Dominic admired her relentlessness, wishing he could do the same, but none of them truly understood their utter peril. Shakily, he stooped to retrieve his fallen weapons. His muscles strained to hold their weight, his trembling fingers threatening to slip away from the hilts.
“Get back to the ship!” Adara’s command rang out, and it was like time restarted.
She ushered the Andreilians across the gangplank, but the pirates attacked once more, desperate to be sure no one escaped. Dominic struggled to make his way to them, his movements slowed, like he wasn’t in control of his body. Silver flashed before his eyes, and he threw up his swords at the last second, parrying a fatal blow that had been aimed at his neck. Dominic shoved the pirate back, slashed at his thigh with one sword. The man staggered, lowering his weapon as he tried to stanch the bleeding with a hand. Dominic thrust his other sword into the pirate’s stomach, the blade slowly sinking through flesh and bone.
Adara struck down a pirate as Evreux sprinted across the gangplank, followed by Niran and Sawyer. Caleb made it across soon after, but the moment Tobias made a move for the gangplank, their enemies sliced through the ropes that tied their ships together.
“NO!” Caleb cried from the safety of their own ship as the plank plunged into the water, the two vessels drifting apart, a hand outstretched as if he could reach Tobias.
“I’ll be fine!” Tobias called back, swinging a thick metal staff. The weapon cracked across a pirate’s face, sending the body tumbling into the sea.
Another low snarl rattled his bones. The ship lurched with each growing wave that crashed against the hull, the only sign of the humongous beast lurking below the surface.
Dominic’s pulse hammered in his veins, his magic thrashing in sporadic waves in time to his ruminating thoughts.No, no, no, no, no. None of them would be fine. They would not escape this. Death waited just beneath the surface of the water, its hands already clawing at his insides, scraping away every ounce ofcourage he had until he was nothing but a husk of the relentless person he used to be.
“Dominic! Look out!”
One of Dominic’s swords went flying out of his hand, silver flashing before him. Pain shot through his abdomen as steel sliced through his skin, blood pooling in its wake. Ace shoved him to the side. His leg buckled beneath him. The lingering stab wound from the Ruins split open with the force of his weight thrown on it. He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, righting himself. Ace finished disarming the pirate that had caught Dominic off guard and stamped over to him.
“Get yourself together!” Ace shouted in his face, gripping his shoulders and shaking him.
Dominic stared back blankly, hearing and seeing his second but not having the energy to respond. He was too focused on the churning black waves, on their own ship floating away.
“What is wrong with you?” Ace yelled.
Still unable to stir Dominic from his stupor, Ace lifted an arm, backhanding him across the face.
The sting bloomed across his reddened cheek, his head whipping to the side, but the pain was secondary to the petrifying call of the lykren that rumbled through the air, dulled by the adrenaline coursing through him as he struggled to breathe.
A loudcrackrent the night and the ship lurched. The prow sank into the ocean, water flooding the ship, the result of the lykren incapacitating them with a swipe of one of its four clawed, webbed feet, still hiding beneath the waves.
“We’re all going to die,” Dominic whispered, barely able to get the words past his quivering lips.
The ocean churned, a maelstrom that drowned out all screams for mercy as the massive beast burst from the sea. Dominic staggered back, pressing a hand to his stomach to stanch thebleeding, as he laid eyes upon the monster from his nightmares. Blood seeped through his hands, but nothing mattered other than the creature looming before him, its long neck casting the shadow of death over them all. Its onyx eyes gleamed with malice, six dark pits that ensured death and decay would follow wherever it glanced. Pain lanced through the still-healing wounds on Dominic’s back as his spine rammed into the mast. He slid down the post, sinking to the deck beneath the weight of terror as those dark eyes fixed on him.
Salt water showered the boat as the lykren shook its head. Moonlight glinted on its two horns that twisted up to pierce the stars. An icy chill swept through him, and he didn’t know if it was from the frigid water soaking his clothes or the horror flooding him. As if summoned by his words, tasting his palpable fear, its forked tongue flicked between rows upon rows of razor-sharp fangs, dripping with its own venomous blood. Perhaps this was the monster that had devoured his heart, and now it was back for more.
It swiveled its head in a serpentine motion, then snapped its fangs at the mast. Dominic grunted, pain firing through his abdomen as he quickly rolled, coming to a halt out of its range. Lungs aching, he heaved for breath, sitting helplessly on the deck.
Wood groaned and splintered as the beast ripped the mast free. The ship careened, drifting even farther from their own. The enormous wave created by the lykren’s sudden movement washed over the deck, forcing anything loose into the ocean. Dominic grasped onto part of the rigging that was still intact as the wave crashed into him, trying to pull him out to sea. Skin ripped beneath the rough material of the rope, rubbing his palms raw, but Dominic held steady.
“DESMOND!” Tyson's shout had Dominic painstakingly turning his head in their direction as the last of the wave washed over them, setting him back on the slippery deck.
Desmond gripped the port railing with white knuckles, body dangling over the open ocean. His fingers slipped on the wet rail, but Tyson was there in an instant, grasping onto Desmond's shirt and hauling him up.
A figure swung down from the rigging of another mast, boots splashing as they landed. Hands pulled at Dominic’s tunic, jerking him to his feet. “You have to fight!” Adara yelled at him, sapphire eyes flooded with concern.
Dominic blinked, gripping her forearms to steady his shaking legs. The black sleeve of her tunic was sliced open on her bicep, rimmed with red, but other than that, she appeared unharmed. “Ace,” he said slowly, vision blurred from the panic clenching his throat, disabling any full breaths. “Where’s Ace?” His second had been right beside him before the wave cascaded over the ship. Had his friend been washed out to sea? Crushed beneath the weight of the post and suffocated under the canvas as the lykren dropped the mast into the ocean?
Another hand gently landed on his shoulder. “I’m here,” Ace said through shallow pants, shoving soaked strands of brown hair off his forehead. “What do we do?” he asked, desperate eyes on Dominic.
“DUCK!” Adara’s order rang in his ears.
His back felt like it was on fire as it slammed into the deck. Adara had tackled him out of the way behind a stack of storage crates that was miraculously still on the ship.
Plink, plink, plink.Tiny needles sank into everything that surrounded them, the lykren’s barbed tail lashing out, aiming those thin spikes laced with venom at them.
A guttural scream sliced through the air, so high-pitched and filled with agony that Dominic’s ears rang. Someone had beenhit, the lykren’s acidic ichor scorching its way through their veins, contaminating their blood.
