“They’re trying to drown us all!”I scream across the mooring. The water isn’t draining away now. The boat’s too low in the river, and the latest wave has worked to drag it under. The deck floods, and soon I’m treading water.
“Ana, the seal!”Leon shouts into my mind.
I wipe the river water out of my eyes just in time to see it—an eddy whipping the metal disc away from Leon’s grasp, so fast even he can’t snatch it back. Of course the seal hasn’t protected us, I realize. We’re on water, the one place it doesn’t work. And now it’s speeding toward the riverbank, carried by the pull of some cleric’s aquari magic.
“No!” I shout.
We can’t lose it now. Not when we worked so hard to find it. Not when it was the first real win we’ve had against Caledon.
I throw my magic out across the water, summoning my desire to have that seal back in my grasp. My orbital power fizzes in the air, but it’s not the only power at play. The water is rising, and I lose my focus, forced to tilt my head up and kick my legs frantically so I don’t slip under the surface.
“I’ve got you,” Leon gasps as his arms wrap around me, pulling me to him. He’s a much stronger swimmer than me, and he helps keep me afloat as I desperately search the river for sign of the seal. But it’s too late. I’ve lost sight of it.
“Ana! Leon!”
“Hold on, captain!”
I look over to see Tira clinging to a raft with three fae soldiers using whatever they can to row it toward us. I blink, wondering where the hell they found it, until I recognize the large stretch of wood fastened with barrels. Tira must’ve used her magic to rip it up straight from the deck.
The smugglers that survived the onslaught have abandoned ship now, swimming for the riverbank opposite from the Temple clerics. But as our friends pull us dripping and spluttering onto the raft, I know we can’t run from our enemy. Not when we need that artifact back.
“The Temple has the seal,” Leon tells the others.
“And we’re going after it,” I say. No one argues, which is good, because I’m already spinning the raft around with my orbital power, sending it racing across the water toward the riverbank.
“Don’t let me get washed away,”I say to Leon as another unnatural wave rises up to block us. I keep my mind locked in, concentrating only on keeping the raft moving, pushing it the direction I need it to go. I manage to pull us out of the worst of the wave’s path, but we’re still battered by the water, and Leon’s grip is the only thing that stops me being washed overboard.
Before the next wave can form, a cleric moves down to the shore, a short woman with brown hair hurrying to grab something out of the water. I know it has to be the seal, just as I know I won’t let them take it from me.
By now, I’m close enough to make out the clerics’ faces, to tell which ones are focused on the water, their hands moving for better accuracy as they conjure. There’s four of them all standing together, nearer to the river than the other clerics.
I’m close enough to feel their inner flames too.
The black space inside me stretches out, meeting the edge of my rising magic to make me feel limitless.
I inhale, drinking in the sensation, then snuff out the flames of the aquari one by one.
The waves die down as their bodies fall, one even toppling face-first into the water. The comrades nearest them panic, rushing to the bodies.
I snuff out their flames too.
Let them see what happens when they try to kill me—wash me away like I’m nothing more than a drowning rat. Let them realize they’ve summoned their nightmare Mithana, the death bringer.
When the next round of clerics falls, the fear sets in. Several of them turn and start to run, breaking rank to flee toward their horses. Our raft finally hits the riverbank, and Leon’s soldiers and Tira leap straight from it, drawing their weapons to chase after them.
Meanwhile, I search frantically for the cleric who took the seal from the water.
“Where is she, Leon?”I ask.
“I’m not sure. What did she look like?”
But before I can answer him, Leon darts out to my left, tackling a cleric charging at us with a blade.
I step off the raft onto the sandy bank, pushing through the long grass to search for the woman who grabbed the seal. As the clerics scatter, I spot her running up to a carriage with an open door, her hand outstretched with the seal and her face fixed in anexpression of reverence. A white-sleeved arm reaches out to take the artifact, and my heart gallops in my chest. Because I know instantly who’s sitting inside.
Caledon.
A burning rage sets my magic alight inside me. The last time I saw the Grand Bearer, I was helpless and bloody, holding Kit as he died in my arms. But I’m not helpless now.
