Chapter 36 #2
The fog parted ahead, and another black-as-soot ship emerged from the gray. Ingrid stood at the front, one hand holding a mast while her foot planted at the edge. From this distant, Kade caught the anger bleeding through her sneer.
“Oh, dear sister,” Ingrid called over the waves and wind. “You’re equally pathetic as predictable.”
Todd growled, baring his teeth, but Kade grabbed his shoulders.
Belle flinched at Ingrid’s words, but her hold on the muince necklace didn’t falter. “Let go!”
Ingrid tsked. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, but give me what I want, and I’ll let you come back to Drystan with open arms.”
“The witch is right, Belle. Surrender, and I’ll drop your crimes against my court.”
A familiar voice grated against Kade’s resolve.
The power embedded deep in his core flared to life.
Riven emerged from the fog. Palish skin.
White hair. Dark circles rimmed his eyes.
Pride swelled through Kade at the sight of the scar Evelyn had left running up the vampyr’s face.
The prince appeared sickly, much like Tovi’s assessment, but Kade didn’t spy the sword of ancients, and he wondered about his mother and father’s journey through Drystan.
“The Blood Moon is long past,” Evelyn cried. “You have lost, Riven.”
The prince snickered. “Always so na?ve. Such singular thinking. You’re a fool to think I don’t have another plan.
I’ve joined forces with another player on the board, Miss Carson.
No, I don’t need your magic any longer—but think of today as vengeance.
If I can’t have your magic, Evelyn Carson, no one can. ” He gave Ingrid a curt nod.
Ink-black winds oozed from the witch’s fingertips, snaking through the air towards Evelyn’s muince.
Belle faltered a step, the pull of her sister’s power too much.
Todd lurched forward and pulled Belle to his chest, gripping his arms around her waist and whispering encouraging, stern words into her ear.
Belle gritted her teeth. Clamped her eyes shut.
And shook with exertion. The waves and winds around them grew angry.
Kade rushed to Flynn. “Bring the ship closer to Riven’s—”
“No.” There was no hesitation in the captain’s answer, and heat scorched through Kade.
“If Riven gets ahold of that necklace, Sorin is doomed.”
“Not my problem,” Flynn hissed but something lay hidden in the creases of his eyes. Not an agenda. Acceptance. Like the bastard had known Riven would come.
Kade launched, grabbing a fistful of the captain’s shirt and dragging him close so they were eye to eye.
“You sold us out!” he roared. “Didn’t you?”
The crew shifted around them. Blades sang as they were unleashed. Kade barely registered Evelyn’s distant warning. His beast and power sat so close to the edge, for the first time working alongside one another, he thrummed with furious energy
Flynn released a feline-like screech. Kade’s wolf snarled. Werewolf and vampyr vied against each other.
“I’d never betray Tovi,” the pirate said. “I’d rather die than hurt my queen.”
Kade growled, shoving the vampyr out of his grasp. He heard the honesty in Flynn’s words. The even heartbeat. The steady breath.
The pirate spoke the truth.
“Letting Riven succeed might as well be betraying her,” Kade said.
Flynn stepped closer. “I promised to sail to these coordinates, that is all. I’ll not risk my crews’ lives for some war we’ve not signed up—”
A startling force rocked the ship. It tilted to the side, water spilling onto the main deck. The crew and company lost their footing, and Kade dove for Evelyn, grasping around her waist as the ship jolted again.
“Is that Ingrid?” Kade asked.
Evelyn’s brows furrowed. “I don’t think so—”
Riven’s ship lurched too, booming with impact, the assailant unseen. Ingrid lost her balance long enough for Belle to yank the muince closer to the Sel. Riven cried out orders, and the dark witch threw out her hand, stopping her sister. The young witch cried out in pain, but Todd kept her steady.
A groan echoed from the depths of the sea.
Fear and confusion halted them all. The waves rumbled and trembled as a dark, looming mass rose out of the sea.
Above, the moon swayed past the clouds until it popped away from the gray, revealing a yellow glowing ball attached to an inky, reptilian-like appendage.
Evelyn gasped. “That’s not . . .”
“Demon!” the Sel’s crew bellowed.
The glowing sphere shot higher and cast its light onto the face of a demon twice the size of the pirate ship. Winglike fins fluttered around its face, and rows of razor teeth dripped with sea sludge.
“Harpoons!” Flynn cried. “Positions!”
Click. Click. Click.
The demon’s high frequency sounds pierced Kade’s werewolf hearing, and he gripped Evelyn closer to his chest. Darkness reached across their world. The demon roared. The sea trembled. The clouds shook.
The ship’s bones whined as it stopped, something holding it in place. Evelyn’s frantic heart beat in tandem with Kade’s, and they reared back as a pitch-black tentacle slithered up the ship like a beast in its own right, climbing higher and higher.
Kade let Evelyn go, handed her his sword, and pulled her close, forehead to forehead. Amber collided with silver, and he bore all his love into their locked stare. “Fight.”
“Remember, your power is you,” she said with a shaky breath and pivoted away, slicing the sword through the tentacle, fighting it like a breathtaking goddess with a bravery that outmatched any strength. Blood and suckers showered onto the deck with a sickening splat.
Kade heeded his mate’s words and shifted into his werewolf form. Beast against beast, no matter the size.
Tentacles broke through the deck’s banisters, and wood exploded. One seized a vampyr, wrapping its puckered flesh around his pale body. Lifting it into the air, the vampyr’s screams only grew, until a deafening crunch silenced him and a shredded body landed on the deck.
