Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(58)

“Quickly, or we’ll both fall,” he said.

Trembling, I broke the knot with clumsy fingers. I could feel his arms shaking with the effort to hold us.

“Go over the rail,” he said.

I nodded, scrabbling for purchase with my feet, catching on his knee. He groaned, but I pushed up a little to jump over the rail of the massive, impossibly floating ship. A second later he was up and beside me, his feet hitting the deck and his arms out as he shoved me behind him. “Don’t, she’s the queen!” he cried.

I gasped. There was a tall boy there, pointing a crossbow at Theron’s chest.

“You’re not,” he said, and I saw his finger curl over the trigger.

Osmost shrieked, flying in talons-first to hit the crossbow away as the bolt flew harmlessly over the edge.

“Damn bird!” the boy yelled, readying another arrow.

“Bast!” another voice cut in.

The boy lowered the bow as a girl climbed the steps to the front deck. I could see other people behind them, but they all looked young—barely older than I was, if even that.

This girl wore dark clothing, with rings and strange designs in chalky white—salt, I realized. That’s what had been all over the shipbuilders. Her dark hair was coiled like a head of snakes, and it was lighter on top from the sun.

But nothing shocked me nearly as much as Osmost swooping in, his wings outstretched, to rest on her shoulder.

“Hello again,” she said to him, and he clicked at her.

“You—you know my brother?” I asked, coming out from behind Theron.

She raised an eyebrow. “Your brother is a hawk?” she asked.

“No. The hawk is Osmost.”

“Osmost,” she said, looking at him again. He ducked a little, and she scratched his chin. “I only know the bird. But I’m guessing you’re the Tri Queen.” She turned to glare at the boy. “And we don’t kill queens on this ship.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Aspasia!” someone shouted.

I looked behind her to see a young girl, holding her hands out at her sides and shaking.

Aspasia took off down the stairs before the young girl even got a chance to say, “I’m losing it.”

Aspasia nodded, standing in front of the girl and holding her palms up in the same position. “I’m with you.”

“You’re tired,” the girl cried, sniffling back tears. “I can’t hold this much longer and neither can you.”

“You’re Elementae,” I breathed, coming down the stairs like their power pulled me closer.

Aspasia snapped a glare in my direction. “How else do you suggest we fly a ship in the air?”

A different boy was behind the young girl. “Take deep breaths,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “It’s not much longer. Just hold on.” He looked up at Aspasia.

The Bast boy came down to the deck as well. “We have to get out to open water. And we can’t take them with us.”

“We can’t just leave Dara there,” the other boy protested. “You know what they’ll do to her.”

Aspasia’s arms were trembling, and the concentration and frustration showed on her face.

“It’s her or all of us,” Bast said.

“Vote,” Aspasia said. “Quickly.”

“Save Dara,” Bast called. Of the ten or so children on the deck, only Aspasia and three others raised their hands.

“I’m sorry,” Aspasia said to the boy. “We have to leave, now.”

“We’re not leaving her!” growled the other boy. “You can’t do this! We’d go back for any of you!”

Sweat beaded on Aspasia’s face. “Come on,” she urged the girl. “Let’s go.”

The girl whined, and a tear shot down her cheek, but she nodded. The boat wheeled, pitching violently to the side before it sailed out toward the harbor, faster than I imagined it could.

“My queen,” Theron murmured to me. “When I say, jump.”

I nodded without further explanation. Especially since I was very sure that I didn’t want to know what that entailed.

As soon as we cleared the land, Theron surged forward, pushing the two girls so they stumbled. The boat dropped like a stone, and Theron yelled, “Jump!” at me as he pushed off one boy, then another child.

I didn’t look back. I just ran for the edge, and I jumped.

The water was as black as the night, shining and moving like a demon below me. I braced for the fall into it, but for long seconds, it didn’t come.

I felt the threads. Even though there was no earth around me, there was nothing for them to hold on to, I felt them surrounding me.

Just before I hit the water, I knew why—the Elementa on the boat had broken my fall. It wasn’t my power I felt; it was hers. So different, but made from the same forces. I wondered if, with that touch, she knew what I was too.

I hit the water, and the cold slammed against my body, covering me and taking me in, stealing my thought and my breath as I fell deeper into the arms of whatever spirits governed the sea.

The power I’d felt—her power—was gone, severed the moment I hit the water. If Theron was near, I couldn’t see him. My brothers, my family were flung far from me, and neither my husband nor his valiant brother were here to save me.