Amalise’s hands moved from Zaddock’s cheeks to his throat, over his chest, and back to his face, never settling—as if the blonde didn’t know where to try to start healing him first. As if she could help him.
Frelina couldn’t stand it.
Not when Amalise lifted her face to the sky and her voice filled with raw panic as she bellowed, “Please! I’ll do anything! Please!”
There was no help that would come. Frelina knew that. And when Zaddock’s blue eyes went dark—the mischievous light that always shone there vanishing… she couldn’t… No.
Her hands pressed harder against her ears, and she screamed until Raine dragged her to him, shoving his face into hers. “You need to fucking snap out of it!” Raine snarled. “I know! It’s not fair. I know…”
She continued screaming, hearing Amalise’s muffled ones join her.
She didn’t want to do this anymore. She wanted it to be a nightmare. She wanted it to be over.
More arrows whistled through the air. She could hear them even with her hands over her ears, and her throat closed up at the fear that took hold of every part of her asshe watched Amalise break apart beneath her—the blonde’s chest shaking so fiercely from crying it should have taken down the entire ship.
“Raine,” Frelina cried.
“Sunshine,” Raine said in a hushed voice as he removed her hands from her ears. “I know. It’s… I?—”
There were no words. Frelina shook her head as she watched Raine search for them, and she knew the gold and green whirling in his eyes was his own pain—one she would not be able to take from him.
“Fuck!” Raine screamed when sobs cracked through Frelina’s raspy cries. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
An arrow landed right by her, and despite the urge to curl into a ball and wait for the end, Frelina jumped to the side, her cries finally dying out.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” Raine’s eyes went over her entire body—as if it wasn’t just her heart that was bleeding. “I’m so sorry,” he mumbled again. “But we can’t…”
Frelina’s throat was raw when Raine turned to Amalise, dragging her upright by her dress from where she’d leaned over Zaddock’s cooling body.
“Listen to me!” Raine ordered. “I’m so fucking sorry, but you can’t break right now. You can’t!” His head whipped to Frelina. “Neither of you can!”
His hands went to the two dark ships now both visible—casting their entire vessel in shade—before his fingers wrapped around each of their arms again. “We will die as well if you panic!”
“We will die anyway! We can’t win this!” Amalise screamed back, spit flying from her mouth as she struggled to get back to Zaddock’s crumpled body. “They killed him… they killed?—”
Frelina watched Raine’s face go ashen as he stared atthe two of them, holding their arms so hard his knuckles were white, before moving his gaze to the ships and finally to the soldiers sparsely spread out around them—every single one looking like any ounce of hope drained from their bodies with every inch the vessels came closer.
It scared her even more when Raine stopped cursing.
Frelina jerked when Raine just lifted his head to the sky and roared—a primal sound of rage and frustration, and… yes, there was fear hidden deep within it—an emotion she felt resounding in herself when Raine’s golden and green eyes found hers.
“Raine,” Frelina whispered, the feeling that she was about to lose him so sudden it almost sent her to the deck. “Please.”
“Hold on! Just hold on!”
Frelina could barely believe it when Elessia’s voice broke through the panicked tension in the air, and it was almost too much for her eyes when she looked away from Raine to find her sister atop Ydren, Auphore by their side, and several other wyverns—one blue, one gray, and another violet—racing in a half circle toward their ship and the two vessels trying to crush it between them.
“Get down!” Elessia screamed as Frelina and Raine only stared at her. “Get the fuck down!”
But Frelina couldn’t move. There was something so foreign—so strange—about Elessia, she couldn’t tear her eyes away.
It reminded her of that day on Korina. Elessia had a golden light shining around her, her hair flying around her face—but not as if the wind had caught it, but like… something else—something that didn’t belong to this world raced beside her, causing the wind to change direction.
Her eyes were pure gold right now—as if her magic was fully activated—and there was a defiance, a rebellion in them that seemed to contrast so much with what Frelina knew her sister was.
Elessia’s arm, which Frelina knew shone because of the soulstone, didn’t just glitter anymore—it glowed like a newly made lantern as Elessia held one of Ydren’s spikes—and it was like it was a beacon for the wyverns she directed, drawing every pair of eyes on the ships around them to her.
And while there were no souls around her—at least not to Frelina’s eyes—the air was different. Still filled with a metallic scent, and with fear and panic and whatever else this battle stirred up, the harsh wind that made the sails above Frelina snap also carried something else.
