Page 72 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

Kolibri brayed into the water, smashing at three Naiads that had circled Aegir, sending them scattering like motes of dust. She pivoted, rocking her weight to the side with her head lowered, and charged at the closest drone, a female wrestling for control of Olinne’s arms.

The dim glare of my knife still in her hand caught my eye. I spun, climbing Kye’s chest and unlatching his sword. It dragged heavily through the water, claiming the use of my second hand. But it cleaved through the back of the nearest enemy like a predator’s teeth. And when I ripped it loose, a veil of red burst from their back like a curtain thrown wide.

Something twisted and shook inside my chest, a glaring, primal scream building in my lungs and caged within my throat. My Naiads. My colony. My friends.

The ice above had only grown thicker, the light even further away. We’d run out of air soon. I didn’t intend to remain here until we did.

I whirled, Kye’s blade chopping off the hand of a Naiad reaching for Hadrian. The Naiad slung their new stump of an arm away, red oozing through the water. I reeled back, striking them again above the elbow.

I’d watched Kye brandish a sword many times, graceful and elegant, the blade an extension of his breath and body. My wild strokes were nothing like his controlled wielding. I was sloppy. Careless and unpracticed. I knew the targets I should aim for—heart and throat. My attacks weren’t smooth enough to land those targets. Instead, I thrust toward anything that moved the sickeningly efficient way the drones did. Chopping into tails and slicing across hips.

The drones listed, swimming away from me in wayward slants, joining each other across the river from us. My Naiads did the same, flanking me on either side. My bones ached, muscles simmering with exhaustion under the weight of pulling Kye’s blade through water. I banished the desire to glance left and right, to take stock of everyone’s injuries. All I knew was none of them were dead, and that was enough for now.

We stared at the drones across the river. The pommel of Kye’s sword seemed to flex in my hands, my heartbeat pulsing against my own grip. The current rushed, a sound both loud and silent. Across from me, the Naiad who had taken Kye raised his hand, a single finger pointed in my direction.

My lips peeled from my teeth. Waiting.

Wanting.

Blood lust bubbled through my body, a desire to thicken the water with the taste of iron. My vision flickered with haunting red, or perhaps that was my mind, slowly slipping beyond my grasp. Blood in the water, blood on my blade. Blood seeping from their wounds and mine. Blood loomed everywhere, all I could smell and see and touch, and I was suddenly drunk with it. It taunted me like decadent wine offered to a thirsty peasant, like a meal laid before a starving dog.

I raised the sword higher, knowing if I couldn’t use steel to make them bleed, I’d gladly use my teeth. An invitation to spill themselves if they so chose, because I refused to let them win.

They surged forward. Directly at me.

My body tensed, ready to arc a wide slash at the drones as they converged with me.

Kolibri reached them first. The water mare barreled through their center, crushing their leader against the drone next to him. But that didn’t stop the wave of the rest as they descended upon me. I slashed, carving the throat of a female, Kye’s blade stuck tight into the chest of the drone to her left. He doubled over, yanking away, and the pommel slipped from my hands.

They locked onto me, so thick they blocked out the sun like a horde of bees. Someone screamed through the water. A fist sank into my stomach, hands grappling for my jaw, a heavy tail coiling around my waist. I turned my head and bit into someone’s wrist, tendons snapping under my teeth. The hand snaked away, and I twisted, elbowing a nose.

And then I was knocked aside—we all were. Torn from each other in a savage explosion by a steel blue muzzle and wide nostrils before I landed at Kye’s feet. I rolled, shaking away the blur, urging my vision to refocus. Something sparkled between the rocks. A blue crystal prism on a broken chain.

I reached for it as the world sharpened into focus, righting itself once again. Shoved it into my pocket next to its mate.

As both stones met my skin, something strange happened.

Water called to me.

33

Maren

The river beckoned. Breathlessly. Like a whisper in my ear.

But each molecule kissed my skin, charged and stirring. A summoning deep and familiar, like night to the moon. The fire in my blood died, and I watched, listening to the world as every hair on my body stood erect.

The fray was where I’d left it, horse-battered Naiads already recovering, whipping around to search for me. But they moved slowly, their arms and tails protracting as they spun, their hair unfurling like lazy shadows over their heads.

I lifted a hand. One quiet, deliberate hand, my fingertips barely curled over my palm. At the look in my eyes, Aegir grabbed Pheolix and Cebrinne, turning them into the rocks with his body. Selena was already dashing away, her hand tight over Nori’s arm.

Water crackled around my palm. It didn’t spark and spit the way it did on land. It blurred with light that shuttered and flashed, a bolt peeking through a storm cloud.

The drones began to dart away. But they were wind. And I was starfire.

Power left my fingers like a broken thread, scorchingly bright. It zipped through the current, twisting, turning, erratic. Jumping from one ion to the next like steppingstones over a pond. Straight into the heart of the drone holding Olinne.

The boom rocked the entire river.