A rage.
A frustration.
A cry for this to end.
A roar for the people to listen.
And it all… it all came from her sister. From someone who’d been shunned and hunted and tortured and killed.
All that power, all that rebellion, came from Elessia.
Frelina still gaped as Raine threw her and Amalise to the ground once more, and it must have been at the last second, because it was as if the world exploded around them in the next moment.
Raine refused to let either of them up as everything around the three of them broke.
Wood cracked and screamed. Sails ripped. Screams started and cut off. Snakes hissed. Water sloshed. Frelinawished she could cover her ears again, because only listening was almost worse than knowing how many right now were perishing under the wyverns’ heavy bodies, under the streams of hot water they apparently could expel—all under the guidance of her sister.
A high-pitched sob flew from Frelina’s lips as she realized… even if Elessia survived this—if she once again saved them all—it would not be her sister who swam out of this war. Not the one she’d grown up with. Not the one she’d gotten to know over the past few months.
This destruction? These kills? She’d seen in Raine’s, Merrick’s, and Kerym’s minds what it did to people, and Elessia? Frelina wasn’t certain her sister would be able to accept it—take in that she held this power in her hands, that she was the one behind so many lives lost.
Elessia, who was ready to sacrifice herself for three races of people in Havlands who’d done nothing but hurt her.
Elessia, who’d asked for nothing—not an ounce of power after the last war, even though she was the one who’d saved them all.
Elessia, who only wanted Merrick and her friends—who had smiled so brightly that everyone had wanted to be around her last night.
Frelina almost didn’t notice when the deafening noise quieted.
It wasn’t until Raine got up, pulling Frelina and Amalise with him, that she dared open her eyes.
There was no sign of the ships—or the Fae—that had surrounded them. Nothing in the waves, apart from the dark liquid Frelina knew was blood and a few stray planks, betrayed what had just gone down.
Their ship was also damaged, but it still floated,and Frelina heard Elessia’s strong voice demand one of the wyverns get another vessel—one that appeared to have just gotten away—to come get the survivors on this one.
Elessia didn’t look any less terrifying as she nudged Ydren to the side of the ship they now stood upon, and while Frelina saw the moment her sister’s eyes found Zaddock’s cold body, no tears filled her still-glowing eyes.
Instead, she demanded, “Have you seen Merrick?”
Raine didn’t seem to be able to form words, either, but Elessia nodded, her golden eyes sharp as they flew to the other ships around them—several veiled in thick dark smoke, probably from the fire wielders fighting back.
“I need to find him.” Elessia cleared her throat as her eyes dipped to Ydren’s violet ones. “Get on that ship. Don’t let anyone near you. I’ll have two wyverns flanking your ship for protection, but please try to find Loche and Ardow and the others.”
Elessia’s voice was so much calmer than Frelina expected—a focus, a resilience that perhaps was the only way Elessia still breathed, keeping her sister’s shoulders low, her back straight, and tone even as she continued, “Ydren, Auphore, let’s go.”
Something flickered in the corner of Frelina’s eye when her sister turned her back, the golden and violet wyverns swimming in sync as they approached what appeared to be one of the worst fights—five of their own ships forced into an inlet of a rock formation that Frelina doubted had been there before—but it wasn’t until Raine bellowed “No!” that she realized one of the Oakgards’ Fae must have gotten onto their deck in the commotion.
The raven-haired Fae was now breaking a mast, his eyes glued to her sister’s unprotected back and the young wyvern rising above the waves to give Elessia a better view, and a silent cry wove its way through Frelina as he aimed right where Elessia’s heart was.
“No!” Raine left her side before she could react, and it was as if the world moved more slowly—somehow allowing her to see every moment leading up to what made another dying scream rip from her throat.
Raine took five steps—so swiftly only a Fae warrior of his strength could have done it—and placed himself between Elessia and the mast now slicing through the air.
His blades clattered to the deck as he prepared himself, their reflections shining in Frelina’s eyes.
His gaze found hers for only a second before focusing forward again.
But none of it mattered.
