Chapter Four
The sound that bursts from Elsie’s gaping mouth is far from human.
I leap back, putting distance between us once more as Elsie’s body contorts, her skin sliding from her face like melted candle wax, her bones snapping at unnatural angles.
In the blink of an eye, a Shifter stands where Elsie knelt moments before, fully transformed.
She gasps for breath, her braided blond hair receding to cropped purple strands that dust her shoulders.
I recognize her instantly as the Shifter who imitated Sybil’s likeness, infiltrating the Order as one of Morana’s spies.
She presses against the wound in her chest, inky-black blood pouring from between her fingers, her lip curled even as a glint of mischief twinkles in her eyes. “You missed.”
I draw my second dagger as lightning illuminates the ship, glancing off the Elysian Iron in a blinding flash of white. “It won’t happen again.”
Bloodknights surround me, closing ranks and separating me from my crew, still overwhelmed in battle aboard the Starchaser.
Titus grins as he props the hilt of his macabre blade atop his shoulder and scratches his head with his other hand. “How did you know?”
I jerk my chin at the Shifter and shrug. “Elsie wouldn’t have cried like that.”
The Shifter sneers. Titus barks a laugh.
“Can we move this along?” the Shifter asks, teeth gritted as her wound slowly stitches itself together. “Queen Morana doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
A muscle in Titus’s jaw twitches, but his smile doesn’t falter. “Then Morana should have retrieved the girl herself, aye, Selene?”
Sybil—or Selene, I suppose—rolls her eyes.
Morana could have compelled Titus to be fully compliant—never questioning her will or reason. So, if Titus has it in him to argue, that means he’s still pulling the strings. I just need to reach him somehow.
“Titus, listen—” I start, but I’m cut off by a commotion aboard the Starchaser.
Mangled screams cut short; heavy, armored bodies dropping like flies. Bloodknights attempt to scramble over the gangplank to safety aboard the Mythslayer only to be dragged backward by an invisible force, their bones cracking, slicing through flesh.
I turn.
It’s all Titus needs to grab hold of me, one arm around my neck, the other wrapped around my body like a steel band. “That’s it, love,” he croons, his lips tickling my ear, sending a shiver through me. “No need to fight it.”
My vision fades as the pressure increases on my throat, but through the haze, I see Will.
The Mythslayer’s cannon must have freed him somehow, but…
the chains of Elysian Iron that had bound his wrist are missing, too.
He shreds the Bloodknights to ribbons, tearing limbs from their bodies.
His teeth drip with blood as he rips into their throats and gorges himself on Manan that makes his eyes appear as bright as the sun itself.
And then he sees me.
Cocks his head. Snarls. Throws out a hand.
The pressure at my neck relents, and Titus’s body slumps, dragging me to the ground along with him. I roll out of his arms, dizzy as I try to get to my feet.
Selene roars in frustration as Will, having cleared our ship of the enemy, chases the last surviving Bloodknight onto the Mythslayer.
He throws out a hand, and the knight’s neck twists, cracks, and the soldier falls.
Will sets his sights on Selene, now guarded by the last three Bloodknights, backing away from Titus’s prone body.
“Think about this—”
She coughs blood onto her chin. Looks down.
Selene’s rib cage protrudes from her chest, twenty-four spikes of bone, and she drops, hitting the deck with a sickening thud.
The Bloodknights don’t even have the chance to run.
The silence that follows Will’s assault is heavy, the metallic tang in the air almost intoxicating. I can feel my tentative grip on my magic slipping—can feel the beast within me shaking itself awake. Sniffing. Licking its lips.
More, the voice screams. More.
“That’s enough!” Gabriel shouts, cutting through the haze of bloodlust, and I realize Will’s focus is torn between the handful of human prisoners aboard the Mythslayer and…
Stars.
Me.
I brace myself, but it’s no use. Will is on top of me without warning, his teeth at my throat.
As he sinks his canines into the soft flesh, I hear a scream, and I barely register that it’s my own.
Will’s weight bears down on me, and though I’m somewhat numb to the sensation of his hands pinning my wrists to the hard deck, I feel every agonizing pull of blood he empties from my veins with startling clarity.
Thump.
“Daughter of the sea,” whispers a voice, clear and melodic and as familiar to me as my own heartbeat. “Open your eyes.” And again, urgently, “Open your eyes!”
I struggle to lift my eyelids—struggle to focus as my vision blurs, spins, quakes.
