Leading Aegis: Chapter 42 (Patreon)

Carolina lay quietly facing Ophelia on her bed, as she’d been doing for quite some time. They’d been chasing the Sovereign ships to Trayward for almost two days, and while Ophelia had been able to switch places with Peter to put wind in Omen’s sails, she’d hardly had time to rest. Between continuing to care for injured crew and observing the Sovereign ships to come up with plans, last night was the first time she’d been able to get a full night’s sleep, and Carolina didn’t dare wake her. She didn’t dare move either, no matter how badly she wanted to hug Ophelia closer.

Instead, she simply watched. She cherished the fluttering of Ophelia’s eyelids as she dreamed. She treasured the warmth against the arm she had draped over Ophelia’s waist. She counted every slow, shallow breath Ophelia took. After the state she’d left her in at Trayward, it was all she could do. It was all she wanted to do for the rest of her life, and she couldn’t help it that her eyes grew moist amidst the conflict of guilt and relief.

She regretted sniffling the moment she did, because the sound caused Ophelia to draw in a long, deep breath and blink her eyes open. Ophelia smiled warmly and scooted closer, but as the sleep faded from her eyes and she focused on Carolina’s face, her lips turned down.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Carolina said, removing her arm from Ophelia’s waist just long enough to wipe her eyes. She pulled Ophelia closer, until the top of Ophelia’s head was tucked beneath her chin.

“Then why are you crying?” Ophelia asked.

“I wasn’t crying,” she said, “I was just teary-eyed.”

Ophelia poked her in the ribs. “Why?”

She huffed a laugh at the threat of another poke. “Because I love you,” she answered, and pressed a kiss to the top of Ophelia’s head, “and there was a part of me that feared I’d never see you again when I left you in Trayward.”

“For a minute,” Ophelia said into her neck, “I wasn’t so sure either.”

She tightened her arm even more. “I’m sorry for leaving.”

“Don’t,” Ophelia told her, pulling back to look her in the eyes. “Don’t blame yourself.”

“I swore to you.”

“And here we are,” Ophelia said. “And you haven’t left me, have you? You thought Rue needed you and there was nothing you could have done for me there.”

“But if you’d died…” she said as her eyes moistened again.

“Then I would’ve died fighting for something I believed in, with no regrets about where I’d left things with you and satisfied that I’d been here, and that I got to experience having a home again.” Ophelia reached up to cup her face and pressed one tender kiss to her lips. “Whatever happens when we get back to Trayward, I don’t want either of us living with regret about any of the choices we’ve had to make.”

“Even if you’ll have a lot longer to grieve those choices than I will?”

Ophelia inhaled a long breath, and then released it in a heavy sigh as one corner of her mouth pulled into a smile. “A lifetime with you will fill my heart with enough joy to last the rest of my existence. There won’t be room for regret.”

Carolina gave a soft smile and leaned her forehead against Ophelia’s. “Then we finish this together,” she said, “so I can spend the rest of my life making sure your heart is overflowing.”

“Together,” Ophelia agreed, and gave her another long, soft kiss as they tangled further into each other.

They stayed like that for several minutes, enjoying the longest stretch of intimacy they’d had since the first night they were together, before a knock sounded on the door.

Carolina immediately pulled the blanket up over their heads, and Berkeley’s voice called, “Carolina? You awake?” as he knocked again.

“If we ignore him,” she whispered, “maybe he’ll go away.”

“I can make us invisible so they’ll never find us,” Ophelia suggested.

She snickered at that, but Berkeley knocked once more and said, “You’re going to want to see this.”

She sighed, “I imagine we’re close to Trayward now,” and Ophelia nodded her agreement. “Coming!” she called to Berkeley.

She gave Ophelia one last kiss and then slipped out of bed, and they both pulled on the rest of their clothing and boots. Carolina made sure to also strap her extra bullet pouch to her weapon belt and then headed for the door.

They joined the rest of the crew outside as everyone gathered near the bulwark to stare into the distance. The Sovereign ships were still some distance ahead of them, but Trayward was finally in view, and their situation didn’t look nearly as bleak as Carolina had thought as they’d left Glasoro. Because the rest of Izaak’s ships had almost arrived too — there were seven of them approaching from the opposite side of Trayward.

“They made it!” Berkeley announced, gesturing excitedly.

