Page 101 of Raven's Dawn

Then I remembered what I had just done to keep up with the merrow.

Still launching water into the man’s throat, I grabbed the blade. Once it was at head height, I brought another current behind me. The propeller gave me all the strength I needed to launch the blade into the man’s skull.

Crimson blinded me. There was so much blood, I couldn’t see to find the crystal.

I hooked an arm around the merrow’s body.

Taking another gulp of air from my bubble, I created another current. It churned the water, spreading and dissolving the maroon. Debris and sand from the ocean floor mixed into it, turning everything a murky shade of brown.

Then it settled as quickly as it had come. Still holding the merrow, I searched for the glowing gem. It was a few feet behind me. Using the water, I rushed it into my palm.

With my free hand, I yanked furiously on my blade. It was lodged deeply in the man’s skull. His whole body lurched when I grabbed it.

My foot against his upper back gave me the leverage I needed. The crackle of bone sounded and vibrated beneath my hand.

Holding the merrow under my left arm, I clutched the gem in my right. Again, I called on the water. It spun into a hurricane behind me, propelling me forward.

Save a few souls from the island, I said into the minds of the others. One of them got through and killed the merrow. I’m taking her place with the crystal.

Are you okay? Warren’s voice.

I’m not hurt. But I don’t want her to stay dead.

Neither do I, Jeremy’s voice. Don’t let her go. We don’t want to lose her down there.

Got it.

We’re almost done now, Luci’s voice. Just hang in there a few moments longer. Rania, tell that to your merrows.

There’s only one left, Rania’s voice. I hope you plan to bring them back as well, Nix.

36

RAIN

This was so different from when we removed Dathor from Jake’s body.

Maybe because I’d never felt that kind of power at the time. Maybe because that was more personal, while this was just a job that needed doing. Maybe it was simply because of everything I had learned from Luci, and even from Rania last night.

Or maybe—probably— it was because, for the first time, me and my guys had worked together in perfect unison, as a single unit, against the same threat.

My own eyes were closed, but I saw through all of theirs. Ezra watched the shield, now returned to that translucent emerald. Graham swam through the ocean below, taking in little breaths from a bubble he carried with him, along with a merrow he refused to let die and one of the gems that made this all possible.

Warren’s view was the most fascinating of all. His eyes were open, watching the island beyond the cage. With his physical body, he watched his own soul soar over the land, siphoning the bright lights of a thousand hues through his own aura and into the sky.

No matter how grotesque the reality of it was, I couldn’t deny how beautiful this was to witness. Hundreds of thousands of lights shot from the Earth, out of the cage, and into the orange sky above. It was like watching stars burst from the mountaintops.

All the more beautiful because of who was doing it. It wasn’t nature. It was a man I loved, a woman I considered a sister, a god I called family, and a mentor I would be forever grateful for.

But I was beginning to understand now.

Speaking the spell aloud, watching those bursts of energy swim into the atmosphere, feeling the power of Ezra’s hand in mine, witnessing Graham fight with all his might for his people, for his land, saving a woman in the process, I felt it.

A sense of unity, tying me to the man at my side, the one in the ocean, and the one in the sky. With feet firmly planted on the Elvan ore deck, feeling the sway of the ocean beneath us, hearing the whistling wind, smelling the salty water, watching a grotesque battle in defense of people who needed it so desperately, I felt it.

It was like an invisible cord connected me to everyone on this boat, everyone on the land behind us, and the world itself. All of us worked as one to meet the same common goal. We may have had different reasons, different opinions about it all, but we were all one in this.

Tears streamed down my face. Not in pain, not grief, but in an all-encompassing sense of understanding. I thought that I’d felt true power before, but I had never understood. Not until this moment.