For a moment, the ocean calmed. Soothed, as if listening. The only audible sounds were the clinking of chains, oars thrusting through the surf, and the ragged, wet breaths of the few living captives still huddled in the dark.
And then Kore’s world exploded.
CHAPTER 2
Hanging from her wrists, Kore screamed. Legs flailing, she thrashed wildly. Kicking at nothing…
… until her feet struck at something cold. Wet.
Water.
What had once been the floor was now the ceiling of her dark, tormented little world.
The ship had capsized.
The only screams she could hear were those of the slaves still breathing in the hull. Those few living souls also dangling from the base of the mast where they’d been tethered. Crying with helpless panic as the air grew ever more damp.
The ocean was gushing into the void beneath them. The ship was taking on water faster than she’d thought possible. Already, what had only teased at the tips of her toes had seeped well past her waist. Leaving her simple robe wet as it clung to her chilled flesh.
The Aegean was a temperate sea. Warm, when the sun might kiss away the chill.
But the water suckling at her nipples was frigid as it swallowed her body and took the bulk of her weight off her wrists. A terrifying relief that brought no comfort.
“I—I call to you, b-bright Apollo,” one of the priestesses stammered. Her voice a clear bell in the dark. “S-Son of Zeus. Gentle-natured—” She shrieked, the sound a ragged assault on Kore’s ears in tight quarters, only growing tighter.
It was a prayer she knew well. One for inspiration and grace. Meaningless here, where the son of Zeus could not see them and held no power.
Not after Kore had called on the mercy of another.
Even the air was heavy now. Tight and oppressive as the Aegean pressed in from all sides, forcing a great volume of air through tiny cracks in the ship’s hull.
Kore closed eyes that saw nothing but dark shadows. Pulling rapid, terrified breaths through chapped lips. Quick as she could. Savoring every last one, because?—
Crack!
A violent shudder shook Kore’s entire world.
It rippled through her chains, rattled her bones, and made the water splash up over her head for just a moment. Sloshing and gurgling as if ravenous for another sacrifice—just one more—before she surfaced. Gasping foamy seawater into her lungs.
The mast.
It had struck the ocean floor with enough force to shatter wood like brittle clay. She saw the damage in a flash of distant, dim lightning. Splinters of wood longer than her torso embedded in the walls of the hull—and a hole torn clean through three decks.
“Save us!” the priestess beside her screeched. “Great Apollo?—”
“Swim down!” Kore snarled, kicking against the weight of her chains as the water gushed into their prison with ever-greater speed. “With me! There’s a hole—a chance! Our only hope of escape!”
She reached, legs burning with the effort to keep her head above the surface. Trying to touch the other priestess. The only one she might save, if there was any hope at all.
But she was gone.
Taken by the waves without a whisper of protest or further complaint.
Chin tilted back, legs tangled in fabric, Kore took three final breaths. One after the other. Enjoying the taste of the putrid air, for it might be the last she ever sipped.
And then she sank.
Hands following her chain back to the mast, she guided the links over smooth wood. Blind in the dark. Ignoring the many other chains and the bodies attached to them, Kore let the weight drag her down. Saving her air to preserve what little strength remained in her muscles, she sank as if she were just another body sacrificed to the sea.
