“Come on, Bran, come on,” Riley urged as she dodged tongues of flame, fired her sidearm. “We’ve got to get her away from here. Sash!” She leaped, grabbing Sasha’s arm and propelling them both aside as the ground split.
Above their heads, like a shield, the coat of arms burst. Blue, white, red in flames to mimic the stars. Fiery rain struck against it, sputtered out.
“That’s our cue. We gotta go.”
Sasha shook her head at Sawyer, watching as Bran stood atop the parapet, drawing Nerezza’s wrath. “Bran.”
“He’ll make it. Trust him.” Riley gripped Sasha’s hand, nodded to Sawyer. “Go.”
Riley kept her hand gripped on Sasha’s during the shift. She knew love now, and knew the fear that came with it. When they dropped into the boat, Doyle moved fast to take the wheel. All around them the wind and rain lashed. The roar of the storm masked the roar of the motor as he aimed from shore to sea.
“He’ll make it,” Riley repeated. “He’s just keeping her off us until we can—”
Bran landed lightly on the boat, his arms filled with glass-shielded stars. Sasha threw her arms around him.
“Are you hurt? Bran.”
“Just a bit singed here and there. Take the stars, fáidh. If they’re to guide us, it would be in your hands.”
The boat reared up on a wicked wave, crashed down. Wind and water whipped and churned.
“I can swim if I need to,” Annika shouted. “But—”
“Hold on.” Sawyer held on to her as the next wave threatened to swamp the boat.
Riley fought her way to the wheelhouse where Doyle stood, feet planted, muscles straining. “Get back with the others, and hold the hell on.”
“I’m with you.”
He glanced at her, saw the raw marks on her throat. “What the hell—”
“Later.” She braced herself as the sea tossed them like rags.
“She’s coming!” Sasha shouted. “And the stars . . .”
Not pulsing now, Riley realized as the next wave drenched her. Beating faster and faster, and beams of light shot from them like beacons.
To show them the way. And showing them would show Nerezza exactly where they were.
“Ten degrees starboard,” she told Doyle.
“Christ. Do you see what’s out there?”
A waterspout, swirling up, black against black. And the rain again turned to flames. Arrows of it sparked in the air, hissed like snakes in the sea.
As Bran lifted his arms to form the shield, Nerezza dived out of the sky.
Her lightning crashed against Bran’s, and power screamed through the storm.
“Take the wheel,” Doyle ordered as Sawyer’s shot went wide when the boat tipped. He yanked Sasha and the stars into the wheelhouse. “Take us where we need to go. They need help.” He kissed Riley, hard and brief. “Don’t lose it,” he added, then fought his way back to stand with his friends.
“Heart to heart, light to light.” Sasha struggled not to fall as the vision flowed through her. “This moment in all the moments in all the worlds. Risk the storm, ride the storm, and open the curtain.”
“Doing my best here.” Teeth gritted, Riley wrenched the wheel, doing what she could to ride the mad curl of the next wave. And with her heart, and her faith, in her throat, set course for the waterspout.
Madness. Like an uncontrolled shift, a dive off a cliff. The whirling water caught them, spun them. She lost her grip on the wheel, nearly went flying before she managed to curl the fingers of one hand on the wheel again.
She glanced at Sasha, back braced, arms cradling stars like babies, and her face luminous with their light. “The guardians ride the storm, guided by the stars. The curtain opens, the storm dies. The sword strikes. And it is done.”