Chapter 18 Kaspar #2
They grunted and dove back into the fray without another word. They’d saved my life without a second thought.
The tentacles were blocking my pathway to the ladder again, and even more were making their way onto the ship.
Just how many legs did this thing have?
Someone screamed out in pain, and I flinched and glanced around.
Pirates were still shooting cannonballs and bullets at the thing, everyone was using anything they had—swords, knives, axes, bows—and we weren’t making any headway at all. The kraken’s legs almost seemed to be multiplying.
They were everywhere.
The sand kraken was about to have control of the ship.
My stomach dropped. I was too late. I’d waited too long to act, and now, we were all dead. I’d never make it to the engine room now.
“Ghost!” a voice yelled, and I turned, almost crying in relief when I found Max running for me.
“M-Reaper!” I yelled.
“Are you okay?” He stopped and chopped off the end of a tentacle that was in his way. “You almost got squished.”
If we weren’t in mortal danger, I’d think it was sweet that he’d been keeping an eye on me and wanted to make sure I was alright. But I had no time for any of that.
I waved him off and did my best not to bring my side injury to attention. Max had other things he needed to worry about right now… although… “I’m fine, but I need to get to the engine room. Can you help me?”
“There’s nothing we can do. The stones are dead.”
“I can help. Trust me, Reaper, I can help.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, and I could see his confusion. But I could also see his trust.
Before he could answer, he leapt forward, pushed me out of the way, and swung his sword at an incoming tentacle.
It took him two swings to slice through it—much better than me, which probably meant I needed to sharpen my sword—but he moved so fast and with such strength that the tentacle didn’t stand a chance.
Greybeard shouted a war cry as he ran past us and swung an axe right into one of the kraken’s arms. The beast made a sound of distress, and I realized we were actually hurting the damn thing. Good.
I glanced around and saw several severed tentacles lying about, and every single pirate—minus Viper—was fighting this horrible monster.
Maybe… maybe we really could get out of this.
“Get me to the ladder!”
Max nodded, and the two of us used our swords to slice and dice our way to the ladder.
When we reached it, I really wanted to give Max a kiss of gratitude, but I held in the compulsion and said, “Thanks! Get ready to take off, okay?”
He scowled. “I’m coming with you. Now hurry.”
Since I could tell by his stubborn expression that arguing would be pointless, I scanned the quarterdeck for Ariella. “Ariella!” I screamed, waiting for her to look at me. “Get ready to take off!”
Her face was confused, but she still gave me a nod after a beat, then had to turn away to fight off a tentacle with Dead Eyes, Voodoo, and Crusty.
Without another word, I headed for the ladder quickly. We had no time, anyway.
On the lower deck, there was a wall that separated the living quarters from the cannons, so no one was around as I raced to the next ladder that led to the hold.
It was really loud from all the cannons going off and the shouting and screams happening above us, but I did my best to ignore the mayhem and move as fast as possible.
I jumped down the last few steps and ran to the engine room without wasting another moment. Every second I took was another second one of my crewmates could get injured or killed.
I threw the engine room door open and jumped in surprise, not expecting to see Mad Murray down here. I thought the fluxstone engineer would’ve been up there fighting with us.
At least he had Sprocket on his shoulder. I was relieved the vexling was alright.
Murray glared at us and said, “There’s nothing left. I’ve tried everything.”
Sprocket chittered and waved their hands at us from Murray’s shoulder as if the little vexling was yelling at us.
“I know, Murray,” Max said, sounding way calmer than I felt.
I glanced at Max and said, “I swear I was gonna tell you.”
Then, without waiting for a response, I stepped into the room, placed each hand on an engine fluxstone, and pushed as much power as I could into them.
Normally, my power left me in a trickle, but I’d never been in such a dire situation before. Now, instead of a tiny stream, my power was more like a massive river flowing from my chest into my arms and out of my hands. It buzzed under my skin as it poured out of me.
Max gasped behind me. “What the hell? How are you doing that, Kas… oh.” I heard him whisper, “You’re a fluxweaver?” He sounded so confused, upset, and… and hurt.
As much as I wanted to reassure him right now, I couldn’t. I had to concentrate on the fluxstones in front of me. So I blocked him and Mad Murray out as best I could as I pushed my power out with everything I had.
I filled the fluxstones until they were glowing brightly with blue energy, and I was left breathless, panting, and drained.
Once they were as filled as they could be, I cut the power off, dropped my hands, and took a deep breath.
My head went a little dizzy, my body unused to filling such massive stones so quickly.
With another shaky breath, I forced my brain to clear.
We had too much to do. We needed to get away from the kraken and get this ship in the air.
We needed to save the crew.
I was afraid to meet Max’s gaze. I knew I should’ve told him about this sooner. I was just… scared, and now, he was going to hate me.
Or decide to turn me in as soon as we made it to Gearhart.
I didn’t actually think he’d do that to me. I could trust him, I knew I could.
Only, I hadn’t. And now, he was hurt.
“Holy shit, they’re working,” Mad Murray whispered before he said, “Go, Reap! Get us in the air!”
With a wince, I finally turned around. I didn’t want to see Max’s expression, but I looked anyway.
It couldn’t be avoided, and I deserved to see the fear or anger or whatever he was feeling toward me at that moment.
I’d kept a major secret from him this whole time.
I deserved whatever consequences came my way.
Max looked at me, and hurt was written in the shadows of his pretty dark brown eyes. The sight of it made my chest feel tight. I opened my mouth, but I didn’t know what to say to him to make this better. Was there anything I could say?
I’d almost told him so many times, but I’d held back, and now the man I was falling for, the man I cared about more than any man in the world, was hurting.
He looked crestfallen, maybe even heartbroken.
