Water Shaper (World Aflame) Read Online Free

glanced around the lonely ocean and saw nothing remarkable. “There’s nothing here. Please, please don’t tell me this whole thing was a wild goose chase.”
    “It’s here. I can feel it nearby.”
    Sean turned a full circle in midair but still saw nothing useful. “Want to help a brother out here, Xander? I’m with Jessica; I’m not seeing a whole lot around here.”
    “It feels like it’s right below us,” Xander explained.
    The trio looked down at the choppy ocean waves beneath them. Sean looked up, paler than he had been during the flight.
    “Clearly you don’t remember how much I disliked the boat when we sailed to Iceland. I’m not a fan of the water. Fat kids float. We kind of struggle to stay underwater for any amount of time.”
    Jessica sighed at Sean’s inappropriate sense of humor. “So safe money is on the Water Elemental, right?”
    Xander looked down at the rolling waves and shrugged. It made sense, but common sense didn’t seem that common when dealing with the budding apocalypse.
    “What are you thinking, Xander?” she asked.
    Xander bit his lip. “I’m thinking that for once I agree with Sean. I’m pretty sure we’re not going to be able to just go for a dive.”
    “Then what are our other options?” she asked.
    Xander held his arms out wide, and both Sean and Jessica were pulled protectively behind him. “I’m thinking it’s time we took this wind power out for a real test drive.”
    Despite the bubble of pressurized air around them, all three could hear the loud rumble as the wind kicked up around them. Xander closed his eyes and listened to its siren’s song—a gentle whisper of inaudible melodies that accompanied the summoned storm.
    A deafening roar split the air as a gale sliced across the waves. The rolling waves directly beneath them shifted directions unexpectedly, slamming into one another and collapsing into a churning, boiling sea. The ocean became frothy, as though a feeding frenzy were occurring just beneath the water’s surface as the waves crashed confusedly into one another.
    The sea spray licked at their ankles, and the wind tugged at their feet as a vortex appeared around them. Far wider than even the waterspout they had kept around the Wind Warriors’ island, the tornado slammed into the surface of the ocean. In the center of the frothy waves beneath them, a small, dark hole appeared as the driving winds burrowed into the water. As the wind continued to bore deeper beneath the choppy sea, the hole became bigger.
    Around the burgeoning void beneath them, the water swirled maddeningly. The whirlpool quickly grew in both strength and size, swallowing the nearby water as it dug deeper and deeper beneath the waves. The sea spray that had previously clung desperately to their ankles was instead sucked into the heart of the tourbillion with an audible hiss.
    As the whirlpool grew, Xander, Sean, and Jessica slowly descended into its core. The waves around them swirled angrily but were held at bay by the velocity of the vortex Xander created. Lower and lower, they sank beneath the waves.
    At first, the water was a deep blue as thin sunlight filtered through the upper levels of the ocean. They could see the silhouettes of schools of fish approaching the walls of the whirlpool inquisitively before quickly disappearing as they fled. Larger shadows skimmed the edge of the vortex before angling lazily away.
    Slowly, the deep blue faded to near black as they descended lower and lower. Xander knew instinctively that they were beyond the depth any human had ever gone without mechanical aid, yet still they sunk deeper into the Atlantic Ocean.
    The meager light from above strained to illuminate the area into which they sank. The sunlight seemed to shrink from the depths to which they flew.
    “It’s freezing,” Jessica remarked as she rubbed her arms. She pulled her fur-lined winter jacket from her bag and slid it on but still shivered against the chill.
    Xander looked over