Fire (Pirate Cove Academy #3) - Rae Foxx Page 0,44

her back up. She countered me with several jolts of her own dark orbs, but I pressed forward, intent on taking her out no matter how many of her blasts hit me. No matter how my skin and muscles ached for relief.

While she threw her darkness at me, I mustered one huge hit and forced it in her direction. The power pushed her down and burned her face and neck, leaving her bleeding and gasping for air.

One more blast and she would be done.

But just as I conjured one final pull of energy, another group of her army came in, these wielding harpoons. I knew we were their target.

“Let’s just fucking go, Zaniah!” Caspian yelled from behind me. I turned to make sure he still had Kai and used my fire as a shield to stop anyone who might get in our way.

“Just make it to the Below!” I screamed as I opened the door and the two of us took off at a sprint toward the crashing waves. I could already hear them as their crashes seemed to call my name.

We hopped over the incoming waves and jumped headfirst into the salty water.

16

“Wake up, Zaniah!” I heard a bass voice say. It was followed by a sharp slap to the face.

“The fuck?” I groaned. There was sand in every crevice, and just to prove the point that we were on the beach, a wave washed over my face, making me stutter and cough. I rolled over to get my bearings and got on my hands and knees before giving up and just plopping on the sand instead.

Kai and Caspian were beside me, still out cold. Scooting over to them, I shook each of them awake, then turned my attention on whoever the fuck thought it was okay to slap me.

“Zaniah?” He asked. Fuck, it was Dimitri, one of Llyr’s henchman. One of my brother’s once trusted advisors.

“What happened?” I said, putting my fingers to my temples and rubbing against the headache throbbing between them.

“I found you deep in the water, just letting the current take you wherever. What is going on? Why are you here?”

Blips of memories came back to life in my mind. Kai and Caspian were now sitting, and Kai was assessing his own wounds. His furrowed brow and clenched jaw told me that he was in great pain, but he never complained once.

As I scanned the area, I realized where exactly we were. Decrepit and hollow pirate ships sat along the beach like gravestones, skulls and crossbones everywhere. Seemed fitting for the circumstances.

“Llyr is dead. So is Pearl,” Caspian answered, scooting back from the waves so that the Siren fin would fully disappear.

“I don’t recall asking you, Siren,” Dimitri spat.

“Well then, you shouldn’t have rescued us,” Caspian shot back.

“Anyway, I knew Llyr was dead. We were there as the battle went down. But Zaniah, where have you been? Last we saw, the Sirens took you, but we didn’t know where or how to help you.”

I kicked at the sand, not really wanting to recall those days in captivity, but maybe Dimitri had information that could help us. “Raven captured us. Her army did. They brought us to this place with metal walls and rooms—torture rooms. We were chained up there for…” I looked to Caspian and Kai but none of us knew how long we’d been imprisoned. “I don’t even know how long. We escaped.”

I left out the details of the escape. “And Pearl?” He asked, making my stomach sour.

“She’s gone. Acted stupid and got herself caught. Raven ended her. So who is this ‘we’? Looks like you’re all alone now,” I said, brushing some sand from my legs and took inventory of the few places Raven had managed to pummel me with her dark power.

“After the Mer army got our asses handed to us in that battle, we scattered to the seas. They’re all in hiding, especially after Raven ripped Atlantis to fucking shreds. I mean, how could we go back there? There’s nothing to return to.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, clearly missing information. “What did she do to Atlantis?”

Dimitri looked to each of us in turn, like we were dumb. I mean, clearly we were, we were missing pertinent information.

“You don’t know?” He asked, clearly appalled by our ignorance.

“Sorry I didn’t keep up with the news while we were chained up and being tortured. Now, why don’t you fill us in?”

Dimitri rose to stand and looked out over the ocean. “She came down