And Kraken imploded. The force of Kraken’s death was unparalleled. The release of energy from his body sent a searing shockwave across the bay. It evaporated the seawater—and anything in that seawater, including destroyers and daemonion—within a three-league radius. It blasted into the Severed Six—five, now—and vaporized them. They did not reappear. Keriya, who’d been at the epicenter of the blast, who had felt the moment when Kraken’s consciousness had ceased to be, somehow remained untouched. She dropped from where his arm had once been, and she was powerless when the force of the ocean came crashing into the void he’d left. The water hit her, though she didn’t feel it along the length of her paralyzed body. She couldn’t move, and she couldn’t process. As the unrelenting weight presse

