Magiano turns our balira away, even though all I want to do is stare at the spot where Gemma had hit the water, where ripples have covered her flaming light.
Mankind has been fascinated with baliras for thousands of years. Countless stories have been written about them, and yet we are still no closer to understanding the secrets of their flight, kin, and life in the deep.
—A Study of Baliras and Their Closest Cousins, by Baron Faucher
Adelina Amouteru
We are close enough now to the ocean that the cannon fire sounds deafening. Rain whips sideways against us. Some of the Kenettran warships nearest the royal Beldish ship blow sharply off course, and I realize that Lucent must be somewhere nearby, pulling and pushing at the winds to throw the Kenettran army into turmoil. Others fire at the Beldish ships—only to see their cannons unwound right on the decks of their ships or their cannonballs vanish in midair. Michel at work. I keep expecting to see Gemma reappear on the back of one of the baliras zooming through the skies, but she doesn’t. The rain streaks lines on my face. I remind myself that we were enemies.
There are so many Beldish ships. One quick glance is all it takes for me to see that this isn’t a battle the Kenettran navy can win. How can we ever push them back? I look down to where the royal ship sails. It is surrounded on almost all sides by reinforcements, and the Kenettran navy is throwing itself forward in vain. Baliras in armored plates soar around the ship, protecting it from the air. Other Elites ride on some of them—one is wearing the royal gold of Beldain. Perhaps he is one of Queen Maeve’s brothers. As I look on, he makes a sharp gesture with his arm toward a Kenettran soldier. The enemy rider rocks wildly backward, as if hit hard, and falls from his balira.
“Get closer,” I call to Magiano, pointing to a clearing in the sky.
“If you have any clever ideas for how to do this without killing ourselves, I’m happy to listen,” Magiano shouts back.
I look harder at the Beldish formation. The royal ship is protected on almost all sides. A half circle of warships. Beyond them is another ring, and then another, until all of the ships look like a honeycomb.
“Look out!”
I throw myself flat against the balira at Magiano’s warning call. A cannonball explodes near us, sending a surge of sea spray high up in the air. I duck. Our balira jerks sideways with a roar, one of its wings singed. I catch a brief glimpse of the Beldish warship that fired at us. My energy churns madly within me, feeding off the fury and fear from the thousands of soldiers in the bay. It builds and builds, until the flesh right underneath my skin tingles from it, as if it might rip me completely apart.
The tether between Enzo and me trembles. I look around instinctively. My heartbeat races. He’s here. The bond trembles violently—as if he has realized I am near too—and an instant later, I see him. He is on the back of a balira, and a stream of fire bursts from his hands, aimed down at the Inquisition ships below. Inquisitors follow closely on his tail. A Beldish rider near Enzo screams as he weaves fire right out of the air and hurtles it toward the soldier. Fire consumes the soldier—he falls from his balira’s back, and the balira, now without a rider, dives toward the water.
Enzo, I call through our bond. He turns to face me. His energy hits me hard, right as I try to exert my own power. Magiano shoots me a look and tightens his grip on me. For a moment, Enzo meets my gaze, and his stare is hard and dark. I know right away that the Daggers have told him everything.
He turns in the direction of an Inquisition warship. He opens his hand, then closes it into a fist. The simplest, smallest movement.
A line of fire explodes across the surface of the water with a deafening roar. The flames race toward the ship at terrifying speed, then burst and curl as they strike the ship’s mighty hull. The fire swallows the wood. Flames shoot high into the sky, engulfing the entire ship. The blast blinds me. I throw an arm across my face, trying in vain to shield myself from the heat and light. My bond pulses violently, his energy feeding mine, the heat scalding the insides of my body. I tilt my head back and close my eye as anguished screams reach us from the Inquisitors on board the burning ship.
The fire hits something—the gunpowder of the cannons. A fierce explosion shudders on the ship’s deck. Burning splinters of wood fly into the air, some rocketing toward us, smashing into the water in giant plumes.
I need to control him. Enzo’s energy is finite, and making such a big move will almost certainly take something away from him. But suddenly it is all I can think about. If I can gain control over him, then we can win this battle.
“Get us closer to Enzo,” I say.
“As you wish, my love.” Magiano pulls hard on the reins, and our balira veers off our course to fly beside Enzo. On our other side flies Sergio and Violetta. Magiano pushes us forward until we are a triangle, and then he takes us down hard.
We skim along the ocean surface. Cannon fire explodes around us, but Magiano pushes on. I feel the balira shudder underneath us. It is injured, and it will not fly us for much longer.
We sail past the burning ship, and as we do, the Beldish queen’s vessel suddenly comes into view, startlingly close. Enzo’s balira draws near, and my heart soars, our bond screaming for us to be closer.
Then, suddenly, Magiano yanks us to one side. An arrow hurtles right over our heads. I only have time to let out a startled cry before I see another balira pull up close to us. Maeve’s hard eyes bear into mine. She hoists her crossbow at us.
I fall flat against our balira’s back. Behind Maeve, Lucent lifts an arm—a blast of wind hits Magiano and me. I squeeze my eye shut and hang on for dear life. Our balira screams in protest. It flips in midair. When I open my eye again, Maeve has pulled right next to us. She crouches against her balira and makes a flying leap toward ours.