“And we can’t fight,” Serina murmured, reality clawing up to choke her. They’d left most of their knives and spears behind, and there was no ammunition left for the firearms, which they’d only brought to trade in Azura anyway.

Serina ran out onto the open deck. What could she tell these women, who’d put so much trust in her? Horror rippled through the women quickly, as those close to the bow spotted the ships and passed the news to those in the stern.

“What do we do?”

“What can we do?”

“How stupid to think we could be free.”

Serina’s heart broke again and again.

Within minutes, the Superior’s ships penned them in. Soldiers threw ropes and cinched the boat to its brothers before Serina could even begin to consider a defense. From all sides, firearms were raised and waiting.

One of Jungle Camp’s fighters screamed and leapt the gunwale toward the soldiers, her makeshift spear held aloft. They shot her and shoved her body into the ocean. Unlike the men who’d arrived on Mount Ruin, these soldiers didn’t pause. They didn’t blink.

Serina stood with Ember and Anika, every scrap of joy, every ounce of determination draining from her. She racked her brain for a way to fight back. But she was frozen.

She stood dumbly as they shackled her, stared blankly as they beat Val senseless for betraying his fellow guards. Fox jumped overboard before they could bind her. She didn’t know how to swim. The other women watched, some screaming, as she bobbed along the side of the boat and eventually disappeared beneath. Deep down, deep inside, Serina screamed too. But the numbness held her captive, trapping all the outrage, all the fear, all the horror. She couldn’t breathe.

They didn’t try to move the women to the other boats. The soldiers just took command, steering the ship away from Azura and back to Bellaqua.

Everything they’d suffered and all they’d fought for had been for nothing. There would be no escape, no rallying of reinforcements in Azura. There would be no battle for Viridia’s soul. Serina had given every one of these women hope, including herself… and it had been an empty promise.

The journey took three agonizing hours. Several of the women were seasick. The soldiers let them move to the rail, the only concession they made. They moved through the women, binding wrists together. Yanking on sore shoulders. Laughing.

No one tried to fight them, not even Anika. They were all in shock.