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He circled my thoughts, wrapping them around me, showing me his memories…
The first time he won in the ice pits, earning him enough to eat for a week. The moment he sensed me through our connection. The strange tug he felt whenever I was in pain, even though we’d never met.
I breathed in the ocean air and let it fuel me. Together we turned the ocean into pure energy. We forged aether. I put every last breath of power into the ocean. My aether had come from the water. It was what I loved. It was where I desired to be, and it would be what saved us. I pushed my energy into a single wave of the overwhelming aether. It surged as it built. It breathed in and still I gave it more power. The ocean became my aether—the two were the same.
I didn’t glance behind me at the building wave. I knew hundreds of Raiders were only a few feet from my back.
I looked at Logan and Ales, who were now standing in front of me at the edge of the sand, where the giant palms and pines blended together.
Searching left and right, I found Cri and Leo finishing off four Raiders.
Ales and Logan paused with their swords in the air. I stopped a few feet in front of them.
And I released the ocean of aether at my back.
A smile curved my lips as the pounding force of the water silenced the screams of the Raiders behind me. The wave slammed into the coast with a force that shook the trees. The island of Eir quaked with the power of the wave.
Everyone stopped.
Everything halted.
I shoved the aether down upon the Raiders and held them there as the waves drowned them where they stood. My aether, my light in the water, burned them to ash.
It had no mercy. It obliterated everything in its path. Surging straight for us.
I tried to pull back but the aether was too strong. I couldn’t control it.
“Ales, it’s too much. I can’t control it!”
Ales and the aether were a euphoria I didn’t want to end, but if I didn’t, Eir would be lost. I reared back, trying to clamp it down—to stop the wall of water. It overwhelmed me…
“Control it, honey. You won’t hurt us. Charlie, focus on me.” Logan’s words were a salve, calming the aether. “It’s just a little wave, you can do this.”
Ales retreated from the connection, drawing Logan deeper into our minds.
“I’m drowning. I can’t hold on…”
Logan yanked me into his arms and rained small kisses over my face. “No, you’re not. I’ve got you. Release it back into the water. Flow it back, Charlie. Give me what you can’t handle.”
His touch soothed me back into reality. I forced the energy back with Logan’s strength holding me steady. I restrained the aether with everything I had.
Only a few feet before the wave met the tree line, I seized its progression. Like an arm had stopped it in its tracks, the water receded, washing away the Raiders and their ashy remains with it.
Ales took Logan’s sword so he could adjust me in his arms.
Cri and Leo sheathed their weapons.
We were all depleted, beyond spent. We stared at each other in a small circle.
I couldn’t tell if it was fear in their eyes or shock. I’d done a lot of things a Valkyrie wasn’t supposed to do, technically could be punished for.
How did I explain everything to them? It was something I felt like I knew I could do. I’d hoped it would work, and we were out of options, so I tried it. Yes, I could’ve accidentally killed us all, but… I didn’t.
Cri and Leo were looking at me was like I was going to fly away on a bolt of lightning.
“Logan, I need to talk to them. I think they might be shock.”
He backed away, positioning me next to a tree.
Before I could speak, Ales moved faster than I thought he had the strength to do. He sheathed his swords and drew his dagger.
