Page 1 of Rebel in the Deep

Chapter1

Nox

Some days, I have toactually do my job. Those tend to be the bad days. The ones filled with violence and blood and a sorrow so thick, the entire crew can taste it on the air.

Today is shaping up to be a bad day.

“Hold it, Bowen,” I snap. “If one of those tentacles makes it through your shield, we’re in trouble.”

“Iamholding it,” the man at my side grits out. He’s easily a head and shoulders taller than me and twice as large, the muscles in his arms standing out in stark relief. He appears to be holding air, but it’s just a physical representation of what his magic is doing.

Mainly: protecting my damn ship.

Another tentacle arches out of the sea and slaps down on the invisible barrier of Bowen’s shield. Even with his deep well of power, he can’t keep this up forever. Not when our primary shield already failed, which isn’t something that’s happened in the weeks since Evelyn has been aboard.

The woman herself crouches behind us, frantically trying to remake the circle that will re-create the shield. When I dare a glance at her, she’s looking shaky and paler than normal, her skin waxen. She meets my gaze, green eyes wide. “Is it the kraken?”

“No. Krakens can be reasoned with. Everyone!” I lift my voice, injecting a boom that will make my crew snap to action. “Attack the tentacles. Bowen, drop the shield when I go over.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind, Nox?”

It’s not the first time I’ve been asked this. It won’t be the last. I shrug out of my coat and drop it onto the deck next to me. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that when in doubt, it’s best to brazen your way through. I don’t have the same scale of power that Bowen does, but I have enough. “I would prefer a peaceful resolution, but this beastie isn’t cooperating. I’ll get it to the surface. You rip it to shreds.”

His dark brows draw together. “How are you—”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to, darling.” I yank off my boots—even with magic, they’re a pain to get salt water out of—and step onto the railing. “If I die tragically, remember me fondly.”

“Nox, damn you!”

I dive over the edge before he can finish berating me. Bowen’s got a paladin’s sense of honor—which means he’s a stick-in-the-mud—and he’s always been reluctant to admit that sometimes it takes breaking the rules to come out on top. Since coming out on top of this current conflict means my crew lives and my ship stays intact, there’s no room for negotiation.

The water welcomes me like an old friend, my magic rising beneath my skin in response to my intent. It’s difficult to seewith the beastie churning through the depths, bubbles and tentacles everywhere. That’s fine. I’ve worked in worse conditions.

I pull a small funnel of air down to meet me and enclose my head, allowing me to breathe, and then cut down through the depths, propelled along by my water magic through the small hole Bowen opened in his shield for me. Most people have access to only one element, but I’ve never been like most people. I can wield all four.

The thing has twice as many tentacles as a kraken and is half as smart. Maybe not even that much. It completely ignores me weaving around its body in favor of trying to eat my ship.

Not today, darling.

I dip between two massive tentacles and stop short at the sight of its massive mouth. Amouth, not a beak, as if I needed further confirmation. Krakens can be reasoned with. If they grow to ship-killer size, they’re old enough to know when faced with a fight they can’t win. They prefer easier prey than humans anyway. There is plenty to hunt in the cold, dark depths that won’t rip you to shreds.

I’m still a sap, though; instead of immediately attacking, I project my voice through the water toward it. “Stop attacking my ship!”

I already know it won’t work, but it gets the beastie’s attention on me. It opens its mouth wide, exposing row after row of razor-sharp teeth nearly as tall as I am.

Okay, then.

I shove my hands forward, propelling air from the funnel and into its mouth. More and more and more, the force of it preventing the beastie from shutting me out. “Too late, darling.” My body shakes from the energy drain, but we’re not done yet.

The air fills it like a balloon, sending it toward the surface even as it keeps trying to eat me. It can’t seem to figure out why the distance between us is increasing, which further proves that it’s pure animal—if one of a truly monstrous size. It doesn’t mean it deserves to die simply for existing, but it’s eaten four trade ships in the last four weeks and shows no sign of slowing down.

It swipes a tentacle at me, and I have to take the hit because all my magic is devoted into propelling it upward and keeping enough air around my mouth and nose so I don’t drown.

It’s like someone dropping a ship on me. The tip of the tentacle is thicker around than I am. It slaps me hard enough that I see stars. I lose my grip on the magic bringing air to me—but not the air to the beastie.

The Cwn Annwn are the biggest monsters in Threshold, the realm that connects all realms in existence, but occasionally one of the beasties wreaking havocdoesneed to be put down. It’s always tragic, but again, that’smyship andmycrew andmyworld. I’m not going to let a beastie keep eating people.

One final desperate burst of power overloads its natural weight and creates enough buoyancy to send its form surging to the surface. My body shakes as I keep it going up and up and up. I can tell the moment Bowen’s power takes hold. The weight against my magic disappears.

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