Page 76 of The Shadow of Polaris

My Queen, it’s too fast. Prepare our fleet for a fight.

Interlacing my fingers around the hilt of my sword, I glanced toward Aryx’s ship. He stood with a strong and stoic facade beside the oarsman. The slight bob in his throat and the clenched muscle of his jaw were subtle, but I sensed them. He was afraid.

Hurtling toward our fleet with a speed I’d never witnessed before was a massive tubular eel. Deep green spines, as sharp as an urchin’s, protruded from impenetrable skin littered with battle scars. My hands trembled against the railing I now gripped so strongly, I thought my knuckles might break. Our rowers picked up pace, their blades slicing through the water with panicked strength. We weren’t fast enough, however. The dreaded anticipation electrified the heavy storm above. All we could do was wait and pray to the gods that we would survive.

Charybdis was closing in on us now. My voice cracked through the air like the shattering sound of thunderheads as I ordered our archers to take aim. As if one entity, they knocked their bows and raised them into the sky. A few more seconds now and the beast would be in range. Waves slammed into our fleet, causing crew and soldiers alike to cling to the railings.

“Fire!”

My command unleashed a wave of arrows into the air. They arched overhead, disappearing briefly behind the misty storm clouds. The front of pointed arrowheads plummeted into the sea, some striking true, some vanishing into the depths.

The archers knocked their bows again, waiting to release the second wave. Before the words could leave my mouth, however, Charybdis reared its forward end into the open air. It had no head, no eyes, just teeth. A large, rounded mouth opened wide. Rows of forked, yellowing daggers pricked from squishy, grey gums. The roar that reverberated from deep within its belly sent a shockwave through the open sea, briefly stilling the storming wavelets, and knocking me to my knees.

Yeah, we were fucked.

A black, wriggling mass of eels poured from its mouth. Plunking into the sea, they raced toward our ships. Sending Arcturas below decks where she’d be safe from the rolling swells, I drew the sword strapped to my back. Watching me, Aryx pulled his gleaming, golden weapon from its sheath.

The world seemed to stop turning, and the air grew stagnant. Time froze. Clouds overhead were so saturated, so heavy, they practically begged for release, pleaded for relief. I swallowed hard and tightened the straps of my leather breastplate.

One moment, everything stopped.

The next, all hell broke loose.

Charybdis flung its massive body across the hull of the closest warship, splintering the wooden chime until the timbers themselves disintegrated into the salty sea. Bodies littered the water, frantically thrashing for help as the army of smaller eels feasted upon their flesh. I could barely watch as my men were eaten alive, screams burrowing through my ears, scarring the inner walls of my mind permanently.

Our arrows penetrated its thick outer skin, but they only angered the creature more. If our ships got too close, the fleet would be swallowed up and doomed to spend eternity trapped in the pit of its voracious stomach.

Crack! Another warship was in pieces, bodies wriggling and writhing beneath the waves, their blood clouding the ocean with a thick maroon haze.

Crack! Another. We’d lost so many already. We couldn’t afford much more. I stifled the scream now, plucking my vocal cords like an instrument. The eels continued to shred skin and muscle tissue from my drowning men.

Crack! Another. Everything was moving too fast, too fluid. I couldn’t think, couldn’t move from where I stood. The oarsman behind me shouted forward, begging me for an order. His voice was a mere muffled string of sounds. All I could hear were the screams of dying men. The tearing of flesh. Charybdis struck again, its teeth now dripping seawater and blood.

Suddenly, there was a firm hand on my shoulder, pulling me to my knees. As my body collapsed against the timbers, a flurry of arrows rushed through the air where I’d just stood.

“Snap out of it!” Aryx cried, rolling our bodies away from a snapping eel now writhing along the deck. I swallowed hard, numb to the death surrounding us.

“Elpis! Let go! It’s our only chance of survival. Please!” His voice was hoarse from yelling. My mouth, gaping open, refused to free the words now racing through me. The gold strands of his wind-blown hair and the sharp curve of his clenched jaw faded away. In their place, shredded, bloated bodies. Every muscle, down to my core, convulsed.

“Look at me.” Calloused hands wrapped themselves around my cheeks. “Your men need you. They’re dying. They need your help. Let go.” Strong fingers stroked away the tears now gushing from my eyes. “Elpis. Look at me.”

For a brief second, the blood, the bone, the death fell away. For just a moment, those golden, shimmering eyes pulled me out of reality.

“I need you. Let it all go,” he whispered, pulling me to him. Flames burned through me when our lips met. The salty taste of the sea trickled down my throat. I breathed him in. His touch was the blood that pumped through my veins, the air that inflated my lungs. He was the past, the present, and the future. He was everything.

Heavy beads of rain erupted from the sky, the sound of arrows zoomed around us, the roars of our enemy sent tidal waves across the furious sea. In this moment, the feel of his lips took hold of me entirely, and nothing could part us.

Familiar tingles rushed from my toes through my chest to the crown of my head. My limbs felt light, as if I weighed less than a feather. Loose locks of matted, salty hair licked across my face. I closed my eyes, unlocking the demon from her cage.

The world turned to night.

My vision came and went in glimpses as I let my monsters consume me. One moment, I was floating above the waves, encapsulated in a bright amethyst glow. The next Charybdis breeched the surface and gnashed its razor-like teeth toward me. Tendrils of power, curling around my fingers, shot at the beast, penetrating its thick skin. With each blow Charybdis roared in fury, obsidian blood oozing from its open wounds.

Flashes of light cracked across the sky like the lighting of a raging storm. With each purple flash, the gaping faces of my soldiers came into view. I continued to unleash the true self I’d fought so hard to suppress. It felt easy. Like eating to remedy hunger or drinking to replenish thirst, letting her consume me was instinctual, and I reveled in it. My body felt stronger. My mind sharper. Every detail of the world scratched against my skin. With heightened sense, I didn’t need daylight to see.

Charybdis shrieked again, letting thousands more black eels flood from its mouth. Like a river blockaded by a dam, the power inside me built up more and more until the walls fractured. I took a breath, preparing my mind for the flood as the dam finally crumbled and the shadows poured out.

The world was shrouded in darkness.

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