“How are you doing that?” Bowen asked her.
Couldn’t he see her magic? I glanced at Finn who also appeared perplexed at the formation of the bridge. Rue simply cackled at their confusion and continued pouring her affinity into the path between our realms. I hovered in the ocean, transfixed at the beauty of Rue creating something amazing with her power. She was so much more than she realized.
Bowen startled beside me as a blur of bubbles and shadow streaked across my line of sight. Trent unsheathed his trident in the turbulence, its menacing arrowhead points casting a purple glow. I lunged for Rue, but the watery environment slowed my movements. She floated beyond my reach.
The figure came into focus right as it slashed its way through the water. It used its filmy wings to thrust itself forward, acting as both propeller and rudder. Blackened scales covered its body, similar to the dreki; however, this had limbs far too long, like its body had been stretched into grotesque proportions.
Rue shot forward, placing herself between me and the Nokt, distracting it from its advance toward me. My magic flew out as my stomach dropped. I wouldn’t reach her in time.
Acid hovered around the Nokt’s body in a gray-green fog. It did not dissolve into the water, but rather lay suspended in tiny droplets of toxic oil. They fizzed when they made contact with her leathers. My shadows surged faster.
She did not back down.
Alarm crashed through me at her bold recklessness. Her movements turned frantic when her magic didn’t respond as she expected it to. The ocean’s salinity slowed the formation of her ice shield, and she threw her arm up in defense at the beast’s thrashing claws. It attacked with unnatural speed.
Rue’s scream flipped a switch within me. Her blood clouded the water, smoking upward in an inky, crimson haze. She gripped her leg as her ice shield finally formed an enclosed defense around her. The Nokt howled in response to the barrier.
Rage consumed me. I pulled my longsword and slashed at the creature as its claws rent the water. My sword eased through its skin like butter, releasing black ichor, but not before his other razored hand cut across my chest. The scaled leathers prevented their penetration, but the drag of its claws near my side and across my bicep punctured the skin of my arm in a stinging laceration. Tiny droplets of acid singed my arms and face.
Distantly, I registered that Trent had cast his trident toward the beast’s chest. It struck true. The Nokt thrashed, frantically removing the weapon. It searched for its attacker, its black eyes seething.
“Dom,” Rue’s pained voice pierced my concentration, reaching out for me in a desperate plea. The weakened state of her drew all my focus in her direction. I whirled toward her, trying to determine the severity of her injury. My heart pulsederratically as fear for her threatened to overtake me. Her shield fell away at my approach.
I scanned her purple-blue eyes, unfocused and dazed. Her long hair haloed around her. Blood spilled from a gash across her thigh, cut nearly to the bone. Strips of torn muscle and ragged flesh drifted in the current, barely attached to her body.
Unsheathing my dagger, I cut away a part of my tunic. My adrenaline and fear surged to a feral level. Using the strip of fabric, I wound it tightly around her leg as both a tourniquet and bandage. I channeled my magic to her wound, calling on the iron in her blood to clot and stifle the rapid blood loss. I pulled her body to my own, shielding her in my arms. She didn’t even try to fight me on it.Foka.
“Why did you throw yourself toward the Nokt?”
“Better me than you,” she whispered.
I shook my head in disbelief, clutching her to me like she might disappear in my arms. Did she believe herself invincible, or worse, disposable?
Finn and Bowen had their swords extended as they closed in on the monster. Rows of jagged teeth flashed. Violence radiated off of it in suffocating waves. Trent whistled and his trident returned to his hands as though sentient.
“That’s a neat trick,” Finn muttered.
The creature’s movements turned sluggish, yet no less lethal. Trent served as our best chance of overcoming the monster, his powerful tail whipping through the water like a coiled cobra. His weapon acted as an extension of his body, moving swiftly and gracefully in methodical attack.
I expelled my shadows to surround and comfort Rue, then extended more in an effort to blind our adversary in thick darkness. Several shadows formed scythes, slicing and hacking at the beast.
It paused at the sudden darkness, confused by my bladed attacks, just long enough for Finn to attract its attention. Finn shot his gravitational affinity toward the monster, attempting to sink it, but it swerved away from him with preternatural speed. It veered dangerously close to Liora and me.
Without hesitation, I tucked Liora into my side, using my body to protect her, and swung my sword downward, effectively decapitating it. Trent’s trident once more pierced the scaled creature through its shredded chest. It crumpled in on itself. The demonic body floated limply as black blood oozed from its wounds. Its wings drooped in deathly surrender. Its death did not impact my need to keep Liora at my side.
“I need to finish the bridge,” she panted. My shadows swarmed her, upholding, supporting, shielding. She sent me a grateful look and refocused her magic into the bridge despite her weakened state. It gleamed silver as it took shape. Determination fortified her as her affinity aligned with faintly shimmering threads—remnants of the old magic last used.
It dipped into the deep and would connect the surface to the Nereid portal, which would remain open with the bridge’s completion and once the queen combined her magic with it.
The bridge solidified as though constructed of marble. Liora slumped deeper into my shadow’s supports as she emptied herself into the final pieces of the bridge.
A blast of power blew us all back. My shadows cushioned the impact and tethered her to me. She sagged against my chest having expelled most of her affinity. The bridge between realms had been reestablished. There was little time to celebrate.
Trent beckoned us toward a shadowed area in the murky depths. As we came closer, a collection of underwater sea caves came into view. We followed as quickly as possible, having no more interest in open water. We entered the cave where smallbioluminescent jellies twinkled throughout. Several holes dotted the roof and along the walls.
Trent assessed us all, his trident still clasped tightly in his hands. “Are you okay, Rue?”
She had regained her color, but barely contained her wince of pain. “It got my leg, but I should be fine,” she gritted out.
