She turned her waterspout with a hiss, sucking in new water from the part of her body that the mortals of this time called Lake Erie. The waves rose at her command, shooting up like spears at the dragons above. She hammered down on them at the same time, launching an enormous wave from the top of the spout she’d formed beside her broken tower.
The attack was bi-directional and nearly a mile wide. It should have been unavoidable, and yet somehow,again, it missed. The dragons moved as though they knew in advance where every drop of water would be, dancing through her waves like eels through a fishing net. As they hadevery single oneof her waves since they’d appeared.
And yet you keep sending them.
Algonquin’s water hitched as her attention slid to the shadow behind her.You really think you can win like this?the monster said, his sneering voice slipping over her like the oil that had covered her shores when she’d first risen.That’s the Qilin. The dragons’ living luck. You can’t just beat him down.
“I don’t have to,” she snarled back. “Dodging doesn’t equal winning. All I have to do is make a wave big enough that luck can’t save him.”
That would work,the Leviathan agreed.If you could. But you can’t, can you?The shadow’s head turned toward the smoking city.You’ve already spent more water tonight than you did destroying Detroit the first time. Do you even have enough to finish this?
As if to prove his point, the dragons chose that moment to dive, streaking their fire across the falling water left by her attacks, evaporating it instantly. The golden one’s flame was biggest, but it was the female who burned hottest, atomizing Algonquin’s lake all the way down to the sandy floor.
“I will feed her head to my fish,” Algonquin whispered, yanking in yet more water from her lake to replace what the dragons had burned off. “I’ll turn their bodies to river mud. I’ll—”
It’s too late for that.
One of the Leviathan’s tentacles snaked out in front of her, dipping into the churning water of Lake St. Clair. But though he’d chosen what should have been the deepest point, the appendage barely sank past its blunt tip before hitting the sandy bottom.
You’re at your limit, Algonquin. Your water is dangerously low. Your fish are dying. You cannot keep fighting.
“I will,” she snarled, pulling in water from every one of her bodies. “I’ve killed hundreds of dragons.Thousands. These are nothing.”
They are the step too far,the shadow whispered.You’re not infinite, butIam.The black tentacles rose up, bashing one of the dragons sideways before swinging out to curl around her swirling water.Let me in. Let me finish what you’ve started, and I will—
“No!” Algonquin roared, throwing another wave at the dragons to keep them busy while she turned to deal with the threat behind her. “I am not dead yet. Until I decide otherwise, you are bound tome, Leviathan. You serve me, obey me, listen to me. That is our deal, and if you don’t stop undermining it, I will revoke your—”
She stopped, her water going still. Deep below them, the Sea of Magic was ringing like a gong. It was hard to hear over the storm, but the vibration was unmistakable. A human soul had passed through the gate.
A second soul?the Leviathan said angrily.Impossible. Where did it come from?
“There is no second soul,” Algonquin said, her water spinning faster. “It has to be a second try.”
I thought there were no second chances.
So had she, but the only constant about humanity was change, and she knew so little about the Heart of the World. The first time the Merlin Gate rang through the Sea of Magic today, she’d thought victory was in her grasp. But then the DFZ had erupted, and everything had gone wrong. From there, she’d had no choice but to assume Myron had failed, leaving his Mortal Spirit to run mad.
But unlike the traitor, Raven, she’d never actually been to the Merlin Gate herself, much less seen inside it. What if there was something she didn’t know? An angle she hadn’t anticipated? What if Myron wasn’t dead?
What if it’s a trap?
“How could it be a trap?” she asked, sinking back to her waters to avoid the dragons as they came round again. “The only human soul in the Sea of Magic is the one I put there. Ithasto be him.”
Then let him come to you,the Leviathan warned.Your water is dangerously low. If you stop paying attention, the dragons will burn what is left of it out from under you, and then neither of us will have anything to work with.
“If I’m right, that won’t matter,” Algonquin said excitedly. “I’ll be reborn with the next rain, but this might never happen again.”
The shadow rumbled, but she wasn’t listening anymore. She wasn’t fighting, either. She was diving, flitting between the pools of water that covered her ruined city until she reached the dark, stagnant lake covering what remained of the Pit.
The moment she rose, Algonquin knew something had changed. The DFZ’s raging magic was calm now, almost orderly. The quiet sent her hopes soaring. In her experience, gods didn’t stop rampaging until they’d destroyed everything or were defeated. Since her lakes weren’t filled with buildings yet, that left only one option, and Algonquin found him standing on an island of trash at the Pit’s very center.
He didn’t look well. Algonquin had seen mortals at all stages of death, but Sir Myron Rollins looked as if he’d been through the entire spectrum today. Even so, he was standing, and kneeling at his side was the humanoid reflection of the DFZ.
Algonquin began to tremble, but excited as she was, she was too old to take anything at face value. She would have to test him, to make sure this really was the miracle it seemed. To that end, she rose from the black water in front of them, shifting her face into a reflection of Myron’s own.
“Did you do it?”
“I did,” he said, his voice weak but confident as he reached out to touch the city’s bowed head. “I apologize for the trouble the DFZ caused you. We had a bit of a false start, but I turned it around. My second attempt at the Merlin Gate was a success.” He lifted his chin haughtily. “You’re now in the presence of the First Merlin, Master of the Heart of the World.”
