From this angle, I could see the profile of the Kraken. Two thirds of its tentacles were still beneath the miasma, not even in use yet.
I still had one glyph I hadn’t activated.
Please don’t let this kill me.
Taking a deep breath, I called for the Sun, holding my bloodied hands out in front of me.
Warmth bathed me. Radiant heat suffused every pore, as sunlight lanced through the darkness like a knife. The light blasted the side of the Kraken with an ear splitting hiss.
A comforting euphoria stole my senses. Every small abuse I’d sustained during the battle was washed away in an indulgent drowning pleasure. There was no pain, no doubt, no regrets or worries. Everything was sublime and perfect and light.
Joy and contentment buoyed up from within, bubbling out of me as laughter.
Nothing felt this good. Nothing could ever feel this good again.
The rapturous melody of the Sun wove itself around me, ensnaring me. And I was lost.
I drifted in the void of power and bliss, my surroundings fading away.
I could stay here forever.
Something intruded on the alluring pleasure cocooning me. Fear.
I was afraid, but why? Nothing could hurt me here, nothing even existed beyond this limitless, timeless song.
The anxiety was persistent, digging its claws into my chest and squeezing. It was growing stronger. Something was wrong.
I clung to the sedating warmth that spilled out from inside me in all directions. I didn’t want to leave. Here I was safe, accepted. This was home. This was where I belonged.
No. It isn’t.
The stray thought crawled to the surface of the sea of pleasure, and it made me doubt. I had forgotten something vital.
I resisted the pull of the Sun’s song, trying to remember why I was using its deadly power in the first place.
I’d lost something precious. Something I’d never be able to get back.
I didn’t want to lose anything more precious.
I let the power go.
Agony.
The pain was indescribably immense, all consuming.
My limbs flopped uselessly beneath me, cut like limbs on a broken doll. I hit the wood hard, head bouncing.
Miasma lapped at the edges of the prow, inches from my face.
Every nerve was incinerated. It hurt to breathe. To blink. To think.
I screamed, or at least I tried to scream, but nothing came out besides a hoarse wheeze. I couldn’t even vocalize around the extreme anguish. It was so acute that I blacked out.
The last thing I saw was the Kraken, floating above the miasma, its lacerated tentacles limp and its blistered body unrecognizable under the halo of a mad rainbow.
Chapter 41
Uncharted Waters
