Page 14 of Claimed By the Depths

“Kael, you don’t understand the implications of what you just did. Our lands are cursed. No one can access that level of wielding even if they wanted to. By the gods, you didn’t just cast, but you…”

“Controlled,” Leilani finished for me as she clenched her fist around the daggers she held. “Magic hasn’t been known to exist in Wraelira ever since your father overtook the throne. The only exception seems to belong to people like Rohen, Children of the gods.”

Blinking, my head swiveled between them as I took Kael’s offered hand. “Does that mean we’ve found another one of the five?”

He hoisted me upright, power billowing from him in waves that seemed to stem from somewhere just beyond our realm. “Listen, as much as I would love to sit here and discuss this, we⁠—“

A screech far more otherworldly than the first carved through the brief calm. The portal widened alongside it, cobblestone fissuring beneath its adamance, and those same twinned hooves reappeared. Except this time, a deep purple shaded them, radiating upward in vein-like sweeps.

My lips parted to ask if it’d been a detail I missed, or if the one Kael had wounded had returned, but the question died on my tongue as a blue thorax rose from the depths.

It towered over us, its height easily twice that of the prior insect. Pincers, where there hadn’t been any prior, snapped in our direction with predatory wrath. Its tail swished behind it with territorial languor, carrying the rage of an animal whose peace had been invaded.

No, it was an animal whose offspring had been harmed.

“We need to move!” I snapped as I grabbed Leilani’s wrist and free arm. “Now!”

Perceptive, the creature's eyeless head snapped toward us. Twitching unnaturally, a sharp crack split the stillness, and we watched in horror as its whipping appendage split in two. Stingers duplicated, one wasting no time to pierce the earth inches from my feet.

A scream was quick to follow, but it came from the small porch of one of the homes. “W-What is that thing⁠—?!”

A second tail darted with precision, piercing the center of the woman’s chest. A rasped gag tumbled from her, but it was short-lived as every vein lining her skin shifted to an inky black. The blood spilling from the gaping wound shifted to match the darkening hue before it reached her neck and head, eye sockets bursting with a pop of her infested lineage.

“Fucking now!” I reiterated, ripping them with me toward one of the alleyways.

Sprinting down the side streets, our booted footfalls seemed to echo with a newfound weight. We hadn’t been able to save that woman, and it was likely that she would be the first of many to pass beneath the billowing influence of the Others. Something burrowed within the very marrow of my bones warned that this was just the beginning of something horrific, something that would change the trajectory of the future if we didn’t do something to stop it.

A timbre rose from behind us, carrying with it the octaves of numerous voices. “You believe you are capable of running from your fate?”

“Did it just fucking talk?!” Kael shouted, briefly glancing over his shoulder. “Please tell me you heard that too, because if not, then we’ve got a whole other set of issues to consider.”

The creature’s cadence flooded our escape route, preventing Leilani or me from confirming his unease. “Divari are only capable of cowering for so long. Remain mindful of such cautions, as well as those that are seconds away from presenting, for my warning is a grace compared to what’s coming. These lands are cursed, wrapped in the pestilence our realm thrives off, and…”

Its utterance seemed to fade as Kael slowed, my attention narrowing in on him. The shadows once curled around his forearms faded as his palm met the brick of the building we stopped beside.

“Kael, what’s⁠—?”

Leilani was cut off as the prince heaved, blood spewing from his lips in a thick waterfall. Peering up at me, his life force trickled down his chin as his body swayed once before plummeting toward the cobblestone street.

I lunged forward, capturing him in my hold before he could make contact. Mind reeling, my thoughts settled on the insect’s words, hints that prefaced a link to something just out of our reach.

There had never been an instance in the past where Rohen had collapsed like this after she’d connected with her mother or summoned the creatures she’d suddenly become capable of calling forth. But Kael? All it took was one weapon casting…

How could Kael even wield in cursed lands if he wasn’t a Child of the gods? Who was he really, and what the hell was he capable of?

“Syoran!” Leilani screamed. “We need to get back to the ships!”

Unaware of how long I’d been attentively watching the slow rise and fall of Kael’s chest, I nodded. Cradling him, I pushed myself to stand, my brows drawing together with far more questions than answers—far more concerns than alleviations.

Just as I’d feared, our fight had only just begun.

CHAPTER 8

Arrow of Darkness

ROHEN

Terracotta tiles vanished from beneath me as I jumped from one roof to the next. Shoulder greeting the harsh surface of the neighboring structure, I rolled. With the momentum carrying me, I was upright once more and slipping through the rungs of a ladder before beginning my descent.