Fathom (Mermaids of Montana #3) - Elsa Jade Page 0,101

conduits of power, it might reach the center of the planet and split it in two, destabilizing every planet around the rising star.

The Cretarni were willing to destroy the solar system for their revenge.

In the face of that evil, the silver light faltered. Even after centuries of war, all the Tritonesse of the past had never imagined such a cataclysm, beyond even their own deaths.

“This is the fight,” she whispered. The fight had been impossible before, so did it matter that was more impossible now? “Give me the burning tide,” she commanded. “All of it. Give me this chance.”

But the Abyssa had been alone too long, hoarding their power but disconnected from what they’d wanted—to save Tritona. And in the face of such overwhelming opposition, there seemed no hope.

The lights in the bell guttered, the chime of voices falling silent one by one. The burning tide that had risen against the Cretarni began to recede, falling back toward the ocean waves that had begun to smoke from the sleeting energies.

Despair bit deeper than a boundary beast. At any moment, the crystal lightning would collapse, leaving them defenseless against the Cretarni’s weapon. How could they have come this far just to fail?

She stared up at descending point of fire aimed at her. At least she’d be the first to go? Because she’d never retreat.

With a cry of defiance, she called the last of her own power, from her physical body and from the mysterious energy of her soul. She would burn it all on this last chance—

As if her call had gone farther than she’d known, the one she wanted punched through the faltering wall of lightning, trailing pyrotechnics behind him in the turbulent air. She gasped; if the burning tide had been stronger it would have incinerated him. Why would he take that risk?

Sting landed beside her in a crouch, his head bowed. Sparklers danced along his spine, flaring in his skinshine, and when he raised his gaze to her, the pearl of his bared eyes was a dazzling rainbow.

“The Abyssa spoke to me of an omen,” he said. “That you might love me.”

She held her bruised hands out to him. “Does it need to be said?”

He threaded his fingers through hers, the webs wrapping her tightly but gently. “I feel it.”

Whether it was that passion or the rainbows in his eyes or the unfathomable energy of his big body when he rose to hold her against him, the power rose again.

His kiss was fire and water, his breath across her lips the very air she needed to live. And his touch was the spark she’d always wanted.

Even through her closed eyes, the surge of violet-silver lightning burned as it raged skyward. And this time the cry was pure ecstasy.

The Cretarni weapon never had a chance.

Its scarlet beam stuttered, its pulse disrupted. The pure white bolt fed back along its path, burning that blood-red course, gathering power in streaming crackles of energy, to the central ship. The ship went black as the lightning shot along the spokes to the other ships—and then farther yet. All the Cretarni ships had been yoked to the center, supplying the switch weapon. And now they were all winking out, one after another.

And starting to fall.

Oh, she knew that feeling too well. “Revive their data gels enough to glide them to the port and lock them down,” she urged the Abyssa. “This war has taken too much for too long.”

But the crystal was already dimming. One more throb—barely a whisper of sound—reverberated along the fading lightning to the smoke-obscured sky. No more lights, above or below.

But they’d fought to the end and now this—

An avalanche of dense Titanyri muscle pitched into her, crashing her to her knees. “Sting!”

Bruised hands screaming in agony, she caught him before he tumbled off the darkening bell. When she rolled him upright into her lap, his rainbow eyes were closed, his powerful body gone slack.

And no steady beat resounded from his broad chest under her palm. He’d helped her channel her power, held her through the burn, and it had taken him down, down farther than even his great strength could save him.

One last pulse, soft as a ghost, unfurled in her mind’s eye as he sent his love—i kharea nul’ah.

“Oh no, you are not leaving me behind!” Slamming her fist into the crystal beneath her, she cried, “Abyssa, give me another jolt. I need…”

But the bell was silent and dark. And sinking.

The inescapable waves licked like a boundary beast’s