Chapter 18
Aria did everything she could to fight off her father’s influence, but it was no good. She had been barely lucid ever since he sent the arrow burrowing deeper into her heart. Everything had shrunk down to this moment, to her breath wheezing in and out of her lungs, her arms like dead sticks at her sides, her hair sticking to her face.
Don’t. Fight. Isika. Aria told herself. But again and again, the Desert King used her power to send bolts of energy across the sea.
“That’s right!” he told her now. “We’ll blow them up. Then use the power of the Whisperer to take back the land across the seas.”
Herrith dabbed at her forehead with a cloth. Sweat poured down Aria’s face, soaking her clothing. Her eyes were closed, but Isika knew it was Herrith because he was humming.
“You can fi
