Chapter 30
Aster
Overnight, our ship picks up pace until it’s slicing through the water at a supernatural speed. We roll from side to side, making it impossible to walk straight, let alone think straight as we crash along as though we’re being tugged by some unseen force.
Torin’s strict about as many people staying below deck as possible, since it’s not safe to be wandering around while the conditions are like this. With every passing minute, we creep closer to Deadwood Cove, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from spilling my guts up.
Then late into the day, we hear the whistle from above, distorted by the wind, and Jack appears in the doorway to mine and Reva’s shared cabin.
His nose wrinkles up at the lingering scent in the air and I find myself fighting a smirk rather than embarrassment.
Last night was just about the best night of my life. It’s just a shame that real life had to creep in so soon.
“Hold on to your hats, lady and gent,” Jack says. “We’re coming in to land, and it’s about to get bumpy.”
He plops onto the ground with his back against the wall and then gestures for us both to do the same. Reva crawls from the bed, shooting me a bemused look before she takes a seat while I slip into the space beside her.
“How do you mean? I know Captain Finch said he was going to get as close to land as he could, but what—”
The entire ship whips forward and then back with a thunderous groan, jerking us along with it like rag dolls.
I lurch forward, suddenly weightless, and then smack into the wall behind me with enough force to knock all the wind out of my lungs.
Jack’s got his arm over Reva’s chest and is grinning widely at the expressions on our faces.
“Everyone all right?”
I’ve forgotten how to breathe for a moment and have to coax the air back into my lungs. Reva squeezes my hand before elbowing Jack sharply in the ribs.
“A bit more warning would have been nice. What was that?”
“That was our dear captain beaching us.”
Her eyes widen. “Doesn’t that damage the ship? What in Mother Ocean’s name was he thinking?”
Jack gets to his feet, and Reva ignores his outstretched hand to pull herself up using the wall.
“You’ll see in a moment. He wants to get as close to the action as he can.” He jauntily strides for the door, looking far too happy. “They’re here, though, right? We’re in the right place?”
Reva pulls the spectacles from her pocket, handing them over and rubbing at her chest.
“They’re here.” Jack nods to himself. “Well then, we’d better get this show on the road.”
The two of us follow behind him as he hurries up onto the deck, where the ship is surrounded by greyish sand. Over the seawall, I can just make out the town along the beach.
“Kit’s definitely been here,” Torin rumbles from low in his chest. “We shouldn’t have been able to get this far, right?”
Captain Finch shakes his head. “He cursed the whole damn place. But that was decades ago, maybe the curse faded or someone else managed to break it.” He shakes his head while his tentacles flail around wildly as if they’re reflecting his agitation.
“We should have just burned the fucking place down when we had the chance.”
Jack turns to me and Reva, keeping his voice low. “Right now, I need you both to stay calm. The three of us are going to scout the area for Kit while Cap and Torin do their thing. Do not freak out, or we’re going to have bigger problems on our hands.”
“What kind of bigger problems?” Reva asks. When Jack doesn’t respond, she turns to me, shaking her head. “Doesn’t he realise that telling people not to freak out is the best way to cause them anxiety?”
I’m distracted from answering by a scent that carries on the wind.
It’s twisted and terrible and filled with rot and mould.
It fills me with the sense of desperately sucking on bone to get the last bit of meat off, of being trapped, and feeling this overwhelming hollow of despondency.
This is it, my life forever. Stuck in darkness and only brought out to feel pain and have more of the life sucked right out of me. It’s—
“You’d better hurry,” Captain Finch says. “I’m not sure I can hold it in much longer.”
There’s an odd tone to his voice I haven’t heard before, like he’s trying not to cough. Torin then approaches, giving Reva a swift, hard kiss on the lips before slapping me and Jack on the shoulder.
“You take care of her, all right? I want everyone back here safe.”
That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do since the moment her sunshine lit up my dark, dank life. But his words are enough to break me out of my panic. I nod, and Torin gives me another bone-shattering backslap.
“Now, go. Off the ship and get as far from it as you can.”
There’s an odd groaning of the wood close to where the captain’s standing, and Torin glances over before shooting us a panicked look.
“Go. Now.”
