With a wave of her arm, and a shout of “Juth mariy,” Vi attempted to stunt Adela’s magic. The woman dodged her glyph. Why did she ever trymariy? It never worked.
But Adela’s movement redirected her oppressive mist, and that allowed Vi’s flames to feed off fresh air once more, seeking more exposed timber to burn.
The pirate captain shifted her cane from hand to hand. Reaching out with her icy grip, her fingers elongated to dagger-like points.
“Mysst xieh.” The shield blunted the icy lances. She was so busy with the first attack that Vi didn’t notice new ones appearing at her flank.
Vi let out a scream—a noise she’d never heard herself make before—as pain poured from her like the crimson blood that spattered the deck. She looked at the blood, remembering the carnage she’d wrought on the beach.
This was how people died.
“And here I thought you were something special.” Adela withdrew her hand, returning it to her side.
Pressing her hand into her side, trying to stave off the blood flow, Vi blinked at Adela in an attempt to regain her focus.Better dead than in the hands of the elfin’ra, a voice repeated in her mind. Life had been reduced to a terrible mantra.
“Halleth ruta sot. Halleth ruta toff.” Vi attempted each healing spell. But it was a discipline she and Taavin had yet to study properly. She felt her skin knit and mend, already scarring in odd and uncomfortable ways with her clumsy attempts.
“Fire below is sorted,” Fallor’s shout broke through her concentration. But Adela remained focused.
She raised her cane once more, and Vi turned, running. She closed her eyes, seeking out the light that now seemed to be at the distant end of a tunnel—the light that had always burned so brightly for her was growing dim.One more time, Vi beseeched it.
Come to me, one more time!
She ran blindly into the railing. It knocked the wind from her and crushed Vi’s arms against the wound she’d been attempting to heal. One last, brilliant explosion of light and flame was all her body had to give. She would take them all with her, burn them alive so they would not hurt another member of her family—or any family—ever again.
Vi tumbled forward into the air off the side of the boat. She went head first into the sea like a falling star, brilliant, before the dark waves crashed down over her.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Fallor, after her!”Adela’s shriek was barely a whisper over the crashing waves in Vi’s ears.
Vi pushed against the waters, trying to swim. Everything hurt, everything felt heavy. Her heart, her mind, her body, even her magic was at its limit. She’d given everything and now was dried up. There was nothing left for her to give.
She surfaced from the waves with a spout of air. There was the cry of a bird, loud and echoing overhead. Vi’s hand hung limply at her side, her mind filling with the thought of the dark waves around her, bright sea foam, and an angry dawn reflecting in the water.
“D-D-Duroe,” she managed through chattering teeth. The water was frigid, but warming the further she got from the boat. “Watt…” One more, one more and then anchor the glyph. “Ivin.”
Vi didn’t know if she was successful. But she felt the magic underneath her hand, tight in her grip, like a treasure she would never relinquish. Hopefully, it would shield her, and one of Taavin’s last lessons on Lightspinning hadn’t gone to waste.
* * *
Darkness.
The world was awash with darkness that smelled of salt and ash. She floated through it, adrift in a giant sea of impenetrable blackness. It was suffocating, heavy, drowning…
Vi pushed upward toward the early sunlight, gasping in air, just as another wave crashed down on her, bringing darkness anew.
She turned, belly up and barely breathing. The sea rolled and she rolled with it. Hazy images plunged into nothingness over and over, more times than she could count.
Judgment. This was her judgment for trying to change a desolate future. This was her punishment for thinking she and her family might triumph despite all odds.
The Mother watched her from above, threatening to burn her face where it protruded from the foamy sea. Vi pressed her eyes closed, unwilling to see the light once more. For the light had failed her. The light had not been enough in the one moment she’d needed it most. And now… now she waited for Adela to find her yet again. She awaited recapture and delivery to the elfin’ra.
Yet it was not Adela who took Vi into her hands… but the same Goddess she believed had forsaken her.
The roar of waves, the crash of her body against a rocky shore, the cool feeling of wet sand in her face—Vi forced her eyes open, blinking into the light. She couldn’t move, and everything ached. There was a bloated, heavy sensation about her body that Vi had never felt before. Water flowed up into her nostrils with every new crash of the waves at her feet, causing her to sputter and cough.
Pushing herself upward, Vi made an attempt to stand—to merely crawl. But her hands, cut and torn from the glass she’d broken, slipped out from under her. She hadn’t made it very far, but she had managed to get her nose and mouth above the tide, and that was good enough for now.
