All the Stars and Teeth(72)

My eyes burn in this filthy water, and I can barely make out the others. I feel one of their hands close around mine, large and calloused—Bastian.

Lead sinks into my stomach, making my body colder and the need for breath sharper. I clench Bastian’s hand tightly, knowing that if I’m already feeling the need to breathe, it must be even stronger for him.

Our time’s nearly up.

Bastian pushes me ahead, freeing our hands. It’s impossible to tell how close we are; dread constricts my throat and makes each movement frantic. Desperate.

I swim as quickly as I can, kicking until my legs sear from pain. Pushing my arms so hard until they act purely on instinct, entirely numb. My throat burns as my senses dull, the water darkening in my periphery. Algae licks my heels and seaweed constricts my limbs, fighting to slow them.

I’ve no idea if Bastian’s still behind me, or where Ferrick and Vataea are, but I don’t stop. I push, because now my lungs are screaming for air as I fight to surface. But just as sand scrapes my knees and the end is in sight, Vataea grabs my hand. She drags me back, her mouth agape and eyes wide with panic.

Ferrick’s behind her, his own eyes fluttering as his breath wanes. Bastian takes hold of my hand and tries to free it from Vataea, but she shakes her head fiercely and points above us to the shore.

My heart plunges when understanding dawns—there’s no break in the barrier. They’ve attached it to their shore; some thing we didn’t expect, as it means Zudians must also suffer from this curse. They must not even be able to access their own sea.

If we surface now, even right at the shore, we’ll be trapped in a curse.

Vataea whips her head around, searching with terrified golden eyes. Shakily she lifts her hands and parts her lips with what at first sounds like a song, but quickly darkens into something sharp and vicious. She’s chanting by the time a thin bead of water swirls within her palm as she tries to call upon the sea. But it doesn’t listen.

When Ferrick’s lips part, air bubbling out of his mouth, dread sinks its teeth into me and rips all hope. My throat tightens.

Tightens.

Tightens.

The ocean tried to claim me once already and I escaped it. This time, I won’t be as lucky. Specks of darkness sink into my vision as the water floods up my nose and down my throat. I open my mouth on instinct, gagging on it.

The last thing I see is the horror on Vataea’s face and the water swirling in her hands. Her chanting gets louder, until it’s like she’s yelling at the sea itself, but the water swallows and garbles the sound as I try to focus on it.

There’s water in my eyes. My nose. My throat and lungs.

But then it’s just … gone.

I choke on the air that surrounds me, desperate for it, and I’m not the only one. Gagging up water, I squint my eyes open to see Ferrick and Bastian doing the same. They clutch their chests and raw throats, squinting and blinking bloodshot eyes.

I want to settle myself upon the sand to dry my freezing body, but we’re still in the water, a bubble of air formed around us. I shake the seaweed tangled in my hair and around my arms away as Vataea pushes us forward, chanting dagger-sharp words under her breath.

Blood flows freely from her nose, but she doesn’t stop pushing until the sand is beneath us and we break through the surface, protected by the strange pocket of the ocean she’s formed around us.

We fall to the sand as the barrier snaps. I hit knees-first and a sharp jolt spirals up my spine. I bite back a yelp, sinking my fists into the sand. Vataea’s across from me, her fin gone in favor of legs. