Arthur was trembling. He was looking behind me, face completely white.
Irritation overpowered any fear I might’ve felt. I was tired of this. “Gods, what is it now?”
“Avodanoy,” Arthur whimpered.
“Huh?”
“Big. Fish.”
Ethan froze beside me, and I had the balls to turn around. I immediately wish I hadn’t.
Towering above us was a monsterous water creature. The monster was humanoid, standing on two legs. It had spines protruding from its back, and webbed hands. It had scaly green skin, and a long, reptilian face with giant lips and stringy seaweed for air. If I had to guess, the monster was at least sixty feet tall. I physically felt the airwhooshout of my lungs as I observed the monster, who was most certainly the largest creature I’d ever seen.
Um, yeah. That was one hell of a big fish.
“Row!” Vara and I scrambled for the oars. It was a futile effort, but the only thing we could do to escape. The longship moved forward at a snail’s pace as thevodanoyreared its head back, letting out a guttural sound before reaching out with one of its webbed hands.
“Hit the deck!” I screamed. Tygrys held onto my hair, and Vara and I lunged for the floor as the monster’s hand swept into the ocean. A huge wave carried the ship, tossing it into the air. The ship roughly jerked to the side as it came crashing down upon the surface again. I had to dig in with my nails to keep from flying off, while Ethan and Arthur were slammed against the hull.
I thought for sure Vara had been tossed over, until I looked to the side and saw that she was still here. How had she managed to remain on the ship?
I had no time to wonder, because the ocean churned again, and clouds gathered overhead. Lightning flashed, and the sound of thunder merged with the screams of thevodanoyas the ship was yanked up and down.
“It’s creating a storm!” Vara called out.
“Pull the oars in and hold on!” I ordered. Vara did as I said, and we flattened against the floor. The boys laid against the deck of the ship alongside us, clutching to the sides of the boat for dear life as it was tossed back and forth amongst the tumult of thevodanoy’sstorm.
We hadn’t had time to bring the sail in, and that was a cataclysmic mistake. The sail caught the wind and was ripped from one side to the other, the ship jerking against the fifty-foot waves. I thought for sure we’d go under, until the ship was pulled in another direction, and the process was repeated all over again. It was like being on the worst kind of roller coaster, not knowing whether you were going to live or drown by the end of it.
Such a great wind whipped through the mast that it snapped in two. The sail was blown away, and the ship began spinning like a top. I felt queasy as the world turned into a blur around me, praying with all my might the gods had the mercy to spare us our fate.
Ethan’s choked noise beside me told me that the gods had no interest in stopping this. Thevodanoywas swirling his hands, creating a whirlpool. The whirlpool grew bigger and bigger, becoming an inescapable vortex that captured whatever it wished inside its domain. With horror, I realized that we were getting sucked inside, dragged to the bottom of the sea.
This was my fault. If I hadbelievedenough, we’d be at the Spring Princess’s island by now. We wouldn’t be getting sucked down into the depths of the ocean by some ugly-ass swamp monster wannabe. This was my fault.
I tried to think of a spell that might save us, but none came. I desperately thought of my warm, comfortable room back at the palace, and tried to create a portal there, but my magic flickered out and faded when I did my best to summon it.
I was too scared. We were all going to die.
The maelstrom sucked us in faster, and the ship broke in half. Vara, Tygrys and I were sent spiraling to one end, while Ethan and Arthur ricocheted to another. I held on to the fragmented deck of the longship, but Vara wasn’t so lucky. She was sucked downward, into the depths of the whirlpool.
Even over the roar of the storm, I heard my brother’s panicked cries. I caught a flash of red fur, then felt an intense pang of grief as I realized my brother had thrown himself into the whirlpool after her.
We were dead. We were all dead. I sought out Ethan. My eyes caught his as his half of the longship ripped by mine, neither of us knowing what we should— or evencould— do.
There was a little growl in my ear. I felt tiny paws pad against my hair as Tygrys pulled himself to the top of my head.
“Tygrys, what are you doing?” I screamed. My breath caught in my throat as I saw Tygrys leap into the center of the maelstrom, his tiny fae body being yanked to the bottom of the sea.
My jaw hung open. Tygrysjumped into the whirlpool.On purpose!
Faekin were supposed to be our guides. Tygrys wanted me to follow him. He was my protector. He wouldn’t lead me astray.
Could’ve asked me to do something easier, dammit.
I had to believe that I’d find the island in order to get to it, but how could I do that? I couldn’t believe in something I couldn’t touch, see or feel— not in the middle of this monstrous storm. I didn’t believe hard enough in the magic of the island, and now, we were all going to die.
But maybe there was another way. You couldn’tbelievesomething into existence, right? Things didn’t just materialize out of nowhere because you believed hard enough in them. Even illusion magic had its limits… the spell could be cast only if you believed, but if there was fear, the magic failed to perform at all.