“I see,” Carolina laughed.

Even with those seven ships and Omen, they were still outnumbered by one whole crew, but it was far better odds than she’d hoped.

“Hey, look,” Ophelia said, pointing.

A rider on drakenback was taking a wide turn around the Sovereign fleet, and appeared to be heading for Omen. Several of Omen’s crew drew their weapons as the rider got closer, but eventually they recognized that it was Carter and Kip, and the two thudded down on Omen’s deck.

“Gang’s all here then,” Carter said with a smile as he dismounted. His face lit up when he noticed Peter, and he hurried forward and pulled him into a hug. “I’ll be damned.”

“Couldn’t let you two have all the fun,” Peter told him.

Carter clapped him on the back and let him go, gave Wyatt a soft punch to the shoulder, and then looked at Ophelia with another smile. “I’m glad you’re alright, Miss Parker.”

“Thanks, Carter,” Ophelia told him.

He nodded, and then turned his attention on Carolina. “Izaak’s been healed. He sent me for a report. He says we’ll defer to your lead.”

Carolina looked over at Berkeley and Ophelia, and at Rue and Wyatt and Peter, and then at the bounty hunters and Ophelia’s parents, and every one of them nodded.

“Come,” Carolina said, gesturing as she headed for the bow of the ship. Carter followed her there. “You see that ship there? The one with the steel hull that opens from the bottom.” Carter hummed. “We believe that’s the ship Simon is on, and we believe that’s the one that’s full of laibralt explosives.”

His eyes widened. “Laibralt explosives?”

“That’s right,” she answered, and motioned to Wyatt and instructed, “Tell him.”

“You know Sovereign’s stores of over twenty class five explosives and hundreds of smaller ones?” Wyatt asked, and Carter gave a grimacing nod. “Every one of them is on that ship.”

“Simon intends to kill the heart so no one else can Ascend,” Carolina added. “You tell Izaak that we need to keep that ship away from the courtyard at all costs.” Carter nodded. “What about our munitions? Did Izaak tell you what Freedom in Shadows has?”

“Cannons, bullets,” Carter said, “and a tiny bit of laibralt.”

“From the Iron Sands?” Ophelia asked.

“I believe so,” he answered. “But when Izaak mentioned the laibralt, he mumbled something about not being able to process it all.”

“How many shells do we have?” Ophelia asked. “And what class?”

“Only two,” he answered. “Class one.”

“That’s hardly a few powder kegs worth,” Rue complained.

Carter shrugged.

“Save them,” Carolina told him. “And tell Izaak that we’re going after that ship, and we need his fleet to hurry and keep the rest of Simon’s preoccupied.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“We’re going to try and blow it up before it gets to the courtyard,” she answered.

“Aye, aye, Captain,” he grinned. “Izaak also wanted me to tell you that Lia is altering wind on one of those ships, but as soon as they get close enough, she’s going to try and reach the courtyard before Simon can intercept her.”

Carolina’s brow furrowed, but Ophelia murmured, “She’s going to Ascend.”

“They said two of you would be better than one,” he replied.

“Yes,” Ophelia said with a relieved smile, “it will. Have a fire alter send up a signal when Izaak is ready. That’ll be our cue to move in. We need his fleet to do the same.”

“Good luck,” Carter said.

“You too,” Carolina told him.

Carter nodded at Wyatt and Peter, and then climbed back into Kip’s saddle and took off into the air, making a wide path around the Sovereign ships back toward Trayward.

Carolina turned to the rest of her crew as they all watched in anticipation, staring back at her and waiting for instruction. Or encouragement.

“This is it, crew,” she told them. “If you didn’t get off on Glasoro, I’m afraid you missed your chance.”

A couple of them laughed, but when Queenie shouted, “We fight!” the rest cheered their approval.

“Most of you became pirates to chase a better life than Sovereign ever wanted you to have,” she said. “Or, like me, you wanted a better life for the loved ones stuck at home.” Rue nodded resolutely at her. “So today is about more than just us,” she continued. She paced from one side of her gathered crew to the other. “Today is for the family and friends we left behind. For the ones who never made it out, and the ones who were lost.” She met the eyes of Cook and Sly, two of her crew who were hit hardest by that loss, and they nodded at her too. “This is for everyone who’s still a slave to Sovereign’s whim, or to an employer’s whim, or at the mercy of a mining company. Today we put an end to their terror.” She grinned at Queenie. “And we’ll do more than fight for freedom, because today, we win it!”

