WaterMage Rising

Chapter 12

The world went dark and quiet. Sounds, colors, even sensations were muted underwater. All around Selena, people thrashed in panic, eyes widened in terror. They began swimming toward the aft of the ship beyond, where the ship had not yet submerged. People jostled past her, shoving each other down in a vain attempt to save themselves. Selena knew their efforts would gain them nothing. By the time they reached the furthest point aft that they could go, it would be underwater, too.

Instead of panicking, Selena's thoughts stilled as a strange calm washed over her.

Unless someone repaired the damage to the ship, the entire vessel would sink to the bottom of the ocean. Not one of the brawlers who started this whole mess bothered to stop to try to fix what they'd done. No, they scurried away like rats. Inside the ship, shocked, anxious faces pressed against the glass surrounding the Augurey's Nest lounge.

if anything could be done, it was up to Selena to do it.

Adam followed her gaze toward the gaping hole torn into the ship's protective bubble and nodded. Selena was a water mage. This was her element. She could fix this.

Selena called to the ocean and instructed it to do her bidding. Her kamea glowed an eerie aquamarine in the murky sea. She channeled every ounce of power she possessed into her kamea, and with a whoosh, a great wave of light surged from the amulet and pushed the water back out into the sea. Inch by painful inch the water level above her lowered, but the work was exhausting. She'd burn out long before the last drop of ocean cleared the deck.

Still, Selena would not give up. Her lungs screamed for air, and her limbs begged her to take them up to the surface. She couldn't obey the instinct, or she'd never manage to seal the bubble before it tore apart. Already the gap stretched the width of the ship at its prow, and it grew wider with every passing second.

Adam pulled back, gripping her hand in his with a look of determination hardening his features. He nodded again, and her kamea's light intensified until she could no longer stand to look at its blinding brilliance. Heat and power rushed into her, growing stronger and stronger as the water rushed back out of the hole in the protective bubble, receding faster now.

His fire magic was strengthening her own magic. He was giving her his strength.

The surface came closer and closer overhead, until Selena could reach up to touch air. A moment later, and her head was above water. She gulped in sweet oxygen as her toes came to rest against the deck angled downward into the depths of the sea. Beyond the bubble, Selena saw only murky water, and the occasional mermaid peering in at them, looking concerned.

"How's your earth magic?" Selena sputtered when she could speak again.

"Decent enough," Adam replied. "Yours?"

"Decent enough. Let's seal that breach."

Adam grinned. "Together."

"Don't make a big thing out of it," Selena huffed, though that pesky hopeful flutter in her stomach returned. Shoving the feeling aside, she resisted the urge to tear her hand away from his and held on so that his power could strengthen hers.

Their kameas flashed in tandem, a strobing green light that emerged from their kameas in viselike tendrils. The tendrils flowed toward the growing gap and settled into it, connecting in a web over the breach and knitting it back together.

The breach, as if fueled by the violence that caused it, fought back. It frayed at the edges, growing wider in spidery veins even as their combined magic rushed to hold the seal in place.

"Oh, no, you don't." Selena poured every last ounce of magic she possessed into this battle. She'd lost the battle to save Uncle Franklin. She would not lose this one, too. She pushed past the aching exhaustion that threatened to steal away her consciousness and held on with all her might.