To Kill a God by C.S. Wilde

Chapter 30

Mera rushedthrough the chaos on the ocean’s surface. Water splashed everywhere as she dodged battling bodies and phaser blasts. When a roar came from above, green plasma rained upon her and the nightbringer right next to her.

Just as the plasma hit the surface, she dove underwater, waterbreaking to a safe depth. A loud boom came overhead, and the ship’s upper deck exploded in a fiery storm. The blast pulsed through the water, pushing her back, but Mera kept her stance. The vessel’s metallic shriek howled across the sea, rumbling deep in her bones.

What remained of the nightbringer plunged toward the battle taking place on the ocean bed. The crew’s charred bodies plummeted along—wolf, witch, human, it didn’t matter. The iron plates around their torsos made their corpses sink faster.

Below, Atlantean cars and automatons fired at their enemies. Sirens wearing black bodysuits clashed violently against Azinor’s forces, waterbreaking for their lives. For Atlantea.

For Mera.

Taken by a need to join the battle, she began swimming down, but she couldn’t lose sight of her goal, couldn’t join her people. Not yet. With a displeased grunt, she boosted back to the surface and kept running. When she looked at the sky, she found Icefire dodging a blue blast that had come from an automaton on her far left. Beta Three’s head peeked above water, and he waved at her.

The beast shrieked as it made a loop in the air, quickly plunging toward him. Facing Icefire, Beta Three spewed blue streams once again, but thanks to Ariella’s steering, the waterdragon dodged every blast.

Swerving, Mera rushed toward Beta Three, but she wouldn’t reach him in time. “Dive!” she yelled.

He couldn’t hear her.

Crap!

The Marauder’s dark wooden frame suddenly cut through her path. Captain Flint winked at her from the upper deck, then turned to his crew. “Harpoons, fire!”

The bulky wooden weapons fired at the waterdragon, piercing its side. The beast shrieked and swiveled, missing Beta Three by an inch as it plunged into the ocean with a mighty splash.

Her metallic wristband chimed, and Belinda’s voice came from the other side. “Mer…” Her tone was weakened.

Injured.

“Where are you, Bel?”

“South from the Marauder.”

Heart breaking, Mera gave Flint one last glance, then rushed forward, trying to find her friend before it was too late.

She searched through the battling bodies on the surface, carving a path that snaked between the scattered ships that still remained. Soon, her frantic gaze found Belinda near a sinking nightbringer, cornered by a group of sirens wearing moss-green bodysuits.

Her friend had a bruise on the left side of her face and one purple eye, her hair a scrambled mess. A deep cut extended over her right thigh, bleeding a vivid crimson. Belinda had lost her weapons, but still stared defiantly at the group closing in on her, even if she couldn’t take them all.

Mera gripped her phaser tighter, her feet skating on the ocean’s surface. Aiming at one lackey’s head, she pulled the trigger and quickly vaporized his skull. She then summoned an ice spear that pierced the chest of another siren, leaving only two.

Taking advantage of their shock, Belinda launched herself at the closest enemy and snapped his neck. Just as the remaining siren was about to shoot her, Mera nailed a phaser blast to his head.

“Just in time.” Belinda smiled through the specks of enemy blood that peppered her face, but winced in pain when she tried to step forward. Nodding to the battle raging everywhere around them, she clicked her tongue. “We’ll die today, won’t we?”

She couldn’t tell her friend that she would give her life to stop Azinor. That while Mera wouldn’t live to see another day, she would ensure Belinda and her friends did. “You’ll be fine, Bel.”

The water beneath their feet warmed up, sizzling, and Mera yanked Belinda out of the way just as a red beam broke through the surface, coming from an automaton under them.

The beam suddenly stopped with a loud boom that reverberated against the soles of Mera’s feet. A moment passed, until Beta Three’s head popped up from the water again, and he saluted them both.

Mera searched for the Marauder, but just as she found it, Icefire broke through the sea’s surface. The beast flew so high and fast that it dragged the ship along, nearly lifting it from the water.

“Jump,” Mera gasped, willing the crew to save themselves.

Flint’s golden lightning whipped and crackled against the shield Ariella had around the beast, but failed to pierce it. Icefire’s chest puffed, and within a second, it spit a plasma stream that engulfed the Marauder in an emerald hell.

