“Stating the obvious, eh?” He slid a paper across the desk. I quickly read it.
When the end comes, stars glisten, gleaming brightly. A lone blade curves through the waterfall of terror. An axe rises from the dust to deal the death. Crimson flashes teal. A song wails. Ancient forces answer. Doom drips freely upon me as ravens fly.
“Well, this one is certainly something.” I added it to the stack nearest me, shivering.
“Another one.” This time, Alastair read it out loud. He said, “The warriors of Talaven should answer the call for aid.” Alastair paused and glanced up. “You will incur no losses until you reach the shores of Aesir.”
I winced. “That didn’t exactly happen.”
“Two different people wrote these.” He fanned the crinkling pages. “Maybe more than two. The cadence of the words is different.”
“It’s more than that.” I pointed at the first paper and then the one he’d read. “These two are clear and to the point. The one about the doom dripping freely sounds more like a dream. Or a nightmare.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I think it means something’s fucked. The king said we’d be on the right path if Tessa spread her wings. Talaven rejoiced when she did. And yet, there are beasts in these waters, Talaven has lost people already, and the king is panicking. We’ve gone off course.”
Alastair sank into the chair. “That’s what I thought you’d say. So what do we do about it?”
“We get back to Kal, and we fight.” I sounded a lot more emphatic than I felt. Inside, I was wavering against the reality of this. We’d come all this way. If these visions were right, it had all been for nothing. “How do we win? I don’t know. Maybe we don’t.”
“Very optimistic of you,” he drawled, twirling his earring.
“See anything to indicate I’m wrong?”
“No.” He waved the pages. “But there are a lot of visions here. Maybe we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Maybe we should keep reading.”
I sighed. I didn’t think it was going to make a lick of difference, but we probably wouldn’t get another chance to look at these. “Might as well. Hand some over.”
The door cracked open, and Val poked her head inside. “I heard shouting. I don’t know if they’re coming this way, but it might be a good idea to get out of here.” Her gaze shifted to the parchment I held. “Find anything?”
With the door open, I could now hear the shouting. They did seem closer than was comfortable. I carefully placed the pages back on the desk where I thought we’d found them. “Come on. We should head to the mess hall and—”
The floor bucked. The sudden movement tossed me sideways. I skidded across the wooden floor toward Val. Alastair jumped to his feet to follow. A steel beam crashed down from the ceiling, landing between us. Chunks of wood and sheets of paper sprayed the air.
“Niamh!” Val shouted and grabbed my arm, tugging me away from the debris. I shook her loose and ran toward the beam. My heart shot up to my throat.
“Alastair!” I tried to shout his name, but it came out a croak. Fear had stolen my voice away. Still, I tried, desperate to reach him. “Alastair, can you hear me? Alastair!”
The ship groaned. A shudder went through the floor. Val stumbled into me. I grabbed her around the waist and held her close.
“What’s happening?” she whispered.
“Something’s hit the ship.”
Together, we edged closer to the beam. Val held me steady as I peered beneath the wood. I hadn’t seen or heard Alastair since the thing had fallen. He could be stuck beneath it, unconscious. I was strong, but I didn’t think I’d be able to move it if he was. Eyes burning with unshed tears, I braced myself to call upon every ounce of my strength.
His face popped in front of me, grinning. “You sound worried about me. Careful. I might start to think you don’t find me as annoying as you say you do.”
“Fucking fuck, Alastair.” I snarled at him, and he snarled right back. But then he tried to move the beam so he could reach us, and my irritation died. It didn’t budge.
“You’re stuck,” I said.
“Technically…the beam is stuck. I just happen to be on the wrong side of it.”
“Can’t you lift it?” Val asked.
Alastair shrugged and wrapped his beefy arms around the beam. A moment later, he was sweating and groaning and making all sorts of noises that should be reserved for the bedroom. Breathing heavily, he stopped and sagged against the wood.