My eyes threatened to tear up.
After a few seconds, he looked away and said, “Speak of this to no one.” He looked at Mad Murray. “I mean it, Murray. Not a word. Not even if Viper asks you.”
Mad Murray nodded. “But we need to—”
“Meet back here after we get into the air.” Max looked at me. “Both of you.” Then he ran for the ladder without a backwards glance.
I winced even as my chest tightened further.
We… had other things we needed to do. This—us—would have to wait, I knew that. I just… I wanted to make it right. I wanted to comfort him when he looked like that. I hated seeing that expression on his face, and it was worse because I’d put it there.
But before I could do any of that, we needed to get the hellfire away from this monster.
I started to follow Max, but Murray grabbed my arm to stop me. “Be careful, kid. If Viper finds out…” He trailed off with a shake of his head.
I grimaced. “I know.”
He made a disgusted face before releasing me, and I ran after Max, ignoring how weak I felt. I would rally, and that was all there was to it. Hopefully, the excitement of the fight and takeoff would help me ignore my wounds and energy loss.
By the time I made it up to the main deck, Max already had the ship powering back up and was preparing for liftoff. The pirates were fighting the sand kraken, but there was a new energy to the crew.
Before, everyone was fighting for their lives, but it had felt hopeless. No one truly believed we could make it out here on the desert floor, and after seeing it for myself, I had to agree.
But now, the crew knew they could get out of this, and they wanted to live.
There was a fire to everyone’s moves.
We were going to get out of here.
We were going to be okay.
There was hope.
I joined in, slashing at the tentacles and following directions when someone told me to grab a rope or move something wherever it needed to go. I did everything in my power to help us take off.
It felt like it took an eternity to finally lift off the ground, but I didn’t care. We were going to make it.
We had to make it.
The second the ship lifted about a foot in the air, everyone cheered and went after the kraken with even more vigor.
The ship couldn’t lift any higher with so much damage and the monster still attached to the hull, so we cut and chopped and stabbed until the thing let out a terrifying roar and released our ship.
Its tentacles slithered and slipped off, and I ran to the rail to see it digging into the sand as we slowly rose higher and higher into the air. It was a bumpy ride with the destruction onboard, but we kept rising higher.
I didn’t think I’d ever been so relieved in my entire life.
We were safe.
We were beaten and bruised, but we were safe.
When I turned around and eyed the rest of the crew, I grimaced.
Not all of us were safe. Some of us didn’t make it at all.
Relief was a palpable thing, but so was the grief marring everyone’s faces.
I was almost afraid to find out who else hadn’t made it.
Stitches was working on Bones, who’d lost part of his right arm in the battle. He was screaming in pain, and I couldn’t even look at what the doctor was doing to him. She was helping, but there was so much blood.
I shuddered.
Hawk-Eyes—who’d clearly learned some doctoring from her mother—was sewing up a very large gash on Moonie’s stomach while her mom was busy. Several others were assisting each other with stitches and wrapping wounds.
The damage to the ship was extensive. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure how we were in the air right now with so many of our sails and things down.
Luckily, our wings were mostly intact, although there were holes in the fabric, and the starboard side wing was bent at an odd angle.
But still, they were able to get us into the air, thank the goddesses.
I could only assume our engine was—at least, mostly—undamaged. Although, I could tell we were mostly just floating in the air and not actually going anywhere.
With a cringe, I took in all the damage to the deck itself. Parts of the railings were missing or splintered, and there were plenty of holes in the deck, not to mention the large chunk of one of the masts that’d fallen through the floor.
It looked like the crew and the ship had just come through a warzone.
Max called out, “We’re as high as we can go at the moment, and we’re not out of danger yet. Sand serpents are good jumpers, so we need to keep watch for any sign of them.”
Hawk-Eyes handed her needle and thread over to Patty before she gave Max a tiny salute and headed up to the quarterdeck—currently the highest point she could get to.
Max continued, “Someone else needs to take watch on the bow.” Toothless Jimmy rushed over to take watch there. “We aren’t going to make it very far without our sails and masts fixed, so I need every capable person on deck with a tool in their hand. Repair things under Pete’s direction.”
My brow furrowed in confusion for a few seconds before I remembered that Puffypants Pete was the ship’s carpenter, so it made sense that he’d be in charge.
I headed toward him, but before I got very far, Max said, “Ghost? You’re needed down below. You can help Pete later.”
He sounded… cold and unlike the Max I was used to.
He sounded like the Reaper, and I couldn’t even remember the last time he’d spoken to me like that. Even when we’d pretended to have him yell at me, he’d still sounded like my Max underneath it all.
But right now, he sounded and looked like a stranger.
His eyes were more guarded than I’d ever seen them.
The thought made my chest tight all over again, and I had to blink a few times to stop my eyes from leaking all over the place.
Max didn’t wait for a reply from me. He simply walked down the ladder without another word.
As I followed him down, I thought he might at least look at me. I wanted so badly for him to give me that little bit of hope, but he didn’t.
He didn’t look back even once.
When we made it down into the hold, I rubbed at my eyes, willing them to stay dry.
Max stopped in the doorway of the engine room, and I stepped in close and whispered, “I’m sorry, Max. I was going to tell you, I swear.”
He stiffened for a brief moment, so I knew he heard me, and then he stepped through the door without responding, breaking my heart all over again.
I stood frozen outside the room, staring at Max’s rigid back. The man who’d held me in the crow’s nest, who’d kissed me under the stars, who’d shared his deepest wounds with me—now couldn’t even look me in the eye.
I’d spent my whole life hiding who I was, terrified of being enslaved for my power. But standing here now, I realized something worse than captivity existed—watching someone you love look at you like a stranger.
My secret had saved us all, but at what cost?