I scan the deck for Sable.
I find him. He moves between his attackers with lethal precision across the deck, his blade flashing in tight arcs that force them back one step at a time. But there are too many of them, their bodies closing in around him, no matter how much he slashes at them. He won’t be able to keep them off forever. My chest tightens at the thought of a blade ramming into his chest, of him bleeding out as Saint did.
So I do not let my song fade. Instead of forcing it back down and obeying the instinct that wants me to stop, I allow it to expand further. The power spills outward in slow waves, pulsing through the air around me as if the sea itself has chosen my body as its vessel.
Without a second thought, I lift my hands, my fingers spreading through the air as if I can feel the shape of the power itself. My song reaches further across the deck and slips past the clash of steel, then wraps around not one but two of the hunters attacking Sable.
One of them stiffens first, his blade faltering before falling to the ground. Then the body of another locks mid-motion, as if he is being held back by an invisible force. Their minds struggle against my power, and I feel the strain of it tearing through me, my lungs burning as if each breath must force its way through broken glass.
Movement flickers at the edge of my vision. Two more hunters break from the chaos, their eyes fixed on me and my throat. A quick glance to my sides tells me that no one can step in, that no one can leave their position, as they would risk their own lives in doing so.
“Risa!” Sable shouts, there is nothing controlled or commanding in it now, only raw fear stripped bare as my nametears out of him. He knows what it is costing me, and he knows he will not reach me in time.
I drag more power through me, ignoring the violent protest of my body as the sound lashes outward and wraps around them just before their hands reach me.
The impact of it nearly breaks me. Pain explodes through my chest as my hands jerk violently in the air, my fingers cramping inward as the force pouring out of me doubles, triples, far beyond what I have ever produced before.
My gaze finds Sable, who’s using two swords now, trying to fight his way through the shifting crowd. With his eyes widened and his knuckles white around the handles of his blades, he screams my name again. But it all seems so distant. So out of reach.
My arms tremble uncontrollably as I hold them all in my power, my fingers curling tighter as if I can physically grip the threads binding them to me. The terror claws at the edges of their minds, as it does to mine. I can feel it as though it is my own.
Killing them might give us the upper hand again. The crew will survive if only I can push a little further. The issue is the edge that I can feel rising inside of me, an invisible boundary between me and my power that I may not cross. It is absolute, and I understand with terrible clarity that if I push beyond it, there will be no returning from what I become.
At the edge of my vision, a presence rises. Darkness creeps upon me as Sable’s shadow forms at my side. The familiar shape gives me a brief moment of comfort, but is soon replaced by a devastating realization.
I haven’t sung his shadow back. And I might never get the chance to.
“Let them go,” he pleads, and the sound of his voice makes me shiver, sickness rising in my throat.
“I can’t.” I whimper, a tear wetting my cheek. “I can’t risk losing you.”
The physical form of Sable still tries to cut through the chaos, his blade flashing with deathly precision, beheading one of his attackers without mercy. He doesn’t even look twice at what he has done. Instead, he moves forward, already striking again, disarming the next man who dares to step into his path. It is like with his shadow gone, he is something else entirely. For a suspended moment, I understand him completely.
He looks like how I feel.
“I‘m sorry,” I whisper instead. “I wish we had more time.”
My fingers curl inward with the last strength I have left, pulling tight on the invisible threads binding the hunters to my will. Obedience floods through me as all four of them turn to walk towards the railing in perfect, silent unison.
My throat burns raw, but still, I hold them.
I hold them as their hands grip the wood.
I hold them as they climb.
I hold them as they jump.
The moment they disappear, everything breaks.
The power feels like a punch in my gut, so overwhelming that it steals the breath from my lungs, the sudden collision of everything I gave and everything being returned tears through me faster than my body can handle. I am thrown backwards as my legs give out beneath me. The deck tips violently before the shattering pain of my hip striking the railing hits.
“Risa!” he screams my name before the world slips away from me.
I fall.
Cold air rushes around me as the sea rises to meet me, its dark surface swallowing the last fragments of light from the ship. It meets me with a crushing force, the freezing cold explodingaround my body, swallowing me whole, as it has done many times before.
Above me, the surface fractures the light into broken shards. There’s movement there. Something dark, twisting and shaking with the swaying of the waves. A man. His shadow. He dives downward without hesitation, reaching for me instead of returning to the man he belongs to.
