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V eiled in spelled water, Lilia threw her ink-dyed spear at Astraea and spat the spell again. Every beat of her heart said her lost love’s name. Grystark. Grystark. Grystark.

“You will pay, beast.”

The spell wrapped around the spear helped it dodge Astraea’s defensive slash, the move Lilia had seen the Sea Queen do time and time again while she waited on Grystark to be done with the day’s training.

Blade spinning, the spear flew through the air and lodged in Astraea’s leg.

The hag laughed as blood poured out of the wound and she tumbled backward into the deep water.

Another wave lifted the Sea Queen as she was ripping the spear free.

She locked her gaze on Lilia, and for the first time since the night Grystark had died, Lilia felt the cold grip of fear crush the heat of her rage.

But then Astraea disappeared into the water.

Lilia whipped her spear and conjured a wave to send her crashing after the evil queen.

In the rush of falling water, Lilia blinked to see clearly. “Where is she?”

She turned left, right, but only saw glimpses of the fight—a male warrior swimming high to throw a spear at a low-sweeping Lapis, Yenn shooting a blue-tipped spear through the water to strike Astraea’s General Venu.

Treading water, Lilia whispered a spell over her spear and threw her weapon to follow Yenn’s.

Venu dove backward and avoided both weapons.

Lilia and Yenn called their spears back, but Venu was fast. He dragged his spear through the currents and the blood-stained eddies, and a spell thrust Lilia and Yenn out of the battlefield and pinned them against a wide hand of sickly green coral as their weapons finally found their hands.

Venu noted their position, then turned to dodge a blast of dragonfire. Vahly must’ve released the hold. They had to move fast, or they’d be burned alive alongside their enemies.

As they’d practiced, Lilia and Yenn took hold of one another’s spears, each gripping their own and the other’s, forming a powerful rebounding effect for the spellwork on the weapons.

They chanted their magic, and Lilia’s spear shook with the intensity of the spell.

No single spell would deflect these strikes now.

Spinning, they threw their spears as one and struck Venu in the back.

He was dead before he knew what hit him.

Astraea plunged into the water, and Lilia nearly dropped her returned spear.

“Been playing with the dragons up there, my queen?” Lilia layered her words with venom.

Astraea was bleeding freely from the wound in her leg, but she spun her spear faster than any sea kynd. “I like to let them pretend they’re winning.” Gashes along her chest and left arm showed the mark of talons.

Astraea threw her spear. Yenn shrieked as the tip plunged into her chest. Lilia’s only friend went still, eyes wide and unseeing.

Her vision shrank to a point, and she only saw Astraea’s lips as they moved in a spell that would send Lilia to meet Yenn in the afterlife.

Summoning memories of Grystark and Ryton fighting together on the training field, laughing with her in the kitchen, of Grystark’s deep, kind voice in her ear, Lilia forced herself out of the panic, gripped her spear, and launched herself out of the water and prayed her voice would be strong enough to shout over the battle’s din.

She locked eyes with Vahly. “Strike here, Earth Queen!”