A female vampyr screamed and cried, crawling towards the defiled body. Kade howled, but it was too late. In her grief, the female vampyr missed the tentacle reaching for her. It lifted and swung her off deck. Waves swallowed her whole.
Two vampyrs down in seconds.
The ship became a frenzy of panicked activity.
Kade launched, landing on the tentacle and ripping with his claws and teeth, tearing through the demon’s slippery flesh.
The demon roared, shaking the entire world with its baritone.
Across the waves, Riven’s ship dealt with the same attack while Ingrid and Belle continued to battle over Evelyn’s muince, hovering unguarded over the waves.
Stars above.
Kade tore through another tentacle, ripping it in half with his claws. He turned at the last second, almost missing one creeping from behind, but Evelyn struck his sword downward and severed it. The tentacle writhed, and black blood sprayed across their faces, the smell putrid.
In retaliation, more tentacles rose from the sea, salty water showering across the deck and drenching the Sel.
“Damn you!”
Kade whirled. Jasp fought relentlessly as a tentacle dragged him across the deck.
Kade didn’t hesitate. He shifted out of his werewolf form and called upon his power.
His hand warmed. Glowed. Light shimmered at his fingertips.
He focused. Inhaled. Breathed in the rightness he craved.
He was calm. Collected. He recalled Evelyn’s teaching.
Your power is you.
He thrust his power straight into the tentacle. Blue light swarmed across the demon’s flesh, sizzling through the appendage. Jasp scrambled back, tearing off the remaining piece. Kade reached the vampyr and helped him stand. Jasp stared up at Kade with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing.
“Thank you,” he finally said.
With a small nod from Kade, a mutual understanding bled across the ship—they were all in this fight together.
“Aye, watch out!” Flynn called from the quarterdeck.
The demon reared closer to the Sel, teeth glinting from the ship’s lanterns.
“Kade!”
He and Evelyn locked eyes, and he ran. Evelyn threw his sword, and as he caught the weapon, Kade leaped up onto the ship’s railing and used it to launch his footing as he jumped into the air.
The demon’s rancid breath brushed across his cheek, and with a warrior’s bellow, Kade sliced the beast’s antenna.
It screeched, and the glowing ball plopped to the deck, pulsing until its dark magic faded.
The demon’s tentacles retreated, falling away as the ship’s harpoons pierced its flesh. Waves roiled over its body as it retreated, the sea swallowing it as it sank.
Kade panted, and a cheer resounded across the deck. Flynn threw his fist into the air, and the Sel’s crew joined. But Evelyn didn’t share the same sentiment. Kade followed her line of sight, his heart dropping like a stone to his gut.
“Give up, Belle!” Blood dripped from Ingrid’s nose. “I’m stronger, and you know it! You’re nothing without me protecting you.”
Belle’s arm shook with exertion while tears ran down her face, but she didn’t falter. “It is you who is weak, and I’m ashamed that you’re my sister.”
Ingrid shrieked and thrust a large ball of dark magic across the sea, straight into Todd’s shoulder. Belle screamed. Her magical hold on the muince severed.
“No!” Kade roared and dove into the water, aiming for the spot the muince dropped.
Kade swam, but the current dragged him under, the weight of the sinking demon pulling water with it.
“Aim for the prince’s ship!”
Jasp’s commands filtered over the whooshing waves.
Kade fought the waves. Evelyn cried out his name.
He cursed the cold and dove. His eyes burned with the salt, but metal glinted ahead, and he pushed towards Evelyn’s muince.
For her, every ounce of effort he mustered was for Evelyn and getting her magic back.
His hand grasped the necklace’s chain. The opal pendant hit against his wrist, and Kade fought as he kicked upward, the light of the surface breaking through the water.
Something twisted around his ankle and tugged. A tentacle’s suckers locked onto his shins.
Click. Click. Click.
The demon’s sounds mocked him. Kade gripped the muince tighter, not daring to let it go, but the demon’s hold was too strong. He fell farther from the surface. Light dwindled. His lungs ached. He couldn’t fail her. No, not like this.
A form crashed into the water. Bubbles swallowed their face, but silver glinted as they stabbed the demon.
Over and over. Blood bloomed like red ink, and with one final yank, the dagger slit through the tentacle.
Kade kicked free, and an arm snaked around his middle, assisting him to the surface.
He gasped for air, blinking away the salt.
“Hold on!”
Flynn’s voice didn’t fully register until they were airborne, flying out of the water and dropping onto the deck. Kade rolled, choking up water.
“Kade!” Evelyn rushed to him, grasping his shoulders.
He pressed her muince into her hand, and her voice cracked. “Goddess, you did it.”
Flynn chuckled at his side, gasping for air as he shot him a smirk. “Gods, you’re heavy. What in the hel do werewolves eat?”
Kade laughed, leaning on his knees as he shook with fatigue. “Thank you.”
Flynn studied and shared a look with Jasp. “Thank you for fighting with us and protecting my crew. I’ll not forget it, Kade Drengr.”
Kade nodded, peering over his shoulder. “What of Riven and Ingrid?”
Todd stood off to the side. “Belle has it handled.”
The water witch did. The Sapphire Sea swirled under her command, Riven’s ship caught in its unwavering grip.
As the wood splintered and vampyrs cried out, they fled through the dark witch’s danu in time before the ship succumbed to the watery depths of defeat, as he and Evelyn sat there, one step closer to getting her magic back.