Chapter 4
The days turned to routine. Wake before dawn, breakfast in the galley, navigation training with Cypher, watch rotation, sleep.
I learned the ship inside and out. Learned which boards creaked, where the warm spots were when the engines were running hot, which sections of rail had the best view.
Click explored every corner as he scuttled from shadow to shadow, spying on the crew.
Kora and Jask grew closer, though both pretended nothing was happening.
I'd catch them during night watch, standing close together while Jask pointed out constellations of portals and told her their names.
The way she looked at him made my chest ache with something I didn't want to examine.
Cypher was right. Getting attached wasn't a good idea.
Three weeks into our journey, everything changed.
I was at the helm with Cypher—he'd started joining me during my watches, claiming he wanted to monitor my progress but never actually saying much.
We sailed in our usual silence, and I was starting to not mind it.
Silence with Cypher felt different from silence with others. Less awkward, more… oddly comfortable.
"There's a storm ahead," he said suddenly.
I looked up scanning the darkness off the side of the ship. It looked the same as always, just absolute darkness save for distant portals. "I don't see anything."
"You're not looking with your rift senses. Open yourself up. Feel the currents."
I closed my eyes and did what he'd taught me. I stopped thinking and just felt. And there it was, a disturbance. Like turbulence in water, swirling, moving and chaotic. "What is that?"
"Void storm. Happens when multiple currents collide and create unstable eddies. They're dangerous and can tear a ship apart if you're caught in the center." He adjusted our heading, angling away from the disturbance. "We need to go around."
"How long will that add to our journey?"
"A day, maybe two. But it's better than the alternative."
The storm grew as we approached, and even without my rift senses I could see it now, a swirling mass of darkness that was somehow darker than the area around it, shot through with flashes of sickly green light. The air pressure changed, making my ears pop.
"All hands!" Cypher shouted. "Secure everything! Storm protocols!"
The crew erupted into action. Zoya raced to the navigation station, Omri disappeared into the engine room, Knives and Tor began securing loose items on deck. Jask appeared at Cypher's side, ready for orders.
"Get the passengers below," Cypher told him.
"I can help," I protested.
"You can help by not being in the way." But his tone wasn't cruel, just practical. "This is going to get rough. Go below, strap yourself in, and hold on."
Kora appeared and grabbed my arm. "Come on."
We made it to our cabin just as the ship hit the edge of the storm.
The Night-Piercer lurched violently, throwing us against the wall.
Kora swore and scrambled for the bunks, strapping herself in with the safety harnesses of ropes and clasps built into the wall.
I did the same, pulling Click from my pocket and holding him against my chest.
The ship bucked and rolled. I could hear shouts from above, the groan of stressed wood, the scream of overstressed metal. Something crashed in the corridor outside our cabin.
"This is fine!" Kora yelled over the noise. "So, so fine!"
Through our viewport, I could see the storm. Streamers of energy whipped past us, and the darkness itself seemed to roil and churn. The ship's crystal lamps flickered as the energy interfered with their power.
And then I felt it. A pull, stronger than anything I'd experienced before. It dragged at something deep inside me, called to the part of me I mostly suppressed. I gasped, fighting the urge to answer that call.
"Juno?" Kora's voice sounded very far away. "Juno, what's wrong?"
I couldn't answer. The pull was overwhelming, drowning out everything else. Through it, I could sense things—the currents that made up the storm, the eddies and whirlpools of void energy. And beneath it all, something else. A presence. Multiple presences.
Echoes.
They were everywhere in the storm, drawn to its energy like moths to flame. I could feel them reaching out, their consciousness fragmentary and desperate. They wanted contact, wanted to touch the living world they'd left behind. And they could feel me.
"Come," they whispered. "Come into the dark. Come home."
"Juno!" Kora was shaking me, her face pale. "Whatever you're doing, stop!"
With an effort that felt like tearing away part of myself, I blinked and shoved away the voices. The cabin snapped into focus around me, solid wood, flickering light, Kora's frightened eyes.
