Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
I hear him walk off, his boots echoing in the ship, then hear the cabin door close.
“You’re soaking wet,” Aerik says, stepping back from me. “What happened to you?”
“I tried to swim for help,” I say. I didn’t expect him to be crying with joy at my return, but I didn’t think he’d be so cold so soon.
“Liar,” he seethes and even though I can’t see him, I know his eyes are doing that thing when the pettiness and anger overtakes him. “You weren’t going for help! You were trying to escape. Leave me for dead.”
“I wasn’t,” I say but I stop myself. Because I am a liar. I was leaving him for dead. And I was trying to save only myself.
“Fine,” I add, finally feeling resolve in my nerves. I can’t be afraid of him anymore, not here, not now, not after all of this. “I was just trying to survive. I—”
CRACK.
He strikes me, fist against cheekbone and my neck snaps back from the force of it all.
Everything goes dark, as if it wasn’t already so black.
CHAPTER 5
Ramsay
The dream always starts the same.
The sea is calm as glass, not a cloud above, and the horizon is a thin straight line of blue that nearly blends in with the sky. At this point it is hard to differentiate what is a memory and what is a dream. My memories tell me that there was nothing off or ominous about that particular day, not even the threat of becoming becalmed (not that it would matter when it comes to the Nightwind).
But my dreams feel different. The air feels heavy and oppressive, all the wind sucked away, and the heavens above seem frightening in their scope. In the dream it’s like we are just a ship in a bottle, watched over by some mythical overlord who decides when we live and when we die.
Then the first hit happens just as it did in real life. That horrible thud that still echoes through my brain on days where I’ve had too much sun and ale and too much time to think. The strike shakes the entire ship and while most of my crew didn’t know what it was, I knew. I knew what it was and why it was here and what it wanted to do.
It was one of the Kraken.
Which meant the sea witch was here too.
She wanted the book, the one that belonged to my wife, Venla.
I just wanted to grieve and hold on to the one piece I had of her left.
But while the dream always starts the same, with that blasted thud and that god-awful heaviness and the dread that follows, it doesn’t always end the same.
Tonight I am helpless in the dream, knowing it’s not real and yet knowing it’s already happened, and I watch, I watch as the tentacle flops over the side of the ship, watch as it reaches for Hilla, and I scream. So fucking loud that my throat feels torn out.
“Hilla!” My voice envelopes the thick air and she turns to look at me, big blue eyes, a smudge of chocolate on her cheek from the treat I had given her just minutes before.
I’m lucky this time that I don’t wake up screaming. The crew has gotten used to it over the years, but I haven’t. You don’t get used to something like this.
I open my eyes and stare at the ceiling. My heart is on a rampage in my chest, my body reliving the trauma. I take in long deep breaths until my heart calms, then I sit up in my bed.
It takes a moment for the dream to fade and for memories of last night to come into my mind. I welcome it, welcome my past being buried by the present.
The prince and the princess. What good fortune that was to stumble upon that Danish ship just before we set out across the Pacific. The Spanish galleons leaving Manilla and heading across the Pacific were leaving in convoys now to prevent attacks from the Nightwind, much like the merchant ships had to do when they crossed the Atlantic. For as unstoppable and powerful as my crew and ship are, we are not enough to take on a fleet, especially one that’s on the watch for us.
Or at least, we aren’t that powerful yet. There are rumors about a mermaid kept in a glass tank on board the skeleton crew’s ghost ship. It was enough for me to chart course for Los Pintados and Nan Madol—the famous “Reef City”—for their ship is always bound to return there.
But now with the hostages on board, there’s at least a little reward for when we reach New Spain, in case our detour isn’t as rewarding as some may think. I only hope that when the crew were jettisoned overboard with the message for the king, they actually survive long enough to deliver it.