The Abyss Surrounds Us (The Abyss Surrounds Us #1)(6)

And she’s only going to piss them off more. She’s going to give them a reason to kill every soul aboard this ship if she goes after them.

I’ve got to stop her. I’ve got to do something.

I hoist the homing beacon onto my back and take off, back down the ship’s tunnels, just as the gunfire starts. The deckhand runs after me, but I tune out the words he’s yelling—I can’t afford to think about anything but drawing Durga back to the ship. An explosion rocks the back of the Nereid and the floor lurches beneath my feet as the engines stop. We’re dead in the water.

I round a corner and haul open a hatch, stumbling out onto the lowest deck on the ship where a foldout platform lies waiting. I yank the lever that extends it and leap on as the platform unfurls, landing on the ocean’s surface with a wet slap. It rolls out in front of me, nearly fifty feet in length, and I sprint for the end of it, my fingers fumbling on the homing beacon as I go.

The LEDs snap on, nearly blinding me, and I slip, falling flat on my ass. I hold the beacon up, point it at Durga, and scream as loud as my lungs will allow, my voice harmonizing with the hum of her signal.

The pirate ship has already outmaneuvered her and docked with us, the crew swarming the Nereid like flies on a corpse. Durga’s attention flickers to me, and she draws up short. The Reckoner shakes her head, letting out a deafening roar as she wavers between heeding my call and doing the very thing she was bred to do.

Maybe it’s my familiarity, maybe it’s just a merit of her training, but Durga turns again and surges for the platform, her beak pointed squarely at the homing beacon.

“That’s right,” I rasp, dropping to my knees. “Good girl. Come here. It’s okay. It’s all going to be over soon.”

Then the pirate ship opens fire.

They aim for her eyes. The bullets riddle Durga, and blood sprays from her already-ragged flesh. She roars again, the sound rippling the ocean’s surface, and turns on the ship. Smoke from the artillery pours out over the waves until all I can see is her looming shadow and the outline of the Nereid. Somewhere in the haze, her beak snaps shut, the sound rolling over the ocean like a thunderclap. I stumble back down the platform, still holding the beacon high, my eyes running. I can’t tell if it’s the smoke burning my eyes, or if I’m just crying.

A wave lifts the platform, knocking my feet out from under me, and I plunge into the water. My hold on the homing beacon slips, and it sinks away into the vast dark of the ocean below. Lungs burning, I kick for the surface and come up clinging to the platform. I choke in a breath as I feel the water around me thicken.

A shadow crosses me. Someone has strode out onto the platform, a wide-brimmed hat shading her features and a rocket launcher hoisted over her shoulder. She takes aim at Durga, braces herself, and squeezes the trigger. The whole platform vibrates from the recoil and I almost lose my grip.

The rocket explodes into Durga’s side. She screams, her leathery skin rippling as she wheels to face the pirate, who only frowns, takes aim, and shoots again.

I haul myself out of the water and lunge for her, but a pair of arms grabs me from behind and holds me back. The second rocket strikes Durga’s shoulder, taking out a chunk of flesh so large that her foreleg goes limp instantly. I struggle against my captor, but it’s no use. I’m not a fighter.

Durga’s the fighter, and she lunges for the woman with the rocket launcher even as a third shell barrels into her chest, right where her keratin plates should be. The sickening stench of Reckoner blood and decaying flesh fills the air with an increasing inevitability, overpowering the smoke of the guns.

The fourth rocket hits her head.

And …

I’m five years old and sharing a kiddie pool with a newly hatched Reckoner pup. I’m eight, standing on her back for the first time. I’m thirteen, and the only refuge from my first breakup is in floating alongside her, holding onto the ridge above her eye where my hand fits perfectly.

I’m seventeen years old, and I can do nothing but watch as Durga’s thick blood paints the sea.

Now I’m sure it’s not just the smoke. Tears roll down my cheeks, and I go limp in the grip of whoever’s restrained me. They can kill me now. They can do whatever they like. Everything’s gone still, and even though I can hear the chaos of the pirates taking the Nereid behind me, it sounds like it’s on the other side of a glass wall.

I’ve failed.

The grip on me loosens, and I can finally twist around and look my captor in the face. She’s about my age. Her blonde hair is desperately trying to recover from a sideshave, and she’s got a feral grin on her lips. “Boss,” she says, and the woman with the rocket launcher turns. “I think we’re going to want to bring this one along.”





4


The girl keeps my hands twisted behind my back as she hustles me toward the pirate ship, forcing me to step over the bodies that litter the hallways. Their uniforms mark them as the Nereid ’s crew, and the guns in their hands mark them as the ones who put up a fight.

Her captain leads the way, the rocket launcher stowed in favor of a submachine gun that she cradles like a newborn child. In the early August heat, her brown skin is dappled with sweat, and she has her wildly curly hair bound back underneath her hat.

I don’t know what’s going on. All I know is that yesterday I’d never seen death up close and now I’m surrounded by it.