When Esme screams his name, fear thick in her cry, the creature pulls back its neck and screams back at her.
It is almost a parody, I realize in dawning terror. A parody of afaeyte.
Twisted beyond thought, beyond imagination, beyond any tale I ever heard on a dark night that had me running to Nyx and Celeste for cool hands and quiet comfort.
There are only dark, pitted voids where there should be eyes, and a mouth that opens too wide. A broken, distended jaw, clicking and dislocating, revealing layers of spindling, razor sharp teeth, each as long as my finger and packed in tight, terrifying rows.
Hala, what did you do, what did you do—
They had named us monsters.
And so Hala has shown them what a real monster can be.
Agony. The monster’s cry holds pain, and terror, and agony, and wetness spreads down my legs as I stumble back, my nails tearing strips from the wood as I grip the railing.
But Esme—
“Leo!” My head twists. Merrick staggers, almost falling as the ship shifts. He shoves a stool aside, as if the boy might be behind it, playing a game. “Leo!”
Oh, gods—
Callan. I push myself upright, my breath heaving.Callan, where is Callan—
Hands land on my shoulders. Warm, safe—
Callan pulls me back, his voice hissing in my ear. “Get below.”
I find my voice. “Merrick can’t find Leo.”
“We’ll find him. Go!”
He throws himself past me. Sol follows, both of them with their swords out. Callan runs for Esme. She tries to get past the wraith, only to be knocked back with a lethal, sharp-edged set of claws at the end of long, twisted, misshapen arms, the bones almost breaking through the paper-white skin.
Sol races toward Merrick, his head swiveling as he looks around.
He can’t call out, I realize. Not with the pretium on him. He can only look.
“Leo!” The cry bursts free from my mouth.
I can’t leave. Even the thought of it is abhorrent, of leaving them here to fight off a nightmare, of leaving Leo unfound and Rio unmoving.
I will not run this time.
“Leo!” I scream it again, turning, searching. But there’s no sign of him anywhere.
Ahead of me, Callan slides along the deck on his knees between Esme and the wraith before jumping to his feet. He lifts his sword, and the creature hisses. Esme ducks around him,dropping to her knees beside Rio and rolling him over. Her hands come away stained with blood.
My heart stutters, skips a beat. But I keep searching, keep shouting. My feet finally,finally, move, and I race past them, past the nightmare that swipes at Callan once more. He ducks out of the way.
And he stumbles.
The ship tilts, as if a link has snapped.Volatustilts, and I slide to the right, fighting to keep my feet beneath me.
Gasping, Callan steadies himself. “Esme – take Rio! Take him and go!”
His eyes sweep the deck and then land on me, widening. Callan bellows at me, furious and blazing as he straightens. “Why in Ellas are you still up here?”
The wraith, between us, begins to turn.