She raised her fist in the air, and as the rest of her crew followed suit, shouting and bellowing their battle cries, a flame went up from the courtyard and burst in the air.

“That’s our signal!” she hollered. “To your stations! Man the cannons! This is all or nothing!”

Everyone sprinted around as they rushed to the bulwark or descended the stairs below to get to the cannons, and Otis ushered Ophelia’s parents to safety below deck. Carolina dashed up to quarterdeck with Ophelia at her side and took place next to Ryland.

She grabbed the voice pipe and shouted into it, “In position?”

Berkeley’s voice echoed back, “Aye!” from the bow of the ship, and several more from the gundeck and the heartroom followed.

She nodded at Ophelia and said, “Full sails.”

Ophelia blasted the sails with wind, jolting them forward as they picked up speed to begin catching up to the Sovereign ships, but no sooner than they began closing the distance did the ship at the center of Simon’s fleet begin to break away from the rest.

“Sovereign center ship pulling forward!” Berkeley’s voice confirmed through the pipe.

“Get Peter!” Carolina shouted, and her call was echoed from crew to crew until it reached him, and seconds later he appeared at her side. She pointed at the sails. “Give us more.”

He joined Ophelia to nearly double their speed, bringing them within a hundred yards of the last ship within seconds, and Berkeley’s voice warned, “Rear ship stopped! Broadsiding for canon fire!”

“Let’s show them what Omen’s made of,” she murmured, and then stuck her mouth to the pipe again. “Descend sixty feet in five!” she shouted to the handlers below. And as soon as she received a response, she bellowed across deck, “Down-brace in five! Four! Three!”

Her countdown echoed across every deck as she and the rest of the crew raced to get their feet into the toe braces along the bulwark and at their stations, and then she reached ‘one’ and shouted into the pipe, “Down!”

Addie and Fowler were ready. They flooded Omen’s heating pipes with molten rock and sent the ship into a near freefall. Several of her crew shouted their joy at the drop as the sound of cannon fire thundered through the air, and a handful of cannonballs whistled by as they soared overhead and missed Omen’s sails.

The ship lurched out of freefall, and the moment she was steady on her feet, Carolina yelled, “Grab the barb-spears! Drag ‘em under! Fire on my command!”

Eight of her crew ascended to quarterdeck with spear guns, taking aim at the hull of the Sovereign ship that had fired on them as they reached twenty yards.

“Aim!” she shouted, and as Omen flew by underneath the ship, she yelled, “Fire!”

Barbed hooks whizzed through the air and pierced the wooden hull of the ship just under the bulwark, latching far too deep to be removed. Her crew took the ropes attached to those hooks straight to the stern end of Omen and looped them several times around the large deck fitting built at the rear, and as they passed over to the other side of that Sovereign ship, the ropes pulled taut.

“Rear-brace!” Carolina yelled.

She bent her own knees and leaned back as the weight of the Sovereign ship pulled against them, stealing some of Omen’s speed and sending them all lurching forward. But Ophelia and Peter doubled down, straining to put more wind in their sails as they continued to push on, dragging the hull of the Sovereign ship with them. And as they pulled on the opposite hull of the ship from underneath, it began to tip. It tilted more and more, panicked yells sounding from its crew as they began to slide across the deck. One of the ropes snapped as the crew began to find them, holding on for dear life as they stretched for the lines, trying to cut them before their ship completely capsized.

Two of their crew screamed as they toppled overboard and plummeted toward the surface, and several others were shouting for help as they hung off the bulwark. The ship was sideways. Four more ropes snapped all at once.

“We’re losing ground on Simon!” Berkeley alerted through the pipe.

Two more ropes snapped, and Carolina shouted, “Cut the lines! Forward-brace!”

They all braced against the instant increase in speed as her crew cut the remaining lines on the Sovereign ship, leaving it more than halfway overturned to resume their full-sail chase after Simon. They kept their low altitude as they passed by the rest of the Sovereign fleet, but one of the forward ships dropped to their level just as they reached it.

“Brace for cannon fire!” Carolina screamed.