"I'm okay," I gasped.
"You were glowing. Like, actually glowing. Your eyes, your hands." She gripped my shoulders. "What the hell was that?"
The ship gave another violent lurch, and I heard a crash from above. Then Cypher's voice: "Omri, I need more power to the stabilizers!"
We had to get up there. I had to help.
"Stay here," I told Kora, unstrapping myself.
"Are you insane? Cypher said—"
"I know what he said. But I can feel the storm. I can feel the currents." I stumbled to the door as the ship rolled. "I might be able to help navigate through it."
I made my way through the corridor, using the walls for support as the ship pitched and heaved. The stairs to the deck were slick with condensation, and I nearly fell twice before making it to the top.
The deck was chaotic. Zoya clung to the navigation station, shouting coordinates. Tor and Knives worked the wing controls, fighting to keep us stable. And at the helm stood Cypher and Jask, both of them straining against the helm as they fought to keep us on course.
I staggered toward them, and Cypher's head snapped around. "What are you doing up here?"
"I can feel the currents! I can help!"
"Get below before you're thrown overboard!"
"Listen to me!" I grabbed his arm. "The safest path is to port, bearing fifteen degrees down. There's a calm channel through the storm. I can feel it."
He stared at me, and I saw the calculation in his eyes. Trust an untrained rift, or rely on his own experience?
"Jask, take the helm," he said suddenly. “Scavenger, with me." He dragged me to the navigation station, one hand locked around my wrist to keep me from being thrown off my feet. The ship groaned around us, and somewhere below I heard the sound of breaking glass.
"Show me," Cypher demanded.
I closed my eyes and opened myself to the current. The storm's currents became visible in my mind. And there, cutting through the heart of it, a path of relative calm.
"There," I said, pointing. "If we angle down and to port, we can ride that channel through. It'll be rough, but it won't tear us apart. We're too late to go around."
Cypher looked at the astrolabe, comparing what I'd sensed to its readings. For a moment I thought he was going to reject my guidance, relying on instruments over instinct. Then he turned and shouted, "Jask! New heading, bearing fifteen degrees port, descending angle!"
"That'll take us into the heart of it!" Jask called back.
"Do it!"
The ship angled hard, and I felt my stomach drop as we descended into the storm. The darkness intensified. Energy crackled around us, and I saw tendrils of green lightning arc between the wings.
But I'd been right. The channel was there, a river of calmer current cutting through the chaos. We rode it like a road, still buffeted by the storm but no longer in danger of being torn apart.
Cypher kept one hand on my shoulder, anchoring me as I called out adjustments. "Three degrees starboard… steady… now five degrees up…"
It felt like hours but was probably only minutes. And then, suddenly, we were through. The storm fell away behind us, and the Gallery returned to its normal, eerie calm.
I sagged against the navigation station, exhausted. My head pounded, and my vision swam.
"Status report," Cypher shouted.
"Port engine's overheated," Omri shouted from below. "But still functional. We've got some structural damage to the starboard wing support."
"Anyone hurt?"
A chorus of "No," and "I'm fine," came from the crew.
Cypher turned to me, and I couldn't read his expression. "You felt that? The safe channel?"
"Yes."
"And the echoes? You said they were in the storm."
"They could sense me. They wanted—" I broke off, not sure how to explain.
"They wanted to pull you in. Make you one of them." His jaw tightened. "That's what happens to rifts who open themselves too fully. The echoes recognize the connection, and they try to claim it."
"You knew that could happen?"
"I suspected. Rifts are rare enough that there's not a lot of documentation on what they can do. Or what the void can do to them." He released my shoulder. "You took a risk coming up here."
"It paid off."
"This time. Next time you might not be so lucky. Good work, though. Your navigation was solid." I tried not to look too smug. "Get some rest," he said. "We'll assess the damage in the morning and make repairs. For now, we need to put some distance between us and that storm."
I nodded and started toward the stairs, but his voice stopped me.
“Scavenger—” I turned back. "Thank you. For the help.
