Page 103 of Princess of Air

Chapter fifty-two

Angering the twins is a dangerous idea.

People think we are godlike already. Nina and Marcus at the cliff’s edge, fury raging, could be a painting of wrathful gods: flawless beauty, exquisite finery, and power beyond imagination.

A wave pushes away from the cliff, growing in speed and size as it approaches the fleet. It not only crashes into the first ship, it curls around it, pummeling it as it sucks it down into the depths. Another ship erupts in flames. The screams are horrid. Again, a ship is raised from the sea and destroyed. My siblings will lay waste to thousands this way.

“Rylan, stop!” I fling domes over ships as quickly as possible. Another wave sets upon a ship but splatters out against my shield.

“Ara, what are you doing?” Rylan stretches his arm toward another ship, but I push it away on a gale. The outcropping of rock merely sends it jostling in the waves.

“We cannot kill them all!”

Nina and Marcus ride out to us on a swell of seawater. “And why not?” Marcus calls out.

I lower us to them. “If we do, we are the monsters they fear us to be.”

“It is our duty to protect our kingdom,” Nina says.

“They haven’t attacked Alchos, only us.”

“Then clearly, they don’t fear us as much as they should.” Fire dances in her eyes.

“We should send them away,” I say.

“Giving them another opportunity to attack us?” Rylan crosses his arms. “Next time could be in the capital. Our people could be caught in the middle of it.”

A cannon fires at us. I throw wind at the projectile, but it continues toward us. I missed?

“Look out!”

With no room to spare, we dive out of the way. Underwater, I stare at my hands in disbelief. I pull bubbles from around me, surrounding my head in air and gulping it down. The air in the water calls out to me. I feel it as if it were an extension of myself. So how did I miss? I never miss.

I swallow back my nerves and kick to the surface. The others are already huddled together, and Nina is the first to address me. “Why didn’t you shield us from it? That’s what you do!”

“It was too fast.”

“Nothing is too fast for you.” Marcus’ brows furrow.

A ship speeds toward us. “They can’t be serious.” Ry looks toward one of his new rocky hills, and the top rips off with a deafening roar. It soars toward its target, or rather, us.

“Rylan!” I scream out as I throw a shield around us. The boulder shatters against it, sending a shockwave straight through to my bones.

This ship still approaches us. A towering wave launches us out of the way together, and we all go tumbling under the water again. We rise gasping for air.

“What is wrong with you?” Nina is the first to criticize again.

Rylan’s chest heaves, and his jaw quivers. “I don’t know how that happened. It was as if the ship wasn’t where it was supposed to be.”

“Your aim wasn’t where it was supposed to be! You nearly killed us!” Nina rolls a fireball in her hands and flings it at the passing ship, except when it should hit the ship, the ship is farther along and safe. The fireball steams as it falls into the water, and Nina’s jaw drops.

“Do you see what I mean?” Rylan splashes her out of her shock.

A breath shudders out of me. “How are they doing that?”

“Is that why you didn’t block the cannonball?” Marcus asks.

“Yes. I threw my power out at it, but I missed.”

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