Frelina
Frelina wiped grime and sweat from her forehead as she dragged the wounded Fae to the middle of the ship, trying not to flinch at the daggers and arrows and whatever else was flying over her head.
The battle never relented. To her left, Raine was fighting like she’d never seen before: his jagged blades slashing—again and again—tearing through any Oakgards’ Fae who tried to get onto their ship.
They’d been lucky that when the first wave of enemies struck, the ship they’d sneaked onto had been in the middle, protected from being broken apart like the others around them.
Frelina and Raine had understood quickly that they needed to keep those Oakgards’ away, as the foreign Fae didn’t seem to care that many of their own fell with the Havlands folks as they ripped through vessel after vessel in their quest to sink their entire fleet.
The Fae she’d grabbedby the arms groaned as she settled him against the wall, and Frelina wished she could do more than rip a piece of her stupid dress off, tying it around him to quell the blood oozing from a deep gash in his side.
But there were too many injured—too many deaths happening everywhere she looked.
Around the Fae, whose face seemed worryingly pale, she’d already placed dozens of barely alive Fae and humans—even a shifter who’d curled up into a ball as he fell from a broken mast, both his arms dislocated and one leg so shattered that Frelina was sure it would have to be amputated if he survived.
She had tried to fight in the beginning, but after she ran out of daggers to throw, Raine had growled at her to stay behind him—to hide if she could—which she’d ignored when she realized the state of the people littered across the deck of their ship.
Amalise and Zaddock had been on the same ship as them, and Frelina shared a look with the tired and sooty blonde when she also pulled a man to safety, pressing her palm against a wound in his skull that was so deep it revealed the white bone beneath, as she caught her breath.
Frelina was just about to turn around, try to get out again on the deck that seemed like it kept refilling regardless of how many Raine and Zaddock and the rest took down, when a shadow cast their ship in shade, dimming the blue shining in Amalise’s eyes.
Whirling, Frelina spotted the ship with a dark green sail, and a flag in the same color with a white tree sewn onto it, racing toward their own. She cried “Get down” as a shower of arrows fell from the lookout towers and spots sticking out from the several masts.
Raine must have heard her, because the warrior left his place for the first time in the hours they’d fought here. After sprinting a few steps, he threw himself in the air, tackling Frelina to the floor, slamming the air out of her lungs as he pressed her against the wooden planks—just as the whistles of wood reached Frelina’s ears.
Moans and screams and cries rang around them as the arrowheads found their intended targets, and though it had been there before, the scent of blood now wrapped all around them, even quelling the smoke and salt swirling in the wind.
When she felt Raine jerk, it was as if something deep within her awoke, and Frelina snarled as she got out from under him, shooting to her feet and glaring wildly around, unsure what her body thought she could do without a weapon.
Raine must have had the same thought, because despite the arrow settled deep within his shoulder, he was on his feet a second—if not less—after her, and he shoved her so hard against the wall of the quarterdeck that she finally remembered to breathe again.
“You do not try to save or protect me,” he growled so angrily she felt the emotion rumble through her body. “Do you hear me? I will never forgive you if you get hurt trying to do something for me!”
“I won’t promise that!” Frelina screamed back as the ship behind him came closer. “There are more of them on that one! You can’t take them down all by yourself, Raine!”
Tears stung her eyes as she battled his hazel ones. Not for herself. Not for Raine. But for the impossible situation around them. For the soldiers screaming in pain and fear as they approached the ship—knowing verywell what their fate would be as soon as those Oakgards’ Fae staring back slammed down a brow.
The Oakgards’ were too many. They’d come too abruptly. Surrounded them too quickly.
Green sails were everywhere when her eyes darted around, and their own white ones seemed to disappear one by one. Frelina knew… there soon wouldn’t be any left.
“You can’t,” Frelina said again, her voice breaking. “You can’t kill them all.”
“Watch me,” Raine snarled back as his eyes shot first to the ship, then to the stairs to his right, leading up to the captain’s quarter, where Frelina knew Kalia and some of the younger Faelings were hiding. “I will tie you to this staircase if you try anything, sunshine. Don’t fucking think I won’t.”
She was about to smack him when Zaddock flew around the corner, dragging a pale Amalise behind him. Sliding to a stop, one hand holding on to the bend of the quarterdeck, he panted before managing to get out, “Th-there is another ship on this side. They’re trying to trap us in.”
“Fuck!” Raine cursed as he glared at Loche’s dark-haired soldier. “All right… you?—”
Blood spluttered from Zaddock’s mouth, spraying over Amalise, whom Zaddock had pulled before him.
Frelina would never forget the sound of Amalise’s blood-chilling cry as Zaddock fell to his knees with a thump that echoed in Frelina’s bones, a dagger sticking from the back of his neck.
She screamed as well then, her hands flying to her ears as if, if she could only continue crying,she could block out the noises of what was happening right before her eyes.
Like the horrible sound of Zaddock trying to get air but only managing to draw in blood, his eyes flying to Amalise as she fell with him, holding him as he choked. Or the wail tearing from Amalise’s throat as her hands cupped Zaddock’s cheeks, pulling his paling face to her own.
“I love you,” Amalise cried. “I— No! I love you! Please!”
