Page 121 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

A soldier turned and found one hovering an inch from his face—formless and ancient—and dropped his sword and ran. Another stumbled backward into his own men, knocking them sideways.

The line of the queen’s soldiers broke formation with terror on their faces. They scattered. Some ran for the ships. Some dropped to the sand, too frightened to move in any direction.

Calroy, god of the sky, hit the air, wings spread wide and glorious. Thunder rolled across the shore, deep and violent, and lightning raced down from the clouds in answer, passing through him, veins of white fire tracing under his skin. Dangerous but at the same time breathtakingly beautiful.

Each strike left an afterimage burned into the eye. He should have been unbearable to look at. I couldn’t look away. Another strike, tearing through the enemy’s ships, splitting the mast of one clean in half, then forking down again into a cluster of soldiers scrambling across the sand, throwing bodies backward in a burst of light and smoke.

Through the chaos I spotted Selene, her blond hair unmistakable even in the middle of battle, dark wings spread wide, sword in hand, moving through the soldiers on land with an effortless stealth and grace.

Jina, Fraya, and Minha rushed back to me, breathless, ready to help me to reach Nam.

The queen’s voice carried across the space, but it faltered on the second name. “Theron. Calroy. Whatever you want to call yourself. Well played.” Her eyes narrowed, taking him anew. Then her expression smoothed back to boredom. “Stop this nonsense or I open her throat.”

The queen’s hand closed around Nam’s collar. The blade that appeared in her other hand was the same silver one she’d used to cut me in the throne room, the one that had drawn blue blood on white marble.

“And don’t forget I have your mother.”

Calroy landed beside me, his mouth curving. She was lying. Selene had gotten to his mother first. She was already safe, far from here, in the same house where Hellena and the girls waited. The queen had played that card expecting it to land. It hadn’t.

“What is your demand?” Calroy called out, his wings folding in at his back.

Her eyes moved past him, past the others, and settled on me with a look almost like satisfaction. “Send Yeri through alone. And the old woman lives.”

The energy gathering around him crackled, then sizzled. “No.” Calroy’s voice was flat and final.

“Calroy—” I started.

“No.”

“She’ll kill her.” My voice came out steady despite everything. “She’ll kill all of them, one by one, until I come. You know she will.”

“I know.” His jaw worked. “And I know what she’ll do when she has you.”

The queen’s blade pressed closer to Nam’s throat.

Nam didn’t flinch. She stood with her spine straight and her eyes forward, the way she always had—through Agusto’s whip, through every year of that cavern. She had never once broken.

I couldn’t let her die at the queen’s hand. Not for me. I would never forgive myself after all she’d done for me.

“I have no choice,” I said.

“Yeri—” Calroy looked at me with such tenderness, my heart ached as he caressed my cheek.

I pressed my hand to his chest. “Trust me.”

Anger moved behind his eyes. The storm that had been building in him shifted to dangerous.

He stepped aside. “I know I can’t change your mind, but I’m right here.”

Minha grabbed my arm before I could move. “Don’t.” Her voice came out low and raw. “Don’t you dare go. It’s a trap. Nam got you out so you could become Yeri. This is not what she would want.”

“I have to.” I covered her hand with mine. “I would never forgive myself.”

Her jaw worked, but she released me and took a step back.

Fraya said nothing, but she bowed in reverence.

Jina’s counting hadn’t stopped. She had her hand pressed flat against her chest, watching me with teary eyes. “Rescue our family and come back. I know you can.”