“No, you’re not allowed to give up,” I snapped. “Grab the beam again. We can move it together.”
He looked at me through the crack, and I could tell by his expression he’d accepted defeat. But without argument, he wound his arms around the wood and waited for me to do the same. Heart pounding, I nodded.
“Ready? One, two, three, heave!” I shouted.
I pulled with all my might, straining to lift the beam. The damn thing didn’t so much as creak from our efforts.
I let go and stepped back, frowning. “Let’s try again.”
“It’s not happening, Niamh.” Alastair shook his head. “It’s too heavy, even for us.”
“I’ll go find some more strong people,” Val said, then hurried out the door.
The ship shuddered.
That was when I noticed my feet were wet.
I looked down. Salt water coated the entire floor like a thin layer of paint.
“We’re sinking,” I said.
“Stating the obvious again, my old friend,” Alastair said with a wink.
Sighing, I turned and leaned against the beam, settling my head on the wood. I felt Alastair do the same on the other side. A few strands of his glossy dark hair sprang through the crack and tickled my neck. It was so familiar, so him.
I exhaled heavily. “What are we going to do?”
“You and Val are going to escape to the deck and hope for the best. People have survived shipwrecks before.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I said with a scowl.
“You’ve got to. For Val. I doubt that girl has ever swum in a choppy sea before. She’s got no hope of reaching the shore without your help.”
“The humans have some smaller boats on board. They’ll put her in one of those, and she’ll be fine.”
“I love you, too, Niamh,” he murmured.
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Don’t you get mushy on me now. If I’m going to face the end with you, you better damn well do it like you face everything else. Start grinning and cracking jokes and being so bloody annoying I could punch you in the face.”
He chuckled, then fell silent. A moment later, he asked, “What if I remind you that you’re Kalen’s heir? Will that get you to leave?”
“I don’t think heirs matter anymore.” A few tears sliced my cheeks. “The ship will sink. The gods will win. No one will be alive to rule the Kingdom of Shadow because Aesir will be no more. The doom is here.”
Alastair’s booming laughter drowned out the ship’s creaks and pops. “You sound like the parchment that had the nightmare written on it.”
I pressed my lips together, then said, “I wonder if that’s the prophecy King Duncan Hinde has been so desperately trying to stop from happening.”
“Ah.” He sighed. “Well, it’s a shame he failed. This is a good life.”
“A good life,” I repeated.
I threaded my hand through the crack. Alastair wrapped his fingers around mine in a soft but steady grip. We fell silent as we listened to our world falling apart around us. The shouts had grown louder now. Some of them were screams. Water crept higher, seeping into my trousers. The ship shuddered and popped. Every now and again, it lurched to the side before rocking back the other way.
For so long, I’d believed I was meant to die in the glory of battle. I would go down the way I lived, furious and determined and loyal to my kingdom. I would protect my people with my life. I would rage against any enemy who threatened us harm. My final breaths would be worth something.
They wouldmeansomething.
I never would have expected that dying in the belly of a ship would mean a moons-damned thing. But it did. It meant staying with my friend, the man who had become like a brother to me. No bard would ever sing a tune about my bravery. I wouldn’t be commemorated as a statue, forever memorialized with an arrow in my hand.
