Page 176 of Wicked Bonds

I can do this.

But there wasn’t enough time. Two minutes came and went, dragging her under, drowning her… burning her lungs.

She returned with a fury, cursing Leek and his fucking boulder.I’m going to destroy it. Then I’m going to destroy you.

Except a piercing scream rent the air above, loud enough to reach her beneath the waves.

Hydraians were dying.

The island was losing the battle.

It only took seven, she thought numbly.Fuck, fuck, fuck!

She started clawing at the energy, whirling it as fast as she could, sharpening it into one of those fucking grenades, her mind recalling the magic she’d caught over and over again.

Two minutes passed.

Down she went.

Back with a renewed purpose.

Issac’s panic continued to filter through her thoughts.

I can’t die, she kept reminding him.Neither can you.

And she would conquer this.

Almost there.

Triumph hummed in her veins, the ward complete. Now she just needed to coax it toward her. It took focus, restraint, tapping into a power she didn’t fully understand as she pulled the strand beneath the waves.

Too late, she thought numbly, her mouth opening again.

Drowning. Drowning. Drowning.

Darkness.

Floating. Floating. Floating.

Hmm?she thought groggily, opening her eyes and mouth to the fresh air above. She sputtered and coughed, realizing her ward had worked, the explosion having occurred while she’d been unconscious.

Yes.She sprung up into the night, her lips parting at the sight of flames crawling along the beach, illuminating the dark blood stained into the black sand.Issac!

She bolted forward, misting to where she’d last seen him.

It was a fucking massacre of bodies. Some were fully dead. Some were incapacitated, but in a way that they would heal.

Just like when the Sentinels had stormed the reception after Lizzie and Jayson’s wedding.

Lizzie, she thought, her mind reeling. How much time had she lost in the waves? Enough for the Seraphim to have moved inward.

We’re holding them, Issac told her, his voice strained.Barely. But we’re holding.

Where are you?But the answer came to her within a second of asking, a spark flying in the sky as London used his ability to manipulate air to create some sort of whirling shield against the wards.

They’re invisible but need a steady stream of airflow to hit us, Issac explained.

Water joined London’s air wall, creating an elemental shield of sorts that seemed to be deflecting the Seraphim for now.