It was almost too late. The pounding booms of firing cannons vibrated the air less than a second before impact shook the ground beneath their feet. One tremor after another rocked their posture as nine of the twelve fired cannonballs crashed into the metal-infused wood of Omen’s hull, shaking them so violently that Carolina stumbled forward to catch herself against the quarterdeck railing.

“Gundeck took a hit!” a voice hollered from the pipe. “Do we return fire?”

“No!” Carolina yelled as she staggered back to the pipe. Though the attacking ship was surely loading more cannonballs, Omen was nearly past it, and they were only twenty yards from the one Simon was on. “Handlers, take us up sixty feet! Now!”

Omen’s heart flooded with cool water, pitching them upward until they were level again with the rest of the fleet. And as they reached that level, their bow was almost even with the stern of Simon’s ship.

“Prepare to board!” she yelled to the rest of her crew.

They gained on Simon’s ship inch by inch, and were only halfway even with it when more cannonballs launched point blank at Omen’s hull. Carolina grabbed at the nearest structure, bracing herself against the voice pipe to keep from being thrown off her feet.

“Cannons!” she yelled into the pipe. “Take aim at where their hull opens! Try to drop their munitions!”

Ophelia and Peter stopped driving Omen forward as they aligned with Simon’s ship, and she finally spotted him on deck as their own round of cannon fire trembled at their feet. It rocked Simon’s crew off balance, and she didn’t wait for them to recover and make the first move.

“Grapples!” she yelled as she drew her daggers. “Pull us in!”

Omen crew threw their roped grapples over as Simon shouted at his crew to let it happen and prepare to fight, and the moment Omen’s bulwark brushed theirs, they rushed onto the ship, taking the fight straight to the Sovereign crew. Carolina followed with Ophelia at her side, bulldozing her way through the first soldier as they tried to get to Simon on quarterdeck. She used the crossguard of her dagger to adjust the trajectory of his swing, deflecting herself around him to plunge her other dagger into his back while Ophelia blasted a line of oncoming soldiers with such a powerful gust of wind it knocked them all off their feet.

It also opened a narrow path for them directly toward the stairs to quarterdeck. They sprinted through that opening in the battle, reaching the bottom step just as Simon stopped at the top with his pistol aimed. He fired that shot straight at Carolina, but Ophelia caught the bullet before it hit her, dropping it to the ground with a glare as she hurled a fireball back at him.

He diverted it away from himself and descended a step as Ophelia began to ascend, but before they could meet each other at the middle, one of his soldiers screamed, “Beecher!”

Simon looked, and both she and Ophelia followed his gesture overboard too.

Lia was on a mount and heading fast for the courtyard, and when Simon realized it, he didn’t hesitate. He stomped his foot on the stairs, sending a wave through the wood that lifted each step until it reached Ophelia and knocked her down the few steps she’d climbed.

Ophelia crashed down at Carolina’s feet as Simon summoned a mistling and bellowed, “Mounts! With me!”

Ophelia didn’t bother regaining her feet before breathing into her hands. She summoned her own mistling as Simon shot into the air, several of his own soldiers throwing themselves overboard to the mounts they’d called out of the sky, and Carolina grabbed her around the waist to haul her back up as the mistling took shape.

“Berkeley!” Carolina yelled into the crowd. She threw herself onto the mistling’s back behind Ophelia, and the height helped her find Berkeley. “Keep this ship away from the courtyard!” she told him.

He nodded as they burst upward and canted sideways to drop over the side of the ship, chasing Simon and his other mounted crew to the surface as riders from the other ships took notice and joined the pursuit.

Simon didn’t look back at them once as his mount dove for the courtyard, and he threw himself off the mistling’s back and dispelled it the moment he was close enough, sending himself crashing down onto the terrace behind Lia. She was only halfway done altering the stone that covered the hole in the earth, but she had to abandon it to dodge the rock Simon hurled at the back of her head. But it didn’t stop there. As the rest of his crew landed to intercept the assault of Trayward soldiers sprinting at him, he barraged Lia with stone after stone as he advanced, closing the distance one step at a time while she was busy deflecting each pitch.

