It started with a bone deep chill that soaked into Tierney’s skin. It gave way to a scorching heat that flooded her veins.
And then, she felt him again, seeking, searching. Toby knew she was here. The cries of her friends faded away, and all she could feel was power, pure and familiar.
Just off the barren shores of Iskalt, Tierney’s magic had returned.
The blinding pain snaking up her leg shocked her back to the present, to the chaos erupting all around her. Bronagh and Gulliver clutched each other as they clung to the bed that had started to shift, groaning as it moved toward the gaping hole in the side of the ship.
Veren held onto the wall as water poured into the room, shouting into the dark abyss. It took Tierney a moment to realize what he was looking for. Keir was gone, swept away with the raging sea.
The door splintered inward as another rush of water entered from the hallway moments before Imogen ran in. “Is everyone okay?” she yelled above the roaring of the storm.
Tierney didn’t have an answer. She was frozen in place, her magic taking hold of her, warming her, controlling her. Save yourself, it seemed to whisper. She couldn’t save everyone. Not Keir. Not Gulliver or Bron.
“Keir is in the water,” Veren hollered.
Panic crossed Imogen’s face. “He isn’t the only one. We lost most of our sailors when the boat capsized. By the time it righted itself, it was just me and Da. You have to get up top. It isn’t safe down here anymore.”
Nowhere was safe.
Tierney wrestled frantically with her power, out of practice and weak. She tore its restraints from her limbs, propelling herself into motion. Gulliver yelled after her, but she didn’t turn back before diving through the rift and plunging into the icy sea.
Saltwater stung her eyes, but she kept them open, using all her strength to draw power into every corner of her body, warming her limbs in the freezing ocean depths. Keir would have no such protection. She kicked deeper, her lungs crying out for oxygen.
If only her magic had the power to help her breathe.
The darkness of the water stole her sight, forcing Tierney to shoot up, gasping as her head breached the surface. A giant wave headed for her, and she looked up just in time for it to crest over her head, sending her tumbling underwater. For a moment, she didn’t know which way was up, and then she saw the moonlight reflecting on the surface.
Swimming for the light, she reached it and caught sight of the ship, broken and sinking. It tilted on its side. The mast had long since snapped off and now floated among the waves. Someone clung to it, and she didn’t know if it was one of the sailors or the man she searched desperately for.
Maybe it didn’t matter. She could save someone.
Her arms ached but she forced them to cut through the water as waves tried to drag her under. Tierney had never been a strong swimmer, but this time, she had her magic to bolster her, lending her the kind of will she hadn’t felt in months.
The thought that Toby was close enough for her magic to return kept her going, kept her from giving in to the pain and exhaustion eager to drag her into the depths. She refused to stop now.
Tierney reached the floating mast. It had broken in half, and the longer of the two pieces blocked her from her destination. She hauled herself over it on her belly and flopped back into the water.
Keir didn’t move from where his body draped across the second wooden pole, his face in the water.
No, he had to be okay.
Tierney lifted his face, placing one hand on each cheek and instructing her magic to warm him. Color returned to his skin almost instantly, but still, he didn’t move. She had to get him back to the ship. It might be sinking, but it was the only choice.
Drawing in a fortifying breath, Tierney slid him from the mast, doing her best to keep his head above water.
“I know you’re stronger than this,” she screamed, the words meant for the power inside her that still seemed hesitant to heed her command. “Please help me!” It had been so long since she used magic she’d forgotten how difficult she’d once found it to control.
But it wasn’t working. Tierney treaded water, sinking lower and lower as her legs tired and her sodden clothes weighed her down. Keir slipped from her grasp, but she reached down and pulled him up again, not willing to concede the futility of it all.
“We are not going to die out here,” she said, knowing Keir couldn’t hear her. “I promise you that.” Before, she’d refused to make promises, but right now, it was all she had. That and a magic with untold power that wouldn’t cooperate.
It had to do more than warm her.
A wave dragged her under, and she tightened her hold on Keir, wrapping her arms around his middle.
She broke the surface with a roar. “I am Tierney O’Shea, and we are partners. When I call, you come.”
Power flooded her veins, a power that didn’t completely belong to her. She felt her brother lending his strength as he’d done so many times as her amplifier.
Someone threw a net over the side of the tilting ship, and then Veren and Gulliver were there, peering out at the sea, their eyes searching. Tierney only had to get to them.
The pain faded from her limbs, the ache disappeared from her lungs, and she shot toward the net with a series of giant kicks, not letting another wave take hold.
Reaching up desperately, her fingers found the thick net, and she didn’t wait for them to pull her up. Using her magic for strength, she started to climb, dragging Keir with her.
She reached the halfway point, and the net moved, the boys pulling it in the rest of the way with the help of the few remaining soldiers. Keir’s body tumbled through the gap made by a broken rail, and Tierney threw herself onto the deck beside him, her chest heaving.
