Page 26 of Of Song and Darkness

“It’s one of Dante’s ships,” Rat yelled from above, and the blood drained from my face.

“I knew he let us leave port way too easily,” Cael barked before he echoed Kai’s orders.

We were vulnerable, like starfish clinging to a rock with no way to flee and no way to turn the ship to avoid a broadside hit.

“Get below!” Kai harshly ripped me from the railing, my body colliding roughly with his.

“No.” Hot tears stung my eyes. “I will not die in that hole. I’d rather throw myself overboard and drown.”

Kai stopped his mad dash and glanced at me with a hint of respect in his eyes. “Then get up to the helm and stay behind me.”

I didn’t argue and rushed to do exactly what he said as he continued to ready his men for the fight that was nearly upon us.

Kai joined me at the helm, snatching the wheel in a desperate attempt to get the ship to turn with the tide.

“Their cannons have greater reach than our own,” Cael whispered.

“I know,” Kai ground out between clenched teeth.

As if on perfect cue, the entire atmosphere shook as Dante’s cannons exploded. My heart slid down to my stomach as Kai threw me to the ground, covering my body protectively with his.

Something splattered across my face and the other exposed appendages of my body. When my brain registered that the substance was blood, I screamed. A wretched, rotting smell assaulted my nostrils.

“What the hell is this?” Kai’s chest rumbled against my back as he stood, pulling me with him. He was drenched in blood and guts.

I glanced around the ship, and my legs nearly buckled in upon themselves at the carnage all over the deck. The men stood, staring blankly at one another, each covered with the same blood and gore. It was peculiar that I did not see any human body parts. I reached down and picked up what looked like an iridescent tentacle.

The cannons exploded again, and Kai slammed my body against his, wrapping an arm around my waist and using the other to force my head onto his chest. I guess there were worse ways to die.

Debris rained down all around us. I carefully pushed myself from Kai’s embrace and looked up at him. Inky black blood dripped down his face, with guts and slime in his hair. I wanted to laugh, but the look on his face forbade me from doing so.

“They’re leaving, Cap’n!” someone yelled, prying his attention from mine.

“What was the point of that?” Cael thundered as he came alongside Kai. “We got out of that easy, other than we’ll all have to soak for a week to get rid of this awful stench.” Cael reached up, plucked a tentacle from his shoulder, and threw it to the deck in disgust.

Leaning down, I picked up the discarded tentacle. I turned it in my hands again, trying to determine what it was. Suddenly, it hit me like a typhoon.

I bit my lip and glanced around the ship, putting pieces of the mutilated animal back together like a puzzle in my mind. “Kai, I’m pretty sure this is a cirrata.” I was certain that was what Dante shot at us out of his cannon.

“I don’t care what it is,” he snarled, combing his fingers through his wavy hair to remove the waste.

“Kai,” I repeated. “Cirratas are nearly extinct. That’s why it took me a minute to figure out what it was. I haven’t seen one in years. They were nearly wiped out by—”

“Leviathans,” Kai interrupted.

“Good thing there aren’t any around. If a leviathan scented just a drop of a cirrata’s blood in the water, it would travel miles to get to it,” I said, tossing the slimy tentacle to the deck.

An explosion of salty water rained down on us, followed by the ship bucking wildly in the sea. Water beaded and dripped from its body as the dragon-like creature with tentacles emerged from the depths of the ocean.

I looked up at the creature that had to be at least four times longer than the massive ship and gasped. “A leviathan.”

“Sink me,” Kai spat as the beast opened its mighty jaws and roared so loudly I was sure the pain in my ears was from busted eardrums.

“Fire!” Kai thundered, reminding me that the weapons were already loaded and prepared for the other ship’s attack.

The cannons exploded in unison with a deafening blow. I reached up to cover my ringing ears, not that it did any good. The massive leviathan flinched as the cannonballs ripped into its flesh, but it was no more than a mere nuisance to a being that large. The men rushed about the deck as the beast bellowed again, flinging its tentacles at anything that moved.

“Cael, the blades!” Kai flipped and ducked as the beast swiped at him.

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