“On my mark! Twenty-five-degree dive angle, no steeper,” I told Viper, still at the helm.
Our captain nodded once, his knuckles white on the wheel, expression oddly neutral for once. Even seasoned pirates feared the dive. One miscalculation, and we’d never pull up in time.
“Diving in three… two… one…MARK!”
The ship tilted forward as our nose dipped toward the cloud layer below. My stomach lurched with the sudden change in altitude, the familiar weightless sensation that never failed to remind me I was at the mercy of the sky. The wind howled past the railings as we accelerated downward, the damaged ship creaking horribly.
We plunged through the thick cloud cover, momentarily blinded by the dense white mist. I gripped the railings to brace myself, the deck vibrating beneath my boots. The air grew damp and cold, clinging to my skin like a ghostly shroud.
Then we broke through.
The endless blue of the ocean stretched below us, a vast expanse that seemed to reach toward infinity. Its beauty was only marred by the remnants of our battle—the two sentinel ships we’d destroyed, their wreckage scattered across the water’s surface like discarded toys.
One ship had split clean in half, its bow and stern pointing skyward as the middle section sank beneath the waves. Black smoke billowed from the larger section, flames still licking at what remained of its deck. The other vessel had fared worse, reduced to floating splinters and debris that dotted the water for hundreds of yards in every direction.
And the bodies. Goddesses, the bodies. They floated facedown in the gentle swells, their uniforms bright red dots of color. Men and women who’d had families, lives, futures—all ended by our cannons. A knot formed in my throat. Something about seeing them like this—small, broken things on the vast ocean—hit differently. They weren’t just faceless enemies anymore. They were real people.
“Bring her around!” I ordered, pushing aside my unwelcome moment of conscience. I pointed to a relatively intact section of hull that contained what might be the sentinel’s cargo hold. “Steady as she goes!”
The Black Wraithbanked, her sails catching the wind as we maneuvered toward the wreckage. The helmsman adjusted our approach, bringing us nearer to the floating section—
I’d barely finished shouting orders when the water beneath us erupted like a geyser. A massive serpentine form burst through the surface, its colossal body gleaming dark blue in the sunlight. The beast rose higher and higher, water cascading from its armored scales. Its jaws—large enough to swallow a sloop whole—snapped shut with a sickening crunch around three floating bodies. Blood turned the water crimson as the serpent’s cold reptilian eye regarded us with ancient malice.
The sea serpent’s body stretched at least sixty feet from snout to tail, with jagged spines running along its back like a mountain range. Its scales shimmered with an almost metallic quality, darkest blue fading to midnight near its underbelly—perfect camouflage in these deep waters. No wonder we hadn’t spotted it lurking below. The beast’s mouth reopened, revealing rows of dagger-like teeth, each as long as my forearm.
“Two more coming in from starboard!” Beside me, Hawk-Eyes’s voice cracked with panic as she pointed toward the horizon. Through her telescopic goggles, she’d spotted what our naked eyes couldn’t yet see. “Big ones! Bigger than this one!”
My blood turned to ice. Our ship would be torn apart like parchment. I met Viper’s gaze across the deck, recognizing the gleam in his eyes. That familiar, reckless hunger. He was already calculating the value of those teeth, those scales, those fins. Goddesses help us, the fool was actually considering it.
“ABORT DIVE!” I bellowed, before he could open his mouth. “ALL HANDS, PREPARE FOR EMERGENCY ASCENT!”
Viper’s face contorted with rage, but I didn’t care. Let him take my head later if he wanted. At least the crew would survive. At least Kaspar would survive, reach Asteris, have the new life he deserved.
I bellowed orders as the crew scrambled to reverse our dive. “FULL POWER TO ENGINES! TRIM SAILS FOR ASCENT!” My voice cracked with strain.
The Black Wraithshuddered, groaned, then lurched upward. Our bow lifted with agonizing slowness, the damaged hull protesting each foot of altitude we clawed back.If only Ariella were here,I couldn’t help but wish. Safety lines snapped taut as pirates clung to whatever handholds they could find. The ship’s wounded frame screamed in protest, but somehow, impossibly, we began to rise.
Just as our keel leveled out, the water beneath us exploded. The sea serpent launched itself skyward with terrifying speed, its massive body arcing through the air like a living missile. Time slowed as I watched those massive jaws open wide, rows of dagger-like teeth gleaming in the sunlight. The beast’s cold eyes locked with mine for one heart-stopping moment—intelligent, calculating.Hungry.
Its massive head shot upward, jaws snapping shut with bone-crushing force mere inches from our hull. The sound reverberated across the deck like thunder, the wind from its massive maw washing over us with the stench of rotting fish and death. I felt rather than heard the collective gasp of the crew as the serpent’s teeth scraped against our keel. The beast’s enormous body crashed back into the ocean, sending a wave high enough to drench our lower decks despite our altitude.
“GO! GO! GO!” I screamed. The serpent was already circling back, its massive form cutting through the water like a knife. Behind it, I could see the dark shapes of its larger brethren approaching fast. “EVERYTHING WE’VE GOT! NOW!”
I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed.
I forced them open to findThe Black Wraithbursting through the cloud layer like a cork from a bottle, leveling out with a final groan of protest. Around me, the crew released a collective breath they’d been holding. Sighs of relief mingled with nervous laughter.
For a fleeting moment, an old voice whispered in my head: “Impressive leadership, Maximus.” Eric had always praised my quick thinking in crisis situations, his hand squeezing my shoulder with that proud smile that once meant everything to me. “You’re a natural commander.” The phantom compliment twisted like a knife—how desperately I’d once worked for his approval, how pathetically eager I’d been to make him proud. Even now, years later, some broken part of me still measured my worth against what he would’ve thought. I pushed the voice away, bitter at how his ghost still haunted my moments of triumph.
My introspection was shattered by a cheer erupting across the deck—a thunderous round of applause that startled me. At first, I thought it was just celebration over our narrow escape, but as I turned, I found dozens of eyes fixed on me. Multiple grins split tired faces as they looked at me like I’d personally dragged them from death’s jaws. Someone even whistled.
“Three cheers for the Reaper!” someone shouted, which prompted a chorus of my name.
It was… unsettling. The Reaper wasn’t supposed to be a hero.
“You took the order right out of my mouth, Reaper,” Viper snarled, his gold tooth glinting as his lips curled into a cruel smile. “I was just about to shout that very same command.”
I stared at him.The fuck you were.He’d been ready to hunt those beasts, consequences be damned.