When Keir still didn’t move, she rolled toward him. “Not today, your Majesty.” Lifting one hand, she curled her fingers into a fist, bringing it down with force to try to push the water from his lungs.
It didn’t work.
The deck pitched, and she slid, her feet finding purchase on a trunk that had wedged itself into the second gap in the rail. Others held on to whatever they could find, but Keir … his body hit hers like a sack of grain.
“Tia, you still there?” Gulliver yelled.
“Yeah, you okay?” There was no room for fear, not when the world around them had disintegrated into madness.
“As good as a human who’s just been hit by one of their metal monsters.”
“Cars, Gullie. You should know that by now.” She pushed Keir onto his back again.
“Really not the time.”
Biting her lip, Tierney searched Keir’s face for any sign of life. She couldn’t tell the tears from the rain on her face as a new wave crashed over the side of the ship and it righted itself, the bow still sinking lower in the water.
“Keir,” she cried, brushing the sopping hair back from his face. “Please wake up.” She’d heard stories of her mother saving her father long ago using her magic unknowingly. The power flooded into his heart and jolted his body into healing.
Determined to try, she placed both hands on his chest.
“What are you doing?” Bronagh crawled toward her.
“Whatever I have to.” She closed her eyes against the rain and howling wind, against the imminent death and hopelessness. Toby, I need you. Searching inside herself, she felt her Iskaltian magic rise, strengthened by the moon. It was soon joined by her brother’s presence, which in itself lent her more power.
It flooded down her arms into her hands, and she let it free to snake through Keir, to do what no natural thing could.
In the distance, she heard her friends calling to her, telling her to take hold of something. She felt the boat move beneath her with a resounding crack. And still, she focused.
Nothing.
Keir didn’t wake; he didn’t move. Even as she pushed water from his lungs, warming him from the inside out, he remained still. Her chest ached where that knowledge lived, and she started to pull back, letting the scene around her rush in.
Gulliver now clung to the rail, his body hanging over the side as he screamed for help. Imogen had a hold of one of his arms and Veren the other.
The captain continued steering the broken ship, yelling into the wind.
And Bronagh tugged on Tierney’s arm. “We’re all going to need to jump.”
She couldn’t be serious. “What?”
“The ship is sinking. We need to get away from it before it pulls us under.”
Tierney caught sight of a guard dressed in his golden Grima armor—a bad choice for a storm—as his grip slipped and was lost to the sea.
She scrambled to her feet and ran to help Imogen and Veren pull Gulliver onto the ship.
Peering into the water, she caught sight of a large broken piece of the hull floating atop the waves. Bronagh was right. They had to jump into the icy waters of the fjords and hope they made it to shore before the seas claimed them.
“Captain,” she screamed. “We have to go.”
He shook his head. “I won’t leave my ship.”
“Da.” Imogen tried to run up to the bridge, but Veren held her back.
“Get her out of here.” Captain Michel couldn’t meet his daughter’s eyes. “Please, majesties. Make the world a safe haven for my daughter.”
Tierney looked from the sobbing Imogen to Veren who still held her. Her gaze slid to where Gulliver gasped on his knees beside a comatose Keir. And finally, it landed on Bronagh. They still had a chance to save Lenya, no matter how small. “We will.”
Tierney shook off her fears and took actions. “Gulliver, help me with Keir.” She couldn’t leave him behind. Gulliver pushed wearily to his feet and helped her pull Keir up between them. “Everyone off this ship if you want to live.” There was no time to soften her words, not now. Only time for the truth. The captain was right. Now wasn’t about saving their own lives, but about salvaging their last chance to bring Lenya back from the brink of destruction.
Veren pulled Imogen to the gap in the rail. She’d stopped fighting him and cast one more desolate look at her father. He lifted a hand toward her, and then Veren pulled her with him as they jumped. Bronagh went next, disappearing over the side.
Tierney and Gulliver dragged Keir to the gap, but as they reached it, the deck tilted and they tumbled off the edge. A scream lodged in her throat seconds before she hit the water.
The blast of cold had her moving quickly to grab hold of Keir. Gulliver swam toward her, his tail working just as hard as his arms and legs. Together, they breached the surface and made their way to the floating side of the hull. The others reached it before them.
A crack rent the air, and they looked back just in time to see the deck split in two as the aft reared up.
“No,” Imogen screamed for her father.
Tierney pulled half her body onto the wood. “Grab hold of me.” No one moved. She tugged Keir up with her. “Now!” Hands reached for her, clutching her arms, her shoulders. She sent her magic into each of them, keeping them warm as freezing water crashed over their heads.
It was the only way she knew how to give them a chance.
Tierney’s eyes fluttered open as she felt solid ground beneath her. The ground was cold, but it was land. The shocking memory of the previous night jolted her awake. She lay on a snow-covered beach, water and chunks of ice rushing in with the tide. Iskalt. It had to be.