He'd almost reached her when Ophelia’s mistling landed. They both threw themselves off its back while Ophelia dispelled it, and as Carolina turned to help deflect the battle, Ophelia sprinted at Simon.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ophelia launched herself at Simon right as he altered the stone in his hand into a knife-sharp edge and grabbed Lia, knocking all three of them to ground before he could pierce her with it. The stone knife clattered to the floor as Simon landed on his back, and she immediately altered the rock around where his arm had landed to trap it against the ground as she climbed atop him. He tried to hit her with it, but in the moment it took for him to realize it was stuck, she’d trapped his other arm too. She hit him once to disorient him and then held out her hand as the stone knife he’d altered came flying into her palm.

Before she could take aim and send it careening down through his heart, he altered the stone trapping one of his hands and wrapped it around his fist, giving it weight as he freed it and sent it flying at her face. She dropped the knife to block him and bore the brunt of the blow against her forearms to shield her head, but the force behind the strike sent her rolling off him.

Simon undid the progress Lia made on the chasm while Ophelia reoriented herself, and she scrambled to her feet as Simon ran at Lia, pulling up bricks in front of him to make him stumble. He fell and rolled head over heels, but on his final somersault he used the momentum to slam his fists to the ground, sending a shockwave at Lia that knocked her off her feet. That shockwave ended at the covered hole, adding several massive, jutting spikes to the solid stone that covered it to make it even more time consuming for her to remove.

“Keep going!” Ophelia called to her, hurling a bundle of several bricks that collided with Simon’s shoulder as both he and Lia regained their feet.

Simon whirled around with an annoyed growl, and flexed his arms as he smashed his fists together in front of him. With the motion, a thin layer of rock from the earth around him climbed up his legs. It traveled up his torso and snaked down his arms and over his shoulders until all but his head and hands were completely protected by the stone.

He charged at her, blasting straight through the wall of rock she altered upward to try and slow him down. When that didn’t work, she hurled a boulder sideways at him to try and knock him off balance, but it crashed into the stone of his shoulder and broke into several pieces that dropped straight to the ground. And there wasn’t time for her to try and block him again. She dove to the side as he reached her, and he skidded to halt and whirled around with the weight of one of his covered arms leading the swing, bringing it flying down at where she’d landed as he altered rock down to entomb his fist.

She rolled away right as his stone fist shattered against the ground where her head had been, and then she altered the stone around his torso to solidify it into one stiff piece. It hindered his movement as he tried to straighten up, giving her enough time to slam a fist into the floor and send a stone lance shooting from the ground beneath him. It exploded upward into his stomach with so much force that it shattered the rock armor around his torso and launched him into the air.

Before he even hit the ground again, Ophelia was on her feet. Lia had managed to remove the pillars Simon altered over the hole, and Ophelia knew that she only had seconds. Without taking a moment to check on Simon, she gestured at the chasm and pushed away every last bit of the rock seal, revealing the rest of the hole and leaving the endless tunnel wide open.

Lia glanced back just long enough to grin at her, and then she turned.

And she jumped.

A shadow blasted past Ophelia’s shoulder so fast that the gust pulled her forward, and a summoned nightwing went careening toward the hole. It dove in just as Lia disappeared past the edge and immediately resurfaced with her clutched in its talons. It rose, fighting to fly upward and away as Lia struggled in its grip, gaining foot after foot as it carried her to dangerous heights until she finally began to summon a creature of her own.

Certain that Lia would catch herself if dropped, Ophelia refocused on Simon, half expecting him to already be charging at her again, but his eyes were fixed upward instead. He was watching his ship fight with Omen in the sky as the entirety of Omen’s weight pushed against it, forcing it off course so that it was no longer on its way to being centered over the hole. And they both knew that if it wasn’t centered, it couldn’t drop the laibralt explosives straight down.

Simon’s upper lip curled as he turned that scowl on Ophelia, and he stared at her in thought for only a moment before clenching his hand. He reclaimed his breath from the nightwing and smirked, his scowl gaining a glint of challenge as he breathed into his hands again and gestured between them.

And a shadow grew. And grew. And grew.

