Chapter 221
The Nereid looms ahead, seemingly untouched, gently rocking in the water as we approach. From the outside, everything looks fine. Too fine.
My gut twists uneasily.
Wake must sense it too, because his grip tightens around his dagger. He presses two fingers to the comm at his ear. “Tai,” he says, his voice a low warning. “Hold position. Something’s wrong.”
A beat of static, then Tai’s voice crackles through. “Define ‘wrong.’”
Wake scans the ship, his gaze sharp. “No one’s moving on deck. It’s quiet. Too quiet.”
Tai swears under his breath. “Understood. We’ll stay back until you give the all-clear.”
We exchange glances, unspoken agreement passing between us. We go in carefully. We go in ready.
Wake, Silo, Arista, and I pull ourselves up the ladder and board the Nereid, moving in swift, silent synchronization. My heart hammers as we slip through the shadows of the deck. The air feels wrong, heavy with something I can’t quite place.
Wake takes the lead, stepping cautiously toward the bridge. He stops abruptly, his body tensing, and I nearly collide into him. He turns his head slightly, just enough to whisper, “They’re here.”
I follow his gaze.
Through the porthole, I see them.
Held at gunpoint.
Cora, Tai, Andreas, the rest of our people—standing stiff and silent, their hands raised or bound, weapons stripped from them. Armed figures loom over them, rifles aimed and ready.
Rage coils hot in my chest, but I force myself to stay still. To think. We need to be smart.
Wake flicks his fingers in quick, silent signals. Flank left. Take out the closest targets first.
Silo and Arista nod, moving into position, silent as shadows.
I tighten my grip on my stolen Enkian dagger, feeling its power hum beneath my fingers. Wake’s stolen cuffs glint against his wrists, the ones that make him even faster than he already is. We have the advantage, we just need to move fast.
Wake glances at me, the briefest confirmation before—
We strike.
The first attacker doesn’t even get the chance to scream.
Wake is a blur, crossing the space in an instant, slamming a hijacker into the wall hard enough to dent the metal. The impact is brutal, sending a cloud of bubbles into the water as the man crumples, unconscious.
Silo fires his harpoon gun, the projectile slicing through the water like lightning, catching another in the chest before they can turn their gun on us. A muffled gurgle escapes the hijacker’s lips before his body drifts lifelessly to the floor.
I lunge at one holding Cora, twisting my dagger into his arm. He screams, a jagged, garbled sound, the weapon clattering from his hands. Before he can retaliate, I twist, kicking him hard in the stomach, sending him flying back into the metal wall. He slumps, dazed.
Another hijacker turns toward me, raising his weapon, but I don’t hesitate. I grab the fallen gun and shoot before he can react. The force of the bullet rips through his shoulder, and he howls in pain, clutching at the wound.
Arista tears through two more with vicious precision, her blade slicing through their suits, spilling dark clouds of blood into the water. She moves like a predator, calculated and lethal, and I can’t help but be grateful she’s on our side.
It’s working. We’re winning.
A hijacker lunges at Wake with a knife, but he sidesteps with inhuman speed, catching the man’s wrist mid-strike. In a single fluid motion, he wrenches the attacker’s arm back, twisting until there’s a sickening pop. The man screams, his weapon falling from useless fingers.
Another charges at me from the left, and I barely manage to duck in time, his blade slicing through the water where my head was a second ago. I pivot, kicking him hard in the ribs, and stab downward, my dagger sinking into his thigh. He chokes on a scream as blood blooms into the water.
Silo hurls another harpoon, catching a hijacker in the leg, pinning him to the floor. The man thrashes, reaching for his gun, but Arista is already there, slitting his throat in a clean, practiced motion.
The hijackers are scrambling now, desperate, retreating. Wake moves like a force of nature, cutting through them without hesitation. One by one, they drop.
And then—
A siren wails through the ship.
I freeze. My blood runs cold.
But it’s not just any siren.
It’s that siren.
The one I haven’t heard since Wake and I were existing on opposite sides of a tempered glass cage.
The one that’s capable of making the strongest man I know writhe in agony.
Wake staggers back, his whole body jerking violently. He grits his teeth, but I see it in his eyes—the pain, the disorientation. His hands shake, claws flexing involuntarily. He fights it, but I can feel the power of the sound pressing down, trying to force submission.
Silo and Arista drop to their knees, hands clamped over their ears, gasping. Even Cora sways, gripping the table for balance.
I whip around, looking for the source.
And that’s when I see him.
Emerging from the corridor with a smug grin, flanked by more armed men.
Stan.
My stomach lurches.
“Well, well,” he drawls, stepping forward like he owns the place. “You just had to make this difficult, didn’t you, Phoebe?”
I grip my dagger, rage flaring through my veins. “You,” I snarl.
Stan smirks, eyes flicking over me like I’m something he owns. “You should have accepted my offer,” he muses. “If you had, maybe you wouldn’t be watching your pet fish writhe in agony right now.”
My pulse pounds in my skull. Wake stumbles beside me, his jaw clenched so tight I swear his teeth might crack. I want to lunge at Stan, tear the smug expression right off his face, but I can’t.
Not while the siren is still blaring.
Not while Wake and the others are suffering.
Stan tilts his head, feigning sympathy. “But hey, silver lining—you finally came to see things my way.”
I glare at him, my heart hammering in my chest.
Because I know exactly what he’s about to say.
“You’re going to give me what I want.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
