It was impossible to tell who was saying what. Eira propped herself up, looking to thank Alyss for the help. But her friend had already run off to the front of the vessel. Across from her was Yonlin, kneeling beside Olivin as Crow attempted to resuscitate the elfin man. Others were wounded and bleeding. The battle had more than taken its toll and, for the first time, Eira conceded with panic that they might notallmake it out alive.
But amid all the chaos was a lone, calm, stoic figure. Adela stood with arms hoisted high, trembling, as though she were physically bearing the weight of the entire portcullis and shattered archway above them. Eira could almost sense the immense power radiating off her. The notion was certainly a fabrication of her mind—she knew Adela was exuding a lot of magic so she was telling herself that she could feel it.
Eira found her feet. The calls and shouts were a blur as she crossed to the pirate queen. This close, Eira could see every line of strain knitted between her brows as she focused.
“I’m a bit busy,” Adela forced through clenched teeth. Wordlessly, Eira rested a hand on Adela’s shoulder, standing just off to her side. “Girl?—”
“Focus on your magic.” Eira closed her eyes. Was it merely a fabrication of her tired mind, or could she really feel Adela’s power? It was so much like her own…surely…
Wind dried the seawater on her face as Cullen forced another gust into the creaking rigging. Its sensation was slightly different. A new pull. The same shiver as when she had been falling. She knew him and his magic better than any other.
Currents were brewing within her. Churning. Calling.
Usually, to restore a sorcerer’s magic, a Waterrunner would use a vessel of stored magic to guide the power back to their channel, reopening the flow. That was what Adela had been trying to do. She had been attempting to use herself as the vesseland the Waterrunner, guiding her magic into Eira, trying to pull her channel open.
But perhaps it needed to be a push. Eira needed to reach out to the power. She needed to be the Waterrunner and guide. She needed to know what to reach for.
“Cullen, do it again,” Eira commanded. His eyes turned to her, confused and questioning. “The push of air.”
He did it without asking for why.
Eira inhaled deeply as a gust of wind buffeted her face.Thatwas what magic felt like.Hold it, reach for it.
The ship began to move once more. There were more shouts. Then, a burst of light.
Adela staggered back just as Eira’s palm met her. Eira’s eyes snapped open in time to see the fading glow of a light-spun arrow and a burst of blood. The pirate queen fell to a knee, her flesh-and-bone leg giving out. A grunt of pain escaped her clenched jaw, nearly drowned out by the cracking of ice above.
“Adela!” Crow shouted from across the deck.
“Get us out of here!” Adela snapped, pain marring her voice and arms continuing to tremble.
Eira was on her knees, pressing her hands into either side of Adela’s upper stomach, where the arrow had pierced straight through. “We’re almost free.” But as soon as Eira said as much, the ship lurched, almost keeling over.
“Bastards!” Ducot shouted. He and Alyss were running.
Eira looked ahead.
They were so close. The sea was right there… But with hooks in the hull and magic on the sails, the Pillars tried to keep calling them back. A sheet of ice spread across the water, encompassing the boat. Adela dropped her icy hand and fused it with the vessel. The frost trying to claim them cracked.
“Girl.” Adela swayed slightly. “There’s something I need to ask of you.”
“Ask me when we’re out of here.”
“There’s a score on Carsovia I want you to settle for me…find…Salveus…”
“Find him yourself.” Eira pushed harder on Adela’s wounds. For as legendary as the pirate queen was, as mysterious her providence, Adela was still just a woman. A mortal woman of flesh and bone. Of blood that could be lost. “We’re making it out of here, together.”
Closing her eyes, fingers slick and warm with Adela’s blood, Eira reached out with her mind. The power was there. If not her own, then Adela’s. She just had to find it—to connect with it.
“Eira.” Cullen’s soft voice was at her side. “What do you need?”
She met his eyes, holding them, searching, silently begging for everything she didn’t think he could give. “Open your channel to me,” Eira whispered. “Like you did then.”
With a solemn nod, Cullen let his eyes flutter closed. The sails filled with wind. The boat strained against all that was holding it back. Eira leaned into him, as if, by touching him, she could find the channel she’d hunted for during the weeks of the competition. Her fingers were hot with blood. Frost chilled the air around them.
Eira reached out…and held her breath. Like a bolt of lightning on a nighttime sea, a surge shot through her.
Open. Eira willed it for Adela. If not for herself, then to allow the pirate queen to access the unfathomable depths of her power.
