Page 18 of The Dark Sea Calls

The Glittering Diamond released a stripe of cannon fire from one side of the ship, with a series of resounding booms that made the cliffs tremble. Arden dropped to the water, dipping under the surface to distract the Kraken and hide from the ship.

Aine and Erin led the recruits high in the clouds over the water. One of the female Sirens let out an eerie shriek, and the other followed it with a chirp.

Another roar of cannon fire punched through the night, and Moira and I watched the water, waiting for Colm and Arden to surface.

“There has to be something we can do to help,” Moira pleaded. “If we had reached magical majority—” Moira stopped herself. “What of your skill? Your way with the water? Could you lure the Kraken away?”

“Colm needs to touch its eye,” I said, frowning at the ship; the boat spun as the flock of Sirens swooped down to tease it. A glint of gold caught my eye. I stepped closer to the cliff's edge, and when that didn’t give me a clear look at the water, I took off at a run. My feet pounded the worn path at the edge of the cliff, following it to the cove's opening. My breath fogged in the air, and my muscles burned.

“They’ve got Arden!” Moira said, holding her ribs as we staggered to a stop. The cliffs ended, framing the ocean. No more land in the distance as the Dark Sea coated the horizon.

I cursed, looking up at the other Sirens in the sky. Each was under fire, dipping, and weaving, but no one could get close to the ship. Arden had been trying to distract the Kraken but had been pulled from the water.

“Colm!” I said, turning to Moira. “He’s in the water alone.” He was so young. Not even eighteen years old.

If the Glittering Diamond didn’t get him, the Kraken surely would.

I had todosomething.

I reached for the hem of my cotton shift and tossed the fabric bundle to Moira as I stepped toward the cliff's edge. I looked down, gauging the rocks, nodding staunchly to myself as I realized I would need to take a running jump.

Moira knew there was no way to persuade me otherwise, though I had suspected that she wished she could dive in the water with me.

I took a dozen steps back, and before I could talk myself out of it, my feet hammered toward the edge, and my arms pumped at my side before I threw myself off the cliff's edge.

One moment on solid ground and the next, weightless, sailing through the air. My hair whipped away from my face, stealing my vision. My eyes scrunched tight. All I could hear was the roar of the wind, there one moment and stolen the next. The water swallowed me, stealing all sound.

Every muscle in my body relaxed, and my gills rose to the surface, sliding comfortably into place like an old friend. I took my first full watery breath in weeks and felt every ache leave my body.

After a moment, I remembered why I was in the dark sea in the first place as a cannonball pieced the water, thumping into the sea floor thirty feet to my left. I kicked my legs, feeling the water part around me. My white hair floated in front of my face as I looked around, trying to orientate myself. The dark water pressed in, a different entity to the Twilight Lake. Once again, I felt the ominous hungry energy throbbing in the water like a heartbeat. It stole my breath, and as I swam toward the floating belly of the boat and the fight under the surface, I saw nothing save for darkness. No other water Fae. No other life. I dipped down, searching for a jagged rock on the sea floor. A weapon. It took longer than I would have liked. Every moment passed too slowly, though I knew I was wasting time I couldn’t afford to waste. Finally, my hand landed on a sharp flint with a rounded edge and a pointed tip. As long as my forearm. I grabbed it, unable to find a place to keep it while I swam, so it remained in my fist as I raced for the center of the dark sea.

I heard the Kraken before I saw it. The shrieking cry was as harrowing under the water as above it. The shockwave of its piercing scream caused the sand to shift and ripple. The water carried me away from my destination, and I kicked harder. My eyes darted through the gloom as I searched for a flash of Colm’s dark wings or the red tentacles of the beast in the dark sea.

Colm dipped and dived sluggishly through the water, avoiding the sweeping coil of the Kraken’s tentacle, only to be met with another one. It seemed like a mass of threads. I couldn’t see a body, a face, let alone whatever eye Colm had to find.

Distraction.

I needed to be a distraction to give Colm enough time to do whatever he needed to do.

The Twilight Lake had felt like a childhood friend. Playful and eager to please. A world away from the dark sea. Ancient, ornery, andhungry—for what, I didn’t know.

I didn’t know why I had my way with the water, but I reached out with my phantom limb, grabbed that ball of rage that coated every drop of the ocean, and yanked it towards me, a writhing mass of angry sea snakes.

I expected the water to rise up the same way the lake had done. Instead, it felt like I was trapped in the gaze of a behemoth, though I saw no eyes looking at me. Slowly, like two stones grinding against one another, the Kraken turned, and with the force of its attention, I felt the wrath and hunger of the Dark Sea.

I trod water, standing my ground, as the beast let out another roar. This one was directed at me, ending on a sharp harrowing note. I didn’t move. Colm darted behind the Kraken, but I was trapped under the weight of its attention, unsure if I could move.

The sound carried through the sea in a language I had never spoken but somehow understood.Though I struggled to discern any inflection from the unfamiliar syllables pounding against my skin, the voice seemed gleeful at the prospect of finding kinship with me.

Did the voice belong to the Kraken?

Colm’s shadowy figure ducked under a tentacle.

the Kraken asked expectantly.

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and hoped for the best. “That Siren needs to touch your eye, so he can get his magic,” I said, feeling silly. I didn’t even know if my voice would carry all that way. The Kraken’s will pounded against my skull, buckling my legs.

the kraken laughed.

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