They barely dove out of the way in time asValor’smain mast shattered under cannon fire, crashing across the rails of Atlas’s ship. The deck shook under the impact, ropes snapping like whips as wood splintered from the heavy beam lodged between the vessels.
When Draevyn came up, his brother was already climbing, boots rushing up the fallen mast as if it were a bridge.
He bared his teeth and followed, leaping after him.
Flames ignited just before Atlas in the center of the make-shift bridge.
Atlas whirled on him, eyes wide with shock as his jaw hung agape. “Really, Drae?! This is the thanks I get for saving your ass?”
Draevyn’s wings beat, sending more embers scattering in all directions. “The saving wouldn’t have been necessary if you had never stolen her!”
Atlas’s shock morphed into his own rage as he rushed toward him in tandem. “Esmyra took Elowynnefirst!”
They met in the middle, blades ringing once more as the mast swayed dangerously beneath their weight, the sea foaming hungrily below them.
The real battle barely existed around them. There was only brother against brother, their duel balanced on the edge of ruin, each strike threatening to send one or both of them crashing into the abyss.
Draevyn swung high, his blade whistling down, but missed as Atlas ducked. He followed instantly with a boot to the chest, sending his brother staggering back across the swaying mast.
Atlas caught his balance and lunged, stabbing forward. Draevyn parried and locked their blades together. For a breathless moment they strained chest-to-chest, their weapons grinding.
“You’ll never touch her again,” Draevyn snarled, driving his shoulder into him.
Atlas wrenched free, spinning with a desperate slash that nicked Draevyn’s arm in warning. He barely flinched, using the pain to fuel another savage attack as he pushed him closer to the ledge.
“Drae, listen to me!” Atlas barked, batting away the rain of blows. “It wasn’t me! I didn’t put the shard inside of her.”
“It was at your command then!” Draevyn roared. “You’re just as guilty.”
“No!” Atlas boomed, the veins in his neck straining. “It was Varis! He went against orders.”
Draevyn’s strike faltered mid-swing, his sword hovering an inch from his brother’s throat. His eyes wavered, his breaths ragged as fury warred with confusion.
“What?” he hissed through clenched teeth. He barely registered Atlas’s words.
Then a guttural roar shook the ship, reverberating in his chest and rattling the wood beneath their feet. They stumbled, almost losing their balance as every surrounding vessel shuddered violently.
From the opposite side of the ship, the sea itself seemed to boil and churn, and Draevyn’s eyes widened in disbelief as a massive draconis head broke the surface.
An enormous sea serpent rose from the depths, its sheer size dwarfingValor. Navy scales shimmered like jewels in the blood-red light of the rising moon, its eyes glowing a vibrant silver. Jagged horns curved backward like spires, and steam hissed from its gills. Its body was impossibly long, its tail whipping the sea into a frenzy, threatening to capsize each nearby ship.
And then there she was—his Wildfire.
Esmyra held onto the base of its horns as if she had been born to command the beast. Her hair whipped around her face, her eyes blazing with unyielding, silvery-teal power as lightning shot across the stormless sky.
A feral grin spread across Draevyn’s face.
Esmyra was a force of nature, a goddess made of flesh and sea.
“Holy hells,” Atlas breathed from beside him.
A breathy laugh left Draevyn. “That’s my fucking girl.”
CHAPTER 60
Esmyra
The sea itself seemed to hold its breath as Esmyra’s fingers curled tight around Levaia’s slick, ridged horns. The salt spray clung to her hair and lashes as her serpent rose higher from the depths. Beneath her, the massive coils of the dragon rippled through the waves, scales shimmering like molten silver in some places, obsidian-black in others from the light of the Blood Moon. Its body was an endless span of muscle and power, the very embodiment of the ocean’s beauty and wrath.
