Fire (Pirate Cove Academy #3) - Rae Foxx Page 0,17

wielding them properly, and controlling their velocity and number. It was exhausting work, but by the end of the day I’d improved.

Caspian’s trick worked. Boulders took on the shape of Raven’s head over and over and I allowed the rage to fuel my power. My flames were no longer fucking candles anymore. They were orbs just like Ravens, but instead of a dark outside and a golden center, mine were all gold, tangerines, and vibrant reds. I was ready to strike, and burn her ass alive.

I had a long way to go before I could fill a room with my fire, but the progress I’d made gave me confidence that I was getting there.

“There you go,” Caspian yelled at me as I targeted a buoy in the distance and hit it full force—or what I hoped was full force—sending the shards of plastic and styrofoam everywhere. That was the most encouragement I was going to get from the Siren, I guessed. I would take it, hell he I hadn’t heard him that excited since we were... never mind that.

Noticing the floating garbage pile I’d created, I cringed. Shit. I had to keep my orbs on the beach. Otherwise I was no better than the greedy humans and their pollution habits.

“Again,” Kai barked this time. Without looking at where I was shooting them, only knowing that it was toward the ocean, I pushed out two orbs and cheered for myself when they produced quite an explosion of water.

So much water, in fact, that Kai was covered by the time the water landed. What were once his perfect legs was a fin again, and his dark green scales shined brighter than ever.

Oops.

We rushed over to Kai, who, by the look on his face, was in far greater pain than Caspian’s freeze out ever managed to put him in. He was covered in wounds that I assumed were caused by the debris from my orbs. He flopped his fin on the wet sand beneath him and cried out as the tail slowly, more slowly than I’d ever seen, transformed back into legs. His wails hurt my heart and drove a stake through my chest.

“Kai, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t thinking.” I got on my knees in front of him and assessed his wounds. They were gashes now oozing blood, some cracking and peeling beneath the salt water.

Fuck me.

“It’s okay, Zaniah. You did good,” Kai managed to choke out despite his obvious pain. He coughed a little, spitting out a tiny starfish onto the sand beside him. Caspian was right behind me, taking off his shirt and tending to one of Kai’s wounds on his stomach first. I sat back on my haunches and took a deep breath while gazing at those wounds.

Wounds that I’d produced.

I exhaled a weighted breath, taking in the scene; Caspian pressing his shirt to Kai’s stomach, Kai hurt and breathing hard while he got used to the transition back to two legs again, the blood that ran from all sides of Kai into the salt water that lapped at his back.

The blood, the punctures, the slashes, the anguish on his face—it was all a glimpse into how Raven would treat us once she decided that we didn’t need to be around anymore.

Kai would die.

Caspian would die.

I would die.

We would all be nothing more than insignificant beings in her way. We already were.

I had to improve. Had to grow my powers. Had to stop her in her fucking tracks before she could do anything to me or those I loved.

“We have to take her down,” I muttered, more to myself than anything else.

“You didn’t do this, Zaniah. My mother did. The wounds just opened up again. He wasn’t finished healing. And we already know that my mother and Raven wouldn’t work together anyway. They are both too power hungry.”

I looked up, struck by what Caspian had said. “I know how we can draw them out,” I almost yelled but forced my voice down.

Caspian’s face lit up. “Does this mean we need to fight?”

Only Caspian would get excited about a potential war. “Yes. I guess it does.”

“Then we need to feed.”

Poseidon, this guy only thought about one thing. Still, he wasn’t wrong. We did need to feed if I was going to be strong enough to take on not one, but two bitch queens. Although,

From the look the haughty Siren was giving me, I knew he didn’t mean eat a healthy meal, either. This man wanted to fuck