Page 122 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
The power burned under my skin, boiling the blood within. The goddess grinned further, her bare feet sinking into the sand as she approached, her hands splayed out as she conjured her own magic.
Torvryn. The innocents dead along the battlefield. The merfolk sacrifices. My parents.
Air resisted its motion into my lungs, only evaporating into steam as it entered my burning body. Power burned my throat, rising with such intensity, I nearly buckled under its weight.
I directed my words to the Ocean Mother within my sister. “And it’s all because ofyou,” I seethed. Throwing both arms upward to the sky, a cascade of icy blue like Noctis’s irises streamed toward the clouds.
The Ocean Mother made a grave mistake by looking. A distraction.
I ripped the Sunder Coin from my pocket and slammed it into Evelyn’s chest. Bless Noctis for sneaking the relic into my pocket, because without it, I would have been drained.
The Ocean Mother screamed from the mouth of my sister and reared back, but she was too slow—too distracted. Her red-rimmed eyes snapped to me, wild and desperate, searching for something over my shoulder. We spiraled together in a circle, arms digging into each other’s skin. I threw myself free and launched two slicing daggers through the air behind me, holding the trident beneath my arm. The fury in the goddess’s wavered, edged with something thinner, more fragile. She lunged anyway—sharp, desperate, a last attempt to seize control.
Too late.
The goddess began to come undone. Light slipped from her skin, threading out through every pore of Evelyn’s body in pale, drifting strands. It wasn’t violent. It was a slow unmaking that no force could halt. The strength went out of her all at once, and she folded into the sand, emptied of whatever had filled her.
The air glittered with white, flowing fragments, lifting and streaming past me, a soul searching for a vessel to reinhabit.
They circled.
There was nothing left for them to return to. Her body would not accept her soul back, because I’d already shot two daggers through each of the Ocean Mother’s eyes.
Evelyn’s body lay still, closed to me, as the last of the Ocean Mother’s presence unraveled into the open air. The tendrils dispersed, flowing across the sand, until they disappeared across the sea.
“Caelyn?” a scratchy, hoarse voice whispered from the sand in front of me.
Evelyn.
I dropped to the sand, knees digging in.
“Are you okay?” I asked, grasping my sister’s face between my hands and inspecting.
Evelyn nodded with a shy smile.
“You did it,” she blubbered, tears welling in her eyes.
I did. I’d done it. We all did.
I lifted Evelyn back to her feet. She looked around in shock—or wonder. It was her first time on land in her own body.
“You’ll love it here,” I assured. “You’ll love all ofthem, too.”
Raveeka collided into the sand, her chest rising and falling behind her breaths.
“Where is it?” she asked wildly, nose snarled.
I nodded toward the tendrils floating aimlessly away over the sea, and the titan tore off, splitting the sky. Tangerine hues erupted from her body, enclosing the soul of the Ocean Mother. Flames exploded above the waves, each salt-sized piece of the goddess drifting to its surface in charred sinister glitter.
The crew descended the hill, Noctis in the lead from the sky, the shackles gone from his wrists. Raveeka must have unchained him with the key she kept. He looked ravenous, eyes piercing my soul. For a second, I thought he was still being controlled, then remembered the Ocean Mother was gone for good. Her soul initially sent to wander inevitably, but the titan ensured it was incinerated.
Talk later. We have something more urgent to handle.
My eyes shot wide.
Is everything okay?I asked down the bond as he got closer.
Perfect.
