Chapter 32
OPEN SEASON
Istayed in the cavern long after Elowen vanished in the pool, the surface smoothing itself into a perfect mirror both innocent and deceptive. When I stripped and stepped inside, I discovered it wasn’t as shallow as it appeared. The bottomless water swallowed me whole.
Warm velvet enveloped me, pulsing against my limbs like a living heart. It stroked my skin, coaxed my breath loose, and whispered welcome as I sank deeper.
Power hummed in my veins, gathering in my hollows until I vibrated with it. But get my head and heart right? Sure. Let me just pull clarity out of the magic hat Ian had torched.
I swam up, breaking the surface, ready to scream into the ether. Why couldn’t Jasher love me enough?
“Ding dong,” Kevin announced from his perch, “the romance is dead.”
I groaned, reminded of his presence. Oh, wow.
Around him, the journal, the hat—no longer ashes but perfectly whole—the stones and the green dress.
Now each item, even Kevin, possessed a faint green aura.
The galemark. My galemark. I recognized it, though I’d never seen it before.
I even knew how I’d claimed them. Like everything else a water maiden did, I’d wanted them more than breath and flooded them with my essence, making myself a part of them.
“You’re not just a toy, are you, Kev?” He couldn’t be. He had no buttons, and he spoke at the exact right times with the exact right taunts. “So what are you?”
Perhaps the answer would explain why I’d galemarked him. But as I probed my mind, the information floated just out of reach, as if I didn’t really wish to know. I hated this want-it-enough-don’t-want-it-enough thing.
Did the corners of his lips lift? “I am everything and nothing. What are you? Ha ha ha. Ha. Ha.”
“I must have believed you can help me win against Ian. But why?” An idea took root…
“I bet your eyes are camera lenses. Are you controlled—possessed?—by someone?” A man behind the curtain.
How very Wizard of Oz. “Yeah, I’m talking to a person, not a toy, I’m sure of it.
Who are you?” I demanded, treading water.
“Keep eyes vigilant in night.”
“What does that mean?”
“Brain blip. Please wait patiently while I reboot.”
I rolled my eyes. He didn’t want to talk? Fine. I wasn’t worried about his intentions. That galemark acted as a seal of approval from my past self. More important matters were afoot, anyway.
Floating in the wondrous abyss, I forced my thoughts into focus.
Ian.
He wanted my Ember. Which he couldn’t get without my stones. The ones that hid and revealed the Ember within. Stones Elowen had given me. The memory of it struck as sharp as broken glass, her smile vivid as I stood within their flames.
“We must hide you among humans,” she said. “The Refining Stones can conceal with smoke and reveal with flame. I can’t remove the Ember or make you human, but I can make you appear as the mortals do.”
Now, that shield was gone. I wasn’t human, but I wasn’t what I should be, either. Not fully. Yet, we had only two days before the big battle.
Tension snaked around me. The ultimate battle where Ahav lost his life.
If everything played out the same, Ian wouldn’t be there. He never was. He let his monstra bleed for him while he watched from shadows and safety.
I sucked on my bottom lip. I’d have to drag him into the light to end him. Which kinda seemed like the Ember’s thing. If every part of me wanted to do this, then I should succeed. Condemning Jasher, as promised.
Ahav saved.
My mother protected.
The kingdom spared.
A plan settled into place. But so did a vision.
The cavern vanished, images rising. Except, it didn’t feel like a normal prophecy or memory.
It felt like now. Fire roared around me.
Black smoke clawed at my lungs as a battlefield erupted into existence.
Royal soldiers screamed, bodies collapsed, gleeful roars sliced into my awareness.
Flames tore through armor, charring flesh. The ground shook.
“No,” I whispered, already running for Ahav. I spun, blocked and struck when necessary, frantic, heart hammering, searching—
Elowen.
She moved like chaos in a storm, fighting three monstra at once. A beautiful, powerful sight. Ducking, rolling, striking, her twin short swords flashing silver as she carved through the enemy. Victory hovered within her grasp.
Pride flared in my chest. Then she hesitated.
Just for a breath. Speaking to a monstra. The biggest I’d ever seen, but not Ian. This one was at least double his size, with bright silver eyes and scales like living obsidian.
He opened his mouth, revealing teeth like swords. Silver fire sprayed from him—and through Elowen’s shoulder. She dropped, a cry tearing from her, raw and animal.
“Elowen!” I screamed, thrashing in the water.
