Chapter 17 Kaspar
Kaspar
After nearly two months on this ship, I was starting to get a feel for how The Black Wraith sailed through the air.
So when we lurched to the side and the entire ship tilted so badly I slid into the railing, I knew something was wrong.
Very wrong. It’d been windy as hellfire all day, so this probably didn’t bode well.
My gaze automatically sought out Max, checking that he was safe and unharmed—he was, and he was already looking at me as if doing the same thing. Knowing he cared that much about me made little flutters dance in my belly. And then a pang of sadness rushed through me.
Max was so… perfect for me in every way that mattered, and yet, I was going to have to give him up in a few days’ time—hopefully it would be closer to a couple of weeks.
My heart ached with longing, with heartbreak.
Both of us were going to come out of this with new scars, scars on our hearts, on our souls. And I honestly didn’t know if mine would ever heal.
The thought of never seeing Max again was already breaking my heart, and he was right there.
Losing Max would be the hardest thing I’d ever have to do. Harder than hiding my powers from the authorities, harder than starting over after the fire, harder than leaving my sister and nephew behind to get out of the kingdom, harder than learning how to be a pirate.
Losing Max was going to break me.
A tear threatened to escape, but I knew this wasn’t the time. I needed to concentrate on my job. So I pushed all those thoughts, all those feelings, away to be examined later when I could cry in private.
Rallying myself, I sent Max a small nod and a barely there smile before I sought out my other friends.
Willy was holding onto the railing a few feet down, breathing heavily, so I called over, “You okay?”
He nodded. “Yep. Just lost a bucket, but luckily, nothing else fell over.”
Hopefully, Viper hadn’t noticed, or I might have to fight him to keep his ugly mitts off Willy. I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to my friend. Not again. Never again.
I gave Willy a nod before looking up to the quarterdeck where Ariella stood. She was beside the wheel, concentrating hard as she worked her magic, but even from here, I could tell she was strained and having a rough time.
“Is she okay?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Willy shake his head. “I dunno. Look.” He pointed toward the bow, but up high, so I turned that way and a strangled noise fell from my throat.
“Holy phoenix tails!” My heart pounded in my chest, and I honestly had no idea how I hadn’t noticed the huge-as-crap storm we were heading right for. Obviously, I was a little too in my head. Holy goblin balls.
The clouds were so dark the sand below them looked as if it was a midnight skyline, there was rain falling in a torrential downpour, and lightning flashed through the sky. Now that I was paying closer attention to my surroundings, I could hear the booming thunder.
I sent a silent prayer. Goddess of the Air, please don’t let the storm get us. Please keep this crew safe.
“We…we’re not going in that, right?” My voice was a shaky mess.
“Nah. Even Viper’s not crazy enough to go through there. We’d end up getting struck by lightning or something. We gotta go around, but the wind is rough even this far away, and Ariella’s been trying to keep it from blowing us around too badly. That’s why she looks so beat.”
I nodded. Made sense.
The ship lurched again, and I heard Max yell over the wind, “Harness up! NOW!”
“Hurry!” Ariella yelled. “I can’t hold the wind back much longer!”
I heard Viper yell at her, “You’ll hold it or you’ll go overboard.”
That made me scowl. What an absolute jerk. Didn’t he learn anything the last time he pushed her like this?
Despite his words, I wasn’t worried. He wouldn’t throw Ariella overboard, not if Max had anything to say about it. Plus, Viper knew he needed her. At least I hoped he did.
If he did something stupid, I wouldn’t hesitate to step in, but I was pretty sure Ariella could hold her own.
Too bad I couldn’t convince her to let a gust of wind sweep Viper himself overboard. Now that would be a sight to behold.
I scrambled to grab a harness and hook it around my waist, making sure it was secure. When I finished, I noticed Willy having some trouble, so I quickly helped him. Then I saw Greybeard having issues, so I helped him as well. Thanks to Max, I was an expert at these harnesses now.
Max began calling out directions, forcing the ship to turn slightly so we could try going around the storm.
Viper didn’t look happy, but he also didn’t contradict Max or yell at him to stop.
At least he knew going into a storm like that would be a death sentence for us all.
He was so focused on getting to Gearhart City that I was surprised he even cared whether he risked all of our necks or not.
