Elio vaults onto the railing without hesitation. One glance back and a grin on his lips—then he dives, cutting clean into the chaos below.
The sea swallows him whole while I keep my grip on the wheel, holding the ship steady. She fights me with everything she has. “Hold on, girl. We’re going to get out of this,”I mutter to her sails.
My gaze darts across the deck below, taking note of every crew member. Is everyone accounted for? I search for dark, chocolate hair. Umber eyes. World shattering smile. Yet, she’s nowhere to be seen.
Surely she hasn’t slipped from my grasp so easily.
No. There is no way she would venture out into this monster.
Where are you, little doe?
Ferocious seas belt the side ofThe Gilded Hart, and she groans in protest. The sound of the wood grinding against its restraints wounds my heart. When the ship aches, I ache with her. We’re not going to outrun this. We’ve no choice but to ride it out.
“We need to roll up the sails!” I roar to anyone who might hear. If we don’t get them up now, the storm will tear them apart. A few crew scatter to do as I bid, but the wind is relentless.
Movement to the side of the hull catches my eye. Elio catapults over the railing, shifting before my eyes. He rolls across the deck before scrambling to his feet and racing up the stairs.
For a heartbeat, I feel the tightness in my chest ease, like the storm unclenched its fist from around me. My grip on the wheel lightens, though I don’t let go. He’s quick in the water, always has been—but storms are bastards, and no amount of skill makes you safe from a hungry sea.
Elio reaches my side, chest heaving in and out. “Everything looks fine down there.”
The wind howls harder, tearing through the rigging until it screams like a beast in pain. Rain lashes sideways, sharp as needles against my skin. The waves are growing, monstrous now. Towering black walls that rise beneath us, lifting the ship sky-high before dropping hard enough to rattle my teeth.
“Make sure Otto is alright and then see if Tavi needs you,” I say to Elio hurriedly. He doesn’t question as he darts back down to the main deck.
Igrip the wheel with all my strength, trying to pull the ship around my eyes still searching for Odi. Then I find her weaving her way through the raucous crew who scramble on the deck like fish out of water as they secure sails, and wooden kegs rolling across the surface.
Her gaze locks with mine, and my chest loosens like a taut rope finally giving slack. She makes her way up the stairs to my side and in her grip is her bola.
It dangles from her hand, cords swaying, weighted balls glinting in the flashing light—crude, but clever. Not made to kill, not outright. No, it’s meant to tangle legs, drag a man to the ground, leave him helpless before the knife comes after. Typical pirate trick—why waste steel when you can snare your prey alive?
I watch the way her fingers curl around it, steady, practiced. She knows how to use it. Of course she does. And I wonder—how many men has she dropped with that simple tangle of rope and weight?
Reid appears across the deck, looking at Odi with such malicious hate that it lights a fire of rage deep in my core. Odi simply glances at him then looks away as she passes by—unfazed.
The way Reid’s mouth forms a snarl sends my blood into a manic state. I don’t like the way he’s looking at her, but I certainly don’t have time to deal with it right now.
Odi huffs, as she reaches my side, then her attention turns to the skies above. I can feel the tension in her body like it’s my own. Without a word, she moves to the railing in frontof us that looks over the main deck. “I don’t think this is a normal storm, Rune.”
“What do you mean?” I yell above the roar of the wind, though her words strengthen the suspicion that’s been growing in me as well.
She flings her gaze over her shoulder, locking on me with disbelief. “Does it look normal to you?”
It doesn’t. And it pulled us in faster than any storm I’d witnessed before. Some instinctual foreboding curls low in my gut, warning of the danger approaching. Not the gigantic clouds, or the unrelenting winds that tear through the ship as if it were on a personal mission to drown us all. Something else.
“So what are you suggesting?” I yell, unwilling to be the one that voices what I fear, in case the name summons our doom all on its own.
Odi lets go of the rail, slipping on her feet as she makes her way to me. She reaches my side, holding on to the post attached to the helm. “I think it’s—”
A deafening sound spears from the blanket of ink above us—high, sharp, splitting the night wide open. It tears straight into my skull, making me flinch against my will. Beside me, Odi clamps her hands over her ears, eyes darting skyward.
I follow her gaze.
They circle the storm in the near distance—shadows nearly as big as a man, wings cutting jagged through the lightning flashes. Storm Rocs. Giant seabirds, but twisted, wrong. Their feathers are slick and black against the storm, eyes gleaming white when the lightning catches them. Each cry rakesthe air raw, sharp enough to make my teeth ache. These birds, plus a storm, can only mean one thing.
Odi’s pupils are so wide the brown is gone, replaced by a dark circle of fear as she shoves the bola into the belt around her hips. Her attention shoots to the angry water. “It’s a kraken.”
My heart stutters and I let the chill of her words rattle down my spine. “It’s definitely a kraken.”
