His gaze shifts, tracing my collarbone, where the light pink scales cover most of my skin.
“No,” my voice is no more than a whisper. The pressure behind my ribs pulses deeply and sends a wave of something old and familiar through every nerve in my body.
“Scales hold a lot of magic, enough to buy us more time.” He says serenely, as though it is the most rational thing in the world.As though he is compelled by the thought of what magic my scales could produce, and that thought only.
Rat’s hand slides over the leather strap that holds his knife and draws it with one swift movement. The sharp blade now points decidedly at me. I instinctively bare my teeth and hiss at him. Shit.
“Look at you,” he sneers, his empty eyes boring into mine. “Just look at what you really are. A monster that cannot be controlled. You will always be a threat to this crew.”
I press myself against the railing, the wood now cutting into my flesh. Something shifts. I lose myself in a state of unconsciousness, the world around me moving in a blur. His fingers curl around my wrists behind my back and press them together violently. He is almost pressed fully against me now. Terror shoots through me as he lifts the knife in anticipation of a blow. Paralyzed with fear, I cannot defend myself. Cannot fight.
But she can.
And I won’t let him take what’s left of me. Not this easily.
I draw a breath and reach out to the vibrating force within me. I do not loosen a single thread of it. I pull at them all at the same time, desperate. Determined. The sound starts as a hum, but a mere hum will not be enough. A note of an ancient song slips free and curls around my tongue before it echoes, multiplying around us. The voice is so soft, so enchanting. It doesn’t fully feel like mine.
His focus shifts, as if something has brushed against his mind. Finally, it slips inside his ear and takes root. Eyes widening, the grip around my wrists loosens. The knife he was holding slips out of his hand and clatters down on the boards beneath us.
Pressure keeps building behind my ribs until I cannot contain it anymore. It bursts free and pumps my body full of what feels like thick, hot power, until I can feel it in every inch of me. It rushes through me like the blood in my veins.
I let it consume me.
His body goes slack as his muscles melt with my compulsion. Swaying, he grabs the railing behind me and leans forward. The unmistakable desire to drown him rises in me, taking hold.
A small part of me screams out, begging me to see that this is wrong, that I am not a killer. But that part of me grows distant, its screaming pleas growing muffled as every second passes, until I can no longer reach it. As the sound of my voice deepens and finds its shape, my vision begins to distort. It pours out of my mouth with no resistance, pulling more from me than I mean to give.
Rat swings one leg over the railing in one smooth, obedient movement. The other one follows. The scene feels flattened, as if someone has pressed it beneath glass. His eyes are glassy, unfocused, as if the person who once lived behind them has already stepped away.
His body tips forward. I don’t move to stop it.
Rat falls over the side and disappears without a sound. No struggle. No resistance. The splash follows a moment later as his body is swallowed by the dark waters below.
Only then does something inside me tear loose, the song stuttering and breaking apart as the world rushes back in all at once. The feeling vanishes so abruptly that my body jerks forward, lungs collapsing in on themselves as if I’ve been struck in the chest. Air tears back into me in a sharp, broken gasp that burns all the way up. My knees give out.
The sudden silence crashes in, my ears ringing. My chest spasms, breath coming too fast, too shallow, each inhale dry and rough. I try to swallow and can’t. With slippery hands and knees on cold wood, I crawl toward the railing and pull myself up to lean over. I search the surface for movement. All I find is the familiar roll of the sea, split by the wake of the Noctis.
Rat is gone.
The thought lands hard and hits me in the gut. Dizzying nausea washes over me, threatening vomit. My throat locks, tight and aching, as if the song still sits within it, desperate to be unleashed again. What follows is a bitter taste on my tongue. Wood and salt and remorse.
Someone is shouting my name. I recognize it only because the sound keeps repeating itself. Hands grab at the railing beside me and footsteps thunder across the deck.
This wasn’t meant to happen.
This wasn’t—
A sick heat floods my chest, rising fast, stealing more air from my lungs. I bend forward with a strangled sound, gagging, but nothing comes up. Power. Raw and undeniable power. It rises within me and floods my system until it settles into me with a terrible unease.
“No,” I whisper. The world around me barely exists. “No, no, no.”
He’s dead.
The sea kept his soul in sacrifice and gave me power in return. The thought makes my stomach twist. I shouldn’t have let it come this far. I could’ve screamed for help, could’ve used my canines. Anything. Anything would be better than this. I press my forehead against the rails, breathing hard and trying to ground myself, to anchor to anything that isn’t this feeling. Oh, by the seas, I have made a mistake. One I cannot take back. Cannot come back from.
The siren inside me, however, is completely, utterly satisfied.
“Everyone back to your bloody cabins!” The roar in Sable’s voice cuts through me like a blunt blade. The crew around me shuffles and murmurs, some arguing loudly. What they are talking about, I do not hear. But I don’t need to in order to know. He is dead. Heavy footsteps draw near before a steady hand meets my shoulder.
