Overboard
Chapter fifty-four
Panic unlike any he had ever known tore through Finn’s chest as he screamed, “Lucianna!”
A wave rushed over the side of the ship and consumed his wife. The creature jerked the Maralyn back center with an enraged howl. Bits of seaweed and driftwood scattered across the deck.
Lucianna was gone.
Finn didn’t stop to think. He broke out full speed toward the starboard and dove over the edge into the Tides.
The icy temperature was a shock to his body and slowed his movements.
Finn blinked his eyes open and attempted to look for his wife beneath the tides.
His heart cried out though his mouth could not.
Seconds felt like hours. Right as his lungs began to protest, he caught sight of her suspended in the murky waters, unmoving.
He wrapped an arm around her waist, then began to kick his feet and drag his remaining arm through the frigid brine.
Though he wasn’t encumbered by shoes or a weapons belt, Lucianna was, and it made progress difficult.
Spots dotted his vision as he became desperate for oxygen.
Still, he swam. He would not let her go to get air and risk losing her to the lothyda.
As soon as he breached the surface, he gasped.
Finn pulled hard, his muscles protesting as he attempted to get Lucianna above water.
His wife did not suck in air or cough up liquid.
No, her head lolled. Finn opened his mouth to scream for help, when a searing pain ripped through his side.
He swallowed the sea as he was dragged under again, taking his wife with him.
Blinded by sediment and pain, Finn grasped at his wife’s waist. His fingers wrapped around a dagger. His dagger. He unsheathed it and swung at the monster. The blade made contact and severed the tentacle and freed him from the lothyda.
Again he made for the surface, all the while internally begging Lucianna to wake up.
Please, I can’t lose you too.
They pierced the Tides and all the air left in his lungs went to crying out “Help!”
He didn’t stop yelling until his cousin’s face appeared over the side of the boat. Castien’s gaze was frantic.
“Rope!” he yelled as he turned away.
Though it felt like an eternity, a line was thrown over to him. Finn sheathed the dagger on Lucianna’s belt, then began to swim where it dipped into the seafoam.
“She’s unconscious!” Finn yelled. A wave buffeted him and he coughed. “You have to pull us both up.”
Petals appeared next to Cas and grasped the rope.
“You hold her. I’ll pull you,” the brute assured him.
Finn nodded and tucked his wife against him.
He gripped the rope with his other hand, the bandages gone, lost to the sea.
The tender muscles in his shoulder felt as though someone was sawing them with a dull knife.
Finn clenched his jaw so hard he was near breaking a tooth. Petals pulled them overboard.
Lucianna rolled onto her back. Finn’s arms trembled as he tried to hold himself up.
“Take her to the captain’s quarters,” Castien directed. “I’ve got your back.”
With the dregs of his strength, he pulled his wife into his arms and staggered in that direction. Finn was vaguely aware of the lothyda’s roars and the cries of his comrades. But the entirety of his focus was on the pale, still face of his wife.
He fumbled with the door, practically falling inside.
“Finn!” Wren shouted in alarm.
“Please,” he pleaded with no one but his own mind as he collapsed to his knees.
The pain in his side was worse now that the icy cold of the Tides wasn’t numbing it.
He ignored it. Lucianna hadn’t drawn a breath since he dragged her out of the Tides.
Tears blurred his vision as he tipped Lucianna’s head back.
Then he pinched her nose and bent down to press his lips to hers.
It was like burying his face in snow, she was so cold.
With fervent desperation he breathed into her mouth several times.
Then he pulled back and positioned his hands over his wife’s chest. He pumped, trying to remember the counts he’d learned when training for battlefield rescue, but failing at the sight of her lifeless on the wood floor.
Once more his lips pressed to hers, giving all he had. His tears dropped onto her face. Again he pulled back and began another cycle of compressions. Lucianna’s face screwed up and she began to choke. Finn quickly turned her on her side.
“Lucianna?”
She did not respond. He grasped her wrist and pressed bloodied fingers against the vein there. The faint pulse that tickled his fingers sent a cascade of relief over him. He passed his hand under her nose. A soft push of air. Finn choked back a sob.
“She was underwater. I-I don’t know how much she swallowed.” His hands trembled as he brushed her dark hair out of her face. A purple gash marred her porcelain skin. She must have hit her head and gone unconscious.
“Leave her on her side,” Wren ordered in a gentle tone. “In case she coughs up more.”
Finn did as she said, then glanced over his shoulder.
“I should go back to help.”
His entire being longed to stay where he was until he saw her hazel eyes open again, but if they did not kill this monster, he wouldn’t get the chance.
“Go. Cora and I will take care of her,” Wren told him.
He glanced up to where the alchemist was standing a few paces away, staring at Lucianna with fear plastered over her expression.
She nodded in agreement with Wren. Finn bent down and pressed a kiss to Lucianna’s cheek, the same spot he’d kissed on their wedding day.
Then he got to his feet and trudged on aching legs to the exit.
With one last glance over his shoulder, he threw open the door and set his gaze on the monster.
Determination chased away the pain and exhaustion.
Finn grabbed a sword from the weapons rack bolted to the wall nearby, swung it in an arc to test the weight, then stalked toward the monster that hurt his wife.
“We disabled one of the tentacles,” Castien shouted over the crashing waves as Finn met him and the other men near the mainmast. “I think if we can get the one on the left, it may abandon us.”
“I’ll do it,” Finn growled.
“It can’t be you alone—Finn!” Castien yelled as Finn rushed toward the monster.
The lothyda’s eyes narrowed in on him. It flailed a spiked tentacle in his direction.
Finn prepared to duck, but the creature rammed into the foremast. A harsh crack warned Finn just in time to dodge the snapped mast. Sails and rigging tumbled down on the lothyda’s tentacle.
It got tangled and began to writhe, gurgling and snapping its maw in displeasure.
Finn used the circumstance as an opportunity and ran straight for the vicious entity.
He jumped onto the forecastle and grabbed hold of his sword with both hands before plunging it into the spot where the tentacle met the lothyda’s body.
The monster wailed and gave one final pull to break free of the broken sail.
Finn dove to the side to avoid being hit or taken by it.
The being disappeared over the edge of the boat, taking the sword with it, and all grew quiet once more.
Shortly after, the water rippled in the distance, and Kelwin shouted confirmation that the beast had fled.
Finn did not waste time celebrating. He took off for the other side of the ship where his wife was, jumping fallen rigging and sliding on slick portions of the deck.
Wren’s head jerked up when Finn fell into the room. She was on the floor beside Lucianna, rubbing her back.
“Is it dead?” Wren asked.
“Gone,” Finn answered, and rushed toward Lucianna, falling to his knees again.
“She awoke for a moment to cough up more water,” Wren explained, and gestured to the rags near Lucianna’s face. “But she has yet to open her eyes or say anything.”
Castien burst in mere seconds after Finn. Wren jumped to her feet, a sob racking her body as Castien pulled her into his embrace.
“I’m here,” he murmured. “I’m here.”
Finn rubbed Lucianna’s back, fear gripping him tightly by the throat.
Castien pulled away and ran his hands over Wren as if to check for injuries.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“I’m not the one who fought a monster,” she said with a wet laugh.
Finn noticed that Castien’s hand lingered over Wren’s abdomen.
Pieces of moments from the past few days came back to him.
Her being fatigued and nauseous, but having no other symptoms of illness.
Castien refusing to let her fight, though he had allowed her to stand with them before.
A snippet of their conversation he’d thought he misheard earlier on the deck.
Shock rippled through his weakened body.
Wren was with child.