Page 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

The cargo ship shook as another cannonball sank into its side. Celeste raised her arm to shield her eyes as splintered wood rained down. It gave another lurch, and she scrambled to keep her legs beneath her.

“Stop blowing holes in the ship while we’re on it!” Raiden roared, but it was unlikely Torben could hear him. With a sigh, he turned back to Captain Clarke and raised his sword high above the captain’s head, prepared to swing.

Clarke stood still beneath the blade. Defeated. The few surviving members of his crew had abandoned ship in the rowboat. The rest were strewn across the floor. There was no one belowdecks to return fire.

Was Raiden really going to kill this man in front of her? She hated him, but she didn’t want to watch Raiden cut his throat. This realization was like salt water in a wound. She already feared she was unfit for her task. If she couldn’t bear watching someone else end a man who wanted to hurt them, how could she kill Raiden when the time came? But that was different, right? Raiden had invaded this man’s ship. Raiden had killed his crew. Raiden was the villain here.

Raiden looked up, as if to check that Celeste had a good hold on Clarke. As usual, he managed to see everything she was thinking plain on her face.

“Lucky for you, Captain, I’m feeling generous,” the pirate said. “We’ll see how you fare with the sharks.” He brought the pommel down into Captain Clarke’s skull.

The man fell limp, a puppet with his strings cut, sinking into a heap on the floor. Raiden crouched beside Clarke’s unconscious body and relieved him of a small purse. He held it up and shook it, smiling when he heard the chatter of coins. A stray bottle rolled past their feet toward the bow of the ship. Raiden and Celeste watched it. Their eyes grew wide, and they looked up at each other, realization dawning.

The floor wasn’t level anymore. The ship was sinking.

“Grab what you can and get off the ship!” Raiden commanded his crew.

Bastian and Kiyami, both nearby, called back in reply and disappeared belowdecks to grab what they could and inform the others. Motioning for Celeste to follow, Raiden ran to the captain’s quarters.

“Grab anything that looks valuable and put it in here,” he ordered, rushing over to the bed to strip the top two blankets. He tied the corners to make a sort of bag—one he slung over his shoulders and the other he tossed to Celeste. She caught it easily and looped it over her head. There was no going back now. Not if she pillaged this ship with him. She’d be a pirate. But since the ship was going down anyway, and she had grown up scavenging ships, Celeste’s pesky moral compass didn’t stop her for long. Heart hammering and cheeks flushed, she joined the search, heading first for the desk in the back. Pickings were slim underwater. Most things in a shipwreck were damaged.

Scavenging this room was a dream of hers made real.

Celeste tried her best to hurry, but she couldn’t help but become consumed by each object she encountered. On the desk, she found a glass bottle, thin at the top with a wide base and filled with golden liquid. Two matching glasses sat beside it. Something like this was normally broken on shipwrecks. She held it up toward Raiden to see if it was valuable, and he groaned.

“Not anything glass! Look for gold things! Coins or jewels!”

She dropped it back onto the table and picked up a heavy silver object. This one had an ornate base, with three arms. Two elegantly stuck out at the sides, turning their heads upward, while the middle stayed straight and resolute. Each arm held a white candle. This she decided to place in the sack, as she’d heard candles were fairly precious upon the ship. A golden compass was next, which she inspected for a long moment, watching as the hands inside moved as she turned it. She reached for the next item on the desk. An open piece of parchment. It probably wasn’t valuable, but she hadn’t seen a human letter before, and Celeste wanted to take a closer look at the glistening gold wax seal at the top.

Crack! A cannonball blew through the far wall of the captain’s quarters at an angle, ripping a hole as it sunk into the floor beneath. The ship tilted again, and a wave crashed against the side of the ship, spilling water into the room.

“All right, time to go,” Raiden said.

He walked toward the door, bag at his hip jangling, paused, and returned for a couple of half-full liquor bottles. With nimble fingers, Celeste folded up the parchment, tucking it into the front of her dress. She hadn’t taken nearly as much as she could have. But there was no time to rectify this. The floor was now under a couple of inches of water, and each second it rose higher. Together they ran for the door. Raiden ripped it open and found, looming in the doorframe with his sword raised, Captain Clarke.

Raiden shut the door in his face.

“Perhaps there’s another way out?”

There wasn’t. The two looked around the room. The only other exit was through the hole the cannon had made in the wall. Celeste doubted either of them could avoid losing some of the treasure in the water if they chose to swim. A loud hammering shook the door on its hinges.

Raiden groaned and opened the door again. “Clarke! Good to see you’re up. We were just leaving.”

