Gris worried her lower lip, her hand tightening around her grip. “I know how you feel about her.”
Esaias snapped his attention to Theo, but he ignored the curious raise of his brow. He would tell Esaias later. If they survived.
In a split second, Gris released her arrow, but a gunshot went off. Theo dropped to the deck, his body screaming and his ears ringing. He grasped his arm and blood pooled through his fingers.
Esaias turned and stabbed his sword through the soldier’s throat, but Gris’s arrow already protruded through the man’s chest. Another one came charging down the steps, catching Esaias off guard as he tackled him. They rolled in a tangle of limbs through the sheets of rain.
Theo pivoted to his stomach, biting his lip against the stinging in his arm. He stood against every fiber of his being telling him to stay down. Gris cried out. A soldier pinned her, straddling her and sending fists flying into her jaw.
Theo was torn as they both locked in their battles. Esaias grunted as he took a cut across the face, and Gris screamed with another punch. No more. The muscles of his forearm flexed, and his neck twitched. Anger spilled from his marrow, seeping into his blood. He was done with hisfriends and the people he loved being ripped from his life. The monster flexed through his fingers, wrapping tightly around his sword.
He raised his blade, but a third soldier jumped from where he’d hidden at the helm. He smiled, a silver tooth glinting in the lightning’s flash. In a matter of moments, Theo was upon the man. He slashed and swiped, parried and blocked.
The deck was slick, but the soldier, with his feet bare, jumped and moved with ease. Theo rolled to block his next strike, grabbing a fallen sword and raising both against him. The soldier was quick, guarding both Theo’s attacks with his single weapon. But Theo was bigger, stronger. He hacked at the soldier’s defenses, beating him down until his sword slipped from his grip. Without hesitation, Theo cut off the soldier’s head, and it rolled across the deck. He stepped over the man’s lifeless body, looking for his next fight.
Aclinkpierced the air, an unnatural sound, causing Theo to cringe. The soldier pinning Gris held a bent dagger against her midsection. Theo furrowed his brow, training his focus through the rain. He’d seen it true. Whatever armor she wore, it’d bent his dagger.
Gris grabbed his thighs and threw him back. She rolled onto her hands, pushing off as she stood, waiting for him. Her fist sailed into her attacks—a jab, a left hook, a kick, but her opponent was swift. He hurled his own attack, landing one to Gris’s jaw. She grunted, but it didn’t drop her to the deck. No, she spat a line of blood and reached for her sword, her hand wrapping around the leather-bound hilt. With a single thrust, she pierced his heart.
The scent of blood filled the air around them, but so did Esaias’s scream. Gris charged, running straight for Theo. He crouched, and she used a barrel to hurtle over his kneeling form. She came down, driving her sword through the soldier’s back.
Esaias laid sprawled and panting while Gris leaned over her knees. For a moment, all was still besides their rapid breaths.
“Gris, do you know who told my father of Amaris’s attempted escape?”
Theo needed to know the truth. If it hadn’t been Alan, it left only a few choices.
“Where is this coming from?” she snapped.
“You were one of the few on sentry duty that night.”
“No, I wasn’t, but we don’t have time for this. We have to find them.”
Another soldier descended the steps, two blades trained on them. Theo twirled his sword, and Gris’s head snapped up as she readied herself. But Esaias groaned on the deck, coughing and rolling to his side.
“Help him,” Gris said to Theo before charging toward the soldier.
Rain pelted Theo’s face, like small daggers against his skin. He kneeled over Esaias. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and the cut was longer than he initially thought. It trailed from his temple, down his cheek, and met the split in his lip.
“That fucking hurt,” Esaias coughed, blood spilling from his lips.
A breath escaped Theo as he watched the crimson liquid slide down his cousin’s chin.
“Don’t worry. It’s only from my face.”
Theo had never felt such sudden relief. He grabbed Esaias’s hand and pulled him to his feet. “We need to get you off the ship.”
“If you can fight, then so can I,” Esaias insisted, but the fresh laceration dripped blood into his eyes and obscured his only good line of sight.
“You can barely see.”
“I’ve had worse odds,” he reminded Theo.
Esaias tipped his head back, angling his face upward to clear his eyes. His hands shook as he flung the blood spilling down his cheeks.
The sharp strike of a blade pulled their attention. Gris struck down her opponent, but she was already caught in her next duel. She charged across the helm to meet the next Deavopan soldier. “Go find them!” she shouted.
They didn’t wait for her to say more. Esaias descended the ladder into the ship with Theo following behind him. Theo relinquished the hold onthe monster within, allowing it to slither back from where it came and give him a moment of reprieve.
