Page 137 of Gods of the Sea

“We can’t get close,” he replied. “If Henrik sees us, he can control us.”

“Can we blind him then?”

Luc snapped his head at me with a surprised look.

“Sorry,” I said. “My old self was quite violent, wasn’t she? Well, then what’s a better way to…?”

I looked around, spotting the stream that surrounded the room. I glanced at the rocks beside me. Gasping, I tapped Luc’s shoulder.

“The rocks,” I said. “And the king’s river water. If we combine them—”

“The earth and the spirit…yes.” Luc licked his bottom lip, nodding. “Yes, that will work. But we’d have to—”

“Strike our own. But do we really have any other options?”

He gave a quick jerk of his head, keeping his eyes on the fight. “We need to get down without getting caught.”

I looked around. After a couple breaths, I tore off a piece of my sleeve and rolled it up into a tight ball, sticking it in Luc’s ear.

“Will this work?” I asked.

He felt his ear for a moment before nodding. “It’s the best we have. Let’s go.”

We tore off tiny pieces of our clothes and stuffed our ears with them, blocking out the sound as much as possible. Even if Henrik saw us, we wouldn’t hear his commands. But that wasonly one problem solved. The second problem was going to be dipping the stones in water and carrying them without burning ourselves in the process.

I motioned to Luc to take the rocks in a strip of robe, then dip them in the water and carry them to the pirates. He nodded. We gathered the rocks next to us, carrying as many as possible before Luc scooped me back into his arms to fly down to the fight. We had to fly toward the back, making sure that Henrik didn’t see us coming.

When we hit the ground, we searched for the stream. It was hard to see through the blur of pirates and sirens in battle. We weaved through swords and wings, staying close together as we headed to the side of the room.

I put the rocks in a sling of cloth, dropping it down into the river. The water bubbled, as if it was boiling, assuring us that the magic was working.

I was suddenly jerked away from the river, the sling of rocks slipping from my hands. I had time to see a possessed siren aim a sword straight for my throat right before Luc blocked me. There was a muffled cry, and by the way Luc’s chest seized, I knew it had come from him.

He huffed, his wings engulfing us. He hunched over for a split second. My lips said his name, even though he couldn’t hear it, and I grabbed his face with my hands to make him look at me. He winced in pain, but he still had his typical smile, right before he shot open his wings and flapped them violently around us. The force knocked both the sirens and pirates around us off their feet.

He huffed again, and then I saw the cut in his robe. There was blood, but it wasn’t a lot, siren blood being thicker than human blood. I touched his side, but he grabbed my hand and pulled it away.

I’m okay, he mouthed.

I swallowed my heartbeat down my throat. I knew sirens couldn’t die, but knowing Luc was hurting…

Then it hit me. Luc couldn’t die. But I could.

Luc had just taken a sword to his side to protect me.

Thank you, I mouthed back.

He shook his head and stepped back, snapping his wings once again to keep the fight away from the stream. While doing so, he untied the top part of his siren robe, loosening the strings around the wings so he could take off a side piece and wrap it around his hand. He then shoved his wrapped hand in the water, pulling out the burning rocks. I held out the bottom of my shirt for him, and he dropped the rocks in it.

When he had dropped about a dozen rocks into my sling, I took off running to the pirates. Dodging the swords, I tried to call to them, not sure how loud my voice really was. Some of them heard me. Some of them did not. The ones who did hear, however, turned and took a rock from my shirt, flinging the stones at their opponents. I couldn’t hear the sirens clearly, but I could see their surprise and anguish as the stones made contact.

I could only apologize in my head.

I went back to Luc to resupply. He nodded and pointed to the ceiling, implying that he had to go back above for more rocks. I nodded, taking the last of the batch to the side of the room, resolving to give them to the first pirates I saw and then staying out of the way until Luc came back down with more rocks for the river.

There were a cluster of pirates on the side, and I shoved the rocks at them. They took most of them, fending off their opponents, but not without extreme exhaustion. They would need to retreat. They wouldn’t be able to—

I turned my head, my eye catching one of the sirens elbowing a pirate in the face. The pirate hit the ground hard.

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