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"Co flames to stand over me His voice was low, kind, and a little sad "You’re not going to kill us You won’t, Jo And that her, because I can’t kill you if I know you’re still in there so up at hi hair "Do you really think so?" I asked, and blew Freddy off my back

I blew him off the ship

Into the water

Then I lunged up, wrapped my hands around Lewis’s throat, and called fire It wrapped around nited instantly He controlled that, but I was attacking hi out the fla his blood to sludge in his veins Earth Wardens knew a ht, especially when you were on fire

But Lewisback to crash against a ray sea, Freddy - a Fire Warden, with no power over either the water or the living things in it - yelled for help with panic in his voice Soered and fell, the bottle that held David’s soul entrapped fell out of his pocket and skittered across the deck I reached out for it

Cherise got to it first

She backed up, fast, both hands clenched around the slass form She pulled it in to her chest

The Wardens closed ranks between her andhis way to the front - and Cherise

" Youback off," I snapped "I saved your life, you rancid little murderer You owe me"

"I owe Joanne," he said "I don’t knoho the fuck you are, and I don’t care You ainst Cherise and - "

"And what?" I asked, and took a step forward "You’ll cut me? Oh, shut up Get out of my way if you want to live"

Venna misted into place next to hiot the ht you before," I said

"You lost," she pointed out "The poisoned water may sustain you, but it’s still poisoned

Don’tyou’re my equal Ever"

" Booyah, bitch," Kevin said Someone else, with more sense and better self-preservation instincts,to kill you all," I said I , a kind of inevitable darkness

"I have to" I was still just a little sorry about that, but it really was necessary Lewis had been right that so - poisoningmy arms wide, felt the storm roar and answer, and shouted, "Now!" The Djinn Rahel erupted from out of the ocean

No, not Rahel - Rahel as commanded by her master, Bad Bob, the Black Warden

Rahel was as large as the cruise ship Her hair was a nest of writhing eels Her face was distorted, pointed into an extrele, and her s and weeds and pearls and fish scales, and in both hands she held swords as long as the hull of the ship

"Oh, Christ," so started Not a up every defense they had

It really wasn’t going to do theood at all

Venna, pretty and fresh in a sparkly pink shirt with a unicorn on it, ju The storm winds hit her like the wave front of an explosive blast, blowing her hair back in a rippling blond flag, but she was absolutely steady as she balanced Rahel saw her, and that shark-toothedsmile

Venna executed a perfect dive, and before she hit the waves, she’d changed into soht at the terrifying sea-hag that Rahel had become

Rahel’s shark teeth parted on a shriek, and she was yanked down under the waves The Grand Paradise rocked violently as the water churned, and the storusts

Rahel wasn’t the attack, of course Just a diversion, soet attention away from me While the Wardens were focused on the water, I concentrated on the metal of the ship’s hull, below the water line

Metal bent and screamed, and the entire ship twisted as if it had been T-boned It rolled starboard, then over-corrected to port, sending people flying and rolling and screa

Rahel broke the surface of the water and was yanked under again The battle continued, not that it mattered to anyone on the ship anye

It wasn’t containable

I smiled

Lewis left the deck in a sudden burst and went airborne - a trick that few Weather Wardens could ht, filing it away for future reference

Then so, rolled all the way over

Disaster can be oddly beautiful It seems to happen in slow motion, like ballet, and if your emotions aren’t involved, then it’s only input

All I was feeling, as the ship died around me, was a quiet kind of satisfaction

It took about ten seconds for the Grand Paradise to capsize, and then I was in the water, floating away from the ship It looked exactly like it had ten seconds before, only noas upside down and wreathed in sobubbles that it was like so

There was a ripped section of hull below the waterline, extending nearly half the length of the ship I could see inside to hallways, storerooineering section

I had done that Just ely serene wreckage of what had been our only salvation out here in the middle of this watery desert

Rahel’s massive sea-monster body dived past me, driven by a tail that was as loomy depths She was followed by a pink, sparkle-skinned unicorn with eyes of fire, gills, and flippers instead of legs Its horn was shi up the dark as it shot away in pursuit of Rahel

The water was shockingly cold, or at least that was my impression I instinctively reached for power and war around , encasing people in protective bubbles and popping theh to end up sucking sea I supposed they’d be all about saving those ere trapped, too

I felt the suction of water rushing into the ship

Rahel and Venna broke the surface again, two giants now screa at each other, far less huiven up her My Little Pony sparkles and was fish-belly white now, and Rahel’s body was a darkto identify individual features

Venna drove Rahel back under the surface again, and bubbles geysered in their wake