Page 78 of Fearless

Managing to stumble toward the door, I reach for the handle, fingersslipping as I’m flung forward once again. The dresser creaks behind me, mimicking each chilling groan from the ship.

When I finally throw open the door, I screech at the figure standing behind it.

“Kai!” I’m forced to yell over the storm despite my relief at seeing him. “What is—”

My eyes fall to the dark shadow spilling slowly down the hallway. It takes me a moment to realize what it is I’m looking at. And what it means.

Water.

The waves are crashing over the ship, readying to swallow us all—

His hands are suddenly on my hips, pushing me back. “You need to stay in this room!”

Thunder growls all around us, shaking the very floors we stand on. Kai is kicking the door shut, closing us in this room, this watery grave. I shake my head at him, at the feel of panic rising up my throat. “No. No, I can’t be locked in here, Kai! Not now!”

A crack of lightning shadows his stern features. He cups my face, holding me steady when the ship lurches. “Do you trust me?”

A trickle of water seeps beneath the door. Like Death’s cold finger, it reaches for me.

“Pae?”

His shout forces my gaze back to him. I nod shakily. “I do. I did even when I shouldn’t have.”

“I know the feeling.” He presses his forehead to mine, breathing soft words across my skin. “So I need you to stay in this room with me until we are told otherwise.”

My pounding heart drowns out every crashing wave, every desperate shout from the crew who wrestles them. The cabin seems to close in on me, growing smaller with the echoing thought that I can no longer leaveit. The sea rages all around me, and yet it may be my own claustrophobia that drags me into death.

The room is growing smaller, the ocean yawning larger. I’m going to suffocate in this cabin before the water even rushes into my lungs.

My lungs.

They can’t seem to find air. I’m choking on a different type of sea. It’s this shallow space, this ever-shrinking cabin come to crush me.

My knees buckle beneath me before I’m sinking to the floor. Ears ringing, I can barely hear Kai’s shouted concern behind me. He’s holding my crumpled body against his as we rock back and forth with the churning waves.

Something cold laps against my leg. Hazily, I look down to find Death’s icy finger grazing my skin. A caress and reunion all at once. He’s found me once again. The last time we met he brushed sandy fingers against my cheek in the Scorches. Now, it’s the raging sea he commands to drag me back to him.

A muffled shout against my ear has me stirring. I place a palm in the puddle of water as if to shake Death’s hand. Commend him for his resilience.

“Pae!”

Lightning flashes across the room at the same moment my name rings out into it. His head is tucked into my shoulder, breath warm against the bare skin there. “We are going to be fine,” he reassures sternly. “You’ve survived the Scorches more than once. Now you’ll do the same for the Shallows.”

I nod, forcing my breath to slow. We sit on the floor, holding each other while the boat tries to throw us apart. I cling to him, every finger fisted into his crumpled shirt. He strokes my hair, whispers words of comfort.

My anchor in the storm.

“I have something for you,” he murmurs.

Still struggling to swallow my panic, I croak, “A distraction, I hope.”

“Something like that.” He unwraps an arm from me, never fully letting me go as he struggles to shrug something from his shoulders. It’s only when he sets the pack atop the damp floor that I notice it for the first time. Reaching inside, he pulls out a thinly wrapped sphere.

I don’t even have to ask what it is. I know that shape. Know that smell.

Honey.

Tears prick my eyes. “You brought that from Ilya?”

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