The moment my feet thudded against a wooden dock, I could smell it—the sharp salt in the air. I could hear the ocean, and the sea birds, and the shouts of the sailors I’d startled. I opened my eyes and glanced out over the bright water toward the harbor, searching for the ship Silas described. There were only three in the shallows. Two of those were flying merchant flags, but even from the docks, I could see that one of the ship’s decks was populated with what looked like a working number of men, while the other had only a fraction of the crew.
I took in another breath to fuel my next jump, and catapulted myself to the more vacant ship. I touched down with a thunk against the wood, and the three men on deck were so confused at my arrival that, for a moment, they simply stared. It was a long enough moment for me to take in the king’s crest on each of their chests, and for the hint of a smile to reach my lips. This was the ship.
“Oy!” one of the men hollered, pulling a rapier from his belt.
As he charged at me with his weapon, another one grabbed a bow and loaded an arrow. The archer took aim, but I didn’t have time for playing fair. Just as he released the bowstring, I spark jumped behind him, wrapped him in static, and threw him overboard. The man with the sword rerouted, changing direction to charge at me once more. I let him, and I let him get close enough that the point of his sword nearly pierced through my chest, then I froze him with a current. He went stiff, dropping the sword from his hand. I jumped behind him and grabbed the back of his head with a lethal ball of sparks. As he collapsed, I turned on the third man, who let his own rapier fall to the deck when I met his gaze.
“Mercy,” he said, dropping to his knees. “I surrender.”
I flashed to him, scaring him so badly that he gasped, and I squatted down and grabbed the collar of his shirt. “Where is she?”
He didn’t hesitate to tell me, “Captain’s cabin,” and reached for a ring of keys at his belt.
I took the keys, but once I released his shirt, I created a current in my free hand, shoving my palm against his chest and knocking him to his back in convulsions. I was at the door of the captain’s cabin in the blink of an eye. It took three tries to find the right key, and when I finally got it unlocked, I threw it open. I expected Ava to be surprised when she saw me, but that wasn’t what I got. There was no reaction, because Ava was lying on the only bed in the cabin, so weak that I wasn’t even sure she knew the door had been opened.
“Ava?” I muttered, rushing to her side. Her eyes were closed and she didn’t answer, so I reached out with my magic in the dim light of the room and searched for her heartbeat. For a long moment, I got nothing, and my own heart sank. But then I felt it. It was weak, and faint, but it was there. “I’ll get you out of here.”
I straightened up, smacking my hand to the wall of the cabin to create a deliberate shape of sparks. To form a current in the Vigilant symbol, and to burn that symbol into the wooden wall. Then I scooped Ava into my arms and carried her outside, trying not to think about how light she felt compared to six months ago.
I took in a deep breath, preparing for the jump. Never before had I tried to take someone else with me. There was no experience to tell me whether or not Ava would be able to go, or if she’d survive it. But if I left her here, she was dead anyway. She didn’t have the time or the life left to wait for Kingston’s horses to arrive. Just like my being able to jump all the way here had to work, taking her with me had to work too.
With that breath, I flashed on a bolt of lightning, and barely got to feel the true relief of Ava remaining in my arms before we touched down in the meadow. It had been such a short amount of time that nobody had really moved. Silas was still kneeling in the grass, though Sevedi was examining him, and Kingston was speaking to the horsemen, probably about to send them after me. But the moment I returned, a steady murmur sounded from those around me.
“Sevedi!” I called, laying Ava down in the grass.
Sevedi rushed over and knelt beside me, setting one hand on Ava’s heart and the other on her head, but that healing orange glow didn’t come. “Kiena… her heart’s not beating.”
“Fix it!”
“I can’t,” she murmured apologetically. “I can’t bring people back from the dead.”
This couldn’t be it. It couldn’t be over and there had to be something we could do. I threw my hands to my head in panic, my heart beating so fast it almost made me sick. And that’s when it occurred to me.
My heart! I could feel people’s heartbeats with my magic. How would that be possible if there wasn’t something in the heart that spoke to my sparks? There had to be something I could do.
With that thought, I pushed Sevedi aside and set a hand to Ava’s chest, letting out a short, determined breath. “Come on, Ava,” I whispered. Focusing on my own heart, I shut my eyes and tried to calm down. Tried to slow its rhythm into something normal while I channeled its beat into my hand. I translated that beat into a soft pulse of current, feeling it throb through the flesh of my palm and disappear into her chest. “Ava, please,” I begged with the next pulse, tears stinging my eyes when nothing happened. “Don’t do this to me.” It wasn’t working, and in my desperation, I set my free hand beside the other on her chest, channeling the current through both so it was stronger. “Not now,” I whimpered. The beat ebbed through my hands, a steady and consistent thump, and an overwhelmed tear forced its way out, leaving a hot streak down my cheek. “Not when we’re so close, Ava, please.”
With the next beat that pulsed through my fingers, Ava took in a soft breath. Her heart began to throb in rhythm with mine, and she was alive. It was such a relief, such an unbelievable relief that I let out a broken laugh as more tears spilled from my eyes.
I glanced over at Sevedi, ignoring the extreme awe in her expression to say, “Do it.”
She jumped into action, placing one hand over mine, and the other to Ava’s forehead. That orange glow started, and she nodded at me that it was safe to remove my hands. I pulled away, collapsing back into the grass with sudden exhaustion as two rebels came forward with a cot, and they moved Ava onto it, carrying her away with Sevedi to the infirmary.
For a minute, I lay there, feeling so many overwhelming emotions that I couldn’t think. All I knew was that I had no idea what to do now, and this was such an astonishing triumph that a part of me was reluctant to believe it was real. There was another part of me that didn’t want to celebrate yet, because Ava was still weak, and I wasn’t even sure if she’d forgive me. So I stayed there, feeling so much that I felt nothing. Felt like nothing was different and all I had were steps to complete. Stand up. Maybe say something to someone. Go to my personal chamber and fix the deep gash in my knuckles from hitting Silas. Check on Ava.
Following the first of those steps, I rose to my feet, only to find that everyone around was staring at me, eyes wide. And they didn’t stop staring, not until Kingston shooed them away and the only people left were my family, Rhien—who behind that look of awe was still cringing about what I’d done to Silas—Silas, and the rebels that had brought him.
Silas had been staring at me too, shock and wonder clear in the slack of his jaw and in the widening of the eye that wasn’t swollen shut. “Kiena…” he murmured.