The mass forced her backward until she stood on the opposite side of the chasm. It forced Simon and the rest of the fighting soldiers and troops back until they were pressed toward the courtyard exit. It grew until massive spikes flared out from its forming legs and the length of its back. It grew until its long, thick tail whipped over the top of Ophelia’s head. Until its teeth were half her height, and until the full shadow of the blackfire dragon had filled the entire courtyard and stood looming over them.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Wyatt deflected an oncoming blow with his sword as Carolina and Ophelia left Omen, and then slashed back in retaliation, working his way toward Berkeley with Rue fighting at his side. Two more soldiers charged at them blade-first, one of them swinging once and then twice as Wyatt parried blows and leapt backwards away from a downward slash that narrowly missed his nose. The soldier was quick, and Wyatt blocked several more swift strikes until the next time the soldier swung down at him. He raised his elbows to meet the swing and deflected it over the back of his head as he dashed under the soldier’s arm, knocking the man past him as he cut his own sword deep into the man’s back.

Rue finished her own opponent as Wyatt met the next soldier in their path head-on, knocking away a blow with a killing retaliation of his own that left the rest of their path clear.

They converged with Berkeley and Peter near the bulwark, where Rue asked, “What’s the plan?”

Wyatt parried another strike from an oncoming soldier and smashed the sole of his boot into the man’s belly, kicking him back into a group of other fighters.

“You two get to their helmsman and take him out,” Berkeley said, gesturing at him and Rue. “Peter, you get to our helmsman and tell him to start ramming this ship off course. Protect him while he does and give him wind if he needs it.”

“What about you?” Wyatt asked.

He turned his chin upward. “I’m going to try disabling their sails.”

They all nodded, and Wyatt took off with Rue at his side so they could start fighting their way to quarterdeck. He met the first soldier and blocked while Rue struck the finishing blow, and then moved on to the next while Rue turned to meet someone attacking from behind. Wyatt swung into the strike of the soldier’s sword and twisted the point of his blade down around theirs, until he’d wound it fully to twist their wrists and forced the weapon out of their hands. He propelled himself forward as their sword clattered to the ground, smashing into their chest shoulder first and knocking them heels over head to the deck.

He left them there to help Rue finish her opponent, and then they took off running for the stairs again just as Berkeley managed to sabotage one of the ship’s sails. He’d climbed his way up the main mast and cut one of the lines, but as one side of the sail collapsed, a soldier had begun climbing up after him.

Rue shouted to warn him, but he was too far away to hear her.

“Go help him,” Wyatt told her, but she hesitated, and every second they stood there, the higher the soldier climbed. “Go,” he insisted, “I can handle this.”

“Be careful,” she told him. He nodded, and she sprinted off to protect Berkeley as he clambered across the head of the sail.

Peter must’ve reached Omen’s helmsman at the same time, because Omen veered into the hull of the Sovereign ship as the screech of metal on metal filled the air. It knocked off Wyatt’s first step up the stairs, stumbling him sideways into the railing to catch himself as the soldiers coming down to intercept him did the same.

He lifted his sword to block as one of the soldiers swung downward at him, and then launched himself upward to throw them back. They lost their balance and fell back onto the step above them, and he pierced them with the point of his blade as a second soldier leapt at him. The man crashed into his shoulders, sending them both tumbling down the stairs and landing with a disorienting thud back on main deck.

Wyatt led with his fist as he rolled onto his stomach, punching the man in the jaw to give himself a lead on standing first. But that fall hurt everywhere. In his elbows and knees and the back of his skull. He tried to shake it off as he reached his feet, and immediately leapt sideways to narrowly avoid being impaled by another soldier that charged at him. He turned to strike with his own sword as that soldier missed him, but the man turned on his heels and parried the blow, angling the point of his blade inward as he pushed. Wyatt leaned back to avoid the stab, dropping onto his back as the man kept momentum and charged at him again. He knocked the man’s sword sideways so it struck the deck instead and kicked upward, smashing the heel of his boot into the man’s chin.

The man dropped unconscious, and Wyatt rolled and sprang up just as the brawler who’d tackled him down the stairs launched at him a second time. He couldn’t bring his sword back up before the man crashed into him, smashing his back into the rounded edge of the bulwark. He tucked his elbows in to protect his ribs as the man’s fists bombarded his torso, and as soon as he had an opening, he shoved back, putting enough distance between them to launch his fist at the man’s face.

His knuckles collided with cheekbone, but all the man did was lean over and charge at him again. A solid shoulder crashed into his stomach so hard that he dropped his sword, and the soldier slammed him back into the bulwark once more as a sharp pang shot through his spine. Arms wrapped around his knees as he wheezed for air, but he ignored the pain in his ribs as he realized the soldier was trying to tip him overboard.

