Chapter 25 #2
We swim for the surface, breaking it as waves of midnight blue crash around us. Elio has already thrown a rope over the edge. I tie Ameeya to it and with the help of Odi, he hauls her up.
Odi’s brown eyes meet mine from above and she gives me a fond glare that says if-you-try-that-again-i’ll-kill-you-myself.
I flash her a grin as lightning fractures the night, splitting into crooked fangs that claw at the sea.
Odi’s eyes grow wide at the same moment I realise I have about five seconds to get out of the water before I become fried shrimp.
White bolts of lightning stab into the male kraken.
It roars, sending a pulse of electricity into the sea just as I pull myself up the rope.
The electricity sparks up, restless, arcing out of the water.
One of the smaller arcs catches the tip of my fin and ripples under my skin, but I can bear it.
I hiss through my teeth and yank on the ropes, falling over the railing in seconds.
Just as well the sword still in my hand is made with the same resistant bone we use for our bolts.
Odi rushes to my side as I shift back. “You’re delusional.”
I smirk at her. “Or, I’m a really good swimmer.”
She huffs as she reaches for my hand to help me up. Her touch gives me life. It's enough to bring fresh wind to my lungs, though I can’t help but feel quiet guilt at the thought of her necklace somewhere on the bottom of the Adamaris Sea.
“You’re bleeding. Again,” she gasps, oblivious to my thoughts as she squats down to inspect the wound on my thigh. My jaw clicks as I watch her delicately move the torn fabric out of the way. The sight of her on her knees before me does something in my chest. I have to get it together.
“I’ll be fine.” I offer her my hand, pulling her up. “We have to keep moving.”
No sooner do the words leave my mouth than a tentacle slaps the deck.
Elio, Odi and I sprint for it. I pull my bone blade from its sheath and drive it down with all the force I can muster.
They attack it from a different angle, and white braids fly through the sky above as Tavi leaps to land on the slick planks with a thud.
She flashes me a grin. “Time to carve this tentacled bastard into chum.” And then she’s gone. Twin blades singing in a blur of carving motions.
I follow her lead, slashing against another tentacle that snakes over the railing. The bone blade slices the murky pink flesh, but it’s like trying to hack through a rope thicker than my biceps. The cut is shallow, pathetic and the kraken recoils out of irritation more than pain.
My chest heaves, sweat and sea brine stinging my eyes. What are we doing? All these blades against limbs, and we’ve barely slowed it down. Every strike feels wasted.
Elio runs a taloned hand through his hair before wiping his face from the relentless rain. “I don’t think any of these weapons are working.”
Another tentacle coils around a mast, the wood groaning under its strain. My grip tightens on the hilt of my blade. If we keep hacking blindly, the ship will be gone before the monster is.
I nod. “I agree, stabbing the tentacles isn’t doing anything.”
My chest heaves in and out as I try to catch my breath. I stare out at the male kraken.
Think fast Rune.
I chew my bottom lip as the kraken’s eyes drag over the body of my ship—all glorious wood and gilded trimmings thanks to my father’s insistence. I despise the way the beast looks at her hull, like she’s an empty seed pod in the wind.
Then I run for the nearest crossbow.
“Cap—” Elio says.
I don’t answer. The weapon is already loaded, slick in my hands, blood and rain running down the stock, but I brace it against my weight and squeeze.
The bolt whistles through the storm, and then sinks deep into the kraken’s eye with a wet pop.
A groaning shriek pierces the night sky, shaking the ship to the bones.
Purple blood spurts from the wound, trailing down the sea monster's body.
The beast recoils, thrashing, tentacles reaching for the ship, colliding with the hull.
The impact sends a shudder through The Gilded Hart and she groans in protest.
“Hands on your bows!” I shout, voice raw over the thunder. “Aim for the eyes!”
Elio, Odi, the crew. They scatter like crabs.
Reaching for every crossbow in sight, mounted or not, and as I release a breath, bolts are loosed into the inky night.
A few find their mark, biting into soft, squelching orbs.
The kraken bellows, batting most away with a sweep of its limbs.
The deck rocks under the weight of its fury, planks groaning as if ready to snap.
“AGAIN!” I scream.
And again the crew fires off bolts. This time many find their mark.
Beyond the shrieking male, the female waits. Not attacking. Just circling. Watching. Patient as death itself. Waiting for her meal—my crew.
Not today you filthy sea cow.
I reload fast, forcing the massive weapon steady as I aim. My heart pounds in my ears, my temples throb. I think of Odi. Of Otto. Of Elio, Tavi and Soraya. Of mother. I’d do it for them. It’s madness to even try. But I steady, exhale and let the bolt fly.
It tears through the downpour and I use my darkvision to track it.
My mouth splits into a feral grin when it finds its mark.
The female’s central eye. The ocean shatters around me with her shriek, worse than thunder, worse than the cry of a sea wyrm.
Her eye bursts into a spray of milky yellow fluid, juices raining down on the waves slapping at her skin.
She writhes, descending into the ocean in a storm of bubbles and thrashing limbs.
The male freezes, lets out a bellow that rattles every exhausted body on deck, then surges after her into the deep.
Gone.
The birds scatter with them, peeling away into the sky, their screeches fading into an echo. And just like that, the storm breaks. The sea is calm. The sky opens in a surreal blanket of soft light.
I feel the gentle pressure of someone squeezing my hand, and I’m not sure which of us reached for the other, but when I glance down it’s Odi, gripping back like she’s afraid to hope that this might be the end. So I squeeze her hand back.
The moment the sun’s warm beams hit my skin, I drag in a breath that I’d been too afraid to take. And I stand there on the deck, chest heaving, crossbow trembling in my grip, soaked in rain and kraken blood, with Odi by my side.
“That was fucking brutal,” I whisper.