Trapped By Claws (Of Seas and Tides)

7. A Desperate Bargain

Corvin's cloak billowed and whipped against him, his silhouette dark against the greying sky. "This ship will be destroyed," he said, his voice cold as the rain grew stronger and the wind sliced against the ship. "The warnings were given in due time. Your captain did not listen."

My blood thundered in my ears. "It's the storms," I protested, hugging the charcoal wool shawl around my shoulders. "They're on their way back." There was no denying that they were beyond the boundary. "As soon as they're back, we'll leave."

"The law has no mercy, and I have no choice." His voice remained hard, but a twinge of something—sorrow, disappointment, anger, grief?—passed through his eyes. "The ship must be destroyed."

"Please." I crossed closer to the railing as I looked up at him. My heart raced faster, my tongue thick in my mouth. I almost reached out to grip his trouser leg and then fell back, holding my hands to my chest. "There has to be something you can do. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. There's a reason you're telling me this."

Thunder boomed, and the ship heaved on the swelling waves. I lurched forward and grabbed the railing. Somehow he remained steady, simply moving with the ship as if he were a part of it.

"I don't want you to die," he said roughly. His eyes narrowed on me as he crouched down. Leaning forward, his hand rose to my cheek, his claws grazing my skin.

My breath caught in my throat. I struggled to process his words as the wind tore at my hair and shawl. "If you destroy this ship, I will die."

"Not if you come with me." His gaze hooded, his voice going lower and becoming more urgent. "I can protect you. I will protect you. Just come with me."

"And leave everyone else?" I set my jaw, resisting the urge to look back toward the island and the boats that were desperately struggling through the mounting waves and the torrents of jellyfish.

"I don't care about them," he said, his voice darkening. "I care about you." He reached for my wrist.

I shook my head, drawing back, hand clasping my shawl. "What about a bargain? You fae love bargains, right?" My skin crawled even as I said it, but it was all I could think of.

He raised an eyebrow. "What are you offering?" The low music of his voice intensified. "You'll come with me willingly?"

"I'll come with you to your home so long as you swear to spare every living being from this crew." My voice shook at the end, but I steadied it, my gaze fixed on him.

He paused, mulling things over. The muscles in his jaw and neck tightened. "I cannot spare the ship, but I can see to it that all who were upon it survive. If you come with me." He said the last part low and husky, the words vibrating through my core.

Terror chilled me more than the rain. I forced myself to meet his gaze. "Then I accept your bargain. I swear that I will come with you to your home if you swear to ensure that all from this ship survive."

That sharp hunger returned to his eyes. He reached out to take hold of me, but I held up my hands. "No. You have to show me that you spared everyone."

He grunted, his eyes narrowing. "And how am I to accomplish that?"

"Get creative," I said sharply. "But the bargain requires that everyone survives." I had to at least see that Mama lived. A greasy ball of emotion formed in my stomach, sickening me. "Swear to me."

He scoffed, then set his hands on his broad black belt. For a breath, he seemed to consider this. He nodded. "I swear it." He breathed those words with the solemness of a vow. "But you cannot remain on the ship. I'll put you somewhere you can see what is happening and where you'll be safe. The ship will break apart soon. We cannot delay."

Though part of me wanted to argue, the other part recognized he was speaking the truth. I nodded.

Just like that, he put his arm around my waist and whisked me into his arms. The waves thundered and roared almost as much as the heavens. Rain lashed at my face, stinging like needles even when I turned away. My stomach lurched with the ship as it pitched and swayed.

How was he staying steady?

The few sailors who'd remained behind struggled to man their various posts, staggering and clutching at the holds and grips, ropes tied about their waists. Did they have any idea what was coming?

Almost before I realized what was happening, Corvin leaped into the air. My stomach dropped.

I flailed and clutched at him, my feet kicking in the dark air. The white-capped waves peeked and struck at the vessel, the massive column of jellyfish spreading and grasping in the waters below.

With a jarring thud, we landed on one of the stone pillars.

He dragged me beneath the overhang. "Stay here. Watch. Don't step out from underneath the shelter," he shouted in my ear. He pressed me back firmly against the pockmarked stone, both hands on my shoulders. His eyes caught the flashes of the lightning, glowing green.

I stared at him, suddenly terrified. This was the fae I'd just bargained with to save Mama and the rest of the crew. He could kill me if he chose, and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

He gave me a grim smirk, then lunged off the stone pillar.

Shivering, I clutched my soaking shawl around my shoulders. The chill sliced right through me. Already my fingers and toes burned from the cold.

Lightning lit up the sky in forked branches and multi-tongued formations. It froze the scene for the briefest of breaths, then faded into darkness. The ship fought against the waves.

I edged farther out to search for the three boats in the water.

There!

Lightning flashed again, illuminating the terrified faces of the passengers huddled together. The dwarves rowed with all their might against the crashing waves.

My eyes searched frantically for Mama. Where was she? Another bolt lit up the water—there—in the rearmost boat! Mama's ashen face stood out among the others, locked in fear as she clung to the side, her hair and green shawl plastered against her.

Where had Corvin gone?

Lightning struck again. Now there were dark shapes in the waters. Two massive crocodilian creatures swam beneath the ship, the pale, pulsing jellyfish parting to allow them passage. The sky darkened with billowing thunderheads dominating the horizon.

The longboat with Mama tipped up.