" He paused, as if the words cost him something, as if he wasn't used to handing out praise.
"You may have just saved all our lives." And then he turned away, back to the helm and the work of keeping his ship safe.
I couldn’t sleep, so I dressed and left my quarters, planning on making some hot tea, and finding Zoya.
Talking with her distracted my mind, and I liked helm duty.
It was peaceful up there. The corridor below deck was narrow, dark, and easy to get turned around on a ship this large.
I turned the corner too quickly and nearly ran straight into him.
Cypher stopped short. So did I.
For a second, neither of us moved. The ship rolled gently beneath our feet, wood creaking. His hand came up to steady himself against the wall beside my head, more reflex than anything else, and the space between us disappeared.
He didn’t touch me, but he was close enough that if either of us leaned any which way, that would change. My back pressed into the planks, nowhere to step without brushing past him.
“Going somewhere?” he asked, one dark eyebrow raised. His earring glinted, the rough-cut amber crystal reflecting the low golden light. It matched his eyes, I noticed.
“Obviously,” I clipped, as if I wandered around in the dark for fun.
His gaze shifted, wandering lazily over my face. “You should be sleeping while you can. Once we’re deeper in, rest of any kind will be a luxury.”
The hull groaned as we adjusted course, and the floor tilted just enough that my shoulder brushed his chest. The contact was accidental, but it sure didn’t feel accidental. He could have moved out of my way at any time. Maybe he was trying to scare me. Keep me compliant and under his thumb.
“Scavenger,” he said quietly, tilting his head, studying me too closely. I didn’t like it. This man saw too much.
I slid sideways to pass him, and unfortunately, it required contact. There was no way around it. My hip brushed his, my arm sliding along his torso as I squeezed through. He was so large it made me feel two feet tall.
He went very, very still.
So did I.
His hand shot out and caught my wrist. I froze, my temper flaring momentarily. I didn’t like being manhandled, especially by men who thought they had immunity to consequences, and Cypher seemed like one of those men.
"That was reckless today," he said, his voice a low whisper, careful not to wake anyone. "Brilliant, but still reckless."
"It worked, didn't it?" I pulled against his grip, but he didn't release me. He wasn’t even trying.
"I never said otherwise, Juno. In fact, I think we need recklessness if we’re going to successfully pull this off."
My name in his mouth did something strange to my insides. He'd rarely used it, as if calling me anything but ‘scavenger’ was too intimate.
"I know the risks I’m taking,” I said. "I've been navigating the void since I was—"
"Since you were sixteen. Yes, you've mentioned." His thumb moved slightly against my pulse, and I wondered if he could feel how fast my heart was beating. "The Shallows are nothing compared to where we're going. The Deep will test you in ways you can't imagine."
I lifted my chin. “Kora and I can handle ourselves. We wouldn’t be here otherwise. I’m not an idiot, believe it or not.”
Something flickered in his copper eyes. Not exactly amusement, but damn close. "Maybe you can. Today was... very impressive."
I didn’t know what he’d expected. I joined this mission because I knew I could handle it. I might not be a wayfarer captain with a fancy wing ship, but my instinct was sound.
"Why do you even care if I'm reckless or not?” I asked. "You made it clear we're not friends."
His gaze dropped to where he still held my wrist, as if he'd forgotten he was touching me. Slowly, he released me, his fingertips dragging across my skin as he pulled away. "I don't like losing crew. Even temporary ones."
And just like that, I was cargo again. I stepped back, putting distance between us. "Well, don't worry, Captain. I won't die on your watch and ruin your reputation."
Something odd crossed his face, but it was gone before I could look deeper. "See that you don't," he clipped, and then he was gone, moving past me down the corridor. He moved so fast that I had to catch myself on the wall to keep from toppling over.
I stood there for a long moment, my wrist still tingling where he'd touched me. I told myself it meant nothing. That I was imagining things. That the last thing I needed was to befriend a man who saw me as nothing more than a temporary nuisance.