I’d have to inspect him thoroughly later… if we managed to get out of this.
I wanted so badly to rush over to him and pull him into my arms. I wanted to hold him and take care of him and make him feel better.
I wanted to ignore everything and everyone else and get my hands on him so I’d know he truly was okay.
But he wouldn’t want that, not on deck in front of the entire crew.
So I held myself back and settled for sending him a smile.
The relief in his eyes when his gaze met mine was obvious. He sent me a small smile back, staring at me for a few beats before he turned away to call out more orders. With reluctance, I tore my eyes away from him and searched out my friends.
“You okay?” I asked Willy.
He nodded. “Just a few bruises. Nothing I can’t handle. You?”
“Fine.”
The empty fluxstones sent out another wave of awareness. My ribs were already in bad shape, and that freaking hurt themmore. My chest ached with the need to power the fluxstones. They were calling me, and I just… I didn’t know what to do.
Maybe I should talk to Max privately.
I could tell him, I knew I could.
Maybe we could figure out a way to power the fluxstones without making the crew—and especially the captain—aware of what I was.
Yeah… yeah, that could work.
Max would help me, and he’d keep my secret.
After unhooking my harness, I headed toward Max, but about halfway there, the ship started to vibrate.
It was hardly noticeable at first, just a rumble under my feet. But it slowly got worse and worse until the entire ship was shaking and moving so much, it was difficult to walk and everyone freaked-out, scrambling to grab onto something.
I held onto the railing at the bottom of the quarterdeck stairs to stop from falling over.
I heard someone muttering a prayer, another person crying, and someone else screaming in terror.
These pirates, these murderous criminals, were panicking.
I really,reallydidn’t want to meet whatever it was that was making the ship shake like this. Anything that could scare a stone-cold pirate was way too much for me.
“Tentacles, Ho!” Hawk-Eyes yelled.
My eyes widened.
Tentacles? Hawk-Eyes could see tentacles?
18
Kaspar
Oh, goddesses. Tentacles could mean only one thing.
A sand kraken.
Holy phoenix tails—no, holy freakingshit! There was a kraken coming to kill and eat us all.
Shit, shit, shit.
