Page 86 of Death’s Kiss (The Order of the Tide Raiders #1)
“ O h shit,” Kleio echoes my earlier sentiment from behind.
I quickly scan the debris to find a silver flag marking it as belonging to the Cardinal West Order.
A teeny, tiny bit of tension in my chest eases in response. The source behind those echoing screams is made apparent a moment later as we float closer and I count seven western crew members stuck between half of their speeder’s hull and a kórallian ledge.
My eyes narrow in confusion. They all appear to be alive and able to breathe, if not a bit uncomfortable.
The reason for their screams must be—I scan them all quickly again—their missing captain.
Glancing over at the debris and rushing water falling from their whirlpool opening above, I quickly deduce the cause for such panicked wails and terrified sobs.
Their captain went down with the ship.
Brisa is trapped beneath the wreckage .
I grit my teeth and begin ripping off my captain's cape once more, then quickly removing my helmsman visor and gloves. I’m fiddling with the belt around my waist when Kleio’s hand catches my arm and squeezes tight.
“Merena—what are you doing ?” Her warm brown eyes are filled with alarm.
“Brisa is trapped under the debris—I’m going in to get her,” I explain while moving to unburden myself from as much weight as possible.
“Whoa wait no— Cap , you can’t—you could get sucked under the riptide. The water from above will drag you right under the current,” Herse argues, stepping up towards Kleio and me.
“I’m a strong swimmer. I can beat the current. I’ll be fine,” I reply in dismissal before shaking off Kleio’s hold in order to continue on in my hasty preparation.
"Captain, but—the throttle isn’t fixed yet.” Prisca’s voice comes out panicked. “We won’t be able to come back for you until it’s been repaired. The current will keep pushing us past here—you’ll be stuck until we can find you again!” she shrieks.
As the waters pull us closer, I shake my head and start mentally mapping out my best strategy to get the western captain out as fast as possible.
“There are tunnel passages all over this place. I’ll find one and follow that light towards the heart.
You guys float your way there, and we’ll meet right back up. No problem.”
I step back up towards the bow, the haunting chill of Brisa’s crew’s horrified wails echoing throughout the expanse. And I then jump in complete surprise at the feeling of Kleio’s hand once again pulling me backwards. I turn slightly to look down at her in confusion.
"Merena, you can’t! I won’t let you risk yourself—think of The Vault. We’re so close,” she pleads.
Turning back around fully, I find my crew's faces are each swimming with so much love, and worry, and fear that I just might fucking drown in it.
Suppressing those overwhelming feelings, I meet each of their beautifully tythed faces before stating very quickly, “You all are clever and brave and—” I give a pointed look at Kleio, still grabbing tightly onto my arm, "persistent as all hell . I trust you implicitly. I know now that you will keep each other safe. You have your affinities. You will do whatever needs to be done. I will meet you back at the heart and —”
I try for a little brevity to break their rapidly increasing panic and clear the worry from their now alarmingly tearful eyes. “ If I happen to run a little bit late, just assume I’m busy winning The Vault or I’m making out with Captain Agni or whatever else helps you keep calm. Okay?”
I find only the most grievously somber of faces meet my aim for humor. But then six very brave raiders finally nod back at me in grim understanding.
Kleio, however, true to form, still does not relent. She squeezes my hand so tightly, I think it might break. Tears of genuine fear for my life fill her eyes and roll down her heart-shaped face as she alone shakes her head in disagreement.
“N— no you can’t leave us again—we just got you back.
We’re supposed to be together now until The Vault.
That was the deal.” Her voice grows higher in pitch with each word.
“You can't— remember the code? Your duty is to your crew —you have to stay here with us,” she begs me, completely terrified that not only one captain will be going down with that ship tonight.
We are quite rapidly reaching the exact point I need to dive from in order to reach Brisa.
I’m running out of time.
“ LOOK AT THEM, KLEIO! ” I bellow in order to snap my second out of her spiraling panic.
“Look at them—being forced to watch their captain die —right in front of their godsdamned eyes ! My duty as a captain right now is to Brisa’s crew.”
My harshly shouted words have the intended effect. Kleio’s eyes at last break away from me to scan the seven western raiders now sobbing in distress. She swallows down her well of worries and at last meets me with a very brave face.
