Chapter 21 #2
I pressed the tip of my dagger to my lips as I looked him up and down. “I was just thinking I prefer seeing you like this. Chained up.”
“Kinky.” He chuckled.
I ran to his side to unlock his shackles, and the moment he was free, he took my face in his hands, leaning his forehead against mine. “I’m so proud of you.”
With him, it felt safe, but we were anything but. “No time. We’ve got to go topside.”
Three minutes.
He took the lead up the stairs despite not having a weapon, but he halted on the gundeck, outside the room that stored the cannons and gunpowder. He fished around in his pocket and pulled out his box of matches. “I have an idea. Stay here.”
“Reiven!” I hissed, but he had already disappeared into the room, muttering and fumbling with one barrel of gunpowder in the corner. I whispered to him to hurry up, pushing the door at the top of the stairs open a crack to see the havoc that continued on the main deck.
The crew had tied down the sail, but a massive wave had swept some men overboard, it seemed.
The pirates were busy binding themselves with rope to the mainmast to avoid the same fate, so they didn’t notice me.
Black, furious waves assaulted the ship, prepared to swallow any pirate unlucky enough to get caught up in its turbulent clutches.
Before Vaetrik kidnapped me, I lived deep enough below the surface that storms such as these didn’t affect my life, but, ever curious, I would swim higher to see the destruction of the underwater waves, the temperature and pressure changes. Nothing that would ever really hurt a Siren.
But seeing the fury of the storm through the eyes of a Human, I understood how a tempest like this might strike fear into the heart of someone who would easily be battered and drowned by walls of dark water.
One minute.
“Alright, we’re going to want to run!” Reiven seized my hand.
The blood drained from my face when I spotted why he was in such a hurry.
He had set up a thick line of gunpowder that led towards the stacked barrels. Nearer to the door, the gray line had charred black, in the wake of sparks crackling their way towards the barrels.
He’s insane.
Rei flung open the door and dragged me behind him into endless, blinding sheets of rain as my knee cried out with every step. We made it to the railing before a gunshot cracked over the natural destruction of the storm.
“Where do you think you’re going, pet?” Vaetrik roared.
Still drunk, but so pissed he completely lost his facade of calm, collected pirate captain.
He kept his pistol trained on me, though his arm swayed with the constant rocking of the ship.
Rain drenched his clothing and hair, dripping from his beard.
The rest of the crew noticed us then and drew their weapons as well. Shaddan loomed behind Vaetrik, golden gaze fixed on me as he levitated my old dagger at his side.
Reiven cursed our bad luck but continued to hold on to my hand, yanking me behind him.
I whispered to him exactly how we were going to get out of this.
“Oh, hell no.”
“Do you trust me?”
What a stupid question. We had no reason to trust each other, save for the magic that bound us and the strange emotion we shared. Still, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes, beneath the dark hair plastered to his forehead, and nodded.
Vaetrik fired again, but the resulting sound was pathetic compared to the explosion that threw the Ocean’s End into more of a violent pitch than any tumultuous wave.
Rei and I barely kept standing by holding on to the railing and each other, but the pirates were knocked off their feet as wood splinters rained from the blast.
Reiven’s crazy, brilliant idea blasted a gaping hole in their precious ship and destroyed their cannons and gunpowder stores. A massive crack split across the top deck and down the hull. The Ocean’s End tilted slightly, groaning at the devastating blow as the sea began to swallow her.
I had never been prouder to call a Human my companion. We both jumped onto the railing while Vaetrik stared slack-jawed at the damage done to his ship. He didn’t even try to get to his feet, though his crew was already fighting over the two rowboats that had gone unscathed in the explosion.
Rei hesitated, staring down into the fury of the ocean, but a squeeze from my hand forced him to shoot me a weak smile. I released him and dove into the roiling waters, trusting that he would follow me.
Comforting, silent pressure surrounded me, and the sweet coolness—finally, I was back in the sea where I belonged. I inhaled deeply.
Water swirled around my tingling legs, pulling them together until they merged, and when I looked down, I nearly sobbed with relief.
Gone were the surface-dweller limbs I’d been stuck with for six years; the ocean gave me back my tail.
Midnight blue scales shimmered with the golden light emanating from my collar as a pulse vibrated through the metal. I turned my gaze up.
“Come on.” My tail propelled me closer to the surface with one powerful flick, and I floated there, brushing my fingers against the metal around my neck. Why did touching it bring me comfort?
Reiven plunged into the water nearby, stirring up a trail of frothy bubbles behind him.
“Rei!” To a Human, my voice probably sounded muffled underwater, but to me, it was clearer and sharper than it had ever been on land. I grabbed onto him as an underwater wave buffeted us.
Reiven’s gaze traveled upwards. No doubt he wanted to swim to the surface where he could actually breathe, but with the storm and those giant waves, it would only be a matter of seconds before he was pulled back under.
“Rei,” I said again. I gripped the front of his shirt and manipulated the water to pull us far enough within the bubbling, dark blue depths that the underwater waves wouldn’t be a problem.
His eyes widened as I dragged him down. Did he think I was just going to drown him after all this time? No, he trusted me enough to follow me into the ocean in the midst of a storm. Even if he hated the water, even if he was terrified.
“I won’t let you drown, I promise.”
Surely, he knew what I had to do to keep him alive in the ocean, right? If I kept hesitating, he might run out of air. I yanked him closer by his collar and pressed my lips against his.