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S wim to the surface, Arc. I’ll fight them while you drag Ryton to land, then you can come back and help me out. I think I can use water magic against them.

Taking Ryton from her, Arc began to speak, but then stopped. His brow wrinkled. Vahly. They are my kynd.

Vahly stopped trying to remember the spell Ryton had used to blast her cell open. What?

Elves. They are elves.

And sure enough, Rigel, Haldus, and a nasty female named Ursae who had been truly terrible in the aftermath of Mattin’s death swam forward.

Vahly’s heart lifted as hope sprang to life in Arc’s tired eyes.

Telepathically, Arc explained quickly, and then they made for the rocky shore, all making certain not to touch the foul creature on Ryton’s back.

The water was warmer here, nearer to the surface where the sun’s rays bled life into the gray-blue world.

With the strength their kynd was known for, the elves dragged Ryton across the broken rocks, up the sandy rise, and onto the land, their feet splashing Vahly’s face as she broke the surface just behind them.

The light seared her vision, throwing streaks of red against the backs of her eyelids as she winced.

But the air was velvet. Instinctively, she tried to take a breath.

Her throat closed up and her gills spasmed.

Spots formed in front of her eyes. She couldn’t breathe here.

Of course she couldn’t. She was a sea kynd.

Shuddering and fighting panic, she lowered her head beneath the lapping waves and took in what her new body needed in the water. Her gills relaxed, but her heart flapped erratically like a broken dragon wing.

I don’t know how to change back, she said to Arc. The elves’ shadows played across the water above Vahly’s head. Light flashed through the waves, brighter than the sun, and she winced. They must have been securing Ryton with air magic, just in case he became a problem again.

Can you feel your earth magic? Arc asked her.

The ever-present drumming, the comforting pulse of the earth, tapped a rhythm in her blood. It’s there, but it’s so weak. My ears are filled with the crashing waves of water magic.

Perhaps you could cover your gills as the sea kynd have done in the past and come ashore? You might find your connection again outside the sea.

What did they use to do that?

Some sort of leaf. Let me ask the others.

While Arc questioned his kynd, his deep voice carrying through the water, Vahly turned to survey the expanse of ocean behind her.

So far, none had followed. A few fish slithered between the currents, scales catching the light and shooting pain into Vahly’s changed eyes.

Blinking, she turned her arm slowly, watching as the filtered sunlight glittered over her changed flesh. She swallowed bile.

What if she was forever changed? Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to stay put and wait on the elves’ ideas.

After what felt like an eternity of being separated from Arc and the air and the earth, Arc called her name.

But she couldn’t focus on him because an idea had bloomed inside her.

She was too separated from the land, from her home.

Bracing for the bright light and the raw air, she lunged over the rocks and sandy rise and leapt onto the grassy shore. Unable to breathe, blind as a newborn mountain cat, she dug her fingers into the ground.

The effect was immediate.

Her earth magic answered her silent, desperate plea, shaking under her knees and rising around her fingers and palms. The scent of turned land and green saplings and sap-filled branches flourished in the air as her body shook from head to toe.

Her scalp tingled. She shivered as a wave of warm magic grew from her fingertips, spreading like roots, driving the sea from her blood and her flesh and her heart.

A blast of power coursed through her, pushing her to standing, an invisible hand of magic drying her and shifting her body into the one to which she’d been born.

A grin stretched Arc’s handsome face and formed a dimple in each cheek. “She has returned to us.” He knelt and bowed his head, his black hair falling like a dark curtain. “My queen.”

Vahly studied her arms, her wrinkled clothing, her human toes that were thankfully devoid of webbing. She breathed deep. Thank the Source. She was herself again.

Rigel bowed his head a fraction, and Haldus and Ursae left Ryton in his cage of light and followed suit.

Arc was still kneeling. She walked over to him, touched his broad shoulders, and bent to whisper in his ear.

“You should probably find that surcoat of yours or some suitable replacement, or I might just have to show my gratitude for the rescue in a way the others might not wish to witness.”

His chuckle ruffled her hair. They stood as one and faced his kynd.

Rigel glanced from Arc to Vahly. Something stirred in his eyes, deep and troubled. The other two shifted on their feet.

“What is it?” Though most of her body focused on the magic’s pull toward Kyril and the Lost Valley, the strange urge to step between the other elves and Arc surged through her.

“There has been a great tragedy, Arcturus.” Rigel’s chest rose high and fell as he breathed unevenly, his forehead wrinkling as he frowned and looked into the distance, toward the Forest of Illumahrah. “The Sea Queen struck our home.”

Arc’s cheeks lost their color, and Vahly gripped his hand. His fingers tightened around hers. “Cassiopeia?”

Haldus’s mouth became a thin line, and Ursae closed her eyes.

Rigel met Arc’s eyes. “Only a few ancient trees survive on the eastern boundary. But Arcturus…all are dead, save us.”

Arc stumbled backward as if hit by a killing wave himself.

Tears burned Vahly’s eyes as she watched the pain of such a loss flood his features and drown the happiness that had been there just moments ago.

She could still see regal and kind Cassiopeia at the elven crowning ceremony, the way Cassiopeia had touched Arc’s cheek and smiled, how she’d greeted Vahly like kin.

All that peace and beauty. That entire ancient home. Gone.

Vahly too had lost her kynd. Astraea’s ocean had devoured every last one of them and left her orphaned and alone. Though she knew the love of the Lapis and the Call Breakers, a place in her heart had always been and would always be left hollow and wanting.

An ache spread through Vahly’s chest as Arc pulled her to him. He didn’t make a sound. He only shuddered slightly and held on tightly. Vahly whispered to him, nonsense words that couldn’t possibly help, but she said them anyway, lost at how to help him.

As Vahly let Arc hold her, the others gathered close to put hands on Arc’s back and arm in support.

Vahly was already too late. She’d failed to save the elves. Who else would die while she was too weak to defeat the sea kynd? Would the Jades be next? The Call Breakers? The Lapis?

A darkness rose inside her, dampening the feel of the earth magic and smothering the sound of its drumming.

Arc stilled, then pulled back. The others released him and gave them a bit of space, their eyes red and their shoulders slumped with grief. Arc took Vahly’s face in his large hands.

“No, you do not give up.” His eyes flashed as he put a hand over her heart.

“I can feel the sadness weakening you, drawing you down. But you are stronger than the darkness. You are the warrior who rages into the grief of life and fights for the joy, the beauty, the peace. Fight on, my queen. Fight on. We stand with you.”

Vahly’s heart beat hard under the weight of his words.

How many would be left standing with her at the end?