Page 3

Diana

T he sound was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. A groan of metal and wood as it did its best not to implode under the sheer power of the sea's fury. I took one last look at the black wave about to swallow us whole and then flung my arms and legs around a pipe that traveled the perimeter of the ship. Then, I closed my eyes and whispered a prayer.

For my shipmates. For my people. For the Territories, and their endurance.

"I've got you. Just hold on!"

The voice barely registered over the howl of the winds and the roar of the wave about to consume us, but I didn't have to hear much to know who it belonged to. I felt his presence an instant before he spoke.

Raven.

Strong arms closed around me in a viselike grip, pinning me even tighter to the pipe. And then all hell broke loose as a wall of water slammed over us. My face smashed against the metal pipe hard enough to rattle my teeth. There was no time to even think about it as brine water blasted up my nose and filled my mouth even as the monster wave tore at my limbs with greedy hands, desperate to pull me free and into its gaping maw.

Raven's grip tightened and his legs followed suit, closing over mine. So safe, so strong, making me feel like just maybe we had a chance. If only I could breathe...Already, my lungs burned, like I'd inhaled hot coals instead of cold salt water.

Fuck you, Lilis.

Almost as if the bitch heard me, the violent wave doubled down, nearly tearing my arms from their sockets.

And then almost as quickly as it had come, it was gone. My head broke above water as the wave ebbed, pulled back, and sluiced off the deck in a wash of foam.

Instantly, I started hacking, lukewarm water shooting out of my nostrils and mouth in a rush.

"You're bleeding." I dimly heard Raven's voice over the sound of my coughing. "Where is the blood coming from?"

I wriggled hard to loosen his death grip on me and finally managed to suck in an excruciating breath. "My lip, I think. It's fine. I'm good."

I could almost feel the tension in his body release as he slowly pulled away.

"Mav, though..." I swiped my forearm over my bloodied mouth and turned to search the broken crow's nest, only to find it completely gone. "Oh, gods, no!"

I struggled to stand, tearing at the grappling hook around my waist, but Raven's hands were closing over mine.

"Hold tight!" he shouted, not two seconds before we connected hard with something even harder.

The whole ship shuddered as my feet flew out from under me and I crashed into Raven's unmoving body like a sack of stones.

"What the fuck!" I snarled, frantically searching the skies for another wave and finding none.

"We hit something. The Vanator's ship maybe..."

Myrr, Nicholas and Kevin were on the ship.

Raven cupped my chin as he tried to examine my face, but I tore away from him and unknotted my grappling hook. "We need to split up. I'm going to search for Mav, you see what we hit. Stay on your guard in case one of those zealot fuckers tries a sneak attack."

I didn't have high hopes of finding Maverick. How could he have possibly survived barely hanging onto the highest point of the ship?

It would be a miracle.

Then again, he'd survived a scorned dragon, so just maybe?—

"Di?"

I blinked, wondering if I'd hit my head and was just hearing voices, but there it was again.

"Diana!"

I turned toward the call and found Maverick, crawling out from beneath an overturned lifeboat. Pale, shaken, but alive.

"Mav!" I rushed toward him and gave his shoulder a squeeze. "You've got nine lives, haven't you?"

I wanted to ask how he'd managed but there was no time.

"I've got to go with Raven and see what we hit. Stay here and keep watch. Call out if you see anyone trying to board the ship."

The madness in the eyes of some of the Vanators was growing, and something told me they wouldn't hesitate to take on a suicide mission if it meant furthering their cause. Not with Lilis pushing them.

I turned and rushed across the deck to the starboard side of the ship and realized quickly, even in the dim light of what was still visible of the moon, that I was going uphill. A sandbar maybe? Or?—

"Rocks," Raven said grimly. "Just a massive pile of boulders jutting out of the sea. We are lucky the wave hit us when it did and not when we were even closer or we'd all be mincemeat."

He didn't say it but I knew it anyway. We weren't as bad off as mincemeat, but we weren't much better. With our ship battered, and fully stuck on the rocks, and only the three of us onboard, we were unlikely to be able to get ourselves unstuck. Our only hope was that the schooner had survived the tidal wave...

Raven's features shone suddenly in sharp relief and then went dark again.

"Wait...What is that?"

It happened again, and we both turned toward the source of the blinking light.

Hope grabbed me by the lady balls and hung on tight. "I-is that a fucking lighthouse?"

"I think it is," Raven marveled with a glimmer of a smile.

I stared at it, trying to calculate the distance in my mind. I might not be a strong swimmer, but I was strong enough for that distance. If the schooner hadn't made it, we'd swim.

"You can do it. I'll be there to help you."

"Not possible, since you'll be the one hauling Mav on your back."

Raven's head whipped toward me. "Not happening."

"Raven, he was injured and under the weather already. He's been knocked around, and despite having some sort of...gift, he's not as strong as us."

His steely expression didn't change.

"If you don't, I will. And I don't think I can manage..."

"But you'd die trying for that piece of shit, right?"

I didn't reply. I didn't have to.