He brought his arm up and used the dropping of his weight to add heft as he slammed the point of his elbow against the man’s back. They both collapsed to the ground, Wyatt scrambling as he climbed atop the soldier to hit him once, and then twice. He didn’t get a third before the man grabbed his shoulders and whipped him sideways, slamming his back against the side of the bulwark again and then trying to slip out from underneath.

Wyatt thrust himself off the floor and reached for the man, pushing away sparring hands and bracing against half-cocked punches as he battled himself closer, until he’d closed the distance entirely and maneuvered himself onto the man’s back. The soldier stood as one of Wyatt’s arms wrapped around his neck, prying at his hold as he staggered backward toward the bulwark, still intent on tipping him overboard. Wyatt slammed one of his boots against the back of the man’s knee, dropping him back down before they reached the bulwark.

He held on tight, cutting off the man’s air until he slumped forward, and Wyatt let his unconscious body fall to the floor as he set his hands on his knees to pant for air. His sword was on the ground nearby, and he only afforded himself a few short seconds of rest before retrieving it and resuming his sprint up the stairs.

He didn’t stop running when he reached the top. He rushed at the helmsman so quickly that he didn’t notice the pistol in the man’s hand. The helmsman whipped around as Wyatt darted at him, firing a half-aimed shot in his haste to defend himself. The bullet pierced Wyatt’s hip as the surprise and the bite almost made him stumble, but his momentum carried him forward as he raised his sword and brought it slashing down.

The helmsman raised his pistol in both hands, catching the brunt of Wyatt’s strike against the metal barrel. But Wyatt used his free hand to shove the man’s outer arm toward the inside, spinning him to expose his back and kicking him. The helmsman stumbled forward to catch himself on the bulwark, and Wyatt raced after him, bending down to grab his ankles before he could spin around again and pitching him overboard. Then he raced back to the helm and grabbed a handle, pulling with all his might to send the wheel spinning.

“We did it!” Rue shouted as she reached the top of the stairs.

The ship turned with Omen’s push, redirecting its course away from the courtyard, and he grinned at her.

“You’re hurt,” she said.

He pressed his fingertips near the bullet wound in his hip, grimacing at the flare of pain and the surge of blood it released. “It hurts,” he told her, “but I’ll live.”

Berkeley reached the top of the stairs too, and rushed over to them with a grin on his face. He inhaled and had just started to speak when something collided with the ship and rocked them all on their feet. Their entire momentum shifted as the wheel went spinning in the opposite direction, and as soon as they were steady, they sprinted to the bulwark and leaned over to glance down. To see the shadow of a massive blackfire dragon pushing its head against the side of the ship.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The blackfire dragon turned its hulking head toward the draken Lia had summoned to catch her, and Ophelia’s heart sank. With the dragon filling the courtyard, there was no way for Lia to sneak past it, especially with it watching her. It would snap if she got close. It would crush her in its jaws if Ophelia let her keep trying.

“Don’t!” Ophelia screamed at Lia as she tried to swoop toward the courtyard. “It’s too late!”

Lia hesitated, her draken hovering in the air as she looked from the dragon to the open tunnel. It took several seconds, but then she listened and retreated toward the rest of the fight outside the courtyard.

And with the retreat of Lia, Simon turned a grin on Ophelia as his dragon immediately spun. Its lumbering tail crashed through the walls of the courtyard as it turned, its massive front paws crushing another wall as it stepped out and toward the fleet, where it maneuvered itself around the other side of Simon’s ship and set its horned forehead against the hull. And it pushed, aiming the ship back on course.

Ophelia began to summon a shadow directly in front of her, intent on creating a dragon to rival Simon’s, but a rock crashed into her stomach as she expelled her breath into her hands. It sent her staggering several steps backward until she hit what remained standing of the courtyard walls. Simon immediately launched himself over the hole and landed on the other side of it to make his way to her, but it didn’t matter if he was coming. She had to stop that ship.

So she broke a massive sheet of rock from the ground and sent it flying at the dragon’s head, where it shattered into pieces amongst the bullets that Omen crew was raining on the creature from above without so much as making it flinch. She dodged a punch from Simon and sent a flaming rock blasting toward the ship’s hull instead. She aimed for the hinges on the drop doors but missed, and summoned another flame around stone as Simon sprang at her. She sent it flying right as he crashed into her, and it struck a hinge as she hit the ground. But the hinge didn’t break.

