Page 98 of Fearless

I spin slowly toward the uncharacteristically timid sound. “I figured you were too stubborn to come talk to me first.”

Paedyn crosses her arms. “And I figured you were smart enough to beg for my forgiveness first. But”—she lifts her hands into the air between us—“here we are.”

I sigh. “I’ve missed you, Gray.”

“It’s only been a few days of not speaking,” she retorts, moonlight dancing on the ends of her silver hair.

“No.” I shake my head, watching her hesitantly step closer. “It was the beginning of the rest of our lives.”

“Kai, please don’t—”

“I was wrong to be angry with you about the truth,” I say quickly. “It was something I needed to be reminded of anyway.”

I step back then, a physical representation of the boundary I’m attempting to set. This hurts her. I can see it in the way her face crumples against the lantern light, as though she wasn’t the one to remind me of our separate fates.

“I…” She’s spinning that ring on her thumb, and I hate that I’m the cause of such discomfort. “I need you to know that—”

Hair rises on the back of my neck.

I stiffen, lifting a hand that cuts off her words. I can only imagine the annoyed look on her face because my eyes are already on the sea beyond. My head tilts slightly, cocking toward that strange pull in the pit of my stomach.

“Kai?”

Paedyn’s voice sounds muffled against my back as I strain to focus on this intoxicating feeling. I’ve felt power my whole life. Learned the way it moved beneath my skin and ignited in my veins. Even the inkling of it is a slight hum in my blood, a tickle at my fingertips.

But that is not this.

This is no Elite. Not entirely.

“Kai, what is it?”

She’s standing beside me now, reaching a tentative hand toward the body I’ve abandoned in pursuit of this feeling within my very soul. Eyes fluttering shut, I reach toward that foreign power. Tug at the lethal connection in the pit of my stomach.

And it comes racing toward me.

“Everyone, get down!”

The warning has only just escaped my lips when the ship lurches violently.

I lunge for Paedyn, managing to throw an arm across her waist while the other grapples for the railing. My hand hooks around the torn wood as the hull bucks beneath us. Sailors topple across the deck, yelling as they slide toward the opposite dipping rail.

The ship rolls until my feet have nearly lifted from the floor. I strain to hold us there, grunting as my fingers slip on the slick rail. Shaken from her initial shock, Paedyn begins tearing at the wood with her nails, desperate to help hold her weight as we dangle above death.

I’m panting, arms burning while screams and shouts ring through the night air. A series of splashes have me wincing for the crewmen who have found themselves overboard. Torri’s booming voice cuts through the chaos, shouting orders to whoever still clings to the deck.

The ship rocks once again, this time falling back toward its intended position atop the waves. With a colossal crash, the starboard side slams down into the waves. Water careens over the rails, pelting us with salt and a biting coldness. Our knees buckle with the force and send the slippery deck flying toward us.

Paedyn coughs, pushing a mop of wet hair from her eyes. Every bit of lantern light is swallowed by the wave, leaving only the moon to illuminate this chaos. She looks over at me, soaked to the bone, just as I am. “What…,” she pants, “was that?”

The sailors all around us seem to be shouting the same question, all drenched and dazed. But when my eyes lift and land on the captain’s, I don’t need to see the terror within his gaze—I know it mirrors my own.

He can hear it. I can feel it. And we may not live long enough to say we had.

My voice is an awed murmur. “It’s found us.”

Wood splinters beside my head.

I throw myself over Paedyn, shielding her from the showering of jagged pieces. A looming darkness falls over us as the ship bucks with the sudden impact. Ears ringing, I barely hear Paedyn’s scream beneath me. Barely register my own when I look up toward the source of this devastation.

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