Page 59 of The Sky Pirate's Stowaway
I sucked in a breath. Here it was. They were about to expose me. They were about to tell an entire ship full of pirates that I was a fluxweaver. I’d no longer be safe on this ship. I’d behunted, not only by my kingdom, but by the very people I was befriending.
Just as the man said, “One count,” Viper screamed, “Shut that bastard up!”
Nearly everyone shot at the front ship at the same time, drowning out the man’s voice, drowning out my listed crimes. Glancing out the hole where the cannon went, I saw the front of the ship damaged and smoking. If that guy had still been standing there, he was surely dead.
I let out a shuddered breath, the close call almost too much for my brain—and my heart.
I wanted to cover my ears and my eyes and just… be for a moment.
Toothless Jimmy’s cannon fired, and I jumped and ducked out of habit before shaking myself off, shaking off all my damn emotions, and hurrying over to Bones. Jimmy was cleaning out his cannon, but I figured I’d need to bring another cannonball over quickly. So I rammed the cannonball in Bones’ barrel, then rushed to do it all over again.
Cannons fired, and I did my best to ignore the instinct to duck or curl up in a ball in the corner and pretend this wasn’t happening.
I filled three more cannons before the enemy fleet finally returned fire. They’d probably held off because they wanted us—me—alive.
“Incoming!” someone yelled, and this time, I did duck in on myself as something came crashing through the wood of our ship only a few feet in front of me.
Before I could even figure out what was happening, another cannon came through the hull, and someone screamed in pain. Oh holy phoenix tails, someone was hurt.
More and more cannons barreled through. More and more screams of horror and pain came from all over the ship, comingfrom many of my fellow crew members. My heart lurched at the thought of one of my friends or… or Max being hurt.
But I couldn’t think about that right now, or I’d freeze and be unable to help.
Max was fine. Ariella was fine. Hawk-Eyes was fine. Willy was running around right there and was fine.
Max would be okay. He would.
They’ll all be okay.
“Ghost! Hurry!” Jimmy yelled at me, so I pushed thoughts of my friends away. I ignored the way my heart was racing and trying to escape my chest and rushed over to his cannon, rammed the damn cannonball, and ran away as fast as I could to get another.
I needed to be faster than this. We needed to hit them with everything we had.
I didn’t like being so close to the side of the ship where the Sunada fleet was attacking with their own cannonballs, but what choice did I have? I wasn’t about to abandon my crew. I needed—wanted—to help them.
Someone screamed with renewed agony, and I blocked them out. There was nothing I could do for them. I just had to help with the cannonballs. That was the best thing I could do right now.
Another hit rocked the entire ship, and I fell into the wall as we listed sideways. For a moment, I feared the whole ship was about to go down, but it righted itself after a few seconds. Viper was likely steering, and he might’ve been the worst human to ever human, but he definitely knew his stuff when it came to this ship.
The captain’s voice rang loud and clear as he yelled, “Shield up!”
Shield? We had a freakingshield? How? Where? And why hadn’t we used it yet?
Mad Murray came dashing down the ladder and didn’t stop, rushing down another ladder and into the hold.
Since I didn’t know what else to do, I picked up another cannonball and rushed to Bones. As I was ramming it into the barrel, a strange buzz tickled over my skin, and for a moment, it felt like the floor dropped from under my feet, like I was falling and there was nothing under me to catch my fall. I was weightless, flying, for a few seconds.
And then my ass slammed onto the floor, a sharp pain shooting up my spine, my head spinning. A moan escaped as I grabbed my head, trying to catch the breath that’d been knocked out of me.
What the hell was that? What happened?
I glanced around, expecting to find myself in the hold, having fallen through the floor. But I was sitting right next to the cannons, ass on the lower deck, right where I’d started.
What in hellfire?
Bones knelt in front of me, grabbed my arms, and hauled me to my feet, asking, “What the hell was that?”
I blinked at him, then furrowed my brow as I glanced around. I had no words because I had no fucking clue what that was, either.
