Power rose from the tips of my toes and climbed up my legs, washing over my stomach and flooding my chest. The wind roared, rocking the lampposts lining the wharf and stirring the thick, rigid clouds above. Thin slivers of sunlight pierced through the darkness as Casteel spun, deflecting a blow with his sword. My chest burned with the essence as it continued building until the coolness of death and the heat of life crashed together in my veins. I stepped forward, the wind screaming around me as essence seeped from my pores, saturating the air. A streak of lightning cut through the sky, just below the thinning clouds. Another arced and then slammed into the water beside us as the shivering, icy heat of power washed over my head.
Something happened then.
It was like a chasm opened within me. The eather rooted itself deep. It didn’t seize control or take over. It entrenched itself in my bones and filled every cell until there was no line between the essence and me.
I became it—the Primal power itself. And when that happened, I was still Poppy, but…not. I was something more. Something vast and as endless as the nothingness surrounding me in stasis, detached from everything but the essence of the realm itself.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a rider raise its sword as Casteel kicked another back. Eather spilled into the air around me in a shadowy golden mist, rising at my sides. Thick tendrils spun and struck like vipers, funneling straight through the rider and its horse.
Casteel spun toward me, and his awe washed over me. “Holy shit…”
Mist billowed out, filling with embers of silver. My heart thundered with the pressure building within me, and I thought I saw the shadow of wings falling over the wharf. Lightning continued to tear at the sky as my will formed. Through the veilof essence that had descended over my vision, I saw Malik yank his horse around to face us. Saw his lips part and his head tip back as he followed me with his gaze.
I rose in a swirling mass of Primal mist, seeing the streets of Lowertown, the gates of the inner Rise, and those within. I rose high above the wharf, the clash of swords, shouts of pain, and cries of fear quieting as my senses stretched. All around me, tiny specks of eather appeared in the air. I acted on pure instinct, willing Aurelia away. She answered me with a call as the pinpricks of eather brightened, casting Lowertown in silver light as bright as the moon.
I inhaled, tasting the beginning and the end as shadowy silver eather overcame the gold crowding my vision. The heat retreated as my heart pumped out frosted blood.
Life no longer rose within me.
Only Death.
My arms turned at my sides, palms facing outward.
Primal essence erupted from me in a blinding flash, rippling through the air with a thunderclap that shook Lowertown. Arcs of essence radiated from me, and the air smelled of burnt ozone as the eather streaked in every direction faster than the eye could track, finding its mark with deadly accuracy.
Bolts slammed into riders and the seahorses as they crested the bluff. Strands of churning, shadowy silver roared between buildings and snaked down streets, striking riders. Eather flared in my chest, pulsing and stuttering as ribbons of twisting eather swirled across the wharf, weaving between soldiers and wolven as it shattered the riders one by one. The mist thinned and slowed around me as raw energy unhooked itself from my bones and retreated from my chest, leaving me shaking as if I’d been jolted from sleep. The distance from the clouds grew as I held on to the essence, willing it to rise like waves against the hulls of the ships and flow underneath.
Within seconds, no ceeren remained inland or in the bay. But…
But somethingelsedid.
Something ancient and forgotten was pulling itself from deep within the crevices of the seafloor. Something that had once existed in the lakes of fire found within the Abyss.
I could feel it.
My descent picked up as I dragged in a breath. It stung my throat and scorched my lungs. Feeling returned to my limbs just in time for me to land. The impact was jarring, and I staggered, my legs feeling nearly boneless. Black spots scattered across my vision.
A strong, warm arm caught me around the waist. “I’ve got you.” Casteel’s rich, deep voice was soft against the crown of my head.
Heart thumping, I clutched at his shirt, the black spots dancing in my vision. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear them away. “Cas,” I gasped. “Something is coming.”
We turned just as the entire wharf shook. Structures groaned and creaked, and fissures in the Rise cracked like thunder. The sound of screams rose from Wayfair’s courtyard.
Kieran was suddenly at our sides, his arm against my back as the bay started to froth and bubble. The water boiled.
Without warning, the realm seemed to heave with a violent force, hurling us into the air. My breath punched from my lungs as I hit the ground hard. Stunned for a heartbeat, I managed to turn my head, discovering I was several feet from Casteel and Kieran.
Dragging in a ragged breath, I rolled onto my side as the ships in the bay rocked until the hulls rose completely from the water—theretreatingwater.
That wasn’t good.
Not at all.
Soft fur brushed my cheek as Delano appeared at my side. He crouched over my waist and legs as the water continued to race away from the shore—
A wave shot into the air as a massive, bone-white and rotten limb—a tentacle covered in brine—whipped out of the water, slamming down on the exposed damp soil littered with dead fish. The edges smashed through a pier as another tentacle lashed through the air. Beneath its shadow, men scrambled along the deck—
No. No. No.
