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I gasp out of the combat state and turn back to Etzli, despair filling me. “Stop!” I shout. “Please stop!”
Kweku’s entire body is seizing as the water enters his lungs, fills up his organs. But Asha is as silent as before. That’s the thing that horrifies me the most: Asha is silent, barely twitching, as she takes on more and more water until finally, there’s too much for her to survive.
She falls motionless, just like Kweku.
And then they both turn blue.
I’m shaking now. Every part of me is weak, every part of me is useless. I can’t move, I can’t think—all I can do is watch as the bubbles surrounding them grow weaker and weaker.
Around me, my friends scream. Adwapa tries to rush to her sister, but the vines binding her hold tight, not even budging when she summons a column of air to lift herself out of them. She’s pulling so hard now, the vines rip into her skin.
Even then, Adwapa keeps pulling, calling out her sister’s name.
Then the bubbles finally vanish. And the water goes completely still.
It’s like all the air has left the chamber. Everyone is silent now, hanging limp against their bonds. In all the years we’ve been fighting, all the years we’ve been struggling, we’ve never experienced loss like this.
I can barely move anymore, I’m so destroyed.
But Etzli is shimmering with excitement as she turns back to me. Her body is engorged with power now. Flowers are blossoming in her hair, their golden petals so similar to the black ones I know, I almost vomit.
Blood-eaters.
She’s made blood-eaters from the deaths of my friends.
“Is that all?” she asks, practically bouncing. “Or does anyone else wish to test their mettle against me?” She whirls, smirking as she sees all the dark blue corpses, and even those of Britta and Li, which have only the slightest sheen of gold over them, indicating they’ll soon wake. When no one responds—not even Keita and Belcalis, who are still bound and gagged—she turns back to me, seeming almost disappointed. “Now then, Deka,” she says, “shall we continue?”
She gestures again, and all the vines constricting me tighten all at once. The pressure is too much for the ebiki armor. It shatters; then pain slams into me like a hammer.
I begin screaming.
“DEKA!” I distantly hear Britta cry out, but I can no longer move, can no longer speak. All I can do is scream.
Now that I’m no longer protected by Ayo’s armor, I’m completely alone in my body. And all my friends are gone. There’s nothing I can do anymore. I have no one to call on. Except…. The thought abruptly filters past the pain, niggling at the deepest part of me.
Ixa, I say, reaching out, I need you.
And Ixa rises from the water.
38
Ixa is a gleaming blue god when he emerges, his body changed during its time in the water. No longer is he the hulking, felinelike creature who’s been by my side all these years. Now he’s a tall, blue-skinned youth, his long black hair curling against golden scales shimmering over his body.
“Ixa here,” he says out loud in a low, almost-human voice. “Ixa help.”
Serve as my vessel, I command, slipping into the combat state.
And just like that, I’m there, inside his body, and both of us are walking out of the water as one. A dying god and her single godsworn. The only creatures who still remain standing after all the chaos Etzli has wrought. An atika is conveniently abandoned by the edge of the pool. We pick it up, swiftly twirl it to test the heft.
This seems to amuse Etzli. “Using your godsworn?” She tsks. “It’s very sweet, but it won’t help you, Deka.”
She gestures, and a barrage of vines comes our way. We easily dodge, moving so fast, we’re like wind across water. It’s as if our bodies and minds are one now, our thoughts completely merged for one common goal: take back the box.
Etzli was correct, this is a game of speed and proximity. And now I have the speed, and soon, I’ll have the proximity.
“Get the box, Deka!” Britta shouts at me, already revived from her almost-death as I’d suspected she would be. “Just get the box an’ take it away from he—”
Etzli’s vines descend like a wave, smothering her.