“No!” Mera yelled, hoping Flint and Mr. Snipes had enough power to survive the attack.

She watched the ship burn and begin to sink, a knot tying in her stomach. As the battle raged on the surface and under the sea, Mera realized Azinor had won, and worst of all, he wasn’t there; hadn’t even given her the chance to face him.

Battle cries suddenly rang from the sky, and a cloud of Sidhe and witches plummeted toward the surface, snatching bald sirens with moss-green bodysuits like seagulls ready to feast.

Some killed their enemies with clouds of deadly magic, others gave in to the advancements of technology and shot them instead—not a small feat when it came to faeries. The lackeys’ bodies splashed violently on the surface.

The sky battalion also snatched survivors from the shipwrecks—witches, wingless fae, wolves, and humans—and took them to land.

Handing Belinda one of her phaser guns, Mera quickly pulled out the second. “Stay low.”

“Can’t do much while that thing is still flying.” She nodded to Icefire. It had just spit a green cloud at a couple of flying warlocks, burning them to a crisp.

Swimming closer, Beta Three propelled himself up to his waist. “Poseidon’s automatons will reach land soon. I’m afraid I must leave you.”

With Mera’s nod, he sank back into the endless blue.

Above them, Icefire shrieked, then enveloped yet another nightbringer in green blaze. As it did, Ariella macabred a Sidhe on her right, leaving a red nimbus in the fae’s place.

Fuming, Mera bit her own teeth. “I have to get on that waterdragon.”

“You will.” Belinda waved to a group of soldiers nearby. “Blizzard, cover the queen. Make me proud, Officer!”

Nodding, the male held his phaser high. His companions did the same, belting a war cry in unison, “For Atlantea!”

“Take cover, Bel,” Mera ordered more than said. “You’re in no condition to fight.”

With a wink, she smiled.

Exchanging one last glance with her friend, Mera ran toward the waterdragon, her feet splashing on the ocean’s surface. Blizzard and his officers followed.

A line of water rose to her hands while she looked up, her focus locked on Icefire. The line began solidifying into malleable ice—meltwater, at the tip of her fingers.

When she turned back to Blizzard, the officer caught her cue.

“Fire!” he ordered, and blue comets rushed up, aimed at the beast. Most of them missed the creature, but two slammed against its side.

Icefire dove toward them with a shriek, waterblaze burning at the back of its throat.

“Dive!” Mera ordered.

They plummeted just as the plasma heat blasted along the surface, but the waterdragon plunged right behind them. It sunk its teeth into Blizzard, chewing him in half.

Cursing under her breath, Mera turned in a circle and gained momentum, waterbreaking after the beast, who now followed another officer. The creature prepared to vomit melting plasma on him, but Mera whipped her meltwater rope, tying it around Icefire’s ankle.

Glaring at her, the beast seemed to forget all about the officer. So did Ariella. The bitch pushed Icefire forward, cutting into the deep so fast, Mera had to waterbreak a shield to avoid falling behind.

The waterdragon swiveled, looping around as it tried to break free, but she wouldn’t let go. Gathering her magic, she pulled at the whip until she landed on Icefire’s back. Water rushed past the shield that helped keep her in place.

“Let go, Mother!” Mera aimed her phaser at the bitch’s head.

Ariella glanced back at her from Icefire’s neck. “The waterdragon obeys my magic only. If you shoot me, it will attack everything and everyone in its path.”

“Then we have a problem, don’t we?”

“Not really.” Standing, Ariella walked atop the beast’s spine, approaching Mera. The strong currents that slammed against them passed right around their shields.

Mera gripped her weapon harder. “Stop where you are!”

“I won’t fight you, child.” Lifting her hands as if in surrender, Ariella whispered things Mera couldn’t understand; ancient words that matched the whispers in her head.

“What—?”

Ariella tapped her own temple. “The language of souls, Daughter. Understanding them has always been within your grasp, but first, you must learn to listen.” She thumped her feet twice on the waterdragon’s hide, and the creature slowed down, gliding seamlessly through the sea.

“What did you do?” Mera asked, maintaining her aim.

“I gave you the reins.”

“And how am I supposed to ride this thing?”

“Listen.”