I jammed my hand against my mouth. "Mama!" I screamed. The wind ripped my voice into the howling void.

A dark shape moved beneath the boat as the wave crested.

My breath locked in my throat.

I couldn't tear my gaze from Mama's panic-stricken face. Everything condensed to that single moment. My heart thundered in my ears as I watched helplessly. Bile filled my throat, my lips and face stinging from the sharp salt water striking me.

A yellow-and-green striped form snapped up around the boat as the wave crashed over. The passengers emerged, choking and gagging. A jellyfish straggled across the side. One of the sailors flipped it over the edge with an oar.

I dug my fingers into my cheek as I kept my hand over my mouth, staring, transfixed.

It was all right. A ragged breath trembled through me.

Mama was alive. He'd gotten to her in time. She was going to be all right.

When lightning flared across the sky once more, I saw that Corvin had retrieved the second boat as well and dragged both up onto the beach in his massive coils.

He bellowed something. Probably for them to stay. Then he lunged back into the water, his enormous body sliding beneath the choppy waves.

I cast my gaze over the sea for the rest of the sailors and the ship. The third boat had capsized. Four of the ten clung to the sides. One had already righted the longboat, gotten back in, and now fought to drag the others up. The others splashed and flailed in the water, shouting. Red whip-like lashes cut across their arms, and jellyfish stings tore over their trousers.

Corvin swept in.

The jellyfish immediately pulsed away from him, repelled. He wrapped around the boat, gathering up each of the survivors and depositing them in the vessel with devastatingly swift ease.

I hugged myself tight as I watched, shivering and chilling. With every passing minute, the storm worsened.

The noise deafened me.

A powerful gust nearly sent me staggering forward. Wincing, I forced myself back deeper into the stone nook.

The Seaforger's Pride struggled against the fury of the storm. The waves cracked and slammed against it with punishing force.

In another flash of lightning, I glimpsed Corvin leaping onto the main deck. He moved across the ship unaffected by the water and cold. As if he existed outside it, somehow. Perhaps it was fae magic or experience or both.

As soon as the rest of the sailors were in the last boat, some clutching bags and crates, Corvin wrapped around the longboat and dragged them through the raging sea to the beach.

My heart leaped as I glimpsed the beach. Mama was only a distant figure, standing out because of her moss-green shawl. I could see her ashen face when I closed my eyes. Hosvir would look after her, wouldn't he? She'd be all right. She was alive. That's what mattered.

The lion-sized hunting otters bounded around the dwarves as well, tugging at their sleeves and coats to pull them back from the beach and the lashing waves.

A loud, abrupt crack resounded through the air.

My attention snapped back to the ship.

Corvin circled it now, a great wound in the ship's side as if he had punched through it. As large as his eel form had been before, he became even larger now. Long enough to wrap around the entirety of the caravel. He struck at it again.

The dark reptilian forms below surged up. One seized the tentacled carving at the stern while the other seized the figurehead. The ship bowed and bent for one dreadful moment, then snapped like kindling. Corvin pummeled it. He lashed at the masts and shredded the furled sails as the monstrous reptiles around him rent through the wood like paper.

My breath snagged in my throat.

No one could have survived that.

This was the fulfillment of the fae law of the sea.

This was the plan.

The plan if I had not made my bargain.

The cold cut and spiraled deeper within me. Nausea twisted in my stomach. Clutching the soaking shawl tighter about my shoulders, I struggled to comprehend it all. The carnage that might have existed here. That did exist when people crossed the boundary.

A sturdy thud struck the rock near me.

I looked up. Every muscle in my body tightened, a heaviness crushing down upon me.

Corvin stood at the edge of the spire, drenched. "It's done. Thirty-five passengers. Twelve hunting otters. They're all safe on the shore. So long as they do not enter the waters, they will be safe."

I stared past him into the darkness at the island where Mama mourned. There were a thousand things I wanted to tell her now. None of them the harsh words that had sprung to mind countless times over the past years. Only comfort.

And now that the moment to go with Corvin was here, all I felt was fear. Fear for a thousand different things. To suddenly know that this distant, bleary look might be the last time I saw Mama and that my last words to her were to tell her were harsh. "Did you tell her I'm safe?"

Lightning flared again. His bright-green eyes widened, then he laughed in bewilderment and shrugged. " Let her make her own inferences. There wasn't exactly time for a proper conversation."

I opened my mouth to protest, but he shushed me. "I fulfilled my part of the bargain. Now keep yours."

Anger and hate flared through me. I wanted to strike him. But a bargain was a bargain. At least Mama and everyone else was alive. There wasn't anything else left. I had to keep my word.

I gave a sharp nod. "Fine!"

"Put your arms around my neck," he said.

I complied. His arms encircled me, bringing me tight against his chest. Already his heat reached me, even more intense for the cold water that pounded down around us. His hair was slicked down, trails of rain and salt water running down his face and neck. Yet his heart thudded with a startlingly steady rhythm. He swept one arm beneath me and lifted me up against his chest like a bride to be carried over the threshold.

I found myself curling against him simply for the warmth, and I hated myself for it.

Another flash of lightning illuminated him. His face had a grim cast to it as he studied me, his thumb pressed to my lower lip. "This next part is going to be uncomfortable. Deep breath, clever girl."

I barely had time to comply before he leaped off the edge of the jagged stone spire, out of the safety of the cave, and into the seething waters below.