As if remembering we were now armed, Astraeus’s men moved with slow precision, flanking our group.
“We don’t need to go anywhere,” I called as I approached the pirate lord. “It’s here. In the lake.”
Lord Astraeus’s dark eyes sparked for a moment, eyes slipping to the ridge behind me, before ordering his men to disarm our group.
The constant buzzingcreated a dull pulsing behind my eyes. A headache that wouldn’t go away. We’d burned Lord Astraeus’s fallen men and now sat huddled by the fire.
Lord Astraeus crunched through the crimson snow to our group and leveled a stare at Nerissa as he said, “You’re getting us below that ice.”
Carina pinched her brows, looking at her cousin curiously.
“How could I possibly get us below that ice?” Nerissa asked coolly, eyes sliding to her fingernails.
Lord Astraeus raised his brow, glancing at Carina and Kresida. A grin slowly spread on his face, whitening the scar on his lower lip.
“Have you been hiding it?” he mused, cocking his head.
Ronan tensed as he watched the captain and Nerissa.
“Is that why I didn’t see that magnificent light display during our attack in the gulf?”
Carina’s mouth fell open as she processed the captain’s words, and Kresida’s dark eyes widened. The black paint of her rank had been wiped free since the attack on theCenturion.
“Nerissa?” Carina asked quietly, eyes sliding to Nerissa’s wrists where she’d tugged her jacket over the glowing cuff.
Lord Astraeus didn’t balk from the daggers in Nerissa’s gaze. His grin widened as he shook his head and chuckled. “Not my business, I suppose. You’ll melt it and keep it melted while we go in.”
The muscle in Nerissa’s jaw twitched at the command.
“And you, as a mystic,” he continued, turning toward Carina, “should be strong enough to send a wind tunnel through that lake, splitting its water so we can look for the bone.”
Carina blinked. She opened her mouth to protest, and Lord Astraeus cut her off.
“You will come with me and my men,” he said, pointing to me with his white dagger. “As will the three of you.” He motioned to Ronan, Vienah, and Kresida. “As a little extra protection. Wouldn’t want you dropping a lake of water down on top of us.” He winked at Carina before stalking off.
Vulcan opened his mouth as three of Lord Astraeus’s men slammed into him. Lord Astraeus turned slowly.
“You,” he said, jamming a finger in Vulcan’s direction, “are more trouble than you’re worth. You stay behind. Under guard.”
Vulcan bared his teeth, struggling under the grip of the captain’s men, still weak from his beating and the trek here.
The afternoon sunhung in the bright blue sky, taunting us with distant heat. Lord Astraeus gripped Nerissa’s wrist, murmuring something beneath his breath as he twisted the cuff ever so slightly, doing the same to Carina’s. The glowing red light dimmed, as if whatever nullifying power the cuff used had lessened.
“This won’t be enough,” Carina said, looking at her hands as if they belonged to someone else.
“It’s all you get,” Lord Astraeus said, turning toward the lake, “I won’t dial it back any further. You drop the wind tunnel, we all die.” He motioned to Kresida, Vienah, me, and Ronan.
Nerissa flexed her hands, stretching her fingers. She slid her eyes to Lord Astraeus.
He met them with cool resolve. “Same goes for you.” Lord Astraeus glanced pointedly at Ronan, whose lips formed a thin line.
Carina and Nerissa stepped to the edge of the frozen lake, and my eyes cut to the line of dark trees watching in the distance. Nerissa’s head fell back, and she closed her eyes. The rays of the sun were golden against her tan skin, as if she allowed them to awaken the Soleia power within her that she’d shoved down all these months. She held her hands in front of her, flipping her palms up. A brilliant white light materialized above her hands, and the sun itself shone brighter above. Nerissa opened her eyes and rotated her palms, directing the power of the sun to the ice before us.
I blinked, shading my eyes with my hand as a beam of blinding white light shot from Nerissa’s hands straight into the ice. Carina gaped at her cousin’s powers, and Lord Astraeus bristled, wary of Nerissa’s strength.
A crack sounded in the center of the ice. Then another. Soon, hundreds of tiny cracks spiderwebbed from the center of the lake where Nerissa directed her power. Dark waves sent thick chunks of ice bouncing to the edges of the lake.
Nerissa shut her fists, closing off the power of the sun, and gave her hands a shake. She rubbed her wrist against her leathers before nodding at Carina.
Her cousin, still wide-eyed from Nerissa’s display of power, stepped forward and steepled her hands as bits of little light shot from the center. Lilac-scented wind snaked through the camp behind our ridge, gathering strength. She widened her stance and grimaced as she sent a massive blast of it racing toward the edge of the lake, knocking against my knees.
Her brows pinched as she narrowed her concentration into a small spot in front of where our group stood. Her hands shook as she closed them against each other and pointed the tips ofher fingers to the edge of the lake. The wind tunneled into a concentrated blast as it ripped into the lake, sending a massive blast splitting the water down the center and creating a dark path of wet sand leading to its depths.
“You have two hours, at best,” she said through shaky breaths.
