Before Alys could answer, a burning pain erupted in Dilys’s chest. He gasped for air. His lungs filled, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t breathe! The burning expanded. His body convulsed.
His mother’s shocked, horrified gaze, held his, the terrified knowledge in her eyes confirming what he knew was happening.
Gabriella.
She was dying.
Chapter 30
Bloody, drained, struggling for breath, Gabriella clung to life with every ounce of determination in her as the traitor Calivan Merimydion’s testing chamber rapidly filled with seawater.
She wasn’t dead yet. That was the one glimmer of hope she clung to.
Well, not the only one. Dilys was out there, fighting for her. So long as she was alive and Dilys was alive, there was hope for them both.
She pressed a palm weakly against the wound in her chest and tilted her back to take a painful gasp of air. When Calivan had knifed her, she’d managed to twist at the last moment, so that the blade meant for her heart had pierced a lung instead. Every breath was an agony and the wound was seeping bloody bubbles of air, but that was still better than the alternative.
Poor Biross and Tarrant had not been so lucky.
Their bodies floated nearby, rising alongside her as the water rose. She hated that they’d died for her. Their blood mingled with her own in the churning seawater, painting her with a debt she could never repay.
Already the water had nearly reached the ceiling of the small room. Another minute or two, and all the air in the room would be gone.
Just then, Biross gave a weak cough, the water around him splashing as his body jerked.
“Biross!”
Pain shot through her as she paddled the short distance towards him. The top of her head knocked the ceiling. Less than a foot of air left. And still seawater poured in through the large pipes in the ceiling.
“Biross, hang on.” She reached for him, grabbing his limp arm and pulling him close. She might not possess animlani’s native seagifts—might not know how to manipulate water the way Dilys had done when he’d saved her life—but she was still a Siren. Even drained as she was, her magic was already returning. Not fast enough for any hope of Shouting her way out of this room, but perhaps fast enough to save a life. “Biross, can you hear me?” She clung to his arm. “Take my magic. Use it to save yourself.” She summoned what she could and sent it into him. She couldn’t heal him. Even if she had full access to the full power of the sun, the only person she could have healed with it was herself. But if Biross could use his seagifts to control his bleeding long enough for Dilys to rescue them, he might make it to a healer in time. And maybe—just maybe—if she gave him power enough, he might be able to hold back the flooding of the room as well. The chance was a slim one, to be sure, but even a slim chance was better than no chance at all.
“Biross, I can’t stop the water coming into the room. You can do it, but not if you die on me! Use what I gave you to save yourself, so you can save us!”
But Biross’s blood continued to flow, and the seawater continued to pour in.
Five inches of air was all that remained. Gabriella’s face was pressed against the ceiling now, each wheezing breath a frantic, painful gasp. Her chest was on fire, every breath a struggle, as if a three-hundred-pound rock was sitting on her chest. She could feel panic prying at her with sharp, scrabbling claws.
Two inches.
“Biross!”
One inch.
She took as deep a breath as she could manage and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the room was entirely submerged in seawater. The roar of the water pouring relentlessly in had gone silent. Tarrant’s body floated weightlessly nearby, bumping gently against Biross.
She shook Biross, pushing more power into the mortally wounded warrior, but if he was aware of it, she couldn’t tell. His eyes were closed. His body limp. The only sign that he was still alive at all was the gill slits that had opened along his rib cage. They fluttered open and closed in a slow, shallow rhythm. He was still breathing, then. His body had recognized the change in their environment and instinctively adjusted to breathe water instead of air.
A useful ability her own body, unfortunately, did not possess. And the power that continued to flood into her, amplified by her growing fear and desperation, was all but useless. Without air she couldn’t Shout. Without sunlight, she couldn’t heal herself.
She was going to die. She was going to die and take Dilys with her. That knowledge kept her holding her breath until her chest was on fire. She couldn’t die. Dilys was just outside the door. She could feel him there—his presence, his love, her love for him fueling a torrent of magic inside her. And she was helpless to go to him. Helpless to save herself, to save them.
A large hand closed around her shoulder.
Biross had roused enough to speak, though it was clearly a labor for him. Blood bubbled out of his mouth, a frothing, darkness that billowed like a foreboding cloud around him. Using the strength she’d given him, he willed every last measure of his magic and his lifeforce into her, and with it came the ephemeral whisper of his dying wish. A prayer. Not for himself, but for her.
Numahao, Mother of All Waters, save her. Save your daughter.
As the gift of his life flooded into her, every drop of blood in her veins turned to molten lava. Nerve endings shrieked, her entire being immolated in a crucible of pain. Her back arched, and she gave a wrenching scream, the last of the air in her lungs escaping in a flood of bubbles.