We scramble off the ship into water that hits us at calf level. Jack charges ahead while Reva and I hurry to catch up, both of us unnerved by the nervous glances he keeps aiming over our shoulders.
We reach the beach and don’t pause, gaining speed now that we’re not slowed down by the water.
“Over the sea wall. Up. Up!” Jack throws himself against it, scrambling over the wall.
I boost Reva up so she can do the same while I heave myself up.
I’ve gained a lot of strength over the past few weeks, building myself back together piece by piece.
But I’m still panting by the time we’re up and over the wall, away from the beach.
Jack steadies himself against the wall, his chest heaving as he stares back the way we came.
“Just in time,” he mutters.
“For wha—” Reva doesn’t even get the word out before the distant figure of the captain transforms. His body elongates, his hat going flying as he widens, growing taller so rapidly my eyes can barely keep track.
He morphs into a gigantic black form with tentacles longer than the ship spreading across the deck.
The ship groans audibly, tilting at a dangerous angle, as it struggles to cope with his massive bulk.
“Cap,” Torin yells.
With a bestial roar that freezes the blood in my veins, Finch throws himself off the side of the boat into the shallow water. When he lands, there’s an almighty splash, and a sheet of water and wet sand splatters in a huge arc.
The water and land around the ship are now entirely black from the captain’s massive body. And then he slams one massive tentacle downward, sending more sand and water flying in all directions.
Reva’s voice is strangled as she stares out at him. “He’s a—”
Not an octopus or a squid. He’s like a leviathan of ancient legend, a creature that’s whispered about because people get superstitious when it comes to monsters that are the size of buildings.
“Kraken,” Jack replies. “One that’s feeling particularly pissy at the moment. Now, we need to make a move before he starts smashing shit up.”
One enormous tentacle reaches out and plucks Torin from the deck, sending his metal spikes shooting out of his spine, tearing his skin into shreds.
“Why is Torin staying with him?” Reva’s voice comes out higher-pitched than usual.
“Without Kit, he’s the only one who has half a chance of controlling Finch when he’s in this form.”
Reva’s eyes are wide as she stares at the two of them where they’re making their way over the beach, in the opposite direction to us. Finch lets out a devastating roar that has my insides turning to ice, and Jack nudges us both.
“Come on, we need to get moving.” He peers around.
“Is that... what they did to him?” Reva asks. “The experiment he mentioned. Is that what—”
Jack nods. “Pretty sure they didn’t know what they were creating.
He never transformed while he was here, or the place would have been destroyed a long time ago.
The kraken came... after. Thankfully, it means even the king himself doesn’t know what kind of weapon he created.
Not that Finch would ever do his bidding.
He’s a little... unpredictable in this state. ”
Right on cue, there’s an almighty crash and the ground shudders beneath our feet, sending me stumbling to the side. The pavement beneath us cracks, and we dodge potholes to follow Jack’s lead as he continues up the street.
“It looks so normal,” Reva murmurs. “Tired and forgotten, but like a regular little town.”
“What were you expecting? Signs warning people about the insane laboratories below ground?”
“I mean, I did see a sign on the beach, warning about undisclosed mineshafts.”
“That’s because they didn’t want people traipsing about the place. It’s a place no one would want to stay.”
Reva snorts. “It doesn’t look too different from Ambleby, where Frannie and I were living, just a little more dusty.”
She’s right that the street is covered with a layer of grey sand, and the road is covered in holes. All the buildings all have boards over their windows, their signs faded with sunlight and neglect.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Reva asks, holding out the spectacles to me. I hesitate to take them, my stomach contracting as I take in the magic that extends from Reva’s chest along the road before disappearing.
“Straight on ahead,” I tell her.
Somewhere behind us, there’s another earth-shaking crash, and we pick up the pace.
“Is he trying to draw attention to them?” Reva asks, and Jack grins.
“I doubt he’s thinking things through in that state, pretty sure the kraken remembers this place, and he holds a grudge. But Cap’s idea was to try and lure the sorceress out. A distraction so we can swoop in and find Kit.”
When Reva stumbles, I dart toward her, assuming she’s stepped into one of the many holes or cracks littering the road. But when I wrap my arm around her, she’s clutching her chest.
“Can you hear that?”
At my clueless expression, her face falls. “It’s Kit. I can hear his heartbeat in the air.”