Page 238
The sky splits with white fire as the thunder screams my anguish.
Lightning strikes the sea around the retreating ship in a ring, each bolt hitting the water with a force that sends towers of steam bursting upward, and the ocean between us begins to churn so violently that the dragon vessel lurches sideways, spilling men from its deck amid a chorus of screams.
“Stop,” he says. “You will kill yourself.”
Kylian tries and fails to haul me away from the railing. His strength is no opponent to my magic that holds me here. “No, but I’ll kill them.”
The sea rises.
A wall of water pulls itself from the dark, towering higher than the ship, threaded with lightning at its edges, glowing from within where my magic runs through it in gold and blue veins.
The dragon ship fires once.
The shot never reaches us.
The wave swallows it.
Then the wave falls.
It crashes over the dragon vessel with a sound so vast it drowns every scream, snapping the main mast, smashing the deck open, tearing men from the rails while others launch into the sky on shifting wings.
The dragon above roars.
I look up.
Lightning spears down from the clouds and strikes the dragon across one wing, lighting every line of its body in white for one terrible moment before it twists away, screeching, smoke trailing from the torn membrane as it fights to stay in the air.
More dragons burst from the sinking ship.
Three of them.
Then two more.
Bodies shift midair, men breaking open into wings and claws and scales as they flee the wreckage. Their shapes are black against the storm that gathers tighter around them.
I reach for them too.
Kylian moves then, not grabbing this time, but stepping in front of me, his hands closing on my face, forcing my gaze to his.
“Enough,” he says, and the word shakes because he is afraid. “Alessia, look at me.”
His face is streaked with blood, his eyes bright with terror he cannot hide, and for one brief second, the storm pauses around us. Every wave is suspended between my wrath and the bond’s command.
“Don’t do this. Don’t let your anger taint what cannot be undone.”
“Arlo can’t be undone.”
Kylian’s thumb brushes blood from my cheek, though it only smears more across my skin.
“There are innocent people on that ship.”
Behind him, the dragon ship breaks in half as the dragons abandon those that don’t have wings.
The sound is deep and final, wood splitting, metal screaming, men crying out as the sea swallows the stern first and drags the rest down after it. Fire burns across floating wreckage, and bodies roll in the waves between planks, ropes, torn sails, and shattered crates.
The storm begins to loosen because I let it, and my knees buckle.
Kylian catches me before I hit the deck, one arm around my waist, the other still holding my face as if he is afraid I will vanish if he lets go.
