Dice clatter across the table.
Laughter echoes after my roll, followed by large hands that scoop away my shillings. “Better luck next time, Highness!” the burly sailor bellows.
This heartfelt sympathy is followed by another from across the table. “Damn, Azer, you’re makin’ this too easy.”
I lean back in my chair, shaking my head at the four men. “It seems my mind is elsewhere this round.”
“Just like the five before!” This shout from the burly man continually stealing my money has the rest of them laughing.
“All right, all right.” I stand to my feet and sway with the rocking ship. “I think I’ve lost enough shillings for one night.”
“No, don’t go yet!” The man’s gold tooth winks at me between his words. “I’m savin’ up to buy me my own barrel of rum.”
“Aye!” They all but yell this in unison as I head up the stairs for the main deck.
“Evening, gentlemen,” I yell over my shoulder, making them laugh harder with my choice of words.
Lifting open the grate, I climb onto the deck and into the night. I take a deep breath of muggy air and head for the poorly patched railing. The sea is eerily still beneath me, the waves a mere rolling reflection of the moon hanging above. It’s been unbearably hot the past few days, though the unbearable part is likely due to my lack of her.
I run a hand through my ruffled hair, still angered by our argument days ago. The hours have dragged on without her to brighten them, leaving me with nothing to do but gamble away my shillings and drink enough rum to convince myself it tastes good.
I’ve seen glimpses of her, shared looks she refuses to hold. I can sense her presence on the other side of my wall, feel the empty space in my bed that once occupied her warmth. It’s absurd, really. The fight. The truth.
Because that is the root of it all—truth. Something I am not strong enough to hear.
I lean over the rail to peer into the sparkling water below. It is selfish of me to be angry with her, I know. But it is easier that way, as though I’m looking for a reason to lose her that isn’t my brother.
Soft footsteps suddenly echo behind me.
I don’t need to turn to know who they belong to. She must have wanted me to hear her coming.
“Hi.”
I spin slowly toward the uncharacteristically timid sound. “I figured you were too stubborn to come talk to me first.”
Paedyn crosses her arms. “And I figured you were smart enough to beg for my forgiveness first. But”—she lifts her hands into the air between us—“here we are.”
I sigh. “I’ve missed you, Gray.”
“It’s only been a few days of not speaking,” she retorts, moonlight dancing on the ends of her silver hair.
“No.” I shake my head, watching her hesitantly step closer. “It was the beginning of the rest of our lives.”
“Kai, please don’t—”
“I was wrong to be angry with you about the truth,” I say quickly. “It was something I needed to be reminded of anyway.”
I step back then, a physical representation of the boundary I’m attempting to set. This hurts her. I can see it in the way her face crumples against the lantern light, as though she wasn’t the one to remind me of our separate fates.
“I…” She’s spinning that ring on her thumb, and I hate that I’m the cause of such discomfort. “I need you to know that—”
Hair rises on the back of my neck.
I stiffen, lifting a hand that cuts off her words. I can only imagine the annoyed look on her face because my eyes are already on the sea beyond. My head tilts slightly, cocking toward that strange pull in the pit of my stomach.
“Kai?”
Paedyn’s voice sounds muffled against my back as I strain to focus on this intoxicating feeling. I’ve felt power my whole life. Learned the way it moved beneath my skin and ignited in my veins. Even the inkling of it is a slight hum in my blood, a tickle at my fingertips.
But that is not this.
This is no Elite. Not entirely.
“Kai, what is it?”
She’s standing beside me now, reaching a tentative hand toward the body I’ve abandoned in pursuit of this feeling within my very soul. Eyes fluttering shut, I reach toward that foreign power. Tug at the lethal connection in the pit of my stomach.
And it comes racing toward me.
“Everyone, get down!”
The warning has only just escaped my lips when the ship lurches violently.
I lunge for Paedyn, managing to throw an arm across her waist while the other grapples for the railing. My hand hooks around the torn wood as the hull bucks beneath us. Sailors topple across the deck, yelling as they slide toward the opposite dipping rail.
The ship rolls until my feet have nearly lifted from the floor. I strain to hold us there, grunting as my fingers slip on the slick rail. Shaken from her initial shock, Paedyn begins tearing at the wood with her nails, desperate to help hold her weight as we dangle above death.
I’m panting, arms burning while screams and shouts ring through the night air. A series of splashes have me wincing for the crewmen who have found themselves overboard. Torri’s booming voice cuts through the chaos, shouting orders to whoever still clings to the deck.
The ship rocks once again, this time falling back toward its intended position atop the waves. With a colossal crash, the starboard side slams down into the waves. Water careens over the rails, pelting us with salt and a biting coldness. Our knees buckle with the force and send the slippery deck flying toward us.
