Panic took over both of us as the entire crew lay slain in the center of the ship. The ship groaned under the stress of the fire as the flames became insatiable.
Amidst the madness, a figure emerged from the smoke. Azenna and the other three witches appeared then, all of them shooting a blast of power into the center of Nox’s inferno. My eyelids worked to blink through the black smoke, and horror consumed me as I saw Nox cornered by them at the bow of the ship. The power they were shooting at him was making himshrink.
“They’re hurting him!” I screamed and took off into a sprint, jumping over flames that lashed out at me, ignoring the agony of the burns that formed on my skin.
“Lia, wait!” Jace boomed.
With a swift motion, I unsheathed my dagger and charged at Azenna, her focus entirely on her spell. As my body slammed into hers, the spell they cast on my wyvern shattered, freeing him, and he instantly expanded back into his colossal size once more.
I lifted my dagger high in the air to plunge it into the High Witch’s heart when her gaze started glowing once more. Power shot out at me, throwing me from her and across the ship.
“Lia!” Jace bellowed as my body tumbled across the embers of the burning wood. He was at my side in an instant and lifted me from the floor of the ship.
The witches moved to circle us like predators. “Not only are you a throneless queen, but you are a foolish one, Elianna Valderre,” Azenna hissed as crimson shone fromher eyes, fixated on me. “And now you will pay for it with your life.”
“You will notfuckingtouch her.” Jace unsheathed his sword as he swiftly maneuvered himself in front of me. He swung his blade through the air, aiming to cleave the High Witch in half, but she vanished and reappeared halfway across the deck.
Her focus returned to my mate then, and her face was riddled with pure rage. She lifted her taloned hand and used her power to rip his sword from his grasp and sent it flying overboard. “You will regret that,mortal.”
“Lia, we need to jump,” Jace whispered as his arm maneuvered around my waist and began pulling me to the ship’s rail at our backs.
I was about to lift my hand to whistle for Nox when Veli suddenly appeared behind the coven, levitating in the air over the sea. The powerful wind whipped her silvery hair around as an enormous wave brewed beneath her and her glowing gaze.
With a relentless battle cry, Veli shot her hands out towards us and, in turn, sent the wave she conjured crashing onto the ship’s deck.
The witches shrieked as the icy water slammed into them, and they morphed into their shadow-like smoke figures to flee.
A deafening crack sounded through the air as the wave collided with the ship’s mainmast and sent it splintering into a thousand pieces as it collapsed. Jace and I braced ourselves as the water rushed towards us a second later and sent us barreling into the wooden rail.
Gasping for air as I choked on the seawater, he yanked me upright while my vision cleared. I frantically looked around and noticed the ship was sinking rapidly from the force of Veli’s wave.
“Nox!” I screamed, and I could barely make out his shimmering scales across the ship as the smoke cleared.
Still disorientated, I grabbed my mate’s wrist and tugged him along with me as we raced up the deck of the sinking ship. Leaping over and dodging broken, splintered boards, we dashed across the space as fast as our bodies would carry us.
To my horror, Nox was tangled beneath a web of ropes. Once we reached him, I took my dagger and frantically sliced through his restraints, Jace matching my urgency with his own that he pulled from his boot.
“It’s okay, Nox, it's okay!” I tried to comfort him as we cut through the ropes, but his growling and thrashing persisted.
I felt the cold seawater on my heels as I sliced through the last cord and turned to find that we were about to be engulfed by the raging waters.
“Elianna!” Veli screamed, and I looked up just as the crone appeared atop Nox, emerging from her shadows.
She gave me a wicked, menacing grin as she reached down and plucked one of Nox’s scales from his back, earning a terrifying growl from him as he ferociously snapped at her.
Just as I was about to charge at the crone, Jace swiftly hurled the dagger he held at her face, but she vanished, wisping herself away before his blade struck true.
“I will kill them for what they’ve done,” I said through my teeth as water pooled and swirled around my boots.
“Another time, sweetheart,” Jace stated as he hurried me onto Nox’s back.
As soon as we settled into our saddle, Nox wasted no time and launched into the air, leaving the sinking ship. He soared out over the vast depths and circled over the boat where our court awaited in disbelief.
With the flames extinguished, the moon's reflection on the waves became our only source of light. As terror filled me, my gaze remained fixated on the bubbles from the remnants of our sunken ship, thinking that in only a day, I may have just doomed us all.
Chapter thirty-six
Avery
