I shook my head in confusion. “What are you... Why are you saying this?”
Nikella squeezed my hand once, the closest she ever came to a hug. “It’s what your mother told you as she lay dying,” she said, her voice strong. “I’ve fulfilled my promise to your mother. You were never alone. You were always loved. And you always will be.”
The reason finally dawned on my mind. “Nikella, don’t?—”
Tears fell over her scars once more, flooding her eyes with light. “Tell Jek I love him, too.”
I grabbed at her arm, but she wrenched away and jumped over the railing. Her spear clanged to the deck.
“Nikella!” I shouted, rushing over to peer into the water.
She bobbed to the surface and immediately struck out for the warship.
I clung to the railing, tempted to jump after her.
Fucking Four, Nikella, why? Why?
A wave slammed her up against the warship, and she latched on. She pressed the last canister to the ship’s hull.
“I have to shoot it,” Sigrid said in a dull voice, coming to stand next to me. She’d lost her eye patch, her eye socket scratched and bloody.
She didn’t wait for my agreement. She simply loaded a burning arrow into her bow.
Don’t, please. There must be something else... She can’t die. I need to save her, too. I can’t lose someone else.
But the words wouldn’t rise to my mouth. This was Nikella’s choice. To protect me one last time. To save Rellmira.
Sigrid’s arms shook as she aimed at Nikella’s hand holding the canister in place. I could barely see Nikella’s eyes across the water, but I stared hard at her face. The only face I’d known my whole life.
Sigrid fired. The arrow landed next to Nikella’s hand.
Nikella yanked it out and shoved it into the canister.
My heart stilled. The explosion followed a moment later. A ball of heat and white flames ripped through the warship’s hull and bellowed against the walls of the trembling canyon.
The warship burned and sank, soldiers leaping off.
I swayed on my feet, unable to look away from the spot Nikella had been a moment ago.
My heart twisted and slowed. Too wounded. Too much loss.
“May the gods find your soul,” I whispered. “Please, Mynastra, carry her home.”
As soon as the words left my lips, a strange wind rose. A whispered song. It rushed through our ship and eased my pain for just a moment.
Skelly shouted in alarm as the ship hurtled through the water, twisting through the canyon as if guided by the cool, sweet, strong wind.
A wave swelled beneath us and tossed us out of the canyon, into the sea. Then it pulled away, rushing toward the cliffs. The stormy gray water rose higher and higher. The wind billowed and howled, and the cliffs trembled.
More people shouted in dismay, but I simply watched. I felt no danger.
Vicious waves crested like a thousand spears and stabbed at the cliffs. Their harsh faces shattered, spilling out black stone like blood. It tumbled into the roiling sea with a great sigh.
Violet clouds darkened to obsidian between one breath and the next. Bolts of lightning darted out like Nikella’s spear, impaling the cliffs. They shrieked and crumbled.
The army encampment—a smudge on the cliffs—fell into the furious sea.
The battle between sea and sky raged until the waves swallowed every trace of Calimber.
