Our eyes lock, my blue with his burning orange, and he staresso hard it’s like he’s trying to crawl into my mind. I yank on my sword, trying to kill him, to end this. But the air keeps it pinned back no matter what I do. Our faces are a foot apart. I can smell him, leather and storm and smoke. He tightens his hand on my hip.
“Whoareyou?” he whispers, his voice as tender as a lovers’. My sword still won’t budge, blocked by an invisible blade of wind.
I struggle up off him, plant one knee on his chest, and reach for a dagger with my free hand.
The witch raises both eyebrows.
And then, like he could have done it the whole time I had him pinned, wind plucks me off him and hurls me up fifteen feet into the sky. My legs kick uselessly as my stomach flips. His magic is stronger than I’m used to facing. I should have expected that.
I roar and grab more power from the Enchanted on the ship. It’s more than I’ve ever taken at once, so much power I feel their lives running through my fingers. I cannot lose this battle. I slam back toward the dragon, overpowering the wind.
“You don’t even care that you’re killing them, do you?” I shout. The wind snatches my words. But he’s a witch. Of course he doesn’t care. He would have killed hundreds to bond with a dragon of this size.
He dives and rolls away at the last second, his movements deadly graceful.
“You’re the one wielding death, imperialist,” the witch says, his voice cold and clear. “Whoever you were, they’ve turned you into a monster.”
I scream and lunge. He ducks, and we do it again, like we’re dancing across the dragon’s broad back, and this man who towers over me moves with all the lightness of the wind, always just out of reach as I hurl my body and my blade toward him.
I palm a dagger into my left hand, slashing wildly with my sword in my right, hoping he won’t notice the smaller blade. Ilunge, until we’re mere feet apart. And then my hand flicks out and sends the knife flying toward his chest.
The witch’s eyes widen and he stumbles. He moves away just fast enough that the blade slices a line across his chest instead of burying into his heart.
And then he falls away from me, four feet to the right. He grabs one of the spikes in front of him and swings his body down over the side of the dragon, his feet dangling over the air. My sword yanks me toward him. I fall to my knees and swing down at him.
The dragon roars and barrels over, flipping onto its side. Now the King is supported, resting on the dragon’s shoulder.
But I wasn’t holding onto anything. The open sea lurches beneath me. I reach for the dragon’s spikes, letting my sword fall. I need both hands to save myself.
I grab one of the spikes, but my fingers are already slipping. I swing my other hand up to grab on, and pull on Rampage’s power to help me.
A blast of the bastard’s wind slams against me, ripping me off the dragon.
My legs kick out, my hands reaching for something else to grab, but with every heartbeat the dragon is further above me.
“Asshole,” I shriek.
And then a blaze of dragon fire engulfs me, and there is no space to think about anything but pain.
The metal armor melts and reforms on my right arm, where the fire hit first. Molten silver, and then it’s armor again, the enchantment keeping it whole.
Cold slams my body as I hit the water. Saltwater floods my mouth, my nose, my lungs.
Well, there you are,a voice says, deep and crackling like a fire, a voice so loud it consumes me.Oh, little knight. What have you done to yourself?
It’s a voice I haven’t heard in years, since I was seven anddrowning for the first time. Am I hallucinating? Is this what death feels like?
Dragons aren’t the only beasts in this world. They rule the skies. But something else rules the deep. Something worse. And it’s here. For me. It’s been waiting.
I tried so hard to keep from ever touching the ocean.
3
Water sloshes over my calves in a relentless rhythm. I open my eyes to bright light and stinging pain.
My throat’s raw and my whole body aches. The black shore beneath my cheek is hot from the sun, the stone worn smooth by water. How am I alive?
Waves.