We awoke to a crash. And not the rhythmic crashing of waves that I’d begun to get accustomed to during our time spent on the ocean. No, this was something much louder. A boom that shook the very core of the ship. It was as if something large and heavy was knocking against the underside of the boat, and I had the sudden fear that we’d somehow drifted too far north and crashed into an iceberg, like that old human ship, Titanic.

Sam was on his feet within seconds, pressing his face against the frosted glass of the porthole. “I was afraid of this. We’ve come upon a group of water demons.”

I arched a brow as I scrambled off the bed. “Water demons? This far north? I thought they liked warm waters.”

“Yeah, well. They’ve adapted, and they aren’t so shy about the cold anymore.” He pointed at the daggers I’d placed on the table next to my side of the bed. “Grab your weapons. You’re going to need them.”

The rest of the Order was on the deck when Sam and I emerged from below. They each held a weapon in their hands, gazes hard on the churning waters as the yacht moved further and further into the blue expanse before us. Ramiel stood in front, as always, hands tight around a bow.

“Good of you to join us,” he said almost too quietly to hear over the rush of water and wind. “The water demons have been banging against the boat for the past hour.”

“What do they want?” I asked, ignoring his clipped tone. When I’d first met Ramiel, his stoniness had gotten to me at times. I’d taken it personally, but he was like this with everyone. It was his shield against his emotions. The only way he knew how to be. He was the boss, the leader, the one in charge of our lives. And he took it far more seriously than any of the rest of us would combined.

“I’m guessing they want to see us drown, little Seraphim girl,” Az said. “They might not realize we’re angels yet. ‘Course, we have a bunch of humans on board, so.”

So, while we wouldn’t drown if the demons managed to tip us over (one of the perks of being an angel), the humans would.

Lizzie took a deep breath and stepped up to the black metal railing. She leaned over the side, staring down into the churning waters. After a moment of tense silence, the boat tilted sideways with a groan. Lizzie gasped and clung onto the railing, her sword dropping down into the swirling waters.

When the boat righted itself, she bounced back from the railing. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the safety of the cockpit. “Dammit, Lizzie. Don’t get too close to the water demons.”

“I just wanted to get a look at one. This might be my only chance,” she said, her voice hitching in her throat.

I could understand that. While I’d always been most interested in fire demons during our time spent at the Academy, Lizzie had always been enraptured by water demon stories. They couldn’t survive more than a minute above water, and they thrived on salt. The oceans of earth were the perfect place for them, though I’m sure the fish didn’t agree. According to legends, water demons could get quite…ravenous if they hadn’t fed for awhile. At this point, there would be far more water demons than fish in the seas.

And weren’t we lucky that they’d found our boat?

The boat dipped sideways once again, and we all clung onto the railings for dear life. Rourke, the human that Ramiel had appointed as captain of the ship scurried out of the hatch, his face pale, his lips the color of the sky. “What is happening? We all left land to get away from demons. How have they followed us here? The men are talking of abandoning ship.”

Ramiel pressed his lips tightly together. “Go down below decks and keep your men with you. We’ll handle this. They’re far safer inside than in the waters. Tell them to remain calm. Panic will cause nothing but harm.”

The captain nodded, but he didn’t look convinced. He scurried back down the length of the boat, grabbed a couple of his men, and then led them down below decks. The Order all fell silent, every single one of us looking Ramiel’s way for guidance.

“They’re not going to stop hitting the boat until they’ve tipped us over. Or punched a hole so the entire thing sinks.” He ran a hand down his tired face. “We’re going to have to fight them.”

“Sounds good to me, boss,” Az barked out, sliding his sword from the sheath he preferred to keep in a sling around his back.

“That means going for a little swim.” Ramiel glanced my way. “Are you okay with that, Erela? It’s going to be unlike any fighting you’ve ever done.”

“We know how to swim,” I said firmly.

“But you’ve never fought underwater,” he argued.

I arched an eyebrow. “And you have?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, we have,” Ramiel said. “And it’s a lot harder than you’d think.”

“We’re not staying on this damn boat while you fight down there by yourselves.” Lizzie frowned as she took a step toward them.

“You will if I give that order,” Ramiel said. “You’re one of us now. You’ve both officially been inducted into the Order of the Fallen. You know what that entails. You must listen to me when I give you a command.”

“You’re right,” Lizzie countered. “Erela and I are part of the Order, which means we should be fighting by your side.”

I gave her a silent cheer.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t so silent. I might have even clapped.

The boat shifted sideways once again, creaking against the heavy blows from the water demons.

Ramiel stiffened. “We don’t have time to argue about this anymore. Erela and Lizzie, you can come with us. But if I give you the order to leave the waters, you must swear to me that you’ll obey it.”

I cast a quick glance at my best friend, and our eyes locked. We gave each other a nod, making our own vow, our own order. If one of us got hurt, we wouldn’t leave the other behind. It was a pact we’d made with each other so many times over the years, but it had usually been done as a game. It had never held as much weight as this night.