Paedyn coughs, pushing a mop of wet hair from her eyes. Every bit of lantern light is swallowed by the wave, leaving only the moon to illuminate this chaos. She looks over at me, soaked to the bone, just as I am. “What…,” she pants, “was that?”
The sailors all around us seem to be shouting the same question, all drenched and dazed. But when my eyes lift and land on the captain’s, I don’t need to see the terror within his gaze—I know it mirrors my own.
He can hear it. I can feel it. And we may not live long enough to say we had.
My voice is an awed murmur. “It’s found us.”
Wood splinters beside my head.
I throw myself over Paedyn, shielding her from the showering of jagged pieces. A looming darkness falls over us as the ship bucks with the sudden impact. Ears ringing, I barely hear Paedyn’s scream beneath me. Barely register my own when I look up toward the source of this devastation.
Teeth.
Hundreds of them, glinting in the moonlight. Rows upon rows of jagged death.
The long piercing fangs are currently skewering the wooden railing we were just hanging from. I gawk at the creature, only scrambling away from its maw when Paedyn pulls at my arm.
Its scaly green skin is worn and scarred, dripping with the sea. A noise emanates from deep in the monster’s throat as it tries to pull those milky teeth from grainy wood. The low growl is accompanied by an odd clicking sound that sends chills down my spine.
“What the hell…,” Paedyn whispers, her terror a foreign sound.
I push her back, covering her body with my own. “Stay behind me!”
My shout is nearly lost in the dozens of others as men spill onto the upper deck, ready to hurl their power at the monster. I watch in horror as a man runs toward the railing, spear in hand. With a grunt, he throws it at the creature’s head, only for it to glance off the hard skin like a pathetic toothpick.
This only seems to anger the monster. It hisses, vibrating the deck as a circlet of fleshy skin and scales lifts around its head. Rippling like a gruesome petal, shredded and slimy, it encircles the creature’s pointed face. From this angle, I can see part of its long body that disappears into the sea. It resembles an enormous sort of eel with that snakelike form and fleshy fins along its spine.
And yet, everything about this animal is unnatural.
It is nearly the width of two masts, and we have yet to find out the length of this beast. The sheer size and strength alone are a testament to the Plague’s alteration.
This creature could easily be a century old.
A Blazer steps forward from the terrified throng to hurl a ball of fire at the monster’s face.
But it never lands.
With a roar that rattles the ship, the beast rips away from the railing. Once again, we are showered with bits of wood before a wave of water follows.
“It’s gone,” Paedyn sputters, water dripping from her lashes.
That formidable power lurches in the pit of my stomach, so like the Elites’, and yet, not at all. “No.” I give her a shake of my head that dusts droplets of water at her feet. “It’s only just begun.”
Gusts are urging the wind to propel us across the water while Teles hold spears at the ready with their minds, uselessly armoring the ship. I turn to Paedyn once again, grabbing her by the shoulders. “I need you in your room.”
“Are you coming with me?” she asks pointedly.
“No, I’m staying out here and—”
“Then so will I,” she insists. “I won’t sit and wait to learn of your fate, Kai.”
I cup her face, urging her to understand. “Please, Pae, don’t fight me—”
A screeching roar echoes all around us, drowning out every other sound. I’m suddenly being pushed to the ground, Paedyn’s body rolling over mine. We tumble across the deck, narrowly escaping the beast’s slamming body.
I hear the ominous sound of cracking wood before turning to see the damage. Its long body lies across the deck, the impact of its arch sending a spiderweb of cracks throughout the wood. The monster slides farther, exposing the alarming length of its body. Sailors jump out of the way, some lost to snapping teeth or a forceful shove of the scaled body.
Elites hurl their powers at it, though they seem to do little damage. Fire, telepathy, strength, and weapons do nothing in the wake of such might. I join in despite the futility, throwing fire or attempting to pull the massive creature away with my mind. But for the first time, I’m witnessing Elites rendered completely powerless. I am rendered completely powerless.
Slithering across the deck, the beast breaks through the opposite railing to plunge back into the water. I tug Paedyn against me, trying to keep my unsteady footing atop the violently rocking ship. “We can’t fight it!” I yell at the dazed crewmen.
It’s Torri I hear boom back. “All hands on deck! Every Gust at the ready!”
“We can’t outrun it,” Paedyn pants. “We can’t do anything.”
Another lurch of the ship and a massive, spiny tail crashes over the deck. The wood beneath our feet cracks again, and boards fall into the depths of the ship. Grabbing Paedyn’s hand, I run between the growing gaps while the swishing tail knocks men into the sea.
Screams amplify when the monster’s face appears on the other side of the ship, its body squeezing the vessel from beneath the sea’s surface. On one end, teeth the length of my forearm await, snapping at what is left of the wooden railing. And on the other, a rampaging tail decorated in jagged fins.