“Okay.” Kleio nods, relenting at long last. “You’re right. I just —I love you so much, Merena, I can’t bear the thought of you ever leaving us permanently.” Her voice breaks, and more tears slip past her eyes to run down her cheeks.
I smile an extremely rare, soft smile before pressing my forehead down against her own. “You are like the closest thing I have to a heart, Kleio. I’ll be back for you, don’t worry,” I promise her.
Then, before anyone else can lose their shit on me tonight, I straighten and turn in order to begin striding down the bow of our moonlighter before promptly diving right off the front.
I plunge down into deceivingly cool waters in a perfect streamline.
The lagoon’s frigid temperature is exactly what I need to sharpen my focus and spark up something Brek inside that has nothing to do with my affinity.
The debris is everywhere .
Brisa and her crew must have tried to fight the whirlpool with everything they had. I wrestle through layers upon layers of broken bits and pieces of what was once quite a beautiful speeder.
The current isn’t as bad as I secretly feared it would be.
Which is good as I’m being forced to slip inside the broken shards of the moonlighter in order to get to the captain lodged beneath.
A moment later, I finally spot the shine of her silver hair cuffs, like a beacon in the darkened depths.
If I wasn’t currently holding my breath, I’d sigh out in relief.
I use all my internal strength to make it inside the crevice she’s been wedged between to find that Brisa is impossibly still struggling to survive.
Brek as fucking hell.
But the western captain’s movements are faint .
Her body is just barely resisting death's firm pull, yet those steel-colored eyes go wide when spotting me. Something wary that I don’t quite understand flashes in her expression as I make my way near.
I don’t have long before my own oxygen supply is out, so I quickly assess how exactly she’s stuck and find that her captain’s cape is making it impossible to dislodge from beneath the hull.
Pulling out one of the only few blades I dared to take in an effort not to weigh me down, I deftly cut off her captain’s cape before wrenching her free.
Unfortunately for me, this is the exact same instant that Brisa loses her fighting spirit.
She immediately becomes a very unhelpful weight that I now get to drag up to the surface.
The gods truly love nothing more than to play with me in particular.
Clenching my back molars tightly in aggravation, I once again find that strength inside. The next few moments are filled with me hauling Brisa’s body back through the debris with every ounce of water combat training I have.
My muscles and lungs strain in resistance, but somehow they power through.
I gasp out for breath the second we hit the surface to the horrified screams of Brisa’s crew.
Their shrieking has turned hysterical now that they’re forced to watch me swim her very limp body over to the nearest flat surface.
Finding that inner strength one more time I tread water and groan out in real pain while pushing a hundred and fifty pounds of dead fucking weight up and onto the kórallian ledge.
When Brisa’s body at last makes it onto the side and her weight is removed from me, I gasp out again in relief.
But time is ticking. I can feel the countdown inside the beat of my own heart.
My hands hit the ledge, and I hoist myself out the waters to kneel before the western captain’s sprawled form.
“Hey— hey —come on now!” I snap, shaking Brisa by the shoulders.
I try slapping her a few times in order to gauge any sort of reaction, but she remains unmoving.
There is only one more avenue to go.
It’s like I can hear the gods laughing right now .
“I cannot believe that this is fucking-happening - again! ” I seethe angrily through my teeth before lowering myself down to Brisa’s lips and promptly begin performing mouth-to-mouth.
Four kisses and two rounds of chest compressions later, Brisa’s soul returns to her body. It’s arrival is made well known by her precipitously vomiting saltwater directly into my mouth.
“Ugh, worst one by far, ” I mutter in disgust, wiping my face with the sleeve of my uniform after having just spit out the western captain’s proof of life onto the kórallian ledge.
Brisa’s gasping form darts upwards, and she looks at me with pure fear in her eyes. The echo of her crew's shrill screaming fills the lagoon’s tunnel passageway, ringing like a holy bell.
“Dead or alive?” She rasps out, desperately searching my face for something, but I haven’t the faintest clue what.
My brows raise high at her expression of terror.
“Um, alive ?” I answer with a frown, puzzlement narrowing my eyes in response to her tone of voice and choice of words. Brisa begins swallowing down air in great, greedy gulps.