The prince made to dash around Clarke, but the disgruntled captain brandished his sword like a madman. He sliced at Raiden’s head, causing the prince to jump backward into Celeste. The blade lodged into the thick wood of the doorframe. Clarke pulled at the sword, but it remained in place. The water climbed higher. It was up to their ankles now. Shouts echoed down from the decks. Their crew was leaving. They were trapped between their freedom and a ship that was rapidly filling with water.

“You have made a huge mistake,” spat Clarke. “You will regret this day.”

“I’m sure your parents felt the same way after conceiving you,” Raiden said.

Clarke lunged at Raiden, hands grasping for his neck. Raiden spun out of the way, grabbing Celeste as he moved to clear her from Clarke’s grip as well. They landed hard on the wall behind them, Raiden pressing her against it. The air flew from Celeste’s lungs, and she felt something fall from her into the water beneath them. The silver candleholder perhaps? She didn’t have time to fetch it.

Having expected to collide with them, Clarke went tumbling forward, landing face-first. Celeste’s eyes rose to meet Raiden’s, her heart pounding against his chest.

“Don’t you go falling for me too,” Raiden said.

I hope you drown , Celeste thought, pushing him off her with a huff.

Raiden smirked.

While Clarke floundered in the rising waters, the two raced through the door. The deck was empty. Even most of the bodies had slid off the angled deck and into the ocean.

The ship lurched, tilting starboard as it sank lower and lower. Celeste’s feet slipped from beneath her, and she went tumbling.

“Celeste!” Raiden clung to the railing of the quarterdeck and reached one arm out to her, but she was already too far away. Her hands scrambled and clawed against the floorboards to find purchase. There was nothing to break her fall, and her body crashed down the quarterdeck stairs. At last her hands caught the handle of a hatch, and her body jerked to a halt.

The ship’s masts creaked. Celeste looked up and saw Captain Clarke appear behind Raiden in the doorway of the captain’s quarters. He lifted a pistol. Her pistol . That’s what fell when they collided with the wall. Celeste opened her mouth to scream a warning.

There was a deafening crack.

Raiden’s body flew sideways, landing on the floor with a terrible thud. Lifeless, he slid down the quarterdeck stairs, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. She cried out, reaching, but he slipped past, directly into the churning water.

Clarke turned the shaking pistol toward her, his free hand in a white-knuckle grip on the doorframe to remain standing. Before he could fire, Celeste let go, sliding down the deck and into the water after Raiden’s body.

Icy, frothing water enveloped her. Had the ocean always been this cold? The blue dress grew heavy, dragging her body down. Breath caught in her throat. She blinked and looked around the green waters. There was no sign of him. Her feet kicked, tangling in her skirts. Everything felt wrong. This human body didn’t work right in the water.

Her lungs burned. Her shoes fell from her feet. She was sinking. The heavy belt at her waist was like deadweight. Kicking as hard as she could, she managed to rise through the surface of the ocean. The wind whipped against her damp skin. She pushed her wet hair from her face and twisted around. Where was he? She wanted to scream. To cry out for him. She cursed herself for her stupid choice to hide her voice. But something in her wouldn’t use it. She was still afraid of what would happen. Could she sing? Try to lure him to her? She doubted it. He’d have to be conscious for it to work. He’d have to be alive , a small voice said. A voice that made her search grow more desperate.

He couldn’t be dead. She didn’t know enough yet.

She took in a gasp of air and plunged back under the water toward the sinking ship. And that’s when she saw him. He looked eerily green as he floated beneath her. His white shirt was now see-through. He wasn’t moving. Or at least that’s what it looked like at first. He looked almost blissful. But as she watched him, she realized she was wrong. He was moving. As the ship behind him was swallowed by the ocean, Raiden was being dragged down along in its wake. She dove after him, kicking her feet as hard as she could manage. She may not have the body she was born with, a body built to cut through the water with ease, but she was still a siren.

Down she swam. When the bag of stolen items hit against her thigh, reminding her of its presence, she threw it off. Immediately the swim was easier, straighter. It would have been even easier if she removed her dress, but there wasn’t time. Celeste didn’t know how long most humans could survive underwater, but based on how her own lungs burned for air, she knew they were running out of time.

At last she reached him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling him close. A trail of red floated behind his back. Blood . Celeste stiffened. The siren part of her could taste it in the water around them. Heart hammering, lungs screaming, she turned and kicked toward the surface, but his heavy body slowed their progress. The sinking ship’s pull was too strong. She wasn’t going to make it. If he wasn’t already dead, he would be soon.

Somewhere behind her something in the water moved.