"What kind of hold does this asshole have over you, Frostbite?" He let out a harsh laugh and shook his head. "You know what, forget I asked. I'll carry your boyfriend to shore if he can't manage to do it himself. But only because we need him to find Jade. After that, though, he's on his own. If I'm going to play the role of someone's daddy, it's going to be yours. Now let's move out now, before that bloodthirsty bitch regroups and comes back for another round."

I was still smarting–and a little flustered–from his comment a few minutes later when we noticed the small skiff floating in the bay. Shocked into silence, all we could do was stare.

I shook my head, stunned. "How could it possibly have survived the wave?"

It was beaten up and had been yanked from its moorings, but it was in what looked like one piece and bobbing on the waves just a few yards away.

"Grab some supplies from the galley; I'll be back in a minute," Raven said with a glance in my direction.

"I know how to steer one of those if I can be of some help..." Mav's voice trailed off as Raven turned his attention towards him.

Raven closed the distance between them and made the most of his height advantage, hulking over the smaller man as he glowered down at him. "I don't like you, and I certainly don't trust you, so I'm going to need you to keep your trap shut and only speak when spoken to until the burning desire to disembowel you passes. Are we clear?"

A challenge lit Mav's multi-colored eyes, and I very nearly slapped my hand over his mouth. There was still a hint of that cocky, young traveling thief inside him, and it would be true to form for him to let it show at the worst possible time.

He must've sensed my warning, or maybe he just wised up, because instead of taking the bait that Raven had laid for him, he took a step back and raised both hands in mock surrender.

"Sure, whatever you say, man. I'm just here to right some wrongs and help out where I can. You want to be the guy in charge, I'm happy to let you do it."

Reasonably confident they weren't going to kill one another, I headed off to the ship's galley. It hadn't fared as well as the schooner–though we at least didn’t seem to be taking on water from a hull breach or anything catastrophic like that. Even so, it took a while to find food that hadn't been destroyed by seawater that had flooded in. Once I'd found a cupboard that had been relatively untouched, I made short work of packing a couple of rucksacks with supplies. A bag of blood for Raven and some canned goods that had survived, but all our jugs of water had been crushed. We'd have to make do and find something on the island.

When I got back to the main deck, Raven was already there, still soaked to the bone and sitting ready to row in the skiff.

He tipped his head toward me. "I can see the wheels turning. What's the plan?"

Dawn was breaking, but dark storm clouds still swirled overhead, and the seas churned like a brew about to bubble over.

"I say we head for the lighthouse and see if they can help us. Maybe they have a tugboat or a ship that can leverage us from the rocks."

Both men nodded, and I settled into my seat, trying not to think of how bad this would go if Lilis got her second wind before we hit shore.

"Don't you think it's weird that there's a massive crop of boulders right in front of the lighthouse?"

Raven sent a quelling look over his shoulder at Mav, who instantly locked his lips with an imaginary key and then threw it overboard before mouthing, "Sorry."

It was a little strange to have the lighthouse drawing ships to the boulders. But that couldn’t be right. Could it?

Despite being close to my heat, I was soaked to the bone and freezing as the winds buffeted us. I was exhausted, sore from head to toe after the thrashing we'd taken, and worried about my friends, leaving me not at my best.

"Keep an eye out for any sign of the Vanators," Raven called over his shoulder.

I kept my gaze trained on the horizon, but even as the sun rose, there was no sign of our quarry.

Myrr's wizened face popped into my mind and I shoved it away before I could imagine her getting sucked into a maelstrom with a scream.

"If some of those Vanators are being controlled by Lilis, surely she'd have made sure they were safe. Maybe that’s why they were brought here."

Mav chuckled. "Yes, because she seems like such a fair and reasonable deity so far."

A projectile from the front of the tiny boat flew past me, hitting Mav square between the eyes before clattering to the deck.

"Gods, man. What the fuck?" he grunted, rubbing at his forehead which was already getting red.

I looked down to see Raven's dagger and shot to my feet with a gasp.

"You could've killed him," I said, making my way to stand beside him and yanking on his arm until he faced me.

"Would that have shut him up?" he deadpanned.

"This needs to stop. Today. Now," I snarled, at my wits end with Raven. "And you said it yourself. We need Mav. At least until we find Jade. Not to mention, our friends are in danger. I'm not going to sit around and watch the two of you compare dick sizes. Again."

"Don’t be such a killjoy. I know how to throw a knife, Frostbite. It hit him hilt first. If I wanted to kill him, he'd be dead."

I let out a grumble of frustration and turned to go back to my seat.

"But for the record,” he called softly, “If we were measuring dicks, there'd be no comparing."

Idiot.

As irritated as I was with him, though, my wolf picked up her head and sniffed the air with a low growl of need.

Traitor.

But a good reminder that I needed to avoid small spaces with this man in my current condition, and I added it to the bottom of my ever-expanding To Do list:

#1. Save friends.

#2. Try not to get murdered by a psycho bitch goddess in the process.

#3. Keep Raven from killing Maverick.

#4. Stop thinking about how badly you want Raven’s mouth on your…everything…

How sad was it that the last thing on my list might be the hardest of all?