Page 44 of When Monsters Fight
And in a way, it was.
They’d brought it into being together, after all.
“We’ll take good care of it,” Gabriel said. “It’s truly beautiful.”
“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Lorcan said. “We put in bunks, and there’s a cubby for storage, and we built a latrine at the back to allow for privacy.”
“Yes, I would not have thought of those details alone,” Prometheus said, a proud glint in his eyes. “Come inside.” He led the way up the ladder that leaned up against the boat. “This will be your home for the next few days, after all.”
“Days?” Jilyana said. “How long does it take to get to the fourth circle?”
“The fifth is vast,” Prometheus said. “Thanatos once told us it would take four suns to reach the fourth circle.”
Four days. We’d already been gone two. We still had to locate the relic, so that would add time to our journey. How long would we be stuck in Gehenna?
My thoughts took a backseat as we climbed onto the boat, and the next few minutes were spent exploring. I’d never been on a boat. Never seen one, so there was a lot to take in. Words like deck, stern, bow, helm, rudder. They all melted into one. Thank goodness the watchers knew what Prometheus was talking about. They’d sailed before, built boats before. Been on the sea before.
Thank fuck they’d come with us because Gabriel wasn’t as up to speed with how to sail.
There were three rooms below—a small seating area, a sleeping area, and a kitchen that housed a small stove filled with fuel called coal.
“We’ll bring you supplies,” Lorcan said. “They should last you for your trip. You’ll need fresh water too. We’ll fill containers of it.”
“And how do we get the boat into the water?” Kabiel asked.
Lorcan looked up at Prometheus, who smiled smugly. “I may have been cursed, but I did not lose my godly strength. The sea lies beyond this veil. Once you are prepared to leave, I will push the vessel through the veil and onto the sea.”
“In that case, let’s prepare,” Gabriel said.
It didn’t take long for us to load up the ship with supplies, although I felt bad taking food from Prometheus and Lorcan’s stores, but they were adamant they had enough and could get more if need be. The world that Thanatos had created for them here was bountiful.
The sky was a beautiful orange hue by the time we were ready to leave, and the immortal lovers prepared to disembark.
I joined them at the ladder. “Thank you, for everything.”
“Thank us by fixing this broken world,” Lorcan said. “We may only have a sliver of it, but it’s our home.”
“But even if you fail,” Prometheus said, “even if our world is doomed, we’re grateful for the time we had together.”
The way they looked at each other, pure and unfettered by all the horror they’d experienced, made my heart ache.
Gabriel pulled up the ladder once Prometheus and Lorcan were on the ground.
Kabiel took the helm, and the other watchers perched on the bow and stern. Jilyana stayed close to Asbeel, looking out at the veil from the bow.
Prometheus and Lorcan waved goodbye before walking out of sight, and in the next moment, the boat was inching toward the veil. It swallowed Jilyana and Asbeel first, slowly eating away at the boat until it was rushing toward us, and for a moment, doubt and fear dug their claws into me, but Gabriel took my hand, and the fear melted.
“We’ve got this,” he said as the shimmer washed over us.
I hoped so, because we had so much more riding on finding the last piece of the relic now. With two worlds hanging in the balance, failure wasn’t an option.
Chapter 23
BASTIAN
“How much farther?” Bee asks from the seat behind me.
“We should be at the coordinates in five miles.”
