The cabin’s so close. If I sprint down the deck, I can reach it in three seconds flat. I just need to calculate the trajectory so I don’t miss the opening and topple off the ship.
Don’t even think about it.
But I am thinking about it. How could I not? It’s within reach.
“Get off me, Antoni!” Sybille snarls. “There’s a fucking tidal wave coming. I’m not leaving without Fallon. Fallon!”
I peer over the edge of the ship at where she splashes in the ocean, Antoni at her heels. “I’m coming, Syb. I’ll be right behind you. Go!”
“Not without you!”
I exchange a look with Antoni.
He acquiesces, then grabs her around the waist and slings her over his shoulder, carrying her kicking and screaming away. “Get Fallon off the ship, Morrgot!”
I think I hear Lore snarl something, but I could be misattributing the animalistic sound, for a whole slew of them are still pouring from Sybille’s mouth.
The boat groans and tips as the water around it is sucked out to sea.
Fallon . . . Get off the fucking boat! NOW!
I eye the captain’s quarters, eye the approaching tidal wave, eye Lore’s crows. Before my nerves can desert me, I crawl to the middle of the deck.
That’s it. I’m flying you off.
Flying me—
His two crows plunge for me, iron talons open as though to snatch my arms.
I scramble to my feet. “No, I’ll run. I’ll run.”
It’s not that I think he’ll mistakenly spear my skin, but I cannot risk the cage vanishing at sea. Even if Lore can sense his birds, the ocean floor drops off to depths that no Fae, not even pure-bloods, can swim down to on a single lungful.
The second he pulls up because, for all his talk of not trusting me, he does trust me, I sprint.
Fallon!Lorcan’s cry pierces my eardrums.NO!
I tuck my knees against my chest and slide through what once must’ve held a door but has long since become a gaping opening. The cabin is half-submerged, so my fall is short but wet. My feet hit first. I think it may be the floor, but when I try to stand, one of my boots slip right through what I’ve landed on.
Fallon!Lorcan’s birds hurtle in after me. One of them reaches out and snatches my flailing arm, its cold talons encircling my bicep. A hiss escapes its beak, and it springs its talons wide.
I must’ve landed on the cage. Eyes wide, I crouch and stare around, find I’m standing on a black cage inside which an iron bird swings indolently from a chain fitted with a giant black hook.
Anger and horror for what Marco did to Lore pump my veins full of adrenaline. I close my fingers around the cage and yank on my foot to free my boot, then pop my head out of the water, take a deep breath, and dive under.
I swim around the cage until I locate the door. Bracing my feet on either side of it, I grab onto the handle and pull, but it’s locked. I glance around the cabin for a key, but if one existed, it’s been washed out to sea with everything else in the cabin.
“Merda!” I growl, letting precious air bubbles snake out. I break the surface, take in another lungful of air, and dive again. If my foot slipped through the bars, then my arms will fit.
Lorcan is screeching inside my mind to get out. Even underwater, I can hear his voice.
How long until the wave hits?My voice is surprisingly calm.
Two minutes, maybe three, but I want you out in one. Let go of the obsidian so I can carry you.
But I do the exact opposite than let go. I press both my arms, all the way to my shoulders, through the thick black bars. I seize the hook with one hand and the iron crow with the other, and I pull.
And pull.
