Page 127 of Wrath of the Dragons
He charges at me and steel clangs as he forces my back against the wide mast at the center of the ship. Splinters dig into my arms as I fend off his hold, and his sword shimmers as he rears it back and aims for my face. I free myself enough to duck, and a dull thwack vibrates my back as he embeds his weapon into the wood. Taking advantage of his poor swordsmanship, I shoot up and shove my blade through his chest, yanking it free and fisting his hair to bend him over in his final moments.
“It’s proper protocol to bow to your princess.”
I pat the Atarah sigil burned into the leather on his upper arm before letting him collapse on the deck.
A cannonball rips into our deck, and I drop to my stomach beside the corpse as wood rains down upon me. Blood soaks through my clothes, and I can’t wait for all this to be over so I can bathe.
“You all right, love?” Cayden calls out, and though I don’t spot him in the chaos, I’m not surprised he has one eye on me.
“Never better.” I grimace while peeling a clump of hair off my sticky arm and shoving to my feet, taking hold of my weapons again.
In their desperation, a mixture of Imirath and Thirwen soldiers throw torches at our ship, knowing they’re going to die and wanting to take us down with them. Zale orders the fire-wielders under his command, and they send the earthly fire back at our enemy. Their ships don’t catch fire, but their sails do, which sends hot embers and sheets of billowing fabric onto those on the decks. I feel my power surge within me as I watch their movements, imagining it like the tide pushing and pulling as I let the magic flow through me.
The hair on the back of my neck rises, and I let my instincts guide me until my gaze catches on light blue flames flecked with silver billowing on a torch in our path. We’re almost through the blockade, and though we’ve lost some ships, the element of surprise aided us in an invaluable way. The battle is nearly over, but I need to ensure we’re not lost to it in the final moments.
Fucking gods.
Zale can’t wield starfire—I don’t even know how they got it—and it’s just as unpredictable as dragonfire. I’m not willing to run the risk of failing, and rush to the edge of the ship as Zale and Finnian call out my name, but I ignore them, creating some semblance of a most likely horrible plan as I stab and dodge.
Honestly the best plans are born from absurdity and are only considered good if they work out.
“I need you to aim at that ship exactly like you have been,” I shout above the battle while wrapping a rope around my fist and stepping onto the railing.
“Elowen.” Saskia speaks my name as if she’s trying to coax a feral animal not to bite. “What the hells are you doing?”
“Possibly creating a diversion, possibly dying, we’ll see.”
“Elowen!” she screams, trying to catch my ankles, but I leap forward with my sword drawn. Arrows fly all around but don’t manage tohit me as I vault over the gap between ships. My boot slams into a woman’s face, and the starfire torch falls from her grip as she collapses on the deck with my feet on either side of her. I jam the heel of my boot into her temple to knock her out, muttering a curse as another soldier recovers the torch before it hits their deck.
I’m swarmed in an instant, swinging my blade without looking just to keep enemies away from me. Someone else sails over the railing, barreling into the three soldiers on my left as arrows are fired from behind.
“Always surprising me, angel.” Cayden offers his back to me so we’re able to battle together.
“It keeps our marriage interesting.” I stab someone through the throat and flick a bloody curl out of my face. “No thanks necessary for my service and devotion.”
Corpses pile up around us as we fight dirty, watching from the corner of my eye as our ship sails safely past and Finnian’s arrows no longer reach me. My limbs burn nearly as much as my lungs, and an axe flies above my head, splitting a charging soldier’s face in half.
“I had him!” I shout.
“No thanks necessary,” Cayden replies.
The blazing starfire captures my attention again as the soldier now holding the torch rushes toward the railing. We’re too far to pry it from their grip and douse it. I call to the flames, beckoning them toward me as the man carries them farther away.
You are mine.
You belong to me.
You answer to me.
The flames flicker, slowly inching toward me, but the connection is severed when Cayden’s arm wraps around my waist and he throws a knife through the person’s neck. Starfire swallows the ship in an instant and singes the back of my arm as Cayden vaults us over the side, sending us crashing into the shark-infested waters.
The cold swallows me whole, and my ears ring at the sudden silence. He keeps us beneath the surface, the corpses and sunken shipsilluminated by the firing cannons and blazing starfire. Even beneath the waves, I can feel the heat. The salt burns my eyes, but I don’t risk closing them. Sharks swarm beneath my ankles and I force myself to slowly blow out the final breath I took, needing to savor the oxygen.
I cling to Cayden and force the scream that bubbles up my throat to stay locked behind my lips when a tentacle shoots up and wraps around a dead body, and then two more, dragging them down where I can no longer see. Two eyes that look like rubies blink open and stare at us. One eye alone is as tall as Cayden, and it’s so dark that I can’t see the full size of the monster’s body. Though maybe that’s a blessing considering at least fifty tentacles fan out around its rounded head. Cayden shoves me behind him, keeping a hand pressed to my back, rendering me immobile as the ancient creature gets closer. My lungs beg for air, but the fire is still too thick, and I don’t think it’s smart to offer whatever monster this is our backs.
Black spots dance in my vision and a soundless scream flies from my lips when another tentacle shoots forward, wrapping around Cayden’s boot, but he doesn’t stab it with the sword still in his hand. I tug at his shirt to free myself from his hold so I can stab it. I’m not proud enough to believe I can best a sea monster in its domain, but I’m not going to watch it drag Cayden down without a fight. His thumb rubs against my back, but he doesn’t let me move away.
The monster clacks its razor-sharp teeth, the eerie sound vibrating and echoing throughout the space and sending the sharks darting away. It retracts its slimy tentacle while creeping up farther from the shadows and Cayden pulls me to the surface in time to see it wrap its tentacles around a handful of Thirwen and Imirath’s ships. It drags some beneath the sea but swallows others whole, feasting on whatever soldiers swim to the surface.
