Her gaze swept across the chaos unfolding before her. Yet, among the scrambling guards and screaming townspeople, she didn’t see him.
Lephyrin’s Phoenix wasn’t here doing what he thought so highly of himself for. Draevyn was always the first to throw himself into danger, the first to stand in her way, playing the hero.
“Then why isn’t he here?” Kaelypso snapped.
A frown pulled at her lips as her brows furrowed. Disappointment brewed in her chest, quickly replaced by irritation.
Esmyra drifted forward, her bare feet finally reaching the damp sand of the shore as the tide licked at her heels, drawn toward her like a lover.
The air seemed to tremble around her, thick with the weight of the power coursing through her. “Where is he?” Her voice echoed.
The nearest guards, too foolish or too afraid to run, raised their swords, their arms trembling.
Esmyra tilted her head and smiled, knowingly. “Oh, he can’t hide forever.”
She lifted her arm, twirling it gracefully over her head as she squared her hips. The water at her feet surged upward in response, spiraling around her, twisting and lengthening until it formed the shape of a sea serpent.
Oh, I do like that.
“Then you’ll love this,”Kaelypso purred.
The creature coiled around Esmyra’s raised arm, translucent yet alive, its sleek body rippling like a current. Its head, draconic in form, lifted beside her shoulder, its liquid fangs gleaming as it hissed at the men before her.
Several of them took a step back.
One fired their gun.
BOOM.
The bullet streaked toward her, only to strike her bare skin and bounce off like a pebble skipping across the surface of a lake.
“Fool.”
“Indeed,” Esmyra growled.
Her eyes darkened, narrowing on the man who fired, and then the sea serpent lunged, wrapping around his neck until it snapped.
The tide surged forward, rising unnaturally high behind her before crashing down, sweeping several men off their feet. Water wrapped around their bodies, twisting up their legs, pinning them down as they thrashed and choked.
A few remained standing, watching in horror as the kingdom’s bells continued to ring. Screams could be heard in the distance as Lephyrin’s capital fell to her power within minutes.
Esmyra turned her gaze on them, her swirling tattoos casting a glow on their faces. A pointed look sent a tendril of water lashing out, seizing the nearest guard by the throat as it lifted him. His eyes went wide as he clawed at the force constricting his airway, his feet kicking helplessly above the sand.
“I won’t ask again,” she murmured, tilting her head as she glided up to him. Her eyes captured his as her serpentine pupils dilated.
Oh, how I’ve missed this. Esmyra reveled in the power as she used her compulsion for the first time since the merging.
Only the sensation was different now. What once before felt like a needle and thread puncturing the surface of her victim’s will, was now something else altogether. She could dig through it all,seeit all. His life, plans, and thoughts.
He gasped as she rummaged through his mind, his face turning red while he struggled. But he was no match for her magic.
Nothing was.
“Now I think you’ll cooperate.” A smirk formed as her brows creased. “Where. Is. Draevyn. Rowe?”
“Th-the tithe,” he choked out. “The king and his sons are at the tithe. It’s being held at the castle.”
Her fingers twitched, and the water released him. He collapsed onto his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering, while she lifted her gaze to the castle set on the hill that overlooked its kingdom.
