Water surged up from within the wall as Fedora continued her rampant terror. She had always been a creature with no true alliance, and I’d put off finding the trident as long as possible, knowing it shouldn’t reach her hands. Still, I felt responsible for what she was doing, and the vengeance to stop her was mine.
“We’re going to aid the fae and lead the transitioned vampires; they’re being pushed back too strongly by the celestials,” Drystan informed.
I nodded and he began to turn.
“Drystan,” I called to stop him.
Every muscle in my body locked against it, but every fiber of my soul pushed past the strange discomfort to cross the few steps and pull my brother into an embrace.
“Be careful,” I said, then let him go.
His stun was written all over his expression, but he cleared his throat to save from any awkwardness.
“Likewise,” he muttered.
Astraea and I headed back into the city.
On the lower level, we tracked the vicious water attacking through the streets. Fedora commanded water that had slipped over Astraea’s shield, and this part of the city was a lethal playground for her. She summoned water to cut down innocents that fled from her for nothing more than her appetite to feel powerful.
I tried her mind first, breaching her thoughts enough to intercept her next current, which stopped cutting through the air and rained down harmlessly instead.
The nymph whirled to me with blazing rage in her onyx eyes and pushed me out of her mind effortlessly. Then she smiled, her head tilted down, making her look hauntingly maniacal.
“Have you come to die, my night?” she said in her melodic voice.
“The only thing I am to you is your death.”
Her smile was wiped. “After all that time we spent together? I thought there was something of a bond between you and I.”
“Yet you betrayed me the moment you had the chance.”
“You forget yourself. Forget that I helped your precious star and then you forgot about me the moment you were free.”
That part was true. Fedora had become more attached to me than I had realized, and now I was just another who’d abandoned her.
“It’s not too late to join us,” I said.
It was a lie, but I didn’t care. After what she’d done to Astraea, I had no mercy left. She’d harmed her once before in the cave pool under the library where I was captive, and I was willing to forgive that; now her actions against Astraea had become so extreme that she was beyond redemption.
“It’s too late foryou,” she said; then she struck.
Her power with the trident was unparalleled. I was beginning to believe it held just as much potential as Astraea’s key.
Water slashed in a horizontal wave toward me, fast enough to cut flesh. Eltanin was close enough for me to feel the darkness of his breath and summon it to my own fingertips. As I narrowly ducked to avoid her first attack, my shadow formed a shield against her second attempt at me, which came in the form of a water spear.
We entered a dance of water and darkness, colliding and blocking each other. I had the patience to wear her out, going on the defensive.
Astraea was nearby; I could still feel her.
Fedora cried in frustration, and I knew her desperation to win against me would turn more vicious. A whirlpool formed around her, taking her high above the buildings within its eye, and she watched me from above like a dark spirit of the sea. She didn’t throw out simple attacks anymore, and when a new shadow grew high over the wall behind me, I thought we’d face another colossal wave to stop. Instead, what I saw stopped time for a second.
A water dragon.
Drystan hadn’t mentioned this type, which had to have been somehow freed from the temple that lay in the depths of the sea between the mountains. My imagination couldn’t have conjured this image that was not made of flesh, scales, or feathers like the others. Instead, it was like its body was made of animated glass, shimmering brilliantly, like the moonlight refracted through a prism.
Its horns were jagged and crystalline, sharp spears of ice that gleamed with cold brilliance. Talons, similarly forged of frost and edged like knives, scraped against the ground, leaving trails of frozen land in every step. It bore no wings yet its body exuded a graceful, otherworldly elegance. Its roar was more of a rattling cry, and were it not so large and threatening, it would have been worthy of kneeling in awe for.
But Fedora had summoned it, and the dragon had crawled from the depths of the ocean at the call of her wrath.
