Page 127 of Cursed Waters

“Magic,” the three of us said together, and I couldn’t keep from shuddering again.

Maybe there was a certain shadow puppet behind all this, pulling strings, bringing us back together. But why?

My night vision popped back just as Leander scraped up a handful of coral frags. “Close your eyes,” he said gently, and as soon as their tails started moving, I knew he’d made light.

“There are guards hidden all over. They pop up out of nowhere,” I whispered, trying to find a position where the dead weight of my tail wasn’t knocking into one of theirs.

“No need to worry. Not now that we havethis.” Leander scooped my tail up with a chuckle, letting Barren’s arm take over my waist, and my eyes opened as he raised the trident triumphantly in the air.

It suddenly hit me—we actually had King Eamon’s trident.

“We did it?” I gasped, hardly able to believe it. Just a few minutes ago, I was preparing myself for my execution, but now…

“No,wedidn’t do anything,” Leander corrected, pride swelling in his voice. “You did it, Claira.”

Me?

My stomach plunged, and my lips sealed instantly. He was wrong. I’d done nothing at all. Well, except for landing one punch. But the tool that had sliced into the Rook had been delivered to me by the same hands—err, tentacles—that’d bound and delivered me to the crusty slimeball in the first place. But those tentacles had also released me, and now I wasn’t so sure they hadn’t done it on purpose.

The sea wizard knew I had the shell in my hands. He’d commented on it right before taking me into the throne room, after he seemed amused by me still being bound.

Wait.

Had he expected me to cut myself free? Could the shell have even sliced through his magic bindings if I’d tried?

A wide hand flattened underneath my shoulder blades, supporting my back, and I winced, guarding the shell with my arms. If it had been enchanted to hack through more than just cecaelia flesh, I didn’t want to risk cutting either of them with it. It felt wrong to keep it but even worse to leave it now that its strange magic had saved me.

“Here we go.” Leander inhaled, and his chest broadened as he raised the trident even higher. We slipped through the throne room’s doors, and water whizzed past my ears. Screams followed in the distance, and Leander let out a grunt of concentration. Every part of him was growing warmer, his skin buzzing with magic against my tail.

At least a dozen whirlpools kicked up in a flash, the watery vortexes taking off, flying through the foyer. Chaos erupted as they veered around in erratic patterns, ricocheting off the high walls and tossing around tangles of cecaelia that had been lurking in the recesses of the foyer and connecting hallways.

Had he used trident magic before? The Rook had only summoned one, but Leander was controlling an army of mini tempests. Leander’s wide eyes darted, tracking the storms as they rushed about, wrecking into the walls, tossing more bodies up to the grand ceiling, looking just as stunned by the damage they caused as I was.

Barren’s tail steered us as we ducked and dodged, swerving through the chaos, until I felt the rush of the current as we passed through the palace archway back into the open ocean. A black cloud flickered in front of us, and my whole body jolted. Two bursts of white eyes burned in its center, locked right on to me, but the lithe specter swung around us, passing us in an instant. He was there and gone so fast; it was like he’d been nothing more than an illusion of smoke.

“Did you see that?” I whipped my head around to follow his trail but could barely see a thinning wisp of black magic from around the bulk of Barren’s side. If it really was the sea wizard, he was heading back into the palace. Right where the vortexes were still raging.

“Yeah,” Leander panted, his eyebrows pinched in concentration. “I didn’t know it would be this hard.” Muscles flexed around the trident, his expression turning desperate. He let out a strained growl. “Fuck, I can feel them getting bigger, but now that I can’t see them, I don’t know if… if I can stop it.”

More screams reverberated behind us, the roar of the water steadily growing, and Barren’s tail lashed out, taking over completely. We barreled through the thoroughfare while Leander shook against the trident.

“You can stop it,” Barren yelled, his tail beating through the water in impossibly long stretches that had us torpedoing through the water. “You control the trident. It doesn’t control you.”

Forcing my eyes away from the scene behind us, I stared up at the stubble lining Barren’s jaw, realizing then how exhausted he looked. Chest heaving, his muscles were drawn like he was still recovering from being a fish for so long. My gaze swept down the cords of his neck and fell into the crater of scars below it. His brace was gone, likely lost to the bottom of the ocean.

“Gah!” Leander gasped, and I reached out, steading the trident before he lost his hold on it. Magic flowed into me with a startlingwhoosh, and I jerked away like it had electrocuted me.

Shocked, I checked my fingertips to see if they looked as charred as they felt, but it was suddenly so hard to see.

I gasped. “Leander, the coral!” But the frags were already working out of his hand, the tiny pieces falling through his fingers, drifting in our wake like glowing fireflies.

He let out a shaky breath, his eyes closing tight like he wasn’t even listening, too consumed by the magic working through him.

I yelped as Barren’s arm came up from underneath me, effortlessly yanking the trident out of Leander’s hand with one quick motion.

Leander’s body thrashed against me, a furious burst of rage flashing in his eyes even in the darkness.

“Barren,” he growled, wild and dangerous, but Barren was already passing the trident to me. When a quick touch yielded no more magic shocks, I took it, nestling it next to the shell against my chest.

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