Page 39 of Depths
“Knew what?” My voice was ragged.
Crash!
The carriage rocked to the side, and I fell into Valdez. My nose smashed into his pecs, and my wrist crumpled in pain as it hit the wall behind him. My skull screamed. But adrenaline hit at the same time.
The sound of shouting came to my ears. But it wasn’t the panicked shout of men during an emergency. It was the angry sound of a mob awaiting a hanging.
Frost formed inside my chest as I realized that we were under attack.
“What the sard?” Valdez’s eyes narrowed, and a dagger appeared in his hands out of nowhere.
I shoved off of him and went to look out the window, but his long arm shot out and pinned me down on the bench. “Don’t, Avia.” He pointed the knife at me like a tutor would a piece of chalk, scoldingly.
Fury embroidered my every thought, weaving through me as I stared at him. What was going on?
My anger was obvious, stitched across my face. Valdez’s expression softened in response, and he put the knife down to his side. “Forgive me. I forget, you have magic to defend yourself.” His hand slowly retreated, but as it did, I felt suddenly bereft. Not because of the loss of his touch. But because he was wrong.
In order to possess the power to control the waves, to create tsunamis and typhoons, a half-sprite had to pay a price: her humanity. I had to get rid of my heart. Physically.
I already planned to do that. But Posey had warned me that, if I ever accessed the inhuman magic, I might become what Mayi had become … an emotionless monster. Literally and figuratively heartless.
An explosion sounded, and shockwaves shoved the carriage again. I was thrown to the floor, my knees smacking and pain lashing me like a whip. Valdez landed on top of me, and my ribs stabbed my innards. Black spots filled my vision as he pulled himself up. I blinked sluggishly when he rolled me over, unable to catch my breath because the stupid organ in my chest stuttered.
I should just have him cut it out right now with his dagger,the errant thought floated up like a bubble. I saw Valdez’s hand come down. He reached for my face, but all I could do was watch dully—
The door of the carriage flew open, and Felipe burst inside. His arms were around me less than a second later, and then we went hurtling out of the carriage in a blur of bubbles as he yelled, “Get out!”
Just then, a huge boulder smashed into the side of the carriage, denting it with a screech that made the metal howl and the seahorses scream in fear.
“Who?” I could hardly get out the single word.
“Rebels,” Felipe whispered in my ear, one of his hands curled possessively just above my ass, the other still clenched on his spear, though the bicep of his weapons arm wrapped around the back of my neck, pressing my face to his collarbone, my lips just a hair’s breadth from his pulse, which thundered. He didn’t stop swimming.
Where’s he going?We were in the middle of the open ocean! There was nowhere to hide.
The wild war cries of the rebels reached my ears, and I craned my neck to look over his shoulder. Men who were half shifted, with shark tails but male torsos and heads, surrounded our traveling party. They’d painted their faces and arms with bands of yellow and carried golden tridents in their hands. Behind the shark shifters, who aggressively circled, getting closer with each pass, was an entire contingent of mermen. But instead of rainbow colors in their hair and tails, these mermen had covered their entire bodies in squid ink so that they were nothing more than dark shadows. Only the whites of their eyes and their teeth were visible as they screamed, “Down with the foreign queen!” and “Sand and water don’t mix. They make mud!”
Cold gripped me, just as it had in the caves where Mayi had held me. For a split second, my mind went back there. To darkness. To the depths of despair. But I forced those thoughts down when one of my maids shrieked in fear. The tent on top of the whale collapsed on one side, fabric sagging then writhing as the people trapped beneath it tried desperately to escape.
No!
I didn’t picture my maid’s face or her fear. I didn’t picture any of the others. My heart instantly sought Mateo. I knew he’d been seated near the back of the animal, and my chest thumped furiously at each figure that emerged from the tent, hoping he was alright, even as several of my guards engaged in fighting around the sides of the whale, squaring off against the rebels.
Iron clashed as spear met trident, and the clang of metal and fierce yells of the men on both sides filled the water. The whale moaned.
I saw Posey, my undead guard, join the fight, moving mercilessly after the rebels. I saw Gita’s gold tail flicker as she came out of the broken tent, then backtracked to hover above the whale, away from the fighters. Sahar and Keelan came out.
Where the sard is Mateo?
Finally, his clumsy swimming and silver hair caught my eye, and the relief was like coming inside after trudging through the snow, like placing my hands before the fire. Thank goodness. Mateo’s eyes didn’t seek mine, because just then one of the rebels shoved aside my guard and swooped closer, trident in his hand pointed directly at Mateo’s heart.
If that trident so much as nicked him … I had to look away, I had no power to enforce any threat that rolled through my head. Disbelief clouded my other emotions for a moment. Desperation.This can’t be happening. Not now.I blinked, wishing my eyelids could erase this view, that they’d come down like theater curtains and rise on a new scene. They didn’t.
Instead, I watched several of my guards swim forward, their spears lighting with apricot-colored magic, and knock that rebel attacking Mateo back, then go after the others with a ferocity that shocked me. Apparently, they’d only been playing at defense before. I held my breath, rapt, as they engaged the trident-wielders in combat, weapons clanking and crashing together. Orange magic sparks shot from my guards’ weapons, hitting their targets. Victory surged through me, and I opened my mouth to shout. But it was premature. And the yell shriveled in my throat. The magic didn’t singe the shark-shifter rebels as intended. It simply bounced off them and fizzled in the water.
My hands tightened, nails digging into Felipe’s back as fear gripped me.Why are they immune to magic? How’s that possible?
Those spears were designed to shock and incapacitate. I’d listened to a very boring lecture from Felipe about it. The rebels should have been floating logs, limbs gone stiff and useless as boards. But still they fought.How?
