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V ahly’s lungs burned as hot as earthblood vents as she swam toward the surface.

That thing was right behind them.

Everything was moving too quickly to absorb.

Arc broke through the waves, and Amona reached low to snatch him from the ocean.

Xabier swooped down to clutch Vahly in his careful talons.

They were going to escape. The sea kynd wasn’t going to rip her and Arc to pieces.

But she couldn’t catch her breath. Her pulse galloped, uncontrollable, wild.

The water sprayed upward and a wave lifted high. Something viciously cold pricked her bare foot, and a scream erupted from her, fury riding its wake.

Why couldn’t she wake her full powers now? What was the point of being Touched if she couldn’t fight when it truly mattered?

Her face shook as she clenched her jaw and tried to bring whatever magic she might have to the surface even though she had no idea what to do while hanging from a dragon’s talons.

A sudden wave battered her and Xabier.

He shrieked, and she slipped, heart freezing at the thought of falling. Turning, she tried to see what was happening, where everyone was, including the sea kynd, but it was all water and talons and blurring vision.

Xabier listed hard to the left. Vahly’s stomach dropped, and she yelped, eyes burning, Arc’s air magic and the plant salve’s power waning. As they careened over the shoreline, Xabier’s wing spasmed—the spelled salt water blackened it inch by horrible inch.

The ground rushed up to meet them. Vahly’s head and lungs were on fire. She rolled to a stop and vomited water into the sandy dirt.

Xabier fell onto his side a few feet away. Arc was running to him, Nix landing on the other side of Xabier. Amona took off into the sky again, her enormous sapphire wings spreading wide and her cry of rage filling Vahly’s buzzing ears.

She found her feet. “Mother, no!” The sea folk would take her. This one was powerful. A general perhaps. Only the higher ranked of the sea folk could raise a wave like that.

But then Vahly saw what Amona did. The sea kynd was on shore, standing like he belonged there just as they did.

Amona blew fire at him, and he dove off the sea cliff, cleverly avoiding the rocks.

Xabier’s shrieks dissolved into a garbled moan, and Vahly hurried as best she could toward him.

Arc had his hands on the dragon’s side, pouring healing light and dark into his damaged wing.

But Xabier’s left leg was what drew Vahly’s attention.

She swallowed, nearly vomiting again. The spelled salt water had eaten the flesh to the bone.

Pale white glistened above the blackened, gnarled remains of Xabier’s foot and talons.

Vahly’s hands fisted and she fought a sob of frustration and grief and fear.

She reached down, slammed both palms onto the earth, and willed the ground to rise at the drop that led to the rocks in the shallow water.

The earth obeyed and heaped upon itself, rolling and rising until it formed a wall to protect Xabier, Arc, and Nix from further attacks.

It wouldn’t shield them from a major wave, but it was all Vahly could manage.

Her knees buckled, and she dropped, vision going dark.

Nix’s voice leaked into the strange dreams that held Vahly in the darkness. “I’m not too proud. I’ll sit on the egg if you think it might help us burn them all down.” Her words were unusually clipped, anger slicing through her normally sultry tone.

Vahly sat up, and the world went sideways. She was in their cave. The vines across the entrance blocked the bloody red of a sunset. Or maybe a sunrise?

Arc put a hand behind her back. His hair fell over one of his eyes, and he brushed it behind one pointed ear. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been stepped on by someone who eats more than Nix.”

“Impossible.” Nix winked. But then her eyes grew serious. “If you need to go back to sleep, we can keep watch. Everything is quiet for now. We have your little friend here, safe and sound.” She lifted the egg and patted it.

Vahly’s heart thudded against her ribs, and she reached for the egg. It fit snugly in her lap. She took a deep breath and looked up, ready to hear the bad news. “How is Xabier?”

Arc’s face fell. He glanced at Nix, who winced at Vahly’s question. “Matriarch Amona and Lord Maur brought him home to the Lapis healer. I couldn’t heal him. The wounds were substantial.”

“He won’t make it, Vahly.” Nix swallowed and turned her gaze toward the ground.

Vahly’s chest tightened. She shut her eyes against the knowledge. Good Xabier. Sacrificed for her. By the Blackwater, she would do every single thing she could to be worthy of it.

“I’m sorry,” Nix said. “I know you liked that young male. He seemed like a good one. Another loss. Another day. I can’t wait to burn them all down.” She touched her necklace and whispered something to herself.

“Maybe Xabier will struggle through. We don’t know for certain. How long have I been out?” Vahly asked, feeling lost.

“Just the day. It’s nearly nightfall,” Nix said.

Nix offered Vahly a length of the plant that tasted like bacon, but Vahly shook her head.

She was too nauseated too eat. Arc brought her some water, and she forced down two swallows, knowing her body needed it.

Her skin felt like a sand flat at high summer.

She touched her face. Instead of feeling the leftovers from the vision plant and the blood magic, her fingers found her forehead and cheeks smooth.

“Arcturus wiped your face clean,” Nix said.

Vahly smiled at him in thanks.

Nix stood and shook out her wings, knocking debris from the cave wall. “I’m going to hunt, so if you’d like to give her a proper all-over wash, Arcturus, you’ll have the time.”

A sly grin tipped Arc’s lips up at one end. “I’d like nothing more, but I don’t believe our queen is in the mood for such attentions.”

Vahly barely heard them. Her mind was on Xabier. They hadn’t been close, but still. She’d worked with him, lived near him, gone to his ceremony so recently. A breath shuddered out of her, and she set both palms on the gryphon egg.

“I’ll go outside,” Arc said, gathering his bow and quiver. “You need some time alone if I’m not mistaken.”

“Thank you. For everything. You were amazing down there under the water. I would have died if it weren’t for you and the clever use of your air magic.”

He bowed gracefully, then looked up at her through thick, black lashes. “I live to serve you, my queen.”

Vahly let her tears for yet another friend lost fall onto the gryphon egg. “I pray I don’t have to lose you too.”

Her hands shook, and she blinked, shocked at the battle, at the outcome of her venture into the sunken ruins.

Yes, she’d seen four scenes that might somehow help her gain more power, but it was cased in riddles and had no clear meaning.

And the sea kynd had come onto land! That…

thing on his back had been a monstrosity.

A bitter taste touched the back of her tongue.

If he could come ashore, they would have to keep an even closer watch on their surroundings.

Her teeth ground together. Stones, how she hated the sea folk.

Poor Xabier. She couldn’t even imagine how horrible it would be to lose more dragons to the ocean.

To watch Amona’s flesh blacken. To see Nix’s wings dissolve into a mess of gore and bone.

She’d have to see all the horror if her magic didn’t wake in full.

Her stomach clenched, and she gripped the egg more tightly, taking comfort from its presence.

Vahly’s teardrops slid down the sides of the speckled egg and gathered in the space between the shell and Vahly’s fingers, which were dirty from raising the earthen wall in her attempt to protect Xabier from further harm.

The salty moisture began to warm.

Vahly cocked her head, wondering if she was imagining the heat.

But the tears at the base of the egg, near her fingers, grew hotter. Too hot to hold, in fact. Sucking a breath, she set the egg on her pack, then blew on her reddened fingertips. She stared at the ivory, speckled oval, the treasure she’d been carrying for days on end.

The egg trembled.

Her breath caught.

A jagged crack split one side of the shell.