Neither Elio or Soraya need any more instruction. With a nod, they scatter like soldier crabs.
Pear and honey wrap around me, and my chest constricts. I turn to face Odi, who appears out of the shadows that grow as the sky darkens ahead of the storm. My gaze travels from her flushed cheeks down the curve of her neck, across her delicate collar bones all the way to the swell of her breasts.
Ten minutes ago I’d been teasing her perfectly taut nipple with my lips, and if I had control over the weather, I’d still be holed up in my room with her moaning my name as I gave her every pleasure she demanded of me.
“I thought I told you to stay in the room,” I say, taking a small step towards her.
Odi squares her shoulders, her eyes flicking to the mass of dark, angry cloud approaching. “Looks like you’re going to need all the help you can get.”
She’s not wrong. Again.
At first I hesitate, then I jerk my head towards the lower deck. “Join the others, and do whatever Elio tells you.”
The corner of her perfectly pink lips tugs up in one corner. She runs her eyes over my face before letting them stall on my mouth, and then she grins. “Yes, Cap.”
Fire erupts in my soul, spreading wildly through my body as I watch her dash away. I genuinely need to get a grip on myself, or she will be my undoing.
“Odi!” Icall after her.
She spins, her dark hair swirling around her with the wind, eyes wide with anticipation. “Tell Elio the crew needs to get their weapons ready—they’ll know what I mean. I don’t know what to expect with this storm.”
Her brow pinches in the middle, but she nods once and then she’s gone, melting back into the shadows from which she came. I run a hand over my face and release a sigh. Just when I thought I’d have a restful night.
The horizon’s gone black, swallowing sea and sky in the same breath. The wind howls through the rigging, snapping ropes taut, and every creak of the hull feels like the ship’s bones groaning under the weight of what’s coming.
Sheet lightning continues to roll across the clouds, washing the deck in ghostly white before plunging us back into half-light. I can taste the storm in the air—iron, salt, and something sharp that claws the back of my throat. The waves are already rising, heavy swells that punch the hull and spray cold brine over my face. A storm like this doesn’t just test a ship. It tests the men on it. And it’s coming for us fast.
There is no time to waste as I race for my room. Thrusting the door open, I dart across for the weapon that is more part of me than my bone sword. The halberd gleams from its stand on the wall even in the dim light, its shaft carved from dark driftwood, smoothed and reinforced with strips of galanthor bone. It’s etched with curling tide marks like the ones that shimmer beneath my skin.
The blade isn’t plain iron—no. It’s hammered from a metal with the sheen of abalone, colours shifting with every tilt. Blue, green, silver, like the skin of a fish beneath sunlight.
I strap it across my back, the weight familiar. It isn’t just a weapon. It’s the ocean itself, forged into something sharp and loyal.
Once it's securely in place, I double check the sword by my side, and then I leave the room, slamming the door behind me. By the time I’m back on deck, so is half the crew, looking grim as rain begins to lash at us.
Elio finds me halfway up the stairs to the sterncastle deck. His emerald eyes are filled with concern. He knows this storm isn’t normal. “Everyone’s headed up.”
“Where is Tavi?” I ask. Our boots pound on the stairs in unison as we reach the top.
Elio glances towards the sky. “She’s in the crow’s nest.”
“Tell her to switch places with Nico. I need her down here.”
Elio nods and races off.
The storm chews at the ship, every plank groaning under the weight of the sea. I shove my shoulder into the wheel and wrench it hard. The timbers scream, the rudder dragging through water thick as iron.
“I’m not getting any purchase!” My voice is swallowed by the wind. Salt lashes my face, stinging my eyes. The wheel bucks in my grip, fighting me, the ship yawing just shy of where I need her to go.
Boots slam the deck beside me. Elio returns, dripping from the rain, his clothing plastered to his chestlike a second skin. “Tavi will attend to the crew on the main deck. Need me to check the rudder?” he yells above the braying winds.
I hesitate, knuckles white on the spokes. Sending him down there in this—when the ocean’s churning like a beast—feels like tossing him straight into its jaws.
But we’re out of options.
“Fine,” I growl. “Be careful.”
He nods once, and then the change takes him. Scales ripple down his skin, catching every flash of lightning in gleaming green. His legs fuse, stretching into a long, sinuous tail that ends in fins sharp as blades, emerald bright even in the stormlight. Gills flare behind his webbed ears, and for a breath he looks half-man, half-something older, born of tide and storm.
