Page 157 of Heir of Broken Souls

A spell must be against the doorway. There’s no other way the water doesn’t pour through. Yet I don’t care, I can’t think about that right now, not as creatures come into my line of sight.

Life.

Water dragons, whales, fish—they all swim past. Coral of all size, color, and shape congregate along the ocean floor.

Knox reaches out his hand to touch it, but his fingers break the spell and spray water everywhere. He quickly pulls it back.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

“How have they survived? Around the island there’s no life to be found because of dark magic.”

Knox laughs, a boisterous sound filled with joy. He waves his hand at the scene before us. “They never died. All the life just remained here. How is it possible, though?”

Deep within my sternum, my magic rises, vibrating so fiercely I place a hand to my chest, surprised I don’t feel the hum of it beneath my skin. Before I can stop it, my magic pulses, escaping from my palms without my permission.

My golden magic dances along my fingertips, elation rising in my heart as it does. Everything within me wants to move. Not away but instead toward the water.

Knox frowns down at my hands.

“Do you think they can see us?” Elysia whispers as a particularly large fish glides past.

“Nothing has taken note of us yet.”

My hand flies out beside me, smacking Knox’s forearm. I gasp, just as an assortment of colors in the form of tails swim by. I try to crane my neck to follow them all the way, but they disappear past what the doorway allows me to see.

“It can’t be,” Axel blurts.

“What?” Harlow asks, standing on the balls of her feet, her gaze flicking back and forth.

“Was that…?” Knox asks, his words trailing off.

“The leader had a white tail.”

Harlow snorts. “What are we, in an alternate universe? There’s no way Naia and her pod?—”

Harlow’s words die on the tip of her tongue as the group of mermaids swim past again, closer this time, completely unaware of us. It’s clearly Naia, Amelia, and the rest of the pod.

“No fucking way,” Harlow breathes.

“Why can’t they see us?”

I turn to Knox, who’s frowning in deep thought before his brows fly sky high.

“It’s the pod on their patrol. This is the outside of the island.”

“How have the animals integrated back so fast?”

“They haven’t, it’s always been here.” Knox shakes his head as a thousand thoughts fly across his gaze. “The animals aren’t reacting to the pod,” he points out as they pass by again. “They can’t see one another. It has to be an ancient spell.”

“They’re protected,” I murmur.

When I lean out to see again, I almost stumble backwards at the sight in front of me. I’m thankful for Knox’s quick reflexes as his arm shoots out to stop me from falling into the raging spray of the waterfall.

A large whale passes by, its color such a dark deep blue that it stands out as blatant as sunlight in contrast to the light blue of the ocean. Its body is the size of two dragons combined, yet it moves more majestically than anything I’ve ever seen. Delicately, even.

Its gait is slow, its large tail slowly pumping up and down. But it moves so far with each flap, power in every muscle.

It’s magnificent.