“I’m not sure?—”
“Drop me, if we’re going to fall.”
“Eira…”
She met his eyes. “If we fall, go feet first. Drop me and make yourself as straight as possible.” She’d learned a few things on the docks of Oparium.
He nodded and stepped off the glyph. “Mysst xieh.”
Yonlin was right over his shoulder. The ship was crossing under the portcullis. Noelle, Lavette, and Varren were at the stern of the vessel, returning bursts of magic with their own alongside half the crew. Cullen manned the sails. Alyss andDucot managed to keep the ship patched as quickly as it was damaged. Adela was at the front of the vessel, stoic and poised, eyes turned to the safety of the sea beyond.
They were going to make it. It was going to work.
Everything seemed to slow as Eira met Adela’s determined gaze. A slight smile crossed the pirate queen’s lips.Good job,it seemed to say. Joy swelled in Eira’s chest nearly to the point of bursting. For the first time in her life, it felt like she’d made someone proud—someone she looked to almost as a child would a parent.
It all happened so quickly. In a blink, there was an explosion high above.
Adela’s attention jerked upward. Fractures spread across the archway like lightning bolts. The guards must’ve broken through the door with an explosion of their own…but they didn’t know the building had already been weakened by Olivin and Yonlin smashing down the wall so the three of them could escape.
The archway crumbled. Light flashed. Chains snapped.
Eira inhaled sharply as the portcullis came rattling down. Olivin looked over his shoulder on instinct. His focus wavered and that was all it took for his magic to falter.
Eira, and everything else, tumbled down with deadly speed into the cold sea.
17
Time felt like it slowed. Everything happened all at once.
A wave of ice rushed out from the boat on both sides. It crashed against the base of the archway, racing up like a pack of wolves on the hunt. The ice encompassed the falling stone and portcullis—freezing the latter in place, halting any drop. It packed so thickly that the top of the ship’s rigging scraped against it as the boat continued to drift under.
But the vessel lost speed at the same time as Eira’s descent slowed. An updraft rushed underneath her. She flipped in the air, arms flailing, as though she could somehow swim on the currents. The wind adjusted itself, trying to catch her—to pad her fall.
Cullen.
His magic shivered across her skin. It was a phantom feeling—the return of a familiar friend that she once knew well. All those afternoons working together. All those times it had tangled with her fingertips…
Eira twisted, putting her feet down and crossing her arms over her chest. He’d slowed her enough that she could get control of her fall. Eira was like an arrow breaking the surfaceof the water, plunging deep into the cold depths from the momentum. The chill tried to steal the air from her lungs. Eira clamped her jaw closed so she didn’t let out a gasp.
As soon as she slowed, she began pumping her legs and pulling herself upward. Even without her magic, she was a strong swimmer. Being in the water—in the sea—was a natural state. It was as if her magic whispered from the recesses of her consciousness like a long-forgotten memory. A calling that beckoned like the pull of the tides.
The sensation was so strong that it gave her pause. Eira lingered, suspended in the chilling waters. She allowed the currents to envelop her, the cold to hold her. Magic flashed. The boat churned frothy waves. Rain thundered. And the sea stretched endlessly around her, encompassing every nightmarish memory of Marcus’s death…and every hope she’d ever held.
Her power was her savior, but also her demise. It could do whatever she needed but never everything she wanted. And it was so close that she could almost—Eira stretched out a hand, reaching toward nothing but blind hope—touch it.
Out of nowhere, a rope whipped through the water as though it were alive. It wrapped itself around her waist and chest. She was pulled upward, her focus shattered. Eira let out an involuntary cry of frustration as she was plucked from under the surface and pulled onto the boat by the sentient rope. Eira coughed and sputtered, gasping for air.
The deck was utter chaos.
“We have to move!”
“Trying to!”
“They have a hook on us!”
“Get it off!”
“Wind to the sails!”