“I should’ve killed you,” Simon snarled as he grabbed the shoulders of her shirt, lifting her a few inches only to slam her back into the ground.

“Don’t do this,” she pleaded as she tried to pry his hands off her shirt. “You don’t know what will happen.”

He reared to wind up a fist and send it flying at her face. She deflected the punch, and as his balance shifted while his fist pummeled the ground, she used it to roll them over and switch positions. But she didn’t try to strike him. She threw herself off of him and pulled another brick from the floor to send it hurtling at the ship, but Simon’s hand wrapped around her ankle and pulled, bringing her down and throwing off her aim.

She was running out of time. The dragon had pushed the ship back on course and it only had another hundred feet to go before it was lined up.

Before she could find her own feet, Simon used a powerful gust to lift her into the air and then turned it into a whirlwind around her. The small tornado surrounded her, and the solid wall of fire he summoned within it trapped her in place. She tested one side to see if she could get through and immediately withdrew her seared fingertips. She couldn’t run without her feet on the ground. She couldn’t jump out through the flames. She could barely breathe as the fire consumed all the air within, and she was already choking for breath.

She swooped her arms upward, using a blast of wind to force herself back down and then altering stone as her feet hit the ground. It brought a pillar of rock up in the whirlwind’s path, breaking the circuit so the wind died and letting in a burst of oxygen as she gasped to flood her lungs with air. Simon stomped toward her as she panted, and she shoved her palms at the pillar she’d raised, breaking it from the ground and sending it straight toward him. He narrowly dodged as one edge of it crashed into his shoulder, and she took the split second she had to pull another brick and send it hurtling at the ship.

Simon didn’t let this one reach it, and he sent his own rock flying so that it crashed into hers in the air, exploding them both into a cloud of dust. He immediately went back on the attack, and came at her with a barrage of elements just as he’d done to Lia. He punched with his fist as he stomped a pillar of stone underfoot to throw off her balance. He drew water from the air and swung an uppercut of ice at her chin as his opposite knee followed at her stomach. He pushed a gust of wind at her back to send her careening toward his flaming fist.

All she could do was dodge and block. She ducked her head aside from a punch. Stretched her chin away from the ice and hugged her stomach to block his knee. She staggered forward and barely managed to redirect his arm before the flames met her face. And after all of it, there was one fleeting, split moment where she could launch her counterattacks. Where she could’ve turned it around and put him on the defensive.

But just as she was about to strike, the gigantic front foot of the blackfire dragon stomped between them. They both leapt out of the way, hitting the ground of opposite sides of it as the dragon finally finished guiding the ship over the hole.

The drop doors in the hull opened instantly, and all at once hundreds of explosives with laibralt cores came spilling out.

Ophelia didn’t hesitate to lob a flame directly at the falling explosives, because even if the explosion killed them, it’d save their planet’s heart. But Simon was ready for it, and intercepted her flame with a powerful gust before it reached the explosives.

So she focused on the hole instead, trying to close it before even a single explosive fell through. But Simon was there too. They both strained against each other for a moment that lasted an eternity, and then Ophelia caught the void-like black eye of the dragon that had lowered its head to her level.

It growled at her, and that was her only warning before its jaws stretched wide and it snapped. She abandoned her attempt on the hole to leap out of the way, but the dragon advanced on her. She ran with altered wind at her back, making a wide arc around the courtyard to try and loop back around to Simon and the hole as the dragon followed closely at her back, the quake of its heavy steps shaking the ground beneath her. But by the time she’d even looped around enough to see Simon again, it was too late.

Every last explosive had finished falling from the ship and disappeared into the earth.

She caught Simon’s eye as he hesitated for several moments to give the explosives a chance to reach the heart. And she didn’t stop running. She tried to get there. Tried to sprint as fast as her legs could carry her to intercept Simon as a smile spread across his face.

“Simon, don’t!” she screamed as she reached the opposite edge of the hole.

She sent herself flying at him over the chasm as he lit a massive flame between his hands. Her fingertips brushed his shoulders, but the dragon’s tail smashed into her and knocked her out of the air. And she slammed to the ground several yards away as Simon sent his flame shooting toward the heart.

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