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Marth glanced down at the stone in his hand and smiled.
Prisca reached for me, and I wrapped my arms around her. She clamped her hand on to her hourglass, and everything froze. It took so much power for her to freeze such a large area, the only way for me to not be trapped within that power was to hold on tight.
She strained, panting, her eyes slamming closed. Marth’s ship was the only movement. It was eerie. The birds above us were poised mid-flight. The breeze had disappeared. And yet the captain of Marth’s ship screamed his orders, the oars heaved, and I focused my power into a steady gust of wind to help. They would only have moments, but they knew exactly what to do.
Our ship slid out of the path of the elemental cannon. But Prisca kept holding tight to her power until the ship was at least a hundred footspans away.
“They’re clear,” I told her. “Let it go.”
Her breath hitched, and my hand found hers on the hourglass. I gently stroked her wrist, lowering my head to press a kiss to her cheek. “You did it, wildcat. Let go and celebrate with me.”
With a broken gasp, she managed to release the hourglass. My breath shuddered out of my lungs as she turned to watch.
Regner’s ship had fired, the elemental cannon’s projectile already hurtling through the air.
I watched the dull realization sweep across the captain’s face. To him, it would appear as if Marth’s ship had disappeared and then immediately reappeared out of range.
With the ship gone, there was only one target for the elemental cannon to hit.
Quorith.
The projectile hit Quorith’s ward, and Prisca squeezed my hand. For a moment, the ward was visible—a color somewhere between gold and silver, encompassing the entire island like a bubble.
Fire exploded into the ward.
But the ward didn’t buckle. Instead, it reflected that fire straight back from where it had come.
Their ship imploded. Warm relief slid through my tense muscles, loosening them.
Prisca shuddered, but her eyes gleamed with suppressed victory.
My gaze turned to Regner, standing on the deck of his ship. His expression was cold. I smiled.
“Regner was watching. He won’t know how the ward works. All he will know is that Quorith fired on his fleet. Verdion is no longer neutral. You did it, wildcat. Quorith and their ships are in this war whether Verdion likes it or not.”
Rythos had managed to contact his cousins, who’d evacuated civilians from that side of the island. We’d known the wards would hold—unlike the remaining fae wards, Verdion had ensured Quorith’s wards were continually bolstered every few months. Besides, Quorith’s wards were created with an ancient sea magic. The island had always been a little…different. Not quite sentient, but not entirely normal. Still, we’d both refused to risk innocent lives.
We’d made the first move—one that would hopefully pay off throughout the rest of the war.
Daharak whooped, her voice spilling from the trowth stone. “That was beautiful. How did you know that island was going to reflect their magic?” She suddenly let out a hiss. “Prepare for attack!”
Regner lifted his hand, and one by one, those elemental cannons began to fire.
* * *
“Wards!” Galon’s voice screamed from the stone. Our warders raised their hands as one, and my lungs constricted as the elemental cannons spat fire and ice.
The wards held. Our people cheered.
And the cannons were loaded once more.
But it wasn’t just the cannons we had to contend with. Regner wielded his stolen power—power he had given his most trusted generals, along with those he had plucked from obscurity simply because he’d learned of their gifts. Now, they aimed that power at us.
“Fire!” Lorian roared, and our archers aimed at Regner’s ships.
Regner sent arrows of his own. Arrows made of fae iron. And from the way Galon flinched, I could tell it hurt when they hit his ward.
Daharak’s people rallied, her ships providing enough cover that Regner couldn’t yet get through to Jamic and the others. Without the pirate queen, we would have died here today. That knowledge sank into me like a stone dropped into a pool of water.