And then, she remembered everything. “Keir.” Her eyes searched the beach. Gulliver lay pressed against her, her magic keeping him warm. But the others were nowhere to be found.
Boots crunched in the snow, and Tierney shifted to look behind her where Veren walked toward her up the beach. “I was just returning to get you two. I helped the others into the cover of the forest. We have a fire going to keep us warm.”
The woods. Tierney surveyed the landscape, her mind reeling with too much information at once. Behind them were dense forests leading to a range of majestic mountains, their peaks unreachable by even the strongest of Iskalt warriors. “We’re …”
“In Iskalt.” Veren nodded with a grin. “We made it.”
Not all of them. The agony of their losses lanced through her. Keir was gone. Had they lost his body to the sea? She wanted to cry, to give herself a moment to break down, but that wasn’t her. Keir wouldn’t want her to fall apart now, not when they were so close to saving his kingdom.
“I’m guessing we’re not far from the Northeastern Vatlands.”
Tierney tried to place them on a map in her mind. Her father had made her learn every inch of Iskalt during her studies. “We need to find a way through the mountains.”
“Why don’t you wake Gullie and come to the fire. You must be exhausted from keeping us warm all night.”
“Is your …”
He nodded, knowing what she wanted to ask. Veren now had full use of his magic too as long as the moon was in the sky. It was most likely how he’d started the fire.
Tierney pushed herself up onto her aching legs and nudged Gulliver with her foot.
He grumbled and rolled over, his body shaking from the cold without her there to warm him.
“Wake up.”
Gulliver groaned as his eyes opened. “What happened?”
“We made it through an unsurvivable storm, lost our ship and way too many fae, but we’re here. We’re home.”
“Home.” He said the word like it was foreign to him and got to his feet.
Veren clapped them each on the shoulder. “Come on.”
They trudged up the beach, crossing into the canopy of trees, a carpet of pine needles soft beneath their feet. Tierney’s entire body ached like she’d just gone five rounds against the prison magic. But no amount of exhaustion could shake the triumph of her homecoming.
The first person she saw was Imogen. She’d curled in on herself near the fire, tears streaking her face. Tierney’s heart broke for the girl who’d now lost both parents to tragic circumstances. She leaned down when she reached her. “Your father was a hero.” Without him, they’d never have made it.
She didn’t respond, didn’t move.
Bronagh sat across the fire, her expression sad. They’d survived, but the cost of the journey was high.
And next to her, resting his back against a tree … Tierney stopped, her breath stuttering in her chest. Keir’s eyes were closed, but his chest rose and fell with slow breaths.
“How?” she whispered.
Veren shrugged. “We aren’t sure. Maybe it was your magic or simply time. He woke up on the beach, same as us. He wanted me to get you to the fire first, but I knew you could stay warm on your own.”
Her steps faltered, and she stared at him, taking in the way his hair stuck up in every direction, the cut on his cheek. He was still beautiful, even if a bit rough. His eyes slid open, latching onto hers.
Gulliver trudged past her to edge closer to the fire, his tail hanging limp and frosty.
Flames flickered in Keir’s dark gaze, and she stepped toward him, each movement slow, tentative.
He lifted his chin to track her with his eyes. “I heard you jumped in after me.” His voice was harsh, raspy, as if he’d injured some integral part of his throat.
Tierney lifted one corner of her mouth. “Someone had to save you.”
He arched a brow. “Do I have to thank someone who speaks with their ego?”
She lowered herself to the ground beside him and nodded. “Yes. You very much have to thank me. And then, you have to do it again.”
He tried to lean in, but when she noticed he didn’t have the strength, she brushed her lips against his.
“Is that thank you enough?” he whispered.
“Absolutely not.” This time, she let the kiss linger. He tasted of saltwater and life. Her forehead rested against his, and she breathed him in, unable to truly believe he was here in front of her. That they’d made it to Iskalt, even if they’d ended up in the far Eastern Vatlands, away from anything resembling civilization.
Veren sat down. “As nauseating as you two are, I think it’s time we talk about what happens next.”
He was right. They didn’t have much time to linger. Tierney’s stomach gave a fierce grumble. “We’re going to need to find some food.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem now that we have our magic. Tierney, you and I will need to hunt.”
Hunt. Her eyes widened. The mountains. She knew exactly where they could go. “There’s a hunting lodge near Lake Fryst, just beyond the vatlands. My father rarely uses it, but if we can make it there, we can take the time to recover before setting out for the long journey to the palace.”
“It’s still going to be a tough journey to reach Lake Fryst.” Veren looked into the fire for a moment, lost in thought before he finally nodded. “But it’s our best chance. None of us are fit for a long journey across the wilds of Iskalt. We need at least a day of rest here before we set out.”
Several days on foot with clothes not fit for the Iskalt snows, and their trunks at the bottom of the sea. Just perfect.
At least she had her magic. With that, she was confident she’d get them all home safely to see their families again.