Page 92 of Heritage of Fire

No. As hard as I can, I bring my knee up and kick him in the balls. He grunts and buckles backward with a wheeze. I roll over and push to my hands and knees, crawling a few inches before wobbling to my feet.

“You’re going to pay for that, you little?—”

A gunshot rings out, slicing the air with a sharp crack, and the bullet whizzes past me.

A limping figure emerges from the smoke. “Nik,” I breathe out.

He rushes over and pulls me to him. “You’re all right, Luna. I’ve got you.” He draws a knife from his black pants and works on cutting the rope around my wrists.

Over his shoulder, I catch a glimpse of the man who was chasing me. His body is crumpled onto the ship’s deck. Blood pools around his dark hair, and I follow the crimson trail to the hole between his eyes.

I shudder.

“We gotta go, Moonbeam.”

I nod, guilt crushing me. He had to come after me—save me. Again.

He saws through the remainder of the rope and starts to pull me with him right as a nearby container free-falls from its stack and tumbles into the sea.

We keep going until we make it to the end of the ship that isn’t engulfed in flames and smoke. Warm sunlight hits my face, and the scent of salty ocean water enters my nose once again. Pausing to catch our breath, Nik scans the perimeter.

“Okay clear. Let’s go.”

He takes me by the hand and weaves us through several stacks of containers. As we bolt toward the back of the ship, running alongside the railing, waves hit the side and send mist spraying up into my face. It stings against my injuries.

Nik picks up a harness and hands it to me. “You need to step into this. I’ll guard you as you go down. Repel down the side and unhook when you reach the water using this.” He shows me a carabiner, but I just stand there, stunned and trembling. Nik grabs a pair of gloves from his wetsuit and shoves them at me. “Put these on. Let’s move, Luna.”

“Nik, I can’t. I—I don’t think I can do this.” I flinch at the sea over the railing of the ship. This is a relatively small vessel, butit’s still a long way down. He rotates me toward him and tucks my hair behind my ear before leaning his forehead against mine.

“Youcan, Luna. I’ll be right behind you.” He gives me the carabiner.

More gunfire erupts nearby and Nik spins around, aiming his gun toward it.

Come on, Luna. You have no other option.

I take a deep breath, clipping onto the railing. My knuckles ache as I curl my fists around the rope. It’s wet. Did Nik use this to get on the ship?

I climb over, tightly gripping the rail. Waves churn violently below, and I make the mistake of looking down.Oh god.

Nik fires his gun and then shouts over his shoulder. “Go, Luna!”

I lower myself over the edge, the harness pulling over my seated thighs as my weight tugs on the rope. The wind whips my hair and I shake it out of the way while I slowly descend.

Focus, Luna. Almost there.

I settle into a groove, sliding my hands along the rope followed by my shaking legs.

A yacht floating out to the side catches my attention, but yelling from above distracts me, and I watch as Nik uses the back of his gun to hit a guard in the face.

I resume scaling down the side of the vessel until I plunge into the water, the cold shocking my senses. Then I unhook and swim away from the sitting ship.

I glance over my shoulder and catch a glimpse of Nik struggling against a man. His form ducks out of view several times, and I panic. “Nik!”

Water floods my mouth as I bob there. Nik throws one last punch before he launches his gun overboard and follows it over the railing. I gasp as he plummets toward the water, his body submerging beneath the sea a moment later.

“Nik!” I scream. What feels like minutes pass. Finally, he breaks the surface, mouth opened to inhale a large breath.

He grabs for me. “Swim, Luna!”

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