That was all Kamira needed to hear for her to snap.
She no longer cared about hiding her sorcery, she no longer cared about anything but seeing Tarkiin dead. For weeks she had dealt with the guilt, the self-loathing of thinking she had killed him, but now that he was here and she could truly see that Emmoria would be a better place without him, all she wanted was to see him dead again and make sure it was for good this time.
Kamira brought her hands out in front of her, glaring at the man who her parents forced her to marry, and pulled against the ocean. The entirety of Tarkiin’s crew stared at her and she could hear them asking,“What is she doing?” “Is she daft?”while others simply pointed and laughed. All the while, she unleashed her power on the waves beneath them, watching as a massive wave rose behind their ship, glinting in the sunlight. It churned, spraying droplets on them as it grew like a massive sea dragon preparing for an attack.
The crew of theCursed Soulgasped beside her, watching the wave build around Tarkiin’s hulking vessel. Her former husband’s crew frowned, turning in unison to see what was behind them, and Kamira took that as her time to strike.
She sent tendrils of swirling ocean shooting toward them, wrapping around Tarkiin and each of his crew. They thrashed, kicking and trying to swim through the water, but she only replaced any displacement with more of the sea. Her hands were tingling from the sheer multitude of power at her fingertips. She coaxed the waves, watching as the shimmering water climbed up their backs and over their shoulders. The men roared, yelling for help, but nothing could be done. No Ungifted could fight against her sorcery.
She moved the water farther until each man was completely engulfed, joining them all into one raging, whirling ball of sea. The sorcery coursed through her as if a dam had been opened, and she could do anything. She reveled in it—the pure power rushing through her.
Her breathing was heavy, her power beginning to take a small toll as she held the ball of drowning men there, hovering above their extravagant ship. She watched as, one by one, the men stopped convulsing and their bodies went limp, until only Tarkiin was left. Kamira drew the sphere of water closer and stared at Tarkiin, watching his eyes as the fear etched there winked out like an extinguished flame, his life now truly taken from him at her hands.
She released her power, drawing it all back into herself, and the men scattered on the deck like fish thrown from a net, wet and unmoving.
She loosened a sigh of relief, turning and expecting to see horrified faces at what she had just done, but everyone was huddled in a circle behind her, staring down at Doraan. It was Lindor who turned to her, the sun catching on the tears glistening down his dark skin. “Can you help him?”
Her chest caved at the plea in his voice, at the thought of the ship surgeon knowing there was nothing he could do to help. Doraan was dying.
She moved past the men to see Doraan lying in a puddle of blood. He was so pale. She knelt beside him, blood seeping into her pants, and brought two fingers to feel the pulse at his neck. There was the smallest flutter. He wasn’t dead yet, but he was mere breaths away from his last.
Tears welled in her eyes, dripping down her cheeks to join Doraan’s life-blood beneath her. A large hand came to rest on her shoulder. “He’s gone, lass,” Cormac’s words were heavy with emotion.
“No.” She wiped at the tears staining her cheeks and shook him off. “No, I can fix this. I can save him.”
Cormac shook his head, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “It’s too late.”
“No, I can do this. Iwillsave him.”
For years, she watched as her mother used her sorcery to heal those who were sick or wounded in secret, but she had never seen her mother heal someone from a wound this severe. She wasn’t even sure it was possible, but she knew he wasn’t yet completely gone. Doraan was teetering between life and death, his essence still shown through and she could feel the low flicker of his energy. But he was fading fast.
Kamira closed her eyes, feeling the energy that sang around her. Everything was thrumming with life, with its own energy. It was something she had only recently discovered. The more she used her gifts, the more she felt connected to it, to everything. Energy connected everything—the crew members who looked on with heavy hearts and bated breath, the sea that ebbed and flowed around them, the wind that whisked through the sails urging them onward, and the sun that shone down upon them, warming their skin. And herself. She pulled on all of it, coaxing it to bend to her will. Channeling it all onto one task.
First, she needed to remove the blood from Doraan’s lungs. She could feel the liquid pooled there and she willed it to ease from his chest, flow back into his veins, and pull the blood puddled beneath him with it. From there, she pushed air into the collapsed lung, returning it to its full splendor, and then she twisted the elements together, using them to knit the punctures back together until there was no sign of injury besides the blood soaked in his clothing.
Now came the part she was unsure of—the bending of life itself. She had no idea if it would work, but she pulled forth each of the elements, melding them together into one. First water, then air and earth, and with a calming breath, she drew on fire. She extracted the living energy from each elemental source and pushed it down into Doraan’s heart where she could feel it swirling and coaxing, until a single beat pounded in his chest. Her breathing hitched as she waited for a second beat.
When it came, a gasp sounded behind her and then another, until a chorus of awe rose up around her. She looked into Doraan’s once still and lifeless eyes. “Please,” she whispered. “Come back.”
She placed a gentle hand on his chest where the bullet hole had been only moments ago. The rhythm of his heart was slow, but it was there, steadily growing faster until suddenly, an invisible force lifted him from the blood soaked deck. Kamira fell backward as he rose higher above all of their heads.
“What are you doing?” Jorne yelped beside her. “Bring him back down!”
“I’m not doing anything. This isn’t me.” Her eyes were wide, fear falling to the pit of her stomach and making her nauseous. Had she done this? She never used her sorcery the way she just had, there was no knowing what the side effects might be.
Kamira stood on shaking legs, joining the crew as they all watched Doraan’s limp body begin to spin in the air above them.
Cariin climbed the netting beside him, reaching out for him, but it was no use. Doraan’s body spun and a scream rang out, not from any of the crew, but from him. The crew yelled, more of them climbing the rigging in an attempt to grab him.
Kamira choked out a sob. What had she done? But then as suddenly as he had begun to spin, his body stopped. Everything stopped as if time itself was at a standstill. Kamira’s breathing quickened as she looked at each of the crew, all of them frozen in whatever pose they had just been in.
“What in the blazing stars?” Kamira whispered.
She looked back up to Doraan. His face was locked in a scream, each of his limbs stretched out to his sides. A heavy wind picked up, swirling around her as her clothes and hair whipped harshly against her skin. She looked at each of the crew members and they all stayed perfectly still, the wind appearing as if it wasn’t even touching them.
Kamira could barely keep her eyes open from the strength of the wind, so she brought an arm up to shield them. She had to do something, anything, to help them.
Reaching back into herself, she used her gifts to push against the raging whirlwind around them, gritting her teeth from the force of it. But her sorcery did nothing against it. It felt the same as when she had tried to use her gifts to push theCursed Soulto shore. There was a barrier, something she couldn’t push against.
