"Brighty, I want you to light this whole ocean up. Not an ounce of fog in the air until we spot the dragon. We don't want to miss it. Pyro, as soon as you sense something, alert the crew. Patch, you're on the sails while I'm on the wheel. Oh, Rafe, so nice of you to finally join us."
He spun at the sound of his name. Captain's icy eyes held that wild spark of oncoming battle, though he couldn't for the life of him see the dragon they all assumed they were fighting. She gripped the wheel in both hands, magic glimmering at her fingertips and leaking into the air. It was only then he noticed how unnaturally silent the world was. No groans of wood. No snaps of canvas. No splashes of water. The boat beneath him hardly moved. The sea was flat. The sails were raised, yet drooped against the mast like old, saggy skin. The stillness was eerie.
"You so much as reach for those swords, Rafe, and I'll have Archer chain you to the mast. Understood? All I want you to do is stand there and look pretty."
Rafe sighed. So much for his earlier sense of purpose and conviction. His magic was as useless as ever. "Yes, Captain."
A few more commands were doled out, but he stopped listening and instead eyed the men and women parked by the ship rails. Whom would he have the best chance pressing for information? Shadow slept most of the day, so he knew her the least, but she always seemed kind when they interacted. Leech, he was sure, would tell him what he wanted, plus far more that he didn’t. When it came to science or learning of any kind, the man was insatiable. Rafe would get answers, but probably not until the battle was already long over. Archer had just been given an order to lock him up for insolence, and Spout would probably just sneeze on him before she could speak. In the end, he sidled up to Jolt.
"Can I ask you a question?"
A smile twisted her lips as she turned toward him with brown eyes so dark they were nearly black. The shimmer of spirit magic in the air highlighted the golden tone of her skin, though it was the amethyst magic sparking at her fingertips that most caught his attention.
"Let me guess," she said. "Brighty wouldn't tell you what the rift is."
"No," he growled.
"Oh, Rafe." Jolt pressed her finger to his throat and drew a lazy trail down his chest, delivering a static charge against his skin that made his hairs stand on end. When she reached the ties on his shirt, she pulled back with a sigh. "We could've had a lot of fun, you and I, but you chose Brighty as your mentor, and the last place I want to be is stuck in the middle. That's only fun in a few very select circumstances. But I will tell you this. The answer is right there in that handsome head of yours, if you'd only just open your eyes and see it."
With a scowl, he dropped his forearms to the railing and stared out to sea, watching the flecks of spirit glitter through the fog. Xander was the brains and he was the brawn. All his life, his brother had done the thinking for him, and truth be told, it was exhausting trying to solve so many puzzles on his own.
"Lips that perfect weren't made for so much frowning." She nudged him with her hip, though he couldn't be certain it was on purpose since she was always swinging them about. The woman had more curves than a winding mountain stream, and she knew it. "Cheer up."
"Why?"
"You're about to get your answer."
"Captain!" Pyro shouted at almost the same moment, the fire around her fingers blazing brighter as she pointed east. "There! I feel one coming."
"Brighty!"
"On it."
They all turned away as her photo'kine magic blazed through the mist, burning it away and clearing the sea. Gales swept across the deck, whipping their clothes and snapping the sails. The ship surged forward, Spout working the current as Patch controlled the wind. Captain stretched her wing back, the muscles in her bare arms straining as she held the wheel on target, following Pyro's direction. A leather vest cinched around her waist, dyed as red as blood, and he wondered if it was a promise or an omen.
"It's close!" Pyro shouted.
Captain fixed her steely eyes on the sea. "Where?"
"I don't—"
"There!" Brighty interrupted, sending a new wave of light across the ocean.
As soon as the brightness cleared, Rafe gripped the rail with both hands and leaned forward, straining to see what they all saw. The air was clear. There was no dragon, no hint of a leather wing, not even the barest ember in the sky.
"Archer," Captain called. "As soon as it emerges, attack. That's our best chance of catching it unaware."
The ferro'kine nodded, all focus and concentration, his magic ready to strike. A man-sized arrow hovered beside him as he ran for the back of the ship, gathering the chain on the way. Leech had spent the better part of a week growing enough wood to piece together the makeshift raft they'd attached to the aft deck so they could haul the dragon back to Da'Kin. It had been covered in a protective layer of metal that wouldn't burn, but doing so had used most of the ores on the ship, and unfortunately for them metal wasn't like wood—when it ran out, Archer couldn't simply grow more. The mage would have one arrow and one chance to catch his prey. If he missed, this dragon would do what all the others did at the first sight of danger and fly away.
"I have an idea," Rafe shouted.
The captain sighed loudly enough for the whole ship to hear. Beside him, Jolt winked encouragingly. Maybe he wasn't a scholar like his brother, but every so often, genius struck. Before he could tell them that genius idea, however, Pyro intervened.
"It’s almost here!"
Rafe continued searching the curling tendrils of fog for the flash of wings. If not for Jolt leaning over and whispering a little direction in his ear, he might have missed it.
"Stop looking up," she murmured. "Not every marvelous thing drops out of the sky, you know. The sea has its wonders too."
He gasped. Where moments ago the ocean had been a deep midnight blue, still and clear beneath the force of Spout's magic, it now boiled. Bright aqua bubbles popped along the surface, large and slow at first, then faster and faster. A flash of orange burned within the shallows and then, before his eyes, flame and teeth and scales burst forth, emerging with a screech so piercing he stepped back as though struck. Leathery wings pumped, dispelling burning flecks of water that evaporated as soon as they hit the air. Billows of white heat spilled across the ship, burning them and blinding them as the dragon swept into the sky, nothing more than flashes of fire and darkness within the steam. Metal clinked as the arrow was released, but there was no responding cry. Archer had missed.
They'd lost. Unless…
"Everyone cover your ears," Rafe shouted above the chaos. "Now!"
Giving no more warning, he sucked in a breath and screamed. His raven cry echoed across the water, but unlike last time, the magic saturating the air around him didn't pause, only the dragon, which slowly became clearer and clearer as the winds blew the steam away. Seizing the moment, Archer turned the arrow around and shot it through the beast's wing. A grotesque crunch broke the silence. Rafe winced, recognizing the sound. The arrow had struck bone. Unlike the others, this dragon wouldn't get away, though he doubted it would quietly succumb either.
Time zipped forward as his cry dissipated and the dragon lurched back into motion, no longer held by the thrall. A blast of flame hurtled toward them, only to be swept away by Pyro's magic. Despite what must have been agonizing pain, the beast thrashed its wings, pulling against the chain latching it to the back of the boat. The telltale crack of splintering wood cut through the madness. Leech was there immediately, pressing his hands against the deck and fortifying the ship. Archer hurled more chains at the beast, which whipped them away with its tail. Brighty sent a blast of penetrating light into its stomach, earning a keening cry, as Shadow wrapped her darkness around its eyes.