Angry, Leihani.
Flicker, flicker, flicker. Tiny lightning strikes across the air, popping and zapping. Slices of fire snapping into existence and back out again, too quick to catch.
She will not give you back, Maren. You will never see any of us again. Me, Diara, Kye.
The Naiads took a step away, withdrawing into the tunnels as they watched, wide-eyed. Sidra stood unfazed, hands still rooted to her hips, the light of my electricity illuminating her face in brief flashes.
There is too much human in your heart.
It built and built, flashing longer, brighter, harder. Static raised the ends of my hair, and a white film covered the corners of my vision, directing all my attention to the Queen below.
I thrust my palm down.
She thrust hers up.
Time slowed.
Pale fire left my fingertips, crackling and spitting, searingly hot. It cut down to her like the jagged line of a vein. Pulsing, thrumming. And completely silent.
A cord of water erupted from Sidra’s hand. Pale green and almost clear, striking up. It opened its mouth, fangs drawn wide, and swallowed my strike down its throat.
The room blasted into light, Sidra’s water devouring my electricity in a single gulp. For a moment, it might have been fire in a torch. A feral boom wobbled the interior of the chamber; rattling my ribcage. The Naiads covered their ears.
My light blasted across the surface of Sidra’s water as though it were caught and desperate for escape—until it shuttered out, leaving the water to fall to the floor.
But it didn’t splash and separate.
A snake made of water slithered across the stone, muscular and calm. Almost half as wide as the open passageway, itraised its watery head in Sidra’s direction, sniffing the air. Tiny droplets rose from its back, ascending to the ceiling.
I coughed, the taste of rusted blood clawing at the back of my throat. A warm trickle ran from my nose, the inside of my nostrils burning like I’d inhaled water.
“You’re stronger than I thought,” Sidra called up to me. “But less controlled.”
I wiped my upper lip with the back of my wrist, flexing my fingers to amp for a second bolt.
Sidra shook her head. “Find another way, child. You’ll run yourself dry before you smite me.”
I coughed again, red splattering my chest. My knees wobbled. She was right, I couldn’t best her through a storm. Find another way—what other way did I have? Her water-calling was stronger than mine. I swallowed the taste of iron, gazing down at her, weighing my options.
She tilted her head. In an instant, the snake coiled. Curling itself higher and higher. I scrambled to move my little watery roost away as it reared back in a silent hiss.
And then it struck.
I had only enough time to divide a sheet of water from my perch, constricting the molecules and flattening them into a shield of ice. The water-snake snapped at the center of it. A labyrinth of fragile lines cracked into view. Another strike. The shield tumbled to the floor. And shattered.
Again and again, the snake attacked while I parried. The stone floor glittered under the blue light, a sea of fractured crystals. As my mass of water dwindled, I cast about for another idea, waiting for the Queen to exhaust herself, but only dry air manifested around her, our fight claiming all the moisture in the room. Dry air, dry air. What could I do with that?
Eyes scanning the floor, I threw up a shield too late. The snake pierced it just before it froze, its eerie triangular headdriving through. It connected with my floating pool. A beam of light fractured the air from the snake’s body, starting somewhere outside the room and racing through the fluid serpent toward me. The Queen’s own bolt of lightning.
It was too bright to watch.
The roots of my hair stood, and static bore into me from my neck to toes. The air split with a crack so loud it pierced my ears, and my water abandoned me to fall through the air as it separated into a thousand droplets.
Lightning lit just over my head. Full and bright and hot. Vibrating against my skull as I dropped. For a moment, the room was saturated with white. The walls, the Naiads, the snake. Lost under a blanket of nothing. Then, as fast as it came, it was gone.
I flung about for any water nearby to catch me.
There was none.
