I grin at her, nodding to a pair of them climbing the steps for the quay. She returns my grin and we pounce. I drag them both back to the water’s edge, back into the sea, and we topple over the brink. Lightning forks from the sky, showing the fear in their eyes in a flash, and I roar at them, more siren than girl. I cling to them both, forcing their heads below the waves. Then as Agnes guards the steps, kicking back their desperate, clawing hands, I pull them down further, deep into my world. My mother’s world. The place that was stolen from her when Renshaw and her crew murdered her.
They cease their fighting, lungs spent, and I push them away, their bodies floating underwater. Then, with grim satisfaction, I dart back up to the surface, back toAgnes and her waiting hand. Grasping it, she lifts me up and squeezes my arm in bitter understanding. Nothing will bring either of our mothers back. Not ever. But vengeance certainly soothes the bitter burn of what Renshaw did to mine.
There’s a bellowing shriek, almost snatched by the driving rain, and a flash of red hair I know all too well. Renshaw. She’s on a ship in the harbour, leaning over the railings, face puce as she calls for her crews to return. I watch her, blood heating in my veins, the call of revenge as sweet as a siren song, and I calculate the distance I would need to swim, the side of the ship I’d need to climb to reach her.
‘You’ll be shot down before you even get close,’ Agnes says in my ear. ‘Her crews are already retreating. They’re leaving. And the watch, look.’
We hug the steps as men and women, the enemy, turn tail, running for their boats, for the sea, abandoning the isle as they’re chased off it. I watch as women of the isles pick up the rifles of the fallen, screaming their rage, firing at their retreating backs.
Then I look up, finding Eli murmuring in Merryam’s ear, her teeth bared in a snarl of hate. He nods once and she grips her blade as they step into a waiting shadow. I gasp, swivelling to look back at Renshaw’s ship, and see the shadows move. They have gone to do what I could not.
Merryam steps out, right beside Renshaw. She grabs her shoulder and thrusts the blade upwards, deepbeneath her ribs. Merryam locks eyes with Renshaw as her aunt blinks her shock, as she staggers. I see Merryam’s lips move, and I know what she’s saying.You deserve this. This is for Seth. For me. For a life that should have been, after my mother died. For Mira and her mother. For the pain you have inflicted.Renshaw kneels on the deck and all I can see is her red, coiling hair before Eli pulls Merryam back, and they vanish again.
I clutch Agnes’s arm as my storm swirls viciously above us, lightning striking over and over, the wind lifting to a howl. It depletes me, but it also fuels me. Cools me. The fire in my heart, burning for so long, is finally smouldering. Too long have I waited for this, for a reckoning. Renshaw is dead and all the hate in her soul has gone. I expel a long-held breath, picturing my mother. Her kind, clever eyes. Her stories, her songs, her love of the sea. And I know she is with me now. She is with all of us in this moment.
Her death is avenged and the world is righted.
Those who have made it away from Ennor begin setting sail, limping from the harbour, joining the rest of the fleeing ships. But as those few straggling ships rejoin the decimated armada, further out, I realise which enemies did not come to shore, which of them were waiting until they could seize the victory the watch would have won for them.
The ruling council of three. The Rexilium brothers, safe out there aboard their ornate warship. Now theysail for Penscalo, for the safe harbour they do not deserve to claim.
A cry goes up from Ennor, a victory and a mourning, and it catches in my chest, tears rising up my throat in a gasp.
‘Have we – have we won?’ I ask Agnes as more of the enemy stream past us, desperate to escape the islanders and our wrath. We venture up the steps, on to the quay strewn with bodies, and Caden is standing there, drenched in enemy blood. He smiles at us, flicking red in an arc from his swords. Then he draws in a breath, beginning a chant.
‘Together! Together!’
The answering cry rises across Ennor, and Agnes sobs as we cling to one another. Kai appears, cradling a broken, bloodied arm, then an exhausted Eli, Mer propping him up on one side. I rush to Eli’s side, taking Mer’s place. I squeeze her shoulder, tipping my forehead to rest against hers in silent thanks. The kind that cannot be shared with mere words. Then I draw Eli into my arms as the rain continues to fall, holding him close, not wanting to let him go.
I close my eyes, feeding my senses out into the storm, sending it after those stray ships. Sending it to harry and taunt them.
‘You are spectacular,’ he says against my lips. ‘The storm, your rage … I’m in awe of you. I love you, Mira Boscawen.’
I look up into those star-flecked eyes. His uninjuredarm rests round my lower back, pulling me in closer, and I brush my lips against his. ‘And I am completely in love with you, Elijah Tresillian.’
He smiles, kissing me hard, and I laugh, kissing him back. We survived this storm. We will not meet in the stars just yet. I pull back enough to brace his side, grinning up at him through salt-tangled hair as all around us the cheers continue.
We walk through the smoking streets, not believing at first that it’s real. That we’ve done it. That we drove them away from Ennor, that we saved so many of our people.
Victory belongs to us.
‘we must get to thecastle,’ Kai says. ‘Take the wounded to the healers. Call a meet.’
Eli nods his agreement then winces. ‘Kai, your arm …’
Kai laughs humourlessly, then bites his lip. ‘It can be set.’
‘I’m sorry, my friend. I’m too drained to traverse with you to find a healer,’ Eli says, swallowing. Caden moves to prop him up on his other side as he sags suddenly. I stagger before Caden and I find our balance and he takes the weight.
‘I’ll take him up the hill, Mira,’ Caden says, looking down at me, flecks of enemy blood dotted like freckles over his cheeks and forehead. ‘Let me be his strength.’
I nod gratefully, relinquishing Eli’s weight to Caden. ‘You’re burned out,’ I say quietly, worry gnawing at me as Eli’s eyes close. ‘Please tell me you’re not wounded as well.’
Eli shakes his head. ‘Not wounded.’
We limp up the hill. Merryam begins passing the message among the people in the streets, to bring the wounded that can move inside the castle, to stabilise those who cannot and send a runner. The rain lessens and I tilt my face to the thunderous clouds still lingering, wishing it to calm. To disperse. To leave us completely and trail the enemy ships.
The storm does my bidding and I walk up the hill with Pearl and Agnes, tired and spent, spots cluttering my vision as I sway slightly, but with victory printed on my heart. Yet in my mind the greatest threat still lingers. The Rexilium brothers, the ruling council of three. The men with the same strange magic as Eli, who have controlled us and divided us for too long. Who would still yet sweep over the continent, claiming each territory for themselves.
