I had no children, no heirs of my own.
I would be forgotten. But none of that mattered when Alastair needed me.
I smiled. “Hey, Alastair, you remember that time I fought Oberon on the battlefield?”
My old friend groaned and thunked his head against the wooden beam. “Oh no, not this again.”
“You see, this scar on my face came from Oberon. I was an archer that day, fighting on the border between the Kingdom of Shadow and the Kingdom of Light, and—”
“You weren’t in the thick of it yourself,” Alastair finished for me.
I grinned. “You’re supposed to let me tell the story.”
“Only if you promise this will be the last time you force it upon me.”
My heart throbbed. Swallowing, I nodded and tried to sound lighthearted. “I swear it.”
Val rushed into the king’s cabin, wielding an axe. The light from the gemstone lanterns glinted along the twin curving blades, cutting sharp shadows across the bucking floor. Val took one look at my face, pointed a finger, and frowned.
“No, you’re not giving up. Move out of my way,” she said with the kind of bravado only Val could possess at a time like this.
I slowly climbed to my feet. “Where did you find that?”
“I took it from the storeroom,” she snapped. “You’re not getting out of the damn way. We don’t have much time. The ship is sinking!”
Dumbstruck, I shifted to the side, then thought better of it. “Let me do it. You don’t know how to swing an—”
Val charged in and slammed the axe into the wood with enough force to crunch the beam. It shuddered inwardly, and splinters exploded toward us. I danced out of the way, watching in awe as Val swung the axe at the beam again. She kept going, over and over, until she’d made a big enough opening for Alastair.
He awkwardly twisted through the rubble, patted Val on the shoulder, and gave me a look. “You better keep your promise now that we’re not dying.”
I barked out a laugh, delirious with relief. “We’re not out of danger yet.”
Val handed me the axe. She smiled. “Glad I finally got to swing one of those things.”
We took off running down the dimly lit corridor toward the stairwell that would lead us to the deck. Water sloshed around our feet. It was up to my shins now, and up to Val’s thighs. Remnants of a ship’s life bobbed by: wine goblets, boots, buckets, and broken gemstone lanterns. We ducked our heads into each room we passed, just in case anyone else had gotten trapped. Thankfully, the rooms were all empty.
When we finally reached the stairwell, my entire body was soaked from the rising water. I motioned for the others to stop. “Listen. We don’t know what we’ll find up there. Blood might paint the deck. From pirates or gods or beasts, we don’t know. But something has attacked this ship. Hold yourself steady.”
Val swallowed and nodded. Alastair simply grinned. He’d been born for this.
We rushed up the stairs, leaving the watery depths behind. I flung open the door at the top. Chaos met my eyes.
Sailors screamed, running past. A tentacle, twice the size of me, searched for purchase. It squirmed its way across the deck with suckers the size of my head. I ground my teeth. So that was it, then. Another one of those beasts had found us.
I ran toward it with the axe raised. Val shouted at me, panic in her voice. But we had to stop this thing or—
The ship lurched sideways. My boots slid across the wet deck, and my body slammed into the edge. Pain exploded through my ribs.
I reached for purchase, but my fingers slipped.
The waves consumed me.
Twenty-Five
Tessa
Iraced after Kalen, but he was already charging toward Endir by the time I’d climbed on Silver’s back. Frowning at his vanishing form, I urged Silver onward. It wasn’t like him to rush ahead of me like this. My protective mate. My lover. He barely shot me a second glance before melting into the shadows.
