Page 56

I clenched my teeth, forced the words out. “I—don’t know. It’s—it’s…Spirits, it fucking hurts.”

This hadn’t happened before. The scar had plagued me—had been painful—but this was excruciating. Was Kakias closer? Was this her power digging into me?

Tenderly, Tolek took my arm. The edges of the scar were red, little tendrils of black dancing out from it like tiny fissures. That certainly had not happened before. It reminded me of the dark veins on the inside of my wrist from my Curse.

“Holy Angels,” I panted. Without thinking, I grabbed my emblem necklace and held it tight. Willed whatever power resided in it into my body, to target the taint in that scar as it had with Kakias’s power during the Battle of Damenal and push it out.

Just get it fucking out.

Slowly, the pain began ebbing away. The Angelblood in my veins stifled it. But the sensation stayed imprinted on my memory.

“It’s okay,” I shakily reassured Tolek.

We didn’t have time to question any of it right now. Instead, I focused on the second pulse thrumming within me and tried to collect myself. The Angel emblem was somewhere on this land mass.

“Tell Cyph?—”

An ear-splitting screech drowned my words as a giant creature reared up out of the water.

Not any creature.

An alpheous.

Chapter Seventeen

Ophelia

The serpentine body shot twenty feet above us, navy scales glistening with the sea. When it roared a second time, its spiked fan flared around its face. Fangs gleamed, and solid dark eyes searched.

Then, it dove. Straight for the rock—spearing for us.

Ezalia and I rolled to one side, Tolek to the other. The alpheous slammed straight into the island, then reared up again.

It splashed back into the water, diving, diving, diving. Silence echoed. We waited, stood back-to-back to watch our surroundings.

On the other platform, our friends did the same.

The hair on the back of my neck rose, a chill slithering up my spine. And the alpheous sprang from the water behind me.

We dodged, and this time, when its fangs hit the rock, it left deep grooves.

I looked at Tolek, brows raised. “There’s our answer.”

“I didn’t really want to know,” he panted. Lifting his sword toward the giant serpent, he waited for it to attack again.

I held Starfire tightly. Behind us, Ezalia fired off an arrow. It landed in the fan around its face, but the creature barely flinched. Instead, it looked down. I didn’t know how I knew it was searching us, but somehow I did.

And when its solid onyx eyes landed on me, I swore it grinned.

And I grinned right back.

Thunder cracked, and the skies opened, a patter of rain falling on us and sizzling against heated stone. The storm was here, in both beast and nature.

Whether this thing was a creature of the gods or a wild, tainted beast like those we’d seen before, I didn’t care. I vowed I’d beat it if it tried to stand in my way.

So when it shot back toward me, it’s maw dripping, forked tongue lashing, I ducked and rolled beneath it. The rock seared right into my skin, blistering around my leathers. But I swung Starfire up and across the underside of its throat.

Its scales were impossibly thick. My sword only left a scratch.