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The few crew members hanging around the fire don’t seem to realize that Cosette is here, circling her hips by her heels like a cat. They won’t notice if I slide my hand beneath my skirts.
I press my finger to the tip of the knife strapped to my thigh and pull it back, watching the blood well up from the cut. Dripping my offering on the sand, I restate my intentions.
“Sever the ties between the monster and the sea witch, and let me hold the threads.”
A loud snap cracks through the air, and I feel several invisible strands wrap around my fingers, attaching me to something. Something big.
Cosette’s face distorts in the heat, her mouth stretched in a wide smile as her blue eyes melt down her cheeks.
“I knew you had it in you,” she says, her figure going up in smoke as a branch falls into flames.
A hand shakes my shoulder, and I sit up, wiping drool from my mouth. The fire is dead, and there’s a crick in my neck.
“Sorry, Dee, I didn’t mean to take that long,” Darcy says, sitting on the log beside me. “I figured you would’ve gone up to the castle eventually.”
“I must’ve fallen asleep,” I mutter, although I’m not sure when that could’ve happened.
Her deep ocean eyes crinkle against the faint orange light. “The sun’s coming up. Are you ready to get going?”
“Yes.” I place the stick behind me. “I’ll meet you in a moment.”
She leaves me, and I wipe my hand over the rune mark, covering the dried blood. Lowering my lips to the sand mound, I whisper, “I release you from the binds that tie us.”
Unseen threads unwind from my fingers, slowly slipping away on a breeze.
I huddle deeper into my nest of furs as the sun shines through the window in the captain’s quarters, marking the third day of our sailing trip to hunt the kraken.
The air on the main deck is tense, the crew calling out any sudden shifts in the current. I’ve stayed down here as much as possible, avoiding the chaos of stomping boots and cold sea spray.
Darcy has given me her narrow cot, forbidding me from napping on the hammocks where the other sixteen crew members rest.
She enters the tight space without knocking, sinking down into the furs piled in the corner.
I peek over the edge of my cocoon. “I didn’t hear you come in last night.”
“Because I didn’t.” She wipes the salty grit from her face. “I don’t know how we’ve been circling Cor for this long without a sign of the kraken. We would’ve received a message by now if it had been spotted outside of the Heartbreak Isles.”
“Perhaps the monster went back to sleep,” I say, feeling guilty that we’re chasing a creature I already set free. It must’ve slipped through the waters peacefully.
“Or it’s lying in wait for another boat.” She scrapes her heel across the floor. “Maybe we scared it off.”
“Maybe.” The idea of scaring a kraken off is laughable, though. “Aunt Nell will be upset if we don’t return soon, and that might be worse than facing a kraken. She’s already going to give us an earful for missing the appointment with the bakery.”
She leans her head against the wall. “It doesn’t seem like such a big deal when she’ll choose our menu anyway.”
“True.”
“I’d honestly be fine with sailing for as long as it takes,” she says, closing her eyes like she used to when she would share her dreams with me. “We could stay out here and postpone the wedding.”
I fling my furs off. Our wedding is planned for the evening of the full moon.
That’s already cutting it close for me.
“We can’t postpone the wedding.”
“Why?” she asks. “I’m not going to change my mind in the meantime.”
“We’ve already announced the date.” I get up and pace around our shared quarters. “The villagers are looking forward to it, and it’s boosting the businesses that were hurt by the curfew.”
