Someone came at her, swiping high. Adara ducked low. Blood sprayed as her sword slashed his lower legs. She jabbed the pommel of her dagger into one’s head, knocking him out cold. Then thrust her sword into another’s chest. A river of scarlet dribbled from his parted mouth as his last breath left his lungs. Pressing a blood-slick boot to his chest, Adara shoved, yanking her sword free as his lifeless body fell over the railing.
Seeing her take down her enemies in a few precise moves, a few of the other pirates hesitated. But some—brave, stupid fools—charged at her with a battle cry. Steel and blood filled her vision in a blur as she dodged and slashed. Blood spattered her skin, mingled with the red in her braided hair, loose strands plastered to her face with sweat. The sound of the dying filled her ears—their screams, their last breaths, their lifeless bodies hitting the deck. Adara didn’t care. She just kept slicing and stabbing and burning.
Across the ship, she glimpsed someone sneaking up behind Silas, whose dagger looked so puny compared to the broadsword hefted by the pirate he fought. Niran fought a few feet away, eyes locked onto Silas, fighting to reach him. But Niran wastoo far. He wouldn’t be fast enough. The sleeve of Silas’s shirt was dark with blood. He retreated a step, his dagger no match for the pirate’s sword. So small compared to the hulking brute he faced, who drove Silas unwittingly backward, where another approached to end the boy.
Magic flared. A sapphire whip coiled around her arm, shooting across the deck to wrap around the pirate’s throat. Screaming in agony, he released his sword, clawing at his neck before falling to the floor. At the sound of the pirate’s agonized cry behind him, Silas turned, horrified at the demise he was so close to meeting. Another flaming whip shot from her palm, arcing and weaving through the battle until it latched onto the wrist of Silas’s other attacker. The pirate screamed, but didn’t let go of his weapon. Neither did Adara. The fiery rope burned and burned, blistering flesh building beneath. She tightened the whip around his wrist until it scorched cleanly through his bones. Another trill scream echoed as his bloody hand dropped with athunk.His cries were silenced when Silas hurled a knife into his throat.
Something slammed into Adara’s back. Her shoulder barked in anguish, teeth clacking as she crashed to the deck.Burn them, her fire urged.
Her skin began to heat, and the body scrambled away from her.
“Don’t fry me!”
The fire swiftly dissipated at the sound of Evreux’s voice. He spun around to deflect a sword aimed at him while Adara scrambled to her feet.
“Don’t sneak up on me!” she said, parrying a blow then pivoting to help Evreux, who was expertly defending himself but couldn’t land a true strike.
“Next time, I’ll let you get stabbed in the back,” he quipped.
Adara distracted their attacker with a few quick strikes. The pirate easily blocked, giving Evreux an opening to deliver a deep laceration across his ribs.
Despite the gore surrounding them, Adara smiled.
The ship shuddered, followed by a haunting rumble that reverberated through the deck, sending chilling vibrations into her boots and up her spine. Everyone on the ship abruptly halted at the uncanny noise, plunging them into utter silence save for their heaving breaths and the waves splashing against the hull.
Adara’s expression fell. Trepidation rattled through her veins, churning in her gut, tightening her chest. “What the bloody Hel was that?” she asked over the sound of blood rushing in her ears. Her heart felt like it would explode out of her chest. She’d never heard such an eerie noise. Scanning the Plagued Sea, she could see nothing as night settled over them. The ocean was pitch black, consuming even the reflection of the bright moon and stars, yielding no answers to what monsters lay within its unforgiving domain.
She searched the ship for Dominic to find his eyes locked on the water, swords falling from his hands and clattering on the ground. Her heart skipped inside her chest, breath hitching at the sheer terror lining his face, his eyes wide with despair. No one dared move but her as she cautiously made her way through the crowd of frozen bodies, footsteps light and silent as she crossed the blood-slick deck.
Adara stood by his side, slipping her hand into his. “Dom?” she asked, voice barely audible.
Dominic stood frozen, unresponsive, with wide eyes locked on the undulating waves, his breaths coming in ragged pants.
The low, bone-chilling growl sounded again, like distant thunder splitting the sky, except this came from beneath the restless waves. As if the beast would cleave the world in two, parting the ocean to swallow them whole.
Dominic breathed two words that cursed them all. “A lykren.”
Chapter 48
“Go,”Dominicwhispered,voicerattling with undiluted horror. His addled brain was unable to come up with any other plan as memories flashed in the back of his mind. Damon. Valen. Their ship was demolished to nothing but splinters. Acidic dark purple blood charring through wood, burning through Valen’s chest.
He shook his head sharply, drawing his focus back to the present. “GO!” he bellowed for all the Andreilians across the ship to hear. “GET TO THE SHIP!”
Adara turned frightened blue eyes to him. “Dom?” she repeated, fear making her voice quiver.
“We have to get out of here,” he said quickly. “We can’t beat what’s coming for us. We have to outrun it.” Except there was no outrunning a lykren. There was nosurvivinga lykren. He and Damon had been lucky the first time, and he knew there would be no sparing them this time. They were completely, inevitably, doomed.
“That’s it! We’re dead!” Caleb’s shouts echoed Dominic’s thoughts. His hands laced over his blond curls, grasping at his hair in utter distress. “I’m dead.” He pointed to himself. “You’re dead.” He gestured to one of the pirates, still standing frozen at the sound of Dominic’s words that condemned them all. “We’re alldead!” His arms splayed at his sides, a distorted smile cracking his face, failing to mask his dread.
“We arenotdead!” Adara’s voice cut through the air, strong and fierce, all traces of fear ebbing away as she sprang into action.
No, they weren’t dead yet, but they would be soon. They’d tested their luck too many times, sailing from continent to continent across the Plagued Sea, searching for the relics to forge the Realm Fracturer. They were not making it home.
Adara pressed two fingers to her wrist, her chest, and her head. “Narelle, help us,” she murmured.
“That bitch isn’t going to help us!” Caleb shouted, voice rising in hysteria. “She’s probably the one that sicced the beast on us!”
“You heard Dominic,” she said, striding to the others.
