Page 121 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
I turned inward, pushing past thought and breath, searching through the deepest parts of myself for the well of power buried there. It simmered below, bubbling to my chest, fizzing like medicine in water. I mentally gripped it, but it slipped out of my grasp, oozing between my mind’s fingers. White haze covered my peripherals, my body wobbling back and forth on unsure feet. I pulled and pulled, collecting any shard of power I could muster. It was foreign, like the first time my bare feet touched land or when my eyes first blinked away at the wind. I had felt that power only once.
I’ll save him at least.
The Ocean Mother’s mouth bit into me, eliciting more blood with a new puncture. I jerked back, the goddess’s teeth tearing at my flesh along my forearm.
Blood dripped from Evelyn’s lips, framing the corners and falling to her chin. She was frenzied, eyes bloodshot and crimson—an addiction the Ocean Mother enticed for our parents that even shecould not sever.
“Caelyn!” Noctis’s wail carried faintly from behind the hill—frantic, desperate, terrified—but I couldn’t afford to be pulled by it, not even for a moment.
And I remembered what I fought for.
I don’t hold power. I am power.
Energy erupted from my outstretched hands, eyes shut tight to the onslaught of water that pierced the space between the goddess and I. The energy formed in a precise blade, spiraling for her, but the Ocean Mother dodged faster.
She advanced, her hands clenched and twisting together, wringing out the rage as she stormed toward me. Her bloodshot eyes shot daggers, promising a slow and brutal death. Each step became heavier the closer she got. Water rushed around the goddess, driven by power, encapsulating her backside like the feathery tail of a peacock that shined against the sun’s light. A power display, driving my own fury to burn even hotter.
I threw my arm above my head as the goddess shoved the tsunami of energy toward me, and it slammed with brutal force into the titan’s weapon, bouncing off its glinting metal surface and soaring back toward the Ocean Mother.
Evelyn.The power cut the air, aiming for my sister’s face.
The goddess fell to the sand, plastering Evelyn’s body to the ground, singeing the ends of hair from her head that caught in the surging energy.
“You—” she hissed “––really are a pain in the ass.”
“Where is she?” Noctis screamed again as he crested the hill, then kept coming, dragging himself forward on rawdetermination alone. Inch by inch he crawled toward me, shackles biting into the ground and carving desperate ruts behind him, like even the earth couldn’t keep up with his need to reach me.
He can’t help. He needs to stay far away.
I prayed for Raveeka, unsure if the titan could hear my prayers, begging for her to hold him back. He would erupt on her, but I needed him alive. His Bound needed him to live. And the only way to ensure he lived was to keep him far away.
Please. Help me. Help him,I begged for the titan. I would beg for him. I’d lay my entire life at the Ocean Mother’s feet if he got to take one more breath.
The goddess lifted herself back to her feet, a snarl imprinting on my beautiful sister's face—a face made for joy contorted into malice.
Noctis tried to take to the skies, but the shackles strangled the power before it could rise. He hit the ground hard, the impact barely slowing him as he forced himself forward instead. He dragged himself on, every movement ragged and feral, wings twitching uselessly against his back. He was getting closer… too close… each broken pull of his body erasing the distance between us.
Shit.
“She’s begging in here,” the Ocean Mother laughed. I held in my cry, instead standing firm.
“Evelyn, if this is the end, I’m glad it’s written with us fighting together.” The tears collected along my lower lid. “I don’t think I’d be brave enough without you.”
“Pitiful,” the goddess spat, but her face exhibited pure ecstasy, each step deepening the wrinkles.
I wouldn’t allow it to take the words from me. “If there’s nothing after this, at least there was always us. I’m so sorry.” The first tear fell, and then the next ran down my nose.
A crash ripped across the ground ahead, and I looked up just in time to see Raveeka drop from the sky and slam into Noctis, driving him harder into the earth. She stayed airborne above him along with the Aetherkin Bound dragons, circling and striking to keep him pinned, while his wings twitched uselessly beneath the shackles, unable to lift him even an inch. His roar rolled across the realm like distant thunder.
He will never forgive me.
I tightened my grip on the trident and aimed it for the approaching goddess.
Evelyn will never forgive me.
I pulled for the power within the weapon, letting it surge through my body, swirling like an ocean’s storm within the well of my own energy.
Zahara is dead.Jun’s and Calvin’s agonizing faces in grief replayed in my mind.
