Zadyn grabs me and swims us toward the rope ladder slung over its side. He climbs the worn out fibers with my body wrapped around his until someone reaches out to haul us onto the deck. We fall to the floorboards, panting.
As soon as my head lifts toward our savior, a blunt object connects with my skull, and I hit the deck face first.
47
SERENA
Iwake with a dry mouth and the worst headache of my life.
That last concussion must have really done me in.
Something itchy pokes at the backs of my bare arms. I glance down at myself. I’m still in my nightgown, sprawled out on a bed of hay…
Where the hell am I? And why am I covered in blue powder?
I jolt forward, realizing my hands are bound. For a moment, I’m sucked back into that cold, dark cell in Vod, blood ore cuffs encircling my wrists. Panic seizes me as I yank against the matted rope.
Rope, I remind myself. Not metal.
The faintest pinpricks of magic in my veins confirm it. I’m alright. I made it out of that place. I made it out alive.
Blackblood.Relief sweeps through me at the sound of Furi’s silky voice.What is going on?
I’m asking myself the same thing, girl. I squint across the dank space.
Are you harmed?
I don’t think so.
Are your limbs intact?
All four. Yours?
I am over two thousand years old, and I am very fast. Certainly, you can answer that question yourself.
Why do you sound all muffled? And why does it smell likeshitin here?
Movement stirs in the corner of my eye. I’m in a barred pigpen. Withactualpigs.
“Serena.”
I whirl, finding Zadyn’s eyes in the darkness and scurrying toward him. He’s in a pen beside mine, with a bunch of…chickens?
I reach for his hands through the bars. “Zadyn, thank god. Where are we?”
“I think we’re still on the ship.”
“What happened?”
“The last thing I remember is getting us on board. They must have knocked us out. Are you alright?”
My back, where the arrow struck me, feels like it’s healing, but at a slower rate than normal.
“I’m fine. Where are the others?”
“Over here, savior.”
Across from me is another pen filled with fugly little goats. Inside is Kai, lazing on a bale of hay like he’s at a Sunday picnic in the park.
