Rising Tides | 2

20 | A d a r a

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When we reached the beach, I began to panic. We had no way of stopping Oremis from destroying everything. All we had was the ker orb, and that was only enough to weaken him. I had no idea how we were going to pull this off, or if we even would. Oremis might have only been in his essence, but he still had an army of demons and Auchterton's elite warriors. How were we supposed to stop them? We needed a miracle.

The beach was a battlefield. Dead bodies of soldiers and caniree were strewn across the length of the beach. Wreckage from the plane crashes covered parts of the beach in fits of fire and metal. The demons dominated the fight, yanking sea glass and knives from their backs.

No one knew how to kill a demon. However, they seemed to back away from fire, and the members of House Arser used that to their advantage. They formed rings of fire around the hellish creatures, trapping them. The fires grew so hot that glass began to form in the sand around them.

Our crew sprinted down the bottom of the rocky mountain, getting close to the battle. I lashed out with my lightning at the trapped demons, catching them on fire. Bear followed my lead, and soon, more soldiers from House Argover were assisting House Arser in keeping the demons occupied.

Oremis lurked beyond the battle ahead of us, watching intently. He was powerless in his essence. I feared that he would wait until we were severely outnumbered to take Tyler and reform their bond.

My eyes drifted to Ember as we ran across the beach. Loose curls whipped at her face in the wind, clawing at her eyes which held determination. She breathed heavily and focused on the fight ahead. If we lost, Oremis would take Tyler from her again, and the worlds would fall. Losing was not an option.

Guard members turned to face us as we reached the edge of combat. They readied themselves for a fight. I waved my arm through the air, and a wall of sand erupted in front of us to give us cover.

We ran through the sand and attacked. I shot bolts of lightning from my fingertips. They stretched towards the man in front of me. He threw his arms up and began writhing violently. He crumpled to the ground, flesh black and smoking.

Next to me, Wren used the tide to wipe out soldiers and demons standing too close. Calix faded in and out of visibility, appearing behind soldiers and knocking them to the ground for Ragan to finish off. I'd never seen Rhea use her power–it was known to slowly kill the person–but she walked through the chaos calmly behind Ember, people and caniree dropping like flies around her. I could see her skin grow pale, and her eyes were milky and dead looking.

"Ada, look out!"

Wren's warning was too late. I screamed as the ocean rushed at me and began turning into sharp, pointed icicles. I backpedaled as quickly as I could, but the ice rushed towards me faster. Before it could reach me, the icicles exploded into millions of small pieces. I fell into the sand from the force of the explosion and shielded my face with my hands. Bits of cold ice hit my skin.

"Come on, Ada. We have to go," I heard Ragan say. She stood over me with her hand extended. I took it, and she helped me to my feet.

"Thanks," I breathed heavily.

Ragan nodded, and then we were off again, moving deeper into the battle. I electrocuted every enemy in sight–Rudean creatures and Guard soldiers–with no mercy. My lightning crashed down everywhere, illuminating the sky and downing its targets.