words that sway him, though.
No, it’s the large contingent of strike blessed joining the fray. And then another one of water blessed climbing out of the surf and lining up on the shore. Earth blessed continue to arrive, but now I notice that some are straightening in front of Liz, their new wings still wet as they unfurl.
She gave the new ones wings, too? For the first time since seeing Liz, Thunar sounds. . .thoughtful. His anger is lessened. How?
Liz straightens, and she spreads her arms wide. “I grabbed the heart, which we had been keeping safe until we could return it to your father. Then I used its magic to send power to my bonded.” She lifts her chin. “Power he needed because of your unprovoked attack.”
Thunar tilts his head, but there are no new columns of flames, not yet, anyway. And?
“As you can see, I was able to use it to help all the earth blessed near me to. . .” She frowns, her nose scrunching. “I’m not sure what to call it. I upgraded them, too. They’re larger and they can fly.”
How?
“I wish I knew. The heart’s tricky. It’s powerful, but it didn’t come with a manual. Not even one written in Chinese letters.”
Thunar turns toward me this time. What’s she saying? Interpret.
I don’t understand her either, half the time. But I think the answer is, she isn’t sure how she does it. If she was this witch you knew from another life, she doesn’t remember much about it now. All the things she has done have come from trying new things and taking risks.
In typical form, Thunar demands she try to improve him next. Do the same to me. He lifts his head, as if to dare her to defy him.
“I would,” Liz says. “Really, I would. The thing is, when I pulled on its magic. . .it expanded, and then when I pushed it to Azar, I was weakened. The earth blessed near me came to help.” She coughs.
“And the more, the ones you brought, also stepped in. When they did, the magic exploded around me, and then the heart kind of. . .” She blinks.
Did she drop it? Did someone take it? Thunar looks at the ground around her intently. Where did it go?
Liz clears her throat. “The thing is, I retrieved the heart from another human who had it kind of embedded in their chest.” She grimaces. “And now I think.” She makes her right hand into a fist and slams it against her chest. “I guess it did the same thing to me.”
The heart’s. . .in her body next to her heart? This isn’t great.
Before Thunar can suggest we flay her open and take it out, more earth blessed manage to squeeze their way through. The small, forest green earth blessed near the front, Prevalus, slithers closer. Can you make me larger? He blinks. And give me wings? I’d really like some wings.
Go away, all of you. Thunar looks angrier than he did before when he turns toward me. Slice it out of her. She can’t have it.
She’s bonded to Prince Azar, Prevalus says, scowling at Thunar, who’s at least ten times his size. And she’s using it to strengthen our people. We’ll fight you to the end if you try to harm her.
Hyperion flies past then, looking for a place to land.
With all the blessed showing up, finding a space on the ground is difficult.
For once, I’m not the only one trying to keep my ensnared human alive.
It’s a good feeling. At least, it mostly is.
Because as the blessed crowd around her, I have an overwhelming urge to scoop her up and fly away, screaming mine.
Unfortunately, I know just what Liz would say if I tried.
I hate the human word ‘share,’ but I am relieved that we’re all still alive to do it.