They’d be having a chat later.
Assuming he found her alive and unharmed.
He fastened his belt and it hung awkwardly over his thin black pants. Reaching down to ensure the pistol was secure at his hip, he ducked through the berth’s flimsy door and into the darkened hallway. Though it wasn’t dark for him; his Fae vision allowed him to see clearly in all levels of light.
The crashes of a struggle echoed from up ahead.
The dining hall.
He didn’t spare a second thought for anyone in the rooms lining the corridor as he rushed forward, praying to the High Gods that he hadn’t woken up too late.
* * *
Cassandra viewedthe fight from outside her body.
It happened often when she tunneled deep into her mind, her senses as sharp as the patterned blade she wielded. She became a slashing, kicking, punching whirlwind, focused on her enemy with no room for doubts or fears of any kind.
A burning pain radiated from her forearm and thigh, and she dimly recalled bolts of fire arcing out and blistering her skin. Adrenaline must be holding the agony at bay.
The Fae—a fine-boned Windrider female with a long mane of unruly brown hair—screamed as Cassandra delivered a vicious slash to her right leg. The Fae lunged for Cassandra again, shooting another flaming stream.
Cassandra ducked just in time, the fire spewing over her head and singeing her hair. She pivoted and slammed a table into the Fae’s side. The table exploded into ashes, consumed by a ball of fire as Cassandra darted out of reach to contemplate her next move.
The Sea of Thetis was a calm, inky expanse beyond the wall of windows. If she could lure the Windrider there, perhaps she could slash it and push it into the water to drown.
The Fae noted the direction of her gaze and, to Cassandra’s shock, dashed for the windows herself.
The female spread her wings wide, the flesh a peachy-pink with golden undertones brought to life by the increasingly large blaze gobbling up the food stall.
Cassandra steadied herself, then hurled the dagger. The blade sunk between the Fae’s wings with a satisfying thunk, inspiring a piercing cry. The Fae angled an arm behind her and plucked out the dagger, tossing it to the ground with a throaty growl. She shattered the glass with a blast of wind, then escaped through the broken window.
The extra oxygen fed the blaze, the flames enveloping the entire side wall of the hall.
The door to the dining hall crashed open, and Tristan barreled in, barefoot and clothed only in his shirt and sleep pants, pistol in hand. “What happened?”
Cassandra was pleased he asked for intel first, rather than scolding her for not waking him up. His eyes darted down, and a pained grimace twisted his lips at the burns on her forearm and thigh.
“A Windrider withfire magichappened,” Cassandra coughed as the room filled with black, choking smoke.
Tristan surveyed the rapidly growing blaze, then turned back to Cassandra. “Go wake the passengers and lead them to the lifeboats at the back of the ship. Find Hella. I’ll go after the Windrider.”
Cassandra nodded before Tristan took several wide strides then pushed himself through the destroyed windows. He caught his bare foot on a shard of glass and a trickle of red crept down the wall. He didn’t even notice, the wound closing up as soon as he blasted his wind outside and launched into the sky.
Cassandra bolted from the dining hall and into the corridor, encountering confused, terrified faces along the way. “Head to the lifeboats!” she shouted, shaking them out of their recently-roused state. “There’s a fire in the dining hall. Hurry!”
She herded a young, mortal family along the darkened corridor, twin girls each wailing and clinging to a parent.
Behind her, the dining hall’s remaining windows exploded in a tinkling crash as the fire raged. An orange glow crept down the hallway and her stomach dropped. How would she ever get everyone out in time?
Pounding on every door she passed, each room’s inhabitants greeted her with the same blinking uncertainty. She had to scream at many folks who turned back to pack up their belongings.
The hallway spread before her like an endless abyss, and heat kissed her back as the fire rounded the corner and crawled along the walls, devouring the grass-cloth wallpaper. Panic shivered along her limbs as she realized she wouldn’t have time to knock on every single door, wake every sleeping passenger.
A towering figure with blood-red wings ducked out of a room further down the hallway, and Cassandra almost collapsed with relief.
“Hella!”
The Windrider lumbered towards her, trying not to jostle the crowd of mortals and Fae rushing for the back of the ship.