I didn’t really know what I was doing when it came to sails, but Greybeard placed a rope in my hand and yelled, “Pull!”
I yanked with all my might, helping five other crew members pull the sail up to make it more manageable in these conditions. When the sail was reefed, we were told to stop, and Greybeard helped me tie the rope off.
Willy had been showing me the knots he was learning, but I wasn’t confident in doing it, so I welcomed the older pirate’s assistance. The last thing I wanted to do was screw something up. That was a fast way to get someone else hurt on the ship, and I didn’t want to be responsible for that.
Water droplets hit my face, and I sucked in a breath when I realized we were even closer to the storm. It’d been moving too fast for us to avoid it altogether, apparently.
Holy dragon balls, this was about to get rough.
I stuck by Greybeard’s side, helping him as much as possible as the wind whipped around us, a mix of rain and sand hitting me in the face and all my exposed skin.
All of us were going to be covered in tiny cuts by the time this was done.
But I couldn’t think about that. I needed to help get us the hell away from this damn storm.
Being the sail master, Sparrow was yelling directions at everyone, but I only understood half of what she yelled over the wind, so I let Greybeard lead me around. He seemed to appreciate having some extra hands at the ready.
Things were made more complicated by our harness ropes. I couldn’t even make a wild guess of how many times I got tangled up with someone else. But we were managing. We were getting through it by working together.
My skin felt raw from the damn sand, but I did my best to ignore it. I ignored all the blisters and rope burns on my hands too. When we finally pulled through this, we were in for a rough couple of days.
The ship lurched to the side, and everyone scrambled to grab onto whatever they could. Luckily, I was near a railing and held on tight as I watched in horror as Patty flew through the air. She tried to grab onto anything she could, but she was moving too fast.
Thank the goddesses that the line held when she snapped to a stop. Her scream was drowned out by the howling wind.
“Don’t let go!” Greybeard yelled at me. “Steady now!”
I nodded and prayed the ship righted itself soon so we could pull Patty back and make sure she wasn’t too badly injured. I was sure being snapped back like that hurt as badly as a carriage crash would.
Finally, after what felt like forever, the ship leveled out, and I rushed over to where Patty had fallen overboard. When I saw her hanging by her harness, I blew out a relieved breath, then started hauling her butt up. Willy joined me, helping me pull her dead weight up to the main deck.
Once she was close enough, we grabbed under her arms and heaved her over the railing.
All three of us fell to the ground in a heap, and Patty sank into the wood, grabbing it and breathing hard, obviously relieved to be on deck again.
I patted her back and scooted out from under her so I could help someone else.
I checked on Max, and he looked stressed as hell, soaked to the bone, and covered in as much red, raw skin as the rest of us—curse this sand.
I headed in his direction. Maybe I couldn’t go give him a hug or a kiss like I really wanted—like he seemed to need—but there was nothing weird about me asking him if he needed help with something, right?
As I opened my mouth, I cut myself off from yelling Max—he would be so upset if I did that—and quickly switched what I was going to say. “Reaper? What do you need?”
Max stared at me for a second and opened his mouth, but before he could respond, I felt a strange tug in my chest. It made me gasp and concentrate on myself rather than my surroundings for a few seconds.
I grabbed at my chest as if I could stop the tugging sensation that way. The feeling disappeared for only a moment, as if whatever was tugging on me was gathering strength to come at me with more force.
It reached for me again and grabbed hold of my chest, my heart, and yanked. It was far more intense and took my breath away. It’d latched on, and I didn’t think it was going to release me anytime soon—if ever.
After what felt like several minutes but was likely only a couple of seconds, I realized exactly what this was.
A fluxstone.
Specifically, it was a fluxstone in the engine room.
It was reaching out, telling me it needed more power, and I swallowed thickly as I focused on my magic and my sense of stone.
The engine fluxstones were the biggest on the ship. There were three in the engine room, and right now, only one of them had any energy left at all. It was so low, the poor thing was practically begging for my help.
Oh goddesses, we were going to run out of power—and soon.
After draining our engine-grade fluxstones in the battle against the Sunada Imperial Fleet—that shield had really done a number on them—and now dodging this storm, we were close to losing all power.
To losing everything.
I blinked and stared up at Max, and I could see the truth written in his eyes.