“Ready your daggers!” Uriel shouted as we all approached the railing. And then, before I could even blink my eyes, he’d launched himself over the railing, plunging down into the deep waters below us. Sam and Ramiel went next. And then Az. Lizzie and I were last. We climbed the railing, clasped hands, and then dove.

The water was icy. So icy that it sunk into my bones. Shivering, I gritted my teeth and peeled open my eyes, letting out a guttural scream when an ice blue fist slammed right into my face. Pain exploded between my eyes, and my body tumbled over itself, hurling me away from the explosion of movement underneath the boat.

After what felt like years, my windmilling arms finally slowed my tumbling until I was able to right myself in the water. I held my breath, glancing around. Angels breathed in oxygen, but we could manage without it for far longer than humans could. And, the lack of it wouldn’t kill us. It would only knock us out.

Of course, I didn’t really have any desire to be unconscious in these waters, especially since there appeared to be ten water demons whirling through the ocean with the speed and grace of an Archangel soaring through the Celestial skies.

The demon who had attacked me had turned his attention onto Lizzie. They were a few meters away, her heavy sword clashing against the demon’s tail. Yes, tail. It was a water demon thing. They had long, skinny tails that turned into weapons as deadly as steel. The ice blue color matched their eyes and their skin, highlighting the greenish tint of their flowing hair.

They looked just as they had in the painted portraits, and they were as terrifying as they were beautiful. Power rippled across their skin, their bodies clinging to far more magic than their land-based counterparts did. This was demonstrated by the blast of icy water that slammed into me as I tried to get my bearings. Once again, I was spinning in the water, far more annoyed than in pain. I’d come down here to fight, not engage in water aerobics.

Gritting my teeth, I righted myself again and spread my arms through the icy waters. This time, I was ready when the demon launched an attack my way. He—or she, I couldn’t really tell—grabbed the base of his tail, and the entire length of it hardened into steel. He roared, the sound aquatic and deep. My daggers were a hell of a lot smaller than his tail sword, but I managed to spin out of his way while I grabbed them from my thigh sheaths.

He roared again, realizing he’d missed his mark. But what he didn’t realize is that I’d also ducked low, crunching my body into a small ball. I shot out one hand, and my dagger pierced his skin. The blade dug in deep. So deep I had to grit my teeth to jerk it back toward me again.

A bluish black blood filled the waters as the demon screamed. If I’d thought his previous roar was ear-splitting, it was nothing compared to this. Wincing, I swam backward and stared in horror at the creature. The blood had begun to surround him now, a cloud of blueish black so thick that I could no longer see anything other than a dark writhing form beneath it. Suddenly, the demon stilled, and the world went quiet around me. My lungs screamed, and my eyes burned.

I needed to catch my breath or I was going to black out.

Glancing around me, I took in the rest of the battle. Lizzie was still fighting her demon, and a swarm had surrounded the others. With a frustrated grunt, I pushed myself up toward the surface. My head broke free, and I sucked in deep breaths, my lungs still screaming for air. Man, this whole water fighting thing really was tougher than I’d thought. Ramiel was right, because of course he was. He would probably be smug about it when all of this was over.

Because it would all be over soon. And we would win. We had to win. I couldn’t bear to imagine anything else would happen but that.

“Well, well, well. What are you?”

I jumped and screamed when I heard the slithering hiss from behind me. I twisted and turned but found nothing other than air. A moment later, a head popped up from below the surface. A water demon, her blue skin glowing beneath the light of the full moon. She flashed me a smile full of sharp, pointed teeth, the sides of her gill-like cheeks sucking at the air. And then she dove beneath the surface again.

My heart pounded, and I took a deep breath to follow after, but she bobbed up before me once again, her sleek head parting the choppy waters.

“You’re an angel but you’re not,” she whispered in a sing-song voice.

“There’s no not about it,” I barked out. “I’m an angel, and you’re trying to sink our ship.”

“That,” she said, jerking a webbed thumb at the boat that was drifting further and further away from us. “Is not a ship. Trust me, when you live in these waters, you quickly learn the difference.”

“Fine. It’s not a ship, and I’m not not an angel. I’m glad we got that sorted. Now, why don’t we just fight and get it over with?”

The demon hissed and lunged toward me, but no tail knives flashed my way, and her water powers didn’t shoot me halfway toward the boat. Instead, she leaned in close and sniffed. “You’re part demon.”

Irritation flickered through me, along with frustration. How the hell could she tell? It wasn’t like I’d been using demon powers all my life, and it certainly wasn’t as though I reeked like some kind of demoness. Right? I mean, that was ridiculous. I was an angel, for fuck’s sake. I could barely even control my fire.

“There have been so very few angel-demon hybrids over the years.” She cocked her head and studied me as if I were some kind of unique specimen she wanted to pick apart so that she could see what my insides looked like. I shivered and backed up in the water. “I bet you don’t even know about your wings.”