Chapter 26: After the Fire, Before the Fall

The Hollowfang was gone.

The explosion had ripped through the sky like a dying star, its magic folding in on itself until there was nothing left but smoldering embers and the faint crackle of blue lightning fading into the night.

Silence followed.

Not peace just absence.

The Stormrider groaned beneath Alistair's feet, her sails tattered, her deck splintered from the battle. The crew worked around him dousing flames, tying off broken rigging but the world felt distant. Muffled.

Because the real storm wasn't over.

It was standing right in front of him.

Seraphina Blackthorn.

Isolde Greaves.

And the wreckage between them.

The Moment That Broke.

Seraphina wiped blood hers and other's from her mouth, the gash on her shoulder still weeping, though she didn't seem to notice. Her hair was wild, tangled by wind and sweat, and her dagger spun in her hand not as a weapon, but as an outlet. A barely contained spark.

Isolde stood a few feet away a statue of cold fury. Her rapier, still stained with magic-laced blood, hung at her side, but her knuckles were white around the hilt. A muscle in her jaw twitched the only sign of the storm beneath the surface.

Alistair stood between them cutlass hanging limp at his side but it wasn't a position of power.

It was a position of survival.

The tension wasn't just a spark now.

It was a blaze.

And then

"Are you happy now?" Seraphina's voice cut through the silence rough, raw, a wound left open. "We won. The ship's gone. But guess what, Captain" Her smile was a blade. "The storm's still here."

Alistair's jaw tightened. "Seraphina"

"No." Her dagger clattered to the deck as she stepped closer, her breathing ragged. "I threw myself in front of a blast for you. Again."

Isolde's voice was ice. "No one asked you to."

Seraphina's laugh was dark. "Of course you'd say that." She turned to Alistair. "Because she's always there isn't she? Right at your side, quiet and perfect and waiting for you to notice."

Isolde's hand twitched on her sword. "Careful, Blackthorn."

Seraphina's smile sharpened. "Or what?"

Alistair's voice was a low growl. "Enough."

But neither of them moved.

Neither of them blinked.

Because this wasn't just about the Hollowfang.

It wasn't about the battle.

It was about him.

And the impossible, reckless storm between the three of them.

The Breaking Point.

"Admit it," Seraphina said softly too softly stepping even closer. "You want him to choose."

Isolde didn't flinch. "And you don't?"

Seraphina's laugh was bitter. "At least I don't pretend I don't care."

The words hit like a punch.

Alistair's pulse thundered. "This isn't the time"

Seraphina's gaze flicked to him, dark and furious. "It's never the time, is it, Captain?"

And then

She kissed him.

Not like before not a possessive claim.

This was rough. Unyielding. Desperate.

A kiss meant to hurt.

Her teeth grazed his bottom lip a bite more than a kiss and her hand fisted in his hair, pulling him closer, like she wanted to drag him into her fire or burn them both alive.

Alistair gasped against her mouth, a curse lost in the heat, his cutlass falling to the deck as his hand found her waist not to pull her closer, but to steady himself.

The fire was too much.

Too wild.

But before he could push her away

Another hand.

Isolde.

She grabbed Alistair's collar and yanked him back away from Seraphina her breath cold against his jaw. "If you think you can use him to win, you're wrong."

Seraphina wiped her mouth, still breathing hard. "I'm not the one playing games."

Alistair's chest heaved. "Both of you stop."

But they didn't.

Because this wasn't just about him.

It was about each other.

The battle. The rivalry. The want.

It had all cracked open raw, fierce, unrelenting.

And now

There was no putting the fire back in its cage.

The Rough Collision.

Isolde didn't hesitate.

Her hand, still fisted in Alistair's collar, kept him between them but this time, her lips crashed against his.

It wasn't soft.

It wasn't slow.

It was punishment.

A kiss meant to match Seraphina's to erase it to claim a piece of him before Seraphina could take it all.

And Alistair

He broke.

He kissed Isolde back rough, reckless his hand gripping the back of her neck, pulling her against him, a desperate clash of ice and fire.

Until Seraphina shoved them apart.

Her voice was a snarl. "You think I'm just going to stand here while you"

Isolde's smile was deadly. "You already did."

Alistair staggered back his heart a storm in his chest his voice hoarse. "For the love of the gods"

But there was no stopping it.

The tension.

The heat.

The wreckage.

Seraphina a blaze of fury her dagger back in her hand.

Isolde cold, unyielding her rapier trembling at her side.

And Alistair caught between them not sure if the storm would tear them apart…

Or pull them together.

The Aftermath.

The crew pretended not to notice.

The smoke still lingered.

But the storm wasn't over.

Not between them.

Not between him and the two women who now stood on either side of him too close, too dangerous.

Because there was no going back.

Not after the battle.

Not after the kisses.

Not after the way they both looked at him like he was both the prize and the weapon.

Something had broken tonight.

Not the Hollowfang.

Not the Stormrider.

Them.

And now

The storm could only grow.