Page 105 of The Sky Pirate's Stowaway
Max nodded, and the two of us used our swords to slice and dice our way to the ladder.
When we reached it, I really wanted to give Max a kiss of gratitude, but I held in the compulsion and said, “Thanks! Get ready to take off, okay?”
He scowled. “I’m coming with you. Now hurry.”
Since I could tell by his stubborn expression that arguing would be pointless, I scanned the quarterdeck for Ariella. “Ariella!” I screamed, waiting for her to look at me. “Get ready to take off!”
Her face was confused, but she still gave me a nod after a beat, then had to turn away to fight off a tentacle with Dead Eyes, Voodoo, and Crusty.
Without another word, I headed for the ladder quickly. We had no time, anyway.
On the lower deck, there was a wall that separated the living quarters from the cannons, so no one was around as I raced to the next ladder that led to the hold. It was really loud from all the cannons going off and the shouting and screams happening above us, but I did my best to ignore the mayhem and move as fast as possible.
I jumped down the last few steps and ran to the engine room without wasting another moment. Every second I took was another second one of my crewmates could get injured or killed.
I threw the engine room door open and jumped in surprise, not expecting to see Mad Murray down here. I thought the fluxstone engineer would’ve been up there fighting with us.
At least he had Sprocket on his shoulder. I was relieved the vexling was alright.
Murray glared at us and said, “There’s nothing left. I’ve tried everything.”
Sprocket chittered and waved their hands at us from Murray’s shoulder as if the little vexling was yelling at us.
“I know, Murray,” Max said, sounding way calmer than I felt.
I glanced at Max and said, “I swear I was gonna tell you.”
Then, without waiting for a response, I stepped into the room, placed each hand on an engine fluxstone, and pushed as much power as I could into them.
Normally, my power left me in a trickle, but I’d never been in such a dire situation before. Now, instead of a tiny stream, my power was more like a massive river flowing from my chest into my arms and out of my hands. It buzzed under my skin as it poured out of me.
Max gasped behind me. “What the hell? How are you doing that, Kas… oh.” I heard him whisper, “You’re a fluxweaver?” He sounded so confused, upset, and… and hurt.
As much as I wanted to reassure him right now, I couldn’t. I had to concentrate on the fluxstones in front of me. So I blocked him and Mad Murray out as best I could as I pushed my power out with everything I had.
I filled the fluxstones until they were glowing brightly with blue energy, and I was left breathless, panting, and drained.
Once they were as filled as they could be, I cut the power off, dropped my hands, and took a deep breath. My head went a little dizzy, my body unused to filling such massive stones so quickly. With another shaky breath, I forced my brain to clear. We had too much to do. We needed to get away from the kraken and get this ship in the air.
We needed to save the crew.
I was afraid to meet Max’s gaze. I knew I should’ve told him about this sooner. I was just… scared, and now, he was going to hate me.
Or decide to turn me in as soon as we made it to Gearhart.
I didn’t actually think he’d do that to me. I could trust him, I knew I could.
Only, I hadn’t. And now, he was hurt.
“Holy shit, they’re working,” Mad Murray whispered before he said, “Go, Reap! Get us in the air!”
With a wince, I finally turned around. I didn’t want to see Max’s expression, but I looked anyway. It couldn’t be avoided, and I deserved to see the fear or anger or whatever he was feeling toward me at that moment. I’d kept a major secret from him this whole time. I deserved whatever consequences came my way.
Max looked at me, and hurt was written in the shadows of his pretty dark brown eyes. The sight of it made my chest feel tight. Iopened my mouth, but I didn’t know what to say to him to make this better. Was there anything I could say?
I’d almost told him so many times, but I’d held back, and now the man I was falling for, the man I cared about more than any man in the world, was hurting.
He looked crestfallen, maybe even heartbroken.
