Page 124

V ahly squeezed Kyril’s sides with her legs, urging him to leave the land and the resting dragons to circle over the sea again.

The underwater Blackwater well pulsed with power beneath the choppy waves, tugging at the mark on her forehead.

But so far, there had been no signal from Lilia that Astraea had been seen.

They had to stay out of sight as best as possible to retain the element of surprise.

“You’re watching out for the spear, right?” she twisted to ask Arc. “Those elven eyes will catch it, I’m sure.” One of Lilia’s rebels would propel their spear out of the sea and into the air when they spotted the enemy.

His gaze on the distant waters, Arc ran his fingers up Vahly’s side and down again in a movement that seemed unconsciously done on his part.

“I am,” he said. “I don’t know whether to hope the sun sets before they arrive.

I could use light magic in the water to blind the sea kynd, but, of course, it would likewise render Lilia and her rebels temporarily sightless. ”

“Oh, because their eyes are so sensitive to light,” she said. “I remember the feeling.”

Arc’s hand tightened on her waist, and he pressed a quick kiss to the back of her neck. “I should’ve thought to mention that in our meeting with the rebels.”

“We can use it at some point, I’m sure. It’s a good plan.”

Kyril turned to fly back to the rocky coastline, which was a sheer drop nearly as black as the obsidian cathedral in the drowned city of Bihotzetik.

A thought slid through Vahly’s mind. She would like to bring Bihotzetik from its watery grave, to revive it and fill it with life, to possibly even create a spire of her own on the cathedral near the other Earth Queen’s spires.

The signal! Flying just above the shoreline, Amona shouted in Vahly’s head.

Vahly spun Kyril around and unsheathed the oaken sword as the rebel spear began its return descent into the waves, called back by the spell of its owner.

The ocean rumbled, and chills swept over Vahly as the dragons joined her in the darkening sky. “Watch for Lilia. Be careful not to harm her warriors!”

A line of three rebels leapt from the water to dive under again, bright red spears pointed and the sea hissing around them in some magical attack on Astraea’s incoming force. The ocean shivered as hundreds of dark shapes swam just below the surface toward the Blackwater well.

This was far more than one unit sent to deal with a small band of rebels.

The Sea Queen had brought what looked like a thousand warriors.

A triangular shadow slid under the curling waves, as large as Kyril.

A tail whipped behind it, breaking the water with a barbed tip.

Beside the sea monster, over a dozen sharks cut the dark blue currents with shimmering fins and incredibly quick, lithe movements.

Vahly’s stomach turned, and her palm sweat as she held on to the oaken sword. “Now! Attack the rear guard!”

Kyril and the dragons speared the citrine and smoke sky, soaring high over the back of the sea army.

One by one, the dragons dropped low to blow dragonfire into the waves.

Lightning crackled above, throwing silver like coins over the bloody water.

Spears rose from twisting columns of liquid to send spelled salt water at them.

Nix narrowly dodged a hand of magicked water, then locked eyes with Vahly.

Vahly pointed the sword at the charcoal cliffs, and the rock bent and rose from the earth, spreading wings that echoed the shape of Kyril’s.

With a stone beak, her creation shrieked and took off into the sky.

Arc spun three spheres of air magic, then threw them at the stone gryphon and into the space in front of Kyril.

At once, Nix blew fire, Kyril roared, and the stone gryphon opened its beak over the rows of swimming sea kynd under his black belly.

Amethyst and sage fire rippled from the stone beast’s maw and blasted into the ocean.

Over the sound of thunder and shrieking, Vahly heard a voice.

“Come for me, Earth Queen!” Astraea raised herself on a shimmering wave, spear outstretched, the water glistening over her face like a thin veil. Her blood-red lips parted as she rose higher and higher, ignoring their attack on her army. “Come for me!”

The urge to spin and direct everything at Astraea pulsed in Vahly’s blood, but what Kyril did, the stone gryphon mimicked. She had to continue fighting at the rear line, to stick to their strategy. If not, this full force would hit Lilia and her rebels.

Vahly’s team unleashed another blast of dragonfire and green fire, and the water bubbled and steamed, bodies of sea folk turning to ash or floating half scorched. The sharks turned on their masters, teeth glinting in the sunset light and tails thrashing.

Pointing the oaken sword at the sea, Vahly commanded the earth to rise.

The magic lunged inside her heart like she held a dragon in between her ribs.

Waves parted as a mound of the seabed broke the currents and spilled earthblood across the battlefield.

The water hissed as the earthblood touched it, and the giant, arrow-headed sea monster veered away from the glowing, golden heat, one slimy fin rising high and nearly catching Astraea as it turned.

A unit of Astraea’s warriors blasted spelled salt water toward Aitor and Amona.

Kyril shrieked and tipped suddenly, Vahly and Arc having to grip tightly to his pelt to keep their seats.

The stone gryphon’s movements loosely followed Kyril’s, and the great beast of earth magic tipped its impossible wings.

Feathers of granite and dark crystal blocked the flow of deadly salt water, pushing the magicked wave back, where it crashed on those who’d spelled it.

Bodies were pitched across the surface, limbs snapping at odd angles and screams going silent.

Lilia appeared briefly at the surface as the rebels pushed a crescent-shaped wave—obviously brought forth with spells—toward Astraea’s warriors.

The water in front of the Sea Queen’s uneven line of fighters bubbled violently in response, and the wave surged back toward Lilia’s group.

Astraea’s plume of seawater, the column that carried her, rushed toward Vahly, Arc, and Kyril.

Vahly pointed the oaken sword, and rock from the depths sheared the glassy swells to surround Astraea in a cage of stone pillars.

They had the Sea Queen, caged, trapped.