Page 112 of Calling of the Crown

I didn’t understand. I’d never understand how someone could be so swept up with hatred that they’d subject so many people to this.

Death.

Grief.

Agony.

A world stained with red.

Akira didn’t deserve what happened.

I was sure most of the fallen Fae didn’t.

And all of the fighting I’d been made to do today? I hated it. Even now, I loathed what was happening between Elias and me. Death wasn’t the solution to our problems.

But for him it was, and he was determined to get it.

The anger, sorrow, and bitterness swirling deep inside me made my chest ache. It spiraled in an ugly tangle of emotions as Elias rushed toward me. Tears, blood, and dirt marred my cheeks as my watery dagger fended off his stone sword. My breath came faster as my mind went back to Akira lying motionless in Rune’s arms, my Fox sobbing over a precious soul lost.

Join.

This didn’t need to happen.

Become.

He didn’t need to die.

Water.

I roared an ugly, choked cry as I knocked Elias’s sword away. It slipped from his grasp, and I angled my blade for a kill, my hands shaking and heart pounding. Elias quickly dove toward his fallen sword, and I launched myself after him. He whipped around, still knelt on the ground, and that’s when the very air changed.

There was a sound like rock crushing metal and a wet snap as pressure hit me in the abdomen. I blinked, unsure what I was feeling, and looked down to see Elias’s Nightbloom coated sword buried in my stomach. He grinned up at me and shoved it in further.

Chapter Forty-Nine

“NO! BRIA! NO!” RUNE’S DESPERATE wails sounded far away.

All of the gasps and cries sounded distant.

They were muffled like I was underwater.

I took a breath, my body and limbs tingling. But not hurting. I stared at the entrance point of the sword, and I wondered briefly if I was dreaming. Shouldn’t I feel that? The odd sensation swirling around my gut spread, traveling down my legs and up my chest, face, and arms.

A gasp left Elias, and he released the sword to fall back on his butt, staring up at me with wide eyes. My armor and the sword suddenly fell to the ground as if it had fallen through nothing, and when I looked down at myself, I realized why.

I’m water.

Black liquid floated around my translucent, watery center, but with one thought from me, the gunk shot out of my form, falling into the grass between Elias and me.

“What the—” Elias stared at the place where the Nightbloom landed.

I looked over my see-through limbs before scanning my gaze over the faces of those still blocked by my walls. They stared at me, some dumbfounded, others horrified, and those closest to me, with wonder.

Except my mother. Her eyes were wide with horror, and that’s when I knew what was happening. She’d warned me that gaining the ability to become water would come at a steep price, and I’d most likely become lost to it, just like she had.

Suddenly, my watery body jolted, and the lullaby that often called to me swept me away until all was light, tranquil, and easy.

Stay.

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