Before she could ask what the hell that meant, Ariella jumped off the beast, diving toward the ocean’s depths.

“Damn it!” Mera didn’t have time to go after her. She had much bigger fish to fry.

Carefully, she pulled herself toward Icefire’s neck. The last time she’d mounted it, the waterdragon had been alive.

“I’m sorry it came to this,” she mumbled, patting its moon-silver skin.

She closed her legs around the beast’s neck and grasped two spikes at the base of its head. Leaning her body to the left, she tugged the spikes in the same direction, but Icefire didn’t obey.

“Come on!”

Technically, that should have worked. Then again, Mera didn’t have a lot of experience riding a freaking waterdragon.

As if on cue, whispers echoed in her ears, and when she glanced at her own hands, those strange, black runes had already rose to the surface, dancing on her skin.

“Hertenah,” the voices urged.

Control.

Yeah, no shit.

Mera tightened her grasp on the waterdragon’s spikes, finding a certain stillness inside herself. Energy sizzled in her veins, jolting to her palms before swimming down the creature’s skin and reaching its core.

The whispers kept repeating, control, control, and her tattoos glowed a bright blue. So did Icefire’s runes. Their neon-green shifted to the same sapphire hue of her power, connecting them.

Suddenly, Mera saw the ocean through Icefire’s eyes. When she opened her mouth, so did the beast. She thought about turning right, and to her surprise, the waterdragon did it.

Becoming one with the beast was a hollow sensation, like being trapped inside a giant, empty cavern. Maybe it was because the creature was dead; maybe because its body didn’t belong to Mera. It didn’t really matter.

Waterblaze tickled her ribcage, and currents drifted past her spine, gushing through the open spots in her ribs.

Well, Icefire’s ribs.

A wicked grin cut through her lips when she ordered it to turn around and fire waterblaze upon the lackeys fighting her people near the sea bed. The pricks glared at her with a mix of shock and hatred before the scorching blaze engulfed them. And then, they were gone.

Atlanteans cheered as she zinged across the currents, charging at their enemies without mercy. One, two, three gushes, and her soldiers already had an advantage. But if she were to end this war, there was only one enemy she had to face.

Turning the waterdragon in an upwards loop, she stared at the surface. Icefire broke through it with a mighty splash, zinging high into the sky.

As they approached the mainland, Mera spotted Bast, Corvus, and what remained of the sky battalion attacking Azinor and his beast.

“Hold!” A Sidhe with red hair yelled from her right, stopping a group that was scouting Mera’s flank, ready to attack.

The Sidhe was none other than Fallon Asherath, Bast’s captain, who gaped at her in shock when he realized she wasn’t Ariella. Nodding, he ordered his soldiers to stand down.

Icefire charged faster toward the mainland. Wind gusted furiously around her while the beast flapped its wings non-stop, cutting through the air itself.

As they flew closer, Mera watched a gruesome battle below. She spotted Beta Three spewing blue blaze out of his mouth, taking out three automatons at once with his attack. His form mingled into the flurry of grappling bodies and machines fighting at the promenade.

When she opened her mouth, waterblaze burst from Icefire’s maw, annihilating hundreds of evil automatons, and giving the witches, fae, and wolves below the upper hand.

Ahead, Corvus and Bast flew head on toward Azinor’s waterdragon.

Had they lost their minds?

A red stream from the ground suddenly hit Corvus, and Bast dove through the air to catch him. Despair pooled in Mera’s core as she watched the creature chase after them. It opened its mouth, ready to chew her hart apart.

With a scream, she willed Icefire to go faster. It rammed into Azinor’s pet just in time, pushing it away before it could snap its jaws closed.

They fell down in a deadly spiral, but the look of shock in the prick’s eyes had been worth it.

“Mera!” Bast screamed from above, but she couldn’t look back; couldn’t hesitate.

Icefire clawed at its kin without mercy, locking their bodies in a free-fall. She willed the beast to push its enemy away from the shore; away from everyone she loved.

Their wings flapped furiously, both waterdragons locked together as they rushed past the battles at the beach and the ocean. They jerked from side to side violently, and Mera nearly lost her grip.