I shove Paedyn against the pair of doors leading to our rooms at the same moment one of those pointed spikes skewers a sailor. He screams, helplessly draped over the monster’s tail to display the bloody barb lodged in his chest. Moonlight streams down on the gory scene, shiny against the pool of blood blooming beneath his torn clothing.
Paedyn’s gasp is quickly covered by her shaking hands when the man is tossed into the ocean with a flick of the beast’s tail. I don’t waste another moment before ripping open the door beside her. “In. Please!” I shout the word into the night, willing her to hear the desperate plea within it.
“I can’t leave you!” she yells back, bending to pick up a forgotten spear. “I won’t!”
I’m about to argue further when the ground is suddenly stolen from beneath my feet. I hear Paedyn scream when my body hits the deck. Then again when the bony tail connects with my spine.
Pain explodes down my body.
I’m suddenly being dragged across the wood, wrapped in slimy scales as my trailing body knocks sailors from their feet. Panting, I bite my tongue against the pain and slip a dagger from my boot. Grabbing hold of the massive tail hugging my leg, I plunge my blade into one of the beast’s many scars.
A screech tears from its throat before the tail lifts sharply, me in tow. I cling to it, fingers slipping on the slick scales. Then I’m yelling as it flings me into the open air.
The starry sky blurs around me.
I’m falling.
Paedyn screams my name.
Falling.
The churning sea suddenly appears beneath me.
Falling. Falling. Fa—
Desperately, I claw at a nearby Tele’s power, urging it into my palms and bending it to my mind’s will.
My stomach drops as I plummet toward the water.
Throwing a strand of power toward one of the many ropes wrapped around the mast, I summon it to me. Obeying, it shoots toward my outstretched arm.
Paedyn’s silver hair glints over the ship’s railing. And that is the last I see before my body collides with the sea.
Biting water swallows me whole, numbing every limb with its frigid fangs. I tumble in the sea, mind sluggish. Salt bombards my senses, filling my mouth and nose. I kick furiously toward what I hope is the surface, though I can see nothing but darkness.
My lungs burn.
I fumble for the Tele’s power, reach for that rope.
I’m dizzy, floating in a dark abyss.
I strain for salvation. Beg for life. Beg to live it with her.
The rope plunges into the water.
I grab hold of it, pulling my body upward with weak arms. Moonlight streams above, beckoning me. And when my head breaks through the surface, I’m spewing water.
I cling to the wet rope, choking down air before lifting myself from the sea. A hysterical sigh of relief sounds from above me, and I look up through sea-soaked hair to find Paedyn leaning over the railing above, tears streaming down her cheeks.
For her, I pull myself up that rope. My arms burn, as do my lungs, but I push the pain aside. With raw palms, I set my feet against the ship’s belly and scale it.
By the time my arms hook over the railing, Paedyn is practically pulling me over the edge. I let her, unable to muster the strength. My arms are draped over her shoulders, and she grunts beneath my weight.
Pain shoots down my body with every tug. And when my boots hit the deck, I crumple to my knees. Paedyn’s body eases my fall, her arms wrapped tightly around me even after we hit the deck.
We stare at each other for a long moment, content to ignore the beast raging behind us. I fear it would take much more than that to pull my gaze from her.
With a choked sob, she presses her face into my neck, wiping tears across my skin. “I thought I lost you,” she whispers, half laughing.
I lift a numb hand to her soaking hair, running fingers I can’t feel through it. With chattering teeth, I manage, “You c-can’t get rid of me that easily, Gray.”
She cups my face, head shaking and smile trembling. “Damn fate, and duty, and every other word meant to keep us apart.” Tears slip from those blue eyes I would happily drown in. “I want to hide with you beneath the willow tree. You are the secret I will spend the rest of my life keeping.” Her voice quivers beneath the weight of such a promise. “Us.”
That alone is enough to have tears springing to my eyes. So I nod. Her face in my hands, my heart in hers.
The countless screams echoing all around finally manage to capture our attention. Before either of us can spew a comforting lie, the ship is tipping again. We slide across the wood when the creature lifts its head farther onto the deck. Serrated teeth lash out for the captain, and he narrowly avoids being swallowed whole.
The boat is crumbling beneath the weight of this creature, straining to keep us all afloat. “We need to do something,” Paedyn murmurs.
“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t,” I order.
She looks over at me then, and I remember just how much I missed her doing something as simple as acknowledging my existence. A small smile pulls at her lips. She’s breathtaking in this light, as though her hair is a collection of the moon’s rays. “You forget, Kai.” Her fingers wrap tightly around the spear. “This is my Trial.”
And then she’s running.
