Page 29 of Voices in the Stars (The Lost Witch #1)

I rolled my eyes, thinking it over. This entire time it felt like he had an advantage over me. He knew everything about this world. It even felt like he knew something about me that I didn’t. I could even this thing between us.

“You aren’t, but you can answer them.” I glanced over at him, trying to gauge his reaction.

He was motionless for a few moments before giving a small nod.

“You’re a prince?” I asked, starting with something simple that I already had the answer to. My instincts wanted me to trust him, but I couldn’t help fighting back against them.

“Yes. My father is Eris, King of Feycrest.”

“Feycrest. That must be where we are now?” I questioned.

Atlas just nodded, staring at me as he waited for me to continue.

“What about your mother?”

“Dead.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say. His smile dropped, his eyes looking toward the ground. I placed my hand on top of his where it rested on the railing, giving it a gentle squeeze.

He smiled up at me. “It was a while ago. I was still a boy when it happened.”

“What happened?” I asked, taking advantage of his current openness. It might’ve been my only chance to learn something about him, and it suddenly felt like I wanted to know everything about the man in front of me.

“My father,” he grimaced, looking away from me. “He wanted more power. She tried to stop him.”

“Why are you talking to me?” My next question came out before I could stop it. I grimaced at the way I knew it came across. “I mean?—”

“I’m realizing that I might have been wrong about you,” he interrupted.

A hand reached up to squeeze his horn, something I was quickly learning was a tell of his, alongside the shame that filled his expression.

“I might not have been given the full story about you, Cece. I hope you can forgive me for that.”

“What story did you get?” I ignored the last thing he said. It was too soon to decide on forgiveness. There wasn’t enough to show me what side of him was true. The one who wanted to kill me or the man I saw now. Every part of me hoped I was staring at the true Atlas now.

He opened his mouth to respond, but there was a crack as something slammed into the side of the boat.

We both cursed as I slammed into him, the boat rocking violently to one side.

One of his arms wrapped tightly around me as the boat was hit again.

I cried out as we rocked to the side again.

This time was much worse than the first. The next hit came from underneath us.

The front half of the boat was shoved out of the water, being held up by some creature I couldn’t see.

Atlas grabbed onto the railing as we lost our footing.

For a moment we were dangling from the railing.

The only thing keeping us from a long fall was his straining arms. I wrapped myself around him with my arms and legs, squeezing my eyes shut to keep from staring at the water below us.

It felt like an eternity had passed when the boat finally slammed back into the water. Atlas grunted as he landed on his back with me falling right on top of him. Both his arms wrapped around me as he stood, picking me up. Wood groaned around us as the ship started violently rocking again.

“What was that?” I shrieked as Atlas stumbled back against the railing.

I tried to push myself out of his arms so I could stand again. Our fall had done some damage to him, I was certain. That hard of a fall would’ve broken something in a human man. Atlas just held onto me tighter, refusing to let me down.

“Wretched beast,” Atlas muttered, glancing at the water below us.

“I’ll take care of this. You get back to the quarters,” he instructed before setting me down.

He left before I had a chance to answer.

I kept to the rail even as the ship slowed, keeping a death grip onto the wood as I watched him.

He was making a frantic dash to the wheel where the captain was at.

Even from across the ship, I could hear him screaming orders at everyone around him.

The crew was frantically running everywhere.

Each one yelling louder than the one before.

Canons were being loaded. Guns were brought up in crates as everyone rushed to grab one.

Even I contemplated it, even without knowing how to use one.

The sails were being drawn up until they were just a roll of fabric in the air.

Then everything stopped. No one made noise as we waited. I held my breath as I waited for something to happen. The crew looked desperately around every side of the ship.

Silence only lasted a few moments. Then the ship started frantically rocking again.

I sent a silent prayer to whatever gods watched over this world.

Water no longer was beating against the sides of the ship.

Instead, it was cascading down on top of me.

I sputtered as the sheer amount made breathing hard.

I kept wiping water and hair out of my eyes.

Blurred figures all turned toward me right before a piercing roar ripped through the air.

With a slow turn, I looked directly into the eye of the monster.