Almost out of range…

With a loud shriek, Azinor’s pet bit Icefire’s neck, and Mera dodged a sharp tooth that nearly pierced her calf. As clotted blood gushed from her waterdragon’s neck, she wondered if that was it for Icefire, but her beast didn’t falter. It grabbed the other creature’s chest plate and ripped it off its flesh, revealing rotting organs underneath it.

Looking down to the ocean’s surface, she tried to keep the waterdragons on a parallel trajectory. If they hit the water at that speed, she would break every bone in her body.

“Hash, fash,”the voices whispered.

Claw, bite.

Icefire followed the commands before Mera realized what they’d meant. Her waterdragon sunk its jaw into the other’s neck, ripping out a huge chunk of flesh. Gurgling blood, Azinor’s beast let out a horrid shriek while they spiraled farther over the ocean.

“Let go!” he bellowed.

“Fimna,”the voices urged.

End it.

Clawing at one of the waterdragon’s wings, Icefire ripped it to shreds. Mera held on to her beast as they plunged harder, faster, fighting the centrifugal force that pulled her away.

Azinor glared at his maimed beast, his eyes filled with fury. “You forget one thing, Daughter!”

Raising his hand, he snapped his fingers, and the tattoos on both creatures stopped glowing, as did the runes on Mera’s skin. The waterdragons’ eyes went blank and their bodies limp.

Staring at the approaching sea, Mera uttered a curse under her breath. She jumped from Icefire just in time, moving her hands frantically to break water, trying to ease her fall.

The beasts crashed violently against the surface, shattering bones and splattering old, clotting blood everywhere. Their bodies, or what remained of them, began sinking all too quickly.

Thankfully, the thick column of water she’d summoned swallowed her, slowing her descent. Plunging into the cylinder, she quickly came out on the top of the ocean.

Mera stabilized herself on the shock waves of the crash, while the cylinder melted behind her. Salty wind blew gently everywhere, and for a moment, the sea became so very quiet.

Azinor stood ahead with a bloodthirsty grin, his fists closed. The magic enhancer hung from a chain around his neck.

Her hand went to the holster attached to her belt, but she’d lost her phaser during the battle. She only had her fists and her magic.

So be it.

“It ends here,” she shouted.

“For you, it just might.” A siren’s shriek burst from his throat, breaking the air toward Mera.

A shriek of her own tore through her vocal cords, and their voices clashed in a loud boom that tossed both of them in opposite directions.

Hitting the water like a skipping stone, Mera quickly forced herself to come to a halt. She watched the asshole far ahead, who also recovered from the blast.

No time to waste.

Rushing toward him, she bellowed a war cry while summoning hundreds of ice spears that followed her. Mera flung them at the dickface, but Azinor turned each and every one into powdery snow.

She’d almost reached him when an icy blade grew from his hand. A sword.

Two could play that game.

An ice blade bloomed from her palm too, just as she jumped toward him, and their weapons clashed violently. With each strike, the ice swords shattered then regenerated. Seeing an opening in his defense, Mera snatched the enhancer and ripped it off his neck.

Power rushed inside her for a moment too quick to count, until the asshole sucker-punched her so hard that she rolled away. As she crashed over the water, the enhancer escaped her grasp.

“No!”

It plopped downward, and though she tried to waterbreak it back, Azinor blocked her magic, replacing it with his own. The enhancer began rising toward the surface—toward him.

Heat coursed under her skin, the air around her crackling. Mera’s power slammed against his, obstructing his magic. She couldn’t keep the enhancer safe from Azinor, not during their fight. Teeth gritting, she pushed it to the bottom of the sea.

Azinor cursed under his breath. “You’re quite a nuisance.”

The enhancer soon plunged into the depths of the ocean, escaping both her radar and the prick’s. Sweat bloomed on her forehead, but she kept a fierce grip on her power, blocking his.

“Now that you’re out of advantages…” Boosting toward him, Mera nailed a perfect punch to his face.

He tumbled back. Wiping the black blood that trickled down the edge of his mouth, he grinned like a tiger about to feast.

“Oh, child. You thought I needed the enhancer to defeat you?”

Before she could react, he punched Mera in the ribs, then grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her spine, trapping her back to his chest.

Fuck, he was fast.

“Enough playing.” His free hand wrapped around her neck and squeezed. As she grappled for air, the asshole leaned into her ear. “Welcome to your end, Daughter. Rejoice.”