If the feel of the kraken ick oozing down my arms doesn’t put me in the ground, the stench will. It smells of rotting meat mixed with storm roc shit and burnt hair. It's all I can do not to heave up the contents of my stomach onto the deck.
Purple, oily gel amalgamates with the crimson blood seeping from the gouge on my arm. The sharp pain has long passed, leaving me with a dull aching throb.
I’ve lost count of how many birds I’ve cut down. Each time one drops from the sky, another claws its way out of the murk to take its place. My mind is torn between a millionplaces at once. Trying to keep an eye on Elio, Tavi, Otto, the crew, and now Odi. Plus keep the gigantic birds from tearing into my flesh.
How am I supposed to keep this ship from sinking when all I can think about is Odi not going overboard, and how see through her wet blouse has become? The moment I pulled the ropes taut around her waist I knew she wouldn’t stay put. It wasn’t a shock when she appeared beside me, blade ready and a vicious grin on her face, but I had to try.
Of course, now she’s glaring at me. I can’t say I don’t deserve it. Both our chests heave as we drag air into our lungs. “Was roping me really your best plan?”
I fight my smile as lighting sheets across the sky, illuminating the lethal promise in her eyes. “I’ve had worse.”
She swipes at a shadow that flies too close, fast as a dartfish. “You almost got me and Otto both killed.”
I drop my gaze down, away from hers. I’d wanted to protect her. I didn’t think it would go like this. Be this bad. I lunge, stabbing at a roc that gets too close, thankful they’re growing more cautious. “If you go over, you’re dead. And you want me to watch it happen?” I track the slow bob of her neck as she swallows, wisps of hair plastered to her face. Rain pelts into my chest, hard and fast. Water drips off my nose and chin, and swiping at it with the wet sleeve over my uninjured forearm does nothing to help. “At least half-shift,” I say, half-plea, half-shout over the rage of the storm around us. “You’ll see better. Be faster—”
“You’ve seen what happens when I shift, Rune!” she callsover the gale. “I can’t.”
She can. And if she did she’d see a hundred times better than she can right now. But she won’t. I see it in her eyes, the fear that she’ll lose control. There’s no time for convincing. I drop it, angling myself towards where a group strikes at another thin-tipped tentacle that creeps over the railing’s edge on the far side. Maybe she’s right to be cautious. We don’t know what her half-shift looks like. The slick deck won’t be kind if she ends up with hooves.
The thought flicks my attention low enough I notice her bootless foot. I feel my brow pinch, confusion tripping my racing thoughts. When I look back up, she’s smirking at me.
Before I can ask where her boot went, Elio emerges to my right, a shortsword in hand. He’s half-shifted, talons flexed and incisors sharpened, with a mix of blood and kraken gore strewn across his chest and stomach. He sees me running my eyes over him and he shakes his head quickly. “I’m fine, its mainly from the rocs.”
Web-like veins of lightning scatter across the heavens, followed by a thunderous boom that rattles me to the core. The rain is coming in sideways. Between that, the bird entrails scattered over the ship, and the kraken limbs leaking onto the deck, I’m surprised any of us can find our footing.
The birds dive in earnest now, screeching, tearing, snapping with hooked beaks. There isn’t a minute to spare as I dart across the slippery wood. My blood curdles when a screech pierces the sky, and a roc drops down, clawing at my shoulder. I rip it off and hurl it into the mast, its body snapping with a wet crack.
My mind isn’t on the birds though. It’s onThe Gilded Hart. I can’t let her fall. She’s all we’ve got between us and the black maw of the sea.
“Back me up!” I roar over my shoulder. Elio darts to my right, and not many would, but I notice the way he favours one leg over the other. He’s still injured but pushes through the pain either way.
He is to my left. Steel sword slashing while Odi wields her bola or my dagger when the rocs get too close. I don’t look back, I trust them to guard my spine. My focus is forwards where a tentacle—murky pink, edged with iridescent green—writhes across the deck like thick ropes of muscle.
I charge, sea brine spraying all around me, and drive my halberd in deep. The blade bites into a sucker, cleaving it clean. Purple blood sprays across my face, warm against the icy rain. The tentacle recoils with a shudder, the kraken bellowing in pain, but it doesn’t retreat.
Lightning splits the sky, illuminating the chaos. Asher, one of the night crew—cries out, tangled in wings and ropes, bleeding out where he falls.
My heart hammers in my chest as he goes down. I want to scream into the void. Empty my lungs of the anguish I feel.
There’s no time.
From the corner of my eye, I see Tavi swinging on ropes from mast to mast like she’s on vines in a jungle. Her blades slash through feathers, dropping rocs from the sky. She’s okay. She’s alive. Now I need to findOtto and Soraya.
I spot them both, back to back as they fire off bolts of slimeshot. Some find their mark, others miss but ward off the birds for a moment. Both alive. Good.
That’s when I notice the pulse of bioluminescence through the waters. I should have seen it sooner. Each time the lightning strikes the kraken, the ocean around it becomes electrified. It's like a conduit from sky to sea.
As I whip around, I watch a roc pinMauriceto the deck. I race for him, Elio and Odi on my heels. The beak tears into his shoulder and he lets out a bloodcurling scream. I don’t hesitate. I drive my bone blade down through its skull. There’s a crack, and the shriek from the bird cuts short, body twitching before it slumps lifeless beside the crewman.
The male gasps for breath, clutching at the wooden boards beneath him. “Thank you.”
I yank him up by the collar and shove him towards the rigging. “Move!”
A loud groan brings my attention back to the sea. The kraken grows out of the water like an obelisk of stone. A tentacle reaching for the heavens before it bears down to wrap around a crewman on the deck.
“NO!” I roar, dashing for him. But it’s too late, the kraken squeezes, and his eyes bulge from his head before I hear the sickening sound of his spine pop.
My boots skid to a halt as the kraken flings the body through the storm to the waiting female kraken behind him. Odi curses, Elio echoes the sentiment. It’s too much. All of it. We're going to die.
