35. Elianna

Chapter thirty-five

Elianna

“Do you have any idea what you have done?!” Veli scolded me as she and my sister were pulled into the pinnace. Avery immediately rushed over to Gage and threw her arms around his shoulders.

I scoffed at the witch. “We are now lacking significant allies we were relying on obtaining. An opportunity presented itself and I took it.”

“At what cost? You truly think those beasts from the deep will listen to your orders as a battle rages in the sea?”

“What does she mean we’re lacking allies? What happened in the forest, Lia?” Jace asked.

Gods, I was about to lose my shit.

I turned back to face them. The men wore looks of concern, while those who accompanied me in the woods looked at me in defeat.

“The witches will not be aiding us in the war,” I answered and looked to Veli. “Mistakes were made, and I should have listened to her warnings. We shouldn’t have come here. I will explain everything, but we need to get back to the ship as soon as possible. ”

Without a moment of hesitation, our two men posted up on either side of the boat and moved to row us back out to the sea.

“Why won’t the coven ally with us? Are they choosing to aid Idina?” Gage asked.

“Gods no, they just…have their own agenda.”

“You don’t have to protect me, Lia. They will soon know what I have done.”

The rowing ceased, and Jace and Gage exchanged a look and then glanced back at Avery before continuing their paddling.

“What do you mean?” Gage asked as Jace’s eyes bore into mine. I bit my lower lip to try to stop myself from blurting out what she was struggling to say.

Avery cleared her throat as her eyes darted back and forth between me and the witch. “I stole Veli’s book of dark magic, thinking we may need its aid in case we were attacked or lost or…I don’t know. It was a foolish mistake.”

Jace’s eyes bulged, and I nodded slowly, confirming his fear.

“Avery, where is the book now?” he asked as his eyes remained on me.

“They took it,” she whispered on a sob.

“That is not all they took!” Veli hissed. “They took Elianna’s memories. They could have seen all her lingering secrets and recent plans.”

“How?!” Gage gasped.

Jace’s stare whipped to Veli. “You were to protect them!” His voice boomed, and he looked as if he would lunge at the witch .

“Aye, but it is difficult to protect those who recklessly offer their blood on a silver platter, and another who exposes our greatest weapon without having the power to hold it.”

He turned back to me. “Blood?”

I shrugged. “They needed it to prove that I was the heir…I didn’t think she would… taste it.”

As their oars sliced through the water, we finally emerged from the marshes and entered the open sea. The moon now hung low in the night sky, casting a silvery glow over the dark water.

His body was tense, rigid. “Do you know what they saw?”

A faint, orange glow emerged in the distance, catching our attention. I sprang to my feet and leapt to the very front of the pinnace, eagerly leaning over the edge to get a better view.

My eyes widened. “NOX!” I shrieked.

“Is that the ship on fire?!” Avery asked, jaw gaping.

I turned to Veli. “We need to get there faster. We’ll never make it in time.” She looked at me hesitantly. “I will not let them take Nox!” I screamed. “The coven knows you still live, Veli. Stop being afraid of using your magic!”

“Everyone, hold on,” she warned, and her eyes began to glow.

A moment later, her hand lashed out toward the back of the boat, and a wave picked up behind us, thrusting us forward by the powerful current and toward the floating inferno.

I lost my balance from the force of our takeoff and flew backward, stumbling over the bench and falling onto Jace. He turned me over and wrapped his arms tightly around my chest as we soared over the waves.

We were nearing the burning ship, and as the pinnace drew closer, I could feel its heat intensifying. The scent of burning wood and smoke filled the air, making it difficult to breathe.

Veli’s magic brought us to a screeching halt, sending us flying forward. I leapt to my feet and was back at the bow a moment later, staring in horror at the raging flames that were ravaging our way home, and the crew who had stayed behind.

“No,” I whispered, as my eyes darted back and forth. I pivoted to face them behind me—their horror-filled, wide-eyed expressions were accentuated by the fiery orange hue cast by the blaze.

“What are we going to do?!” Avery shrieked as Gage held her steady in his grasp.

I let out a loud, ear-piercing whistle, but it was lost in the roar of the fire. “Why didn’t he fly away?” I whispered to myself.

A cackle filled the night sky, erupting from the thick, black smoke, followed by a ferocious roar from Nox.

My lips parted as my breathing became heavy. I turned to my mate.

“Don't you dare,” he said, his voice filled with desperation. “We are not repeating what happened at the war camp.”

I pivoted to the others. “Stay in the boat.”

“Lia!” Avery shrieked.

“Veli, can you put the fire out? ”

She glanced at the raging blaze and then back at me. “I will try, but the ship will be lost.”

I gave her a curt nod before turning back to Jace. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pressed my lips aggressively to his as a tear streamed down my cheek.

“Then come with me,” I whispered onto his lips right before I jumped out and dove off the pinnace and into the dark depths.

As soon as my body submerged into the water, I sensed a splash behind me, signaling that Jace had followed my lead. I kicked and paddled my way closer to the ship beneath the cover of the freezing waves, avoiding the embers and ash filling the air.

