Grim’s shadow recoils.
It fights harder than the rest did, scraping fingers across the deck, slamming into the planks. When my knees are about to give in, Sable steadies me with his hands on my hips.
He is so warm, so steady against my back, anchoring me more than the salt ever could.
“You have to stop,” he says into my ear and tightens his grip on me once again.
I ignore him.
When Grim's shadow snaps back into him, a burning sensation rips through me, so painful that it almost knocks me blind. Darkness creeps upon me now, but it's not a shadow. It’s my body giving in.
I sway, the world fading.
Then the darkness fractures.
A resounding crack breaks through the air. Wood explodes near the rail, splinters biting into my calf as a lantern shatters right next to me. Another shot follows, this time even closer.
“Down!” someone shouts.
The man in front of me jerks, the spot where Grim stood a second before, his body snapping backward as if yanked by an invisible hand. He collapses in a heap, blood already slicking the planks beneath him.
Gunfire.
The world tilts as Sable tackles me to the ground. I land on the planks with a heavy thud, his body covering mine. Something whistles above us and embeds itself in the main mast with a bang.
The power I’ve been holding wavers, my voice breaking off mid-tone as splinters of wood rain down on us.
“You stay here,” he snaps, not unkind, but demanding. “Do not move. Do not sing.”
“But the shadows—”
“Risa!” he barks, shoving me behind one of the intact masts, before pulling his long cutlass. “You will do as I say.”
The world narrows to him. To the way his hands shake, despite the steel in his voice. To the fear he isn’t trying to hide anymore. My vision blurs, pain pulsing, where exhaustion has already hollowed me out. It’s all too much.
I nod.
Sable exhales in relief, then presses his forehead against mine.
“Don’t move,” he murmurs, lower now. “I will come back for you.”
Then he’s gone.
Steel flashes as he steps away from me, shouting orders that cut through the chaos. When I peer behind the mast, he’s already engaged in a fight with one of the intruders.
They boarded the ship with planks and hawks. By the seas, how did we not notice them? They must’ve crept up on us, using the dark as protection. I never thought that someone would follow us here, into the womb of the sea. That the sea would even let them through.
I curl in on myself behind the mast, hands clamped over my mouth as the sound of battle swells around me. Out on the deck, the shadows have disappeared. Once my magic stopped fully, they were all gone.
Right next to me, a body slams against the boards. Blood splashes warm against my wrist, and then, a grunt that cuts off halfway through.
I don’t want to look, but do so anyway, right in the moment when a blade is pulled out of his chest with the sound of wet, tearing flesh. It’s Saint.
Blood pours across the planks, seeping into the grooves, trickling towards my knee. My breath catches as if the blade had been dragged through me instead.
No.
Only days ago, he fixed the starboard rail. He laughed when the mast rope snapped and bruised his shoulder, calling it a love tap from the Noctis herself.