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Chapter

Twenty-Four

Liv

I screamed as blood dripped from the fangs of the Aspis.

My blood.

I fell to the deck, landing hard as the beast roared, thrown back by the ship’s magic. The entire sky became a rippling wave of rainbows. Again and again, the Aspis attacked the barrier. My screams swallowed the deep moaning of the magic shield.

A blurry mess of flesh and blood lay next to me where my right arm should have been. Blood pooled faster than I could have imagined. I was going to die.

Colours swam—rainbows, black scales, and then blue swirls.

The roar of the beast rang in my ears over and over and over as the darkness crept in.

I snapped awake again as a blue-skinned figure pressed against me. The blue skin quickly stained red, and Maev lifted her hands before her. Her expression told me I was going to die.

Then she was gone.

I looked over my shoulder. I should have passed out by now.

Maev screamed for Ollo, pushing her voice until it cracked.

What could they do for me? I was growing weaker, dizzier. I could no longer feel my body. I needed to rest.

“No!” Maev slapped me across the face, and my eyes sprung open. “Stay with me, Liv. I am not done being angry with you.”

“Get her arm and hold it in place. No, not at that angle,” said a deeper voice.

“I’m going to be sick.”

“You’re not the only one. But if you begin, I will be helpless. Keep it under control.”

“Oh gods, the arm is only holding on by a few tendons. I don’t think magycris can save this Ollo.”

“She may not need a lot. Can’t you see what’s happening?”

“She’s … healing. On her own.”

“It must be the Ikhor’s power. Hurry!”

“I don’t think it’ll work.”

“We have to try. She’ll lose the arm if we don’t. Hold it there. Yes, like that.”

Pain sliced through my shoulder, and I blissfully passed out.

The fog I lived in stayed with me, holding me under. It was silent. It was peace.

In the place between places, I found him . He was a pillar of strength, standing alone in the fog.

Was it a place of dreaming?

I didn’t care and ran into his arms.

He wasn’t warm. His body wasn’t hard and strong. He didn’t hold me, keep me safe or whisper any words of love.

He was a dream.

I came to shivering, and so cold. So very cold. The deck had seeped of all colour and warmth, the ship pale and wet. A mist hung in the air, so thick it blocked out the magic barrier. Strange crystal-like decorations hung from the railing.

The Aspis no longer attacked the barrier.

“What—”

“A little help, Liv.” Maev’s weak, broken voice sounded from the mist.

I sat up, discovering the airship covered in ice. The twins hadn’t moved to help me because they were pinned in awkward positions to my right, several feet back from where they had been kneeling moments before. The ice had formed upwards as if a burst had escaped from me.

Reflections of gold and red shone through the glass-like walls.

Blood.

“Oh my god, what happened?”

“You iced us.” Ollo groaned, sending out puffs of hot breath. He shifted ever so slightly, trying to fight his way out.

The ice shone with the bit of light that made it through the mist, and I looked around the deck, amazed.

“Fear,” I whispered.

Maev’s eyes rolled, but I couldn’t tell if it was from irritation.

“What?” Ollo’s teeth were chattering.

“The elements respond to emotion. It’s how I control it. I used fear for ice.”

“That’s great, Liv. Now … can you be … unafraid?” Maev whimpered.

“I am unafraid. How are you two not dead?”

The twins were part of the crystal-like towers. How had the ice not pierced their chests?

“We are … D-Day-legs … ice clan. U-usually cold … doesn’t b-bother us at all,” Maev said between clacking teeth. “But the Ikhor’s ice … is something else. It’s … painful, Liv.”

I forced myself upright. The sight of my reattached arm, after remembering it was severed, caused a wave of dizziness to overtake me.

They had put me back together. My sleeve was shredded, blood staining every inch of my skin.

“How am I alive?” Horrible pink lines travelled over my shoulder where my arm met my torso.

“Ikhor’s magic …” Ollo whispered. “Explain later …”

He attacked me. He tried to kill me.

No. I stuffed that pain inside my new box. I had to work on the current problem. How could I make the ice melt? Could I soak the magic back in?

I put my hands against the ice and pulled back immediately.

“It’s so cold it burns.”

“I noticed,” Ollo added pointedly. Visible through the fading mist, ice covered his legs up to his torso, leaving his chest and neck exposed, but his hands frozen at his sides.

“Fire,” I whispered and raised my hands, picturing the flames from the field.

Nothing happened.

What was I feeling in those moments? Sadness. I was heartbroken.

I remembered what it felt like watching him die, but still, nothing happened. No flames came.

“I don’t know how to make the fire,” I cried.

“Liv …” Maev moaned. “I can’t feel my body anymore.” Crystallized shards surrounded her neck. Only her face had remained untouched from my attack.

“I don’t know what to do.” I panicked. How could I have let this happen?

“First, calm down,” Ollo soothed, “Look at me, Liv.” Though he watched me intently, his slight smile was reassuring. “Your panic will only create more ice. Slow your breathing and concentrate on me.”

I did as Ollo said, and though the deck was freezing, a soothing warmth went through me. Ollo, even frozen at an awkward angle, was a pleasant sight. His blue lips, paler from the cold, were full and inviting.

“Concentrate,” he continued. “Yes, like that.”

My breathing slowed, and the panic eased.

“Now, you’ll need to break the ice. Use something sharp to hit it with.”

“Like a weapon?”

“Swords … dammit.” Maev’s eyelids fluttered, her blue skin turning white.

I ran to Maev, fumbling for a sword at my waist. When I grabbed one, it fell to the ground.

My arm … I lifted it, testing. It ached, and the movement was stiff.

I flexed my fist, but my fingers didn’t close.

I tried again. My thumb and pointer finger curled, and the middle twitched, but I could hardly move my last two fingers.

Using my working hand, I grabbed my sword from the ground and slashed at the ice near her feet, my movements clumsy. I added my damaged hand to my grip. Soon, my sword was stained red, blood dripping onto the ice at my feet. I slipped around, losing my balance.

“Harder, Liv,” Ollo urged. “Use your body.”

I hacked and slashed at the ice, panic rising. It chipped away slowly. Too slowly. “It must not be sharp enough,” I cried out and dropped the sword, pulling the second one.

Kazhi had once told me the script on the blades was to encourage the wielder to remind themselves they held power. “ You can move an entire mountain, but one piece at a time.”

I couldn’t move mountains. I couldn’t even save my friends. I was the reason they were in this situation.

“A broken crystal still holds power .”

I was past broken. I was shattered. I couldn’t hold power any more than I could control my emotions.

With a frustrated cry, I smashed the sword against the ice, but lost my grip, and the thing fell to the floor, crashing into its matching blade.

What happened next confused me.

When my two blades connected, a wave of power erupted from them. It sent me flying across the deck toward the stairway as the surrounding ice shattered into an explosion of crystals.