A shark, its body nearly twice the length of Raiden’s, writhing back and forth. With teeth as long as a finger and soulless black eyes, it followed the scent of Raiden’s blood. Her arms clutched him tighter. With a newfound sense of urgency, Celeste kicked toward the surface. But it was no use. Although she was strong, she wasn’t going to be fast enough with this human body to reach the surface in time.

The beast opened its great jaw, only feet away.

Sing! her instincts shouted. Why don’t you sing! But she was too afraid.

Instead, Celeste kicked out, her heel colliding with the shark’s left eye. It recoiled, and she used the momentum to push them toward the surface. They were close. Perhaps five feet below.

The shark charged toward them once more. With all her strength, Celeste pushed Raiden above her. The shark opened its great jaws. She pulled her dagger from her hip, and with both hands, she plunged it through the roof of its mouth and into its head.

A sharp pain lanced through her left arm, above the elbow. Blood filled the water. She couldn’t tell what was hers and what was the shark’s. With a grunt, she pulled the dagger free. Agony burned up her arm, sending her reeling. She kicked the shark’s body away from her and swam to the surface, her head about to explode from the lack of oxygen. Sweet, salty air rushed into her lungs as she crashed through the water, sputtering. But all she could think about was Raiden. It took her two seconds to find him, floating belly-up in the water to her right. She swam to him and placed her hand on his neck, searching for a pulse.

It was there.

But they were both losing blood.

Idiot. Why did he attack that ship? Why did he humiliate its captain? What if he didn’t wake up? What if she never found out why the king wanted this treasure in the middle of the ocean? What if she could never go home? And it was all his fault. She got to decide when he died. And today was not that day. So Celeste slapped him. Hard. Across the face.

Raiden sputtered awake, coughing. His eyes cracked open, and he winced.

“What was that for?” he croaked between wet coughs.

Celeste gave him a particularly rude gesture she’d seen Torben use.

“If you dislike me so much, why are you saving me?”

She threw her hands into the air. I don’t know!

The waves roared in her ears. Above them, she heard shouting.

“Here! They’re here! Thank God. I see them!”

“Throw down the ladder!”

A rope ladder came sailing down through the air, landing with a splash in front of them. Celeste nearly cried with relief. She shoved her bare feet into the bottom rung, and when she turned back for Raiden, she saw he wasn’t moving. No . She grabbed his arm, pulling him into her, and positioned his back to the ladder. He looked terrible. He was still bleeding.

Stop trying to die, you coward.

The crew confirmed the two were secure and heaved the ladder up. The process was agonizingly slow. Each passing second felt like a lifetime. But at last, with one final heave, they were pulled to the banister. Nasir and Bastian wrapped their arms around Raiden’s chest and dragged him up and over the railing. They laid him down on the floor, Nasir setting to work examining him. Bastian returned to help Celeste, but she had already swung her leg up and over the railing. She reached the deck, but with the adrenaline fading, her legs gave out beneath her. Celeste crumbled unceremoniously into a pile on the floor, blood dripping down her arm.

“Celeste!” Kiyami crouched down beside her, pressing a piece of cloth against the wound. Celeste shrugged her off, crawling over to where Raiden lay unconscious. She wanted to shake him for all the trouble he’d put them through. What was he thinking? The bullet wound, she could now see, was on his right upper arm near his shoulder. Nasir placed fabric into it to stop the bleeding. The captain’s head tilted to the side, letting a small amount of water fall from his mouth. More water dripped from his black hair and into his closed eyes.

“Rai, wake up,” Bastian pleaded.

But the prince did not wake.

With a rough hand, Bastian turned Raiden’s head back up and began to hammer on his chest. He leaned down and plugged Raiden’s nose, breathing into his mouth.

“Come on, Rai. Come on...” Bastian muttered over and over again, like a prayer.

Celeste knelt next to them, trying not to get in the way. At some point, Kiyami got ahold of Celeste’s arm, cleaned it, and wrapped it in cloth.

Horrible moments passed. Tears sprang to Celeste’s eyes, and she did not have the energy to try to stop them. Her chance to go home dying in front of her. But it wasn’t that, was it?

“Please, Rai... Please ...”

The crew stood in silence around them. Kiyami rested her hand against Celeste’s back. The only sound was the hollow thump, thump, thump of Bastian’s hands against Raiden’s chest.

Raiden coughed. At last, mercifully.

Water sputtered from his lips, and his long, dark lashes fluttered. He opened his eyes and turned to see Celeste sitting over him, tears mixing with the seawater dripping from her chin.

A weak smirk crossed his lips.

“My hero,” he said.