My face broke the surface, and I gasped for air, only to be choked by the surrounding smoke. Jace popped up next to me then, and we both grabbed onto the side of the ship, circling the outskirts until we came across the side ladder built into the wood.

“Lia, be careful!” he called as I climbed up with him right behind me. “We don’t know what we will meet up there!”

Another roar sounded from Nox, and my pace quickened. I would carve the heart out of every last witch that sought to sink their claws into my wyvern.

I pulled myself over the ship’s rail, and the intense heat of the flames licked my face. Beads of sweat mixed with the seawater clung to me and dripped down my brows. The crackling of burning timber mixed with the coven’s cackles roared in my ears.

“Mother of the gods,” Jace breathed as he heaved himself over the edge and stood at my side .

Panic took over both of us as the entire crew lay slain in the center of the ship. The ship groaned under the stress of the fire as the flames became insatiable.

Amidst the madness, a figure emerged from the smoke. Azenna and the other three witches appeared then, all of them shooting a blast of power into the center of Nox’s inferno. My eyelids worked to blink through the black smoke, and horror consumed me as I saw Nox cornered by them at the bow of the ship. The power they were shooting at him was making him shrink .

“They’re hurting him!” I screamed and took off into a sprint, jumping over flames that lashed out at me, ignoring the agony of the burns that formed on my skin.

“Lia, wait!” Jace boomed.

With a swift motion, I unsheathed my dagger and charged at Azenna, her focus entirely on her spell. As my body slammed into hers, the spell they cast on my wyvern shattered, freeing him, and he instantly expanded back into his colossal size once more.

I lifted my dagger high in the air to plunge it into the High Witch’s heart when her gaze started glowing once more. Power shot out at me, throwing me from her and across the ship.

“Lia!” Jace bellowed as my body tumbled across the embers of the burning wood. He was at my side in an instant and lifted me from the floor of the ship.

The witches moved to circle us like predators. “Not only are you a throneless queen, but you are a foolish one, Elianna Valderre,” Azenna hissed as crimson shone from her eyes, fixated on me. “And now you will pay for it with your life.”

“You will not fucking touch her.” Jace unsheathed his sword as he swiftly maneuvered himself in front of me. He swung his blade through the air, aiming to cleave the High Witch in half, but she vanished and reappeared halfway across the deck.

Her focus returned to my mate then, and her face was riddled with pure rage. She lifted her taloned hand and used her power to rip his sword from his grasp and sent it flying overboard. “You will regret that, mortal .”

“Lia, we need to jump,” Jace whispered as his arm maneuvered around my waist and began pulling me to the ship’s rail at our backs.

I was about to lift my hand to whistle for Nox when Veli suddenly appeared behind the coven, levitating in the air over the sea. The powerful wind whipped her silvery hair around as an enormous wave brewed beneath her and her glowing gaze.

With a relentless battle cry, Veli shot her hands out towards us and, in turn, sent the wave she conjured crashing onto the ship’s deck.

The witches shrieked as the icy water slammed into them, and they morphed into their shadow-like smoke figures to flee.

A deafening crack sounded through the air as the wave collided with the ship’s mainmast and sent it splintering into a thousand pieces as it collapsed. Jace and I braced ourselves as the water rushed towards us a second later and sent us barreling into the wooden rail .

Gasping for air as I choked on the seawater, he yanked me upright while my vision cleared. I frantically looked around and noticed the ship was sinking rapidly from the force of Veli’s wave.

“Nox!” I screamed, and I could barely make out his shimmering scales across the ship as the smoke cleared.

Still disorientated, I grabbed my mate’s wrist and tugged him along with me as we raced up the deck of the sinking ship. Leaping over and dodging broken, splintered boards, we dashed across the space as fast as our bodies would carry us.

To my horror, Nox was tangled beneath a web of ropes. Once we reached him, I took my dagger and frantically sliced through his restraints, Jace matching my urgency with his own that he pulled from his boot.

“It’s okay, Nox, it's okay!” I tried to comfort him as we cut through the ropes, but his growling and thrashing persisted.

I felt the cold seawater on my heels as I sliced through the last cord and turned to find that we were about to be engulfed by the raging waters.

“Elianna!” Veli screamed, and I looked up just as the crone appeared atop Nox, emerging from her shadows.

She gave me a wicked, menacing grin as she reached down and plucked one of Nox’s scales from his back, earning a terrifying growl from him as he ferociously snapped at her.

Just as I was about to charge at the crone, Jace swiftly hurled the dagger he held at her face, but she vanished, wisping herself away before his blade struck true .

“I will kill them for what they’ve done,” I said through my teeth as water pooled and swirled around my boots.

“Another time, sweetheart,” Jace stated as he hurried me onto Nox’s back.

As soon as we settled into our saddle, Nox wasted no time and launched into the air, leaving the sinking ship. He soared out over the vast depths and circled over the boat where our court awaited in disbelief.

With the flames extinguished, the moon's reflection on the waves became our only source of light. As terror filled me, my gaze remained fixated on the bubbles from the remnants of our sunken ship, thinking that in only a day, I may have just doomed us all.