Then I saw myself charging after her. My eyes were swollen, tears wetting my cheeks. I wore the green gown, a flurry of material as I passed through soldiers, smoke, and bodies like a ghost. My hands stretched for her… I would help her. Whisk her far from here.
She reached for me—the massive monstra bathed her with more of those silver flames.
Another scream ripped free, tearing my chest open.
Zoom. It snapped like a cord cut, and I was back in the cavern, the pool, choking on water, my lungs burning as I broke the surface. “No,” I bellowed.
I hauled myself out, hands shaking, vision swimming.
Rage eclipsed grief in a blinding surge.
I must end Ian now. No more waiting. I already had a plan.
A sneak attack no one expected. I would let myself be taken captive.
He would meet with me face to face, eager to claim the Ember.
Forget crystallizing him. I would drown him in buckets of water.
Trembling, I reached for the only clean clothing within reach. The emerald gown. Nope. Not gonna wear it. I’d go in my undergarments and find clothes along the way.
The air shifted. I braced, on instant alert, ready to slay whatever threat approached.
Fog slithered in, spreading out. From its depths, Elowen emerged, wide-eyed and shaken. “Come quickly,” she urged. “Ian changed his strategy. The battle has already begun.”
What!
“The palace is under siege, with Mother trapped. We’re out of time.”
To prove her words, an alarm blasted through the cavern.
My pulse tripped. The vision. The battle. Elowen’s death. “You stay here. I’ll go.”
“That’s not happening,” she declared with such dominance, there was no doubt she was queen of the seas. “Come.”
“No! I just watched you die,” I cried out. “In battle. This battle. Killed by a massive beast with silver eyes.”
The color drained from her cheeks, but she nodded. “So now we know what to guard against. Let’s go.” She took my hand and tugged me forward, into the fog with her.
I cast a glance over my shoulder at Kevin.
He stood with his arms at his side, mechanical and creepy and smiling more than usual. “I’ll see you again soon, Moriah.”
With that—warning? promise?—ringing in my ears, I vanished in a pulse of light.
I appeared in chaos. The palace burned around us.
Flames licked the marble walls, shadows and soldiers clashing in a blur of steel and smoke.
Monstra in human form tore through the corridors, armor gleaming like black oil.
The air rang with grunts, shouts, and the metallic scream of blades.
Hints of iron and ash filled my nose, and heat seared my throat.
The Ember flared inside me, and the galemark responded, slapping the green gown over my skin. Galemarks were the worst.
Elowen winked at me. “Try to keep up.”
“Stay alive,” I demanded as we snatched up fallen daggers and plunged into the melee.
A soldier swung at me, but I ducked and slashed low, catching his femoral artery.
My gown fanned like wings, the emerald fabric tangling in the legs of those nearby, buying me precious seconds I used to cut down three more opponents.
These monstra had come for Sandrine. To use my mother against me.
One of them would murder my sister outside these walls, as I’d seen in my vision.
Fury gripped me, trying to rewrite my very being. All monstra must die.
Working in tandem with Elowen, as if we’d been a team our whole lives, we cut through one tide of opponents after another. We were a rhythm of blade and breath, survival and vengeance. We took turns, one guarding while the other launched an attack.
Our challengers thinned. When the hallway opened, royal soldiers flooded in. We raced forward, leaving the men to finish off the monstra. Thanks to my new memories, I knew which way to turn, which stairs to climb, my body a magnet drawn to the queen.
“I know this isn’t the time for a conversation,” I said as we ran, “but I think you should escort Mom to Kansas and stay with her.”
“I’ll take her and leave Emma to protect her. But I will return. You need every advantage you can get.”
“Elowen, listen to me—”
A high-pitched scream echoed from the walls, spurring us on. Momma. We pumped our arms harder. I grabbed Elowen’s hand and suddenly, between one step and the next, we were there, materializing in the royal bedroom, taking everything in.
Ahav’s soldiers formed rings around her as they fought off a horde of monstra. But those circles were tightening as one man after the other fell.
I threw myself into the fray. Either my body remembered the battlefield educations I’d received in the past, or my oracle-senses kicked in at full wattage; I expected every opponent’s every move, striking and blocking with speed and certainty, even saving Elowen from losing a limb.
When the last monstra fell, silence rang so loud it hurt.
“There could be another round,” Elowen said, panting, as we faced the door.
The royal guards did as well, shaky but willing.
Seconds ticked, but the next flood of monstra didn’t come. Trembling, I turned my attention to the queen.