He spun, parrying another strike, forcing her back into the rhythm of the battle.
Then his head jerked toward the horizon, and his expression hardened. “We’ve got company.”
She whirled in the direction and her stomach dropped.
Beyond the wreckage of Maerinys’s ships, dark shapes were cutting through the waves. Sails rose like specters from the sea, heading straight for them.
Azarian wasn’t the only one who had caught up to them.
Atlas had found them too.
CHAPTER 59
Draevyn
Draevyn’s grip tightened on Esmyra’s arm. He forced her behind him for just a breath, his eyes snapping to the horizon where the sails bled through the fog like a phantom army. His chest clenched, heat rising in his veins.
Atlas.
The silhouette of the lead ship was unmistakable, its banners rippling against the crimson sky.
For a heartbeat, hope flared in his chest. Maybe this was salvation. Maybe, just maybe, his brother would come to stand at his side one last time.
But that same hope twisted bitterly in his gut.
He had carved a piece of velsinyte into Esmyra’s spine.The vision of everything Draevyn had watched her endure enveloped him. The memory of the agony he took from her thanks to that potion, now knowing first-hand how godsdamn unbearable the pain truly was.
Draevyn couldn’t tell whether those ships were their salvation or damnation. And right now, he was more than aware they didn’t have the strength left to survive the latter.
Esmyra’s crew fought like demons, their strange magic bending through the air as the sea itself obeyed her call. Andstill, it didn’t seemto be enough. Every time an enemy dropped, another two surged up from the depths.
The deck was slick with seawater and blood, the air thick with smoke from his flames.
They were losing. Even with Esmyra wielding her power, even with her crew’s unnatural force at their backs—the enemy’s numbers were too great.
His jaw clenched as his brother’s fleet drew closer like a tide of fate rushing toward them.
Draevyn’s flame-lit blade was a blur, each strike meant to kill. Every muscle in him burned, his lungs raw from the smoke and salt in the air. The ship lurched beneath his boots, timbers groaning under the weight of the madness.
A shadow eclipsed the Blood Moon then.
His brother’s ship surged up alongsideValor, its hull scraping against theirs with a teeth-grinding shriek of wood on wood.
Then darkness consumed everything around them.
It started as a rolling tide of shadow, spilling over the rails like a living fog. Dark tendrils clawed across the deck, and for a heartbeat, Draevyn thought they were turning onhim. At the last moment, they slithered past, wrapping around the throats of their enemies.
The soldiers of the sea kingdom barely had time to scream. The magic shoved down their mouths, choking them until they convulsed. Their bodies writhed as if drowning on dry land, and their eyes rolled back before collapsing onto the ship’s floor.
The deck stilled where the shadows swept, everyone halting in place as it left corpses in its wake.
An ear-shattering whistle sounded, and movement from the other ship caught his eye as a taut rope hissed through the air.
Atlas swung across the gap between ships, boots slamming down thunderously onto the deck. The boards shuddered beneath him as he rose from his crouch, cloak billowing as his dark eyes swept over the battle.
Atlas’s stare met Draevyn’s from several feet away, grinning. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
The crew froze for the briefest breath before the world detonated back into motion.