Past a tangle of Will’s dark hair, glistening white scales catch the firelight, reflecting the amber glow like thousands of glittering stars.
The serpent rises out of the sea, towering over the Mythslayer, its fanged mouth gaping, poised to strike. Its silver eyes glow, bright as two moons, as it sets its sights on Will and me.
It lurches forward and—
BANG.
The serpent reels back, shrieking. The earsplitting wail needles its way into my mind, vibrating in my jaw, and it’s piercing enough that Will releases me.
Only to collapse right back on top of me, his body limp.
“He’ll thank me later, right?” Henry flashes a wry grin, but his eyes are haunted as he shoves Will’s body off and scoops me up in his arms.
He struggles to maintain his footing as he carries me toward the gangplank, the ship rocking and swaying as the serpent writhes.
I follow the beam of its silver gaze to the crow’s nest of the Starchaser, where Jack continues to draw the Myth’s attention with gunfire.
But the serpent appears to adapt to Jack’s bullets, dodging them with the swift dexterity of a snake.
And when Jack is forced to reload, the serpent turns its attention back to the Mythslayer—back to Will.
“We can’t leave them!” I try to say as Henry climbs onto the gangplank, but my weak voice is little more than a wheeze.
Henry’s grip tightens, a muscle in his jaw feathering. “We’re not leaving anyone!”
And then I see them—Charlie, hoisting Will over his shoulder, and Gabriel, not far behind, hauling Titus’s limp form. The few remaining prisoners struggle against their chains as Lewis darts about the Mythslayer, searching for a way to free them.
Jack should have had time to reload by now, but he doesn’t fire another shot.
“It’s jammed!” I can barely hear his scream over the howl of the storm as Henry drops onto the Starchaser.
A web of lightning illuminates the sky, glinting off the serpent’s fangs as it rears back, hissing.
My head spins, and black spots edge my vision. I have to do something, I have to—
I attempt to roll out of Henry’s arms, but he holds me close to his chest, his grip unyielding. “You’ve lost too much blood!” he snaps. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Feebly, I pound his chest with my fist, my screams little more than gasping breaths. “Let me go! Let me—”
The Starchaser lurches as the serpent rams its head into the starboard side, sending Henry and me sprawling onto the deck.
My body spasms, pain cleaving through me like a blade. Every part of me aches as I crawl forward. I grit my teeth against the throbbing in my head as I pull myself to my feet, staggering toward the taffrail.
I draw two pistols from holsters at my back. Take aim.
I fire the first shot, the recoil nearly knocking me off my feet.
The serpent’s head swivels, its preternatural eyes locked on mine, silver light holding me in its otherworldly stare.
Again. Pain rips through my arms, shredding my muscles as I pull the trigger.
More. I fire another bullet.
Charlie drops onto the deck of the Starchaser, followed by Gabriel close at his heels. Both are safe, along with Will and Titus. But Lewis is still on board the Mythslayer, along with the handful of human prisoners, chained to the deck, unable to escape.
The serpent shrieks again, and darkness closes in on me, but I plant my feet—force myself to squeeze the trigger.
Lewis has just freed the first prisoner when the serpent loses interest in me, turning its attention back on the Mythslayer. My brother drags the human, beaten beyond recognition, toward the gangplank as the serpent shoots forward, faster than a whip of lightning.
A roar erupts from my chest, drowned out by the thunder, as I fire another bullet.
The serpent wraps its colossal body around the mainmast of the Mythslayer, snapping it in two.
Crack.
The Mythslayer seems to shatter, an explosion of splintered wood, and the gangplank falls to the ocean below.
I think I scream Lewis’s name as he disappears, plummeting toward the water.
“No!” Charlie lunges for the taffrail.
The pistols slip from my grasp, clatter to the deck.
I sway, stumble.
And then—
A hand, gripping the edge of the Starchaser.
“Pull him up!”
Charlie and Gabriel hoist Lewis over the side of the ship, still clutching the human’s forearm, dragging him onto the deck as well. The human flops onto his back, heaving for breath, and Charlie hugs Lewis close to his chest, screaming curses at him over the howl of the rain.
Aboard the Mythslayer, the human prisoners’ cries are cut short as the serpent thrashes, and the ship splits in half. Margaret shouts something from the helm as she attempts to navigate the Starchaser away from the pull of the sinking vessel.
And there, lying face up on the deck of the Starchaser—Titus.
The subtle rise and fall of his chest is the last thing I see as my head lolls, my eyelids drifting shut, and I collapse into Henry’s arms.