Page 97 of Damned and Broken Gods
The boat rocked violently.
Araz and I fell to our knees. He kept his arm around me, grabbing hold of the post that held the wheel to anchor us and urging me to do the same.
I spat sea water and blinked salt from my eyes. “We need to get Rajnanga to back off, to turn around!”
Araz shook his head. “He’s gone into a blood frenzy at the sight of a sea revenant. He won’t stop till it’s dead.”
Well, that explained the red zone on the map. I clung to the post, heart pounding, then lifted my head to peer around the wheel cubby. Keyton had Priti trapped between him and the mast, his body acting as a shield, and Vick…Where was Vick?
I spotted him portside, ducked low beneath the barrier of the ship, clutching on to one of the ropes tied to the hull.
“Leela, I have to go!” Araz cried.
“What?”
“Rajnanga won’t back down until the serpent is dead. I must kill it.”
A fist closed around my heart. “With what? You don’t have any weapons and?—”
He kissed me hard on the mouth then pulled back with a smile that bordered on cocky. “Iamthe weapon, remember? Now stay down. Hold on until I say it’s safe.”
He released me, stepped out onto the deck, and ran straight up Rajnanga’s neck and onto his head then leapt, his body flaring into flame as he landed on the serpent.
The wordsflame daddyfilled my mind, and I shook them off because so not appropriate right now.
The serpent whipped its head back and forth while Araz applied heat, clinging to it like an expert surfer. The distraction gave Rajnanga the opening he needed to clamp his beaked mouth around the serpent’s throat.
The whole boat tipped to one side, and a gust of air rushed over us. I looked up in time to see a scaly blue tail whipping through the air.
Crash.
It hit the mast, and the whole thing splintered.
Keyton and Priti went flying across the deck, and the mast toppled toward Vick, crashing into the hull and knocking him out of the boat.
“Vick!” I left the wheel and slid across the deck, slamming into the portside hull. I grabbed on and looked over Rajnanga’s shell into the water. “Vick!”
A head bobbed a little way away. An arm shot up. “Leela!” He splashed and went under, bobbing up only to go back under again, and it hit me that this wasn’t just the shock of being thrown overboard. He couldn’t swim. Shit!
The first call of action in these situations was to throw something the person could grab hold off. Something buoyant, but there was nothing and he was too far out. Fuck.
“Hold on!” I dove into the sea. Icy water shocked my body for a beat before I found my rhythm and swam toward Vick with sure, fast strokes. The water raked at me with arctic fingers, stealing each breath and coating it in mist. I needed to approach from behind, to get a grip to stop him grabbing hold of me andtaking me under in his panic, but he went under just as I reached him.
Shit! I dove after him, snagging him under the arms from behind, and kicking back to the surface with him. We broke water and he clawed at my arms, kicking and thrashing.
“Stop it. Calm down or you’ll drown us both.” I held on, limbs straining, lungs aching until he stilled enough for me to start back toward the ship.
I caught a brief glimpse of Araz atop the serpent before the serpent’s head dipped out of view and Rajnanga’s rose.
Priti appeared on deck, her body pressed to the railing, a rope in her hands. The end was tied to a buoy. Keyton was behind her, his arms around her waist to anchor her.
The current was strong, pushing us away from the boat, and I had to swim with it, not fight it, but it was exhausting when anchoring another body.
“Come on!” Priti cried, readying to throw the buoy out.
“Leela, I can’t breathe,” Vick said. “My chest…”
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. You’re fine. Just relax and let me do the work.”
