The guard didn’t make it three steps before flames burst along his back. A high-pitched scream erupted from him only a second before the fire consumed him completely. His body twisted, blackened, and collapsed into a cloud of ash.
“No one’s warning anyone.” Draevyn’s eyes cut toward Atlas, whose grin only widened.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you, Brother,” Atlas said with a laugh.
Fire flared to life in Draevyn’s palms, hurling it in a sweeping arc. A wall of flame roared across the temple steps, splitting the guard line and forcing them back. Their cries tore through the air as the fire licked at shields and scorched armor.
From the corner of his eye, Atlas was already moving. His brother’s shadows spilled like black ink across the ground, reaching for ankles and throats. A man screamed as he was yanked off his feet, shadows twisting tight until he suffocated beneath their crushing weight.
Draevyn pressed forward as a guard lunged, spearpoint glinting in the firelight before melting beneath its heat. The man’s shock consumed him, his jaw falling open as he watched his weapon turn into nothing but a heap of liquid silver at his feet. With a snarl, Draevyn shoved his fist into the man’s chest, flame bursting outward with an eruption that left the guard convulsing before crumpling into a heap of smoke.
Atlas’s laugh echoed in the chaos as he slipped through the room like a phantom, his shadows dragging men into the dark, where their screams were cut short. The two of them moved like they had trained for this exact moment their entire lives. Separate, yet perfectly in sync.
A man gurgled and fell at Draevyn’s boots as a knife of darkness cut straight through his throat. He caught his brother’s smirk from across the steps and couldn’t help but grin back.
Fucking Irah, if it were any other circumstance, this would be a bit fun.
One guard after another fell, flames devouring as shadows swallowed. The scent of scorched flesh mingled with the iron tang of blood. And by the time the last man dropped, the brothers stood side-by-side on the steps that led to the statues of Kaelypso and Naerysa. Their chests heaved as firelight and darkness curled together around them.
“Not much of a warm welcome,” Draevyn huffed.
Atlas flashed his teeth. “Then let’s knock a little louder, shall we?”
Together, they turned their eyes to the cavern they came from, where the crew all stood together, eyes wide in disbelief.
“Aye,” Draevyn breathed. “Let’s go get our girls.”
CHAPTER 65
Esmyra
The sea rushed past Esmyra’s face, the salt stinging her lips as Levaia surged beneath the surface like a living current. The serpent’s body cut through the deep with impossible speed, scales gleaming like sapphires and emeralds whenever shafts of moonlight pierced the water. Esmyra clung to the ridged horns at the base of the beast’s skull. The pulse of its power throbbed beneath her palms, each coil of its muscles vibrating through her bones.
Esmyra’s chest was tight. Not from fear—neveragain from fear—but from the weight of not knowing if Draevyn and their crew were safe. Every second away from them scraped like a blade at her immortal heart, and though she trusted them to find their way, she couldn’t silence the thought that, even still, they could be running into a trap.
Ahead and above, the underbellies of countless ships blotted out the surface light. The fleets of Maerinys stretched endlessly in every direction, an armada gathered to crush her and everything she loved.
For a moment her breath caught, the scale of the kingdom’s fleet near impossible for one woman to take on alone. But it wasn’t dread that settled in her chest—it was fire.Wildfire.
Esmyra was no ordinary woman. She was a fuckinggod. And she intended to bring her enemies down as one.
“Now!” she screamed beneath the waves, bubbles rushing from her mouth and gills.
Levaia slowed, her enormous body rippling as it halted in the depths before violently surging upward.
The world erupted.
The sea exploded around them as they burst free, breaking through the surface in a spray of thunderous foam. Levaia’s massive form arched high, casting shadows across the nearest ships as water cascaded off her shimmering scales. Esmyra still hung onto her horns, hair plastered to her face as her armor gleamed.
For a moment, she felt as though she herself was born anew from the depths. The Goddess of the Depths riding atop her chosen beast.
“That’sexactlywhat we are,” Kaelypso agreed.
The serpent’s roar split the crimson sky, a sound so vast it seemed to rattle the stars themselves. Crewmen across the enemy ships staggered, some clutching their ears as others stumbled back in visible terror.
Good.
Esmyra couldn’t help her grin as her eyes cast an eerie, silver glow, her gaze burning toward the shoreline.
