Page 116 of Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Water flies as broken carriers crash back down to the ocean’s surface. I watch in awe as our vessel reaches the docks.

On the shores, Burners lock into special cannons welded to wrap around both their arms. My chest swells when I spot Kenyon at the center.

“Release!” the elder commands.

Blasts of fire shoot forward like comets, piercing through the carriers closest to the docks. Kenyon gives the second order, and the Burners strike again. Fire rages in an endless stream, incinerating the Skulls who line the decks.

“Push them back!” Nâo screams. Behind her, the army of Tiders mounts its attack. Muscles bulge along the elder’s arms as she leads a line of Tiders into the waters. They lift their arms in a combined chant.

Teal light gathers around them. The seas thrash at their feet. A mighty wave lifts from the ocean. The seabed reveals itself as the wave reaches its climax, towering a kilometer into the sky.

With a powerful cry, the Tiders release the wave. It crashes over the carriers with a vengeance, twisting the bloodmetal like parchment. The powerful crafts crash into one another like dominoes, colliding as they fall back.

They knock half a dozen carriers out, but they can’t stop them all.

“Get ready!” Nâo roars.

I brace myself as the first carrier makes land.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

INAN

DETERMINATION POWERS MY EVERY STEP. I don’t allow myself to look back. I fight my way up the shaking mountain, clutching Zélie to my chest.

Rumbles travel from far below. Black stone crashes down from the mountain’s side. The very ground swells at my feet. Gray steam leaks from the split rock, forming clouds that pile up in the air.

Mount Gaia wakes with the destruction of her lands. A blaze builds inside her like the fires that rage below. But despite her force, I don’t slow. I feel no fear.

Time takes me back, revealing everything that brought me here.

I remember my earliest mornings with Mother, the way we walked through the gilded halls of the palace, hand in hand. There were so many moments spent under the wall of royal portraits, sharing tales of rulers long since passed.

I see the endless days spent training with Admiral Kaea and the soldiers, the alabaster walls of our barracks. I hear the clash of iron against iron as we battled in the training circles. I see the glistening seal of Orïsha, the armor I couldn’t wait to don. I remember the quiet moments spent in the palace at night before the throne I used to dream of sitting on.

I reach for the days I used to share with my sister, long before theRaid. Whenever Mother hosted a gala, I could always find Amari under the table, hoarding platters of plantain and bean cakes.

I remember the old governesses we used to trick, all the distractions caused so we could escape. I hear her high-pitched giggle, the one that stopped the day my sword cut across her back. I think of the brother she should’ve had.

I think of what our life could’ve been.

But when I think of Father, all my other memories seem to shrink. I feel the way my shoulders slumped under the eternal weight of his gaze, the burn of the sênet pawn he placed in my hands. The sting of his fist against my cheek. I hear every word he yelled at me, everything he taught me to think. I taste the venom that used to crawl up my throat at the very sight of the maji.

I remember the prince who wanted to wipe them from this world.

And then there was you…

I look down at Zélie, taking in her ethereal form. My fingers dig into her white coils, and I feel the night my streak first appeared. The day I was certain my life would end.

I see the day I first saw her in Lagos’s marketplace, the moment our paths first crossed. Never had I seen anything more horrible. More beautiful.

More wild.

“You changed me.” I whisper the words, praying her spirit can hear. I think back to her dancing at the maji festival, the vision of Orïsha that was born. She was the only reason I thought I could be a different kind of king.

I dreamed of a lifetime spent with her in my arms.

I made her a promise back in that cage. I swore she would live to see our homeland. I can’t stop King Baldyr. I can’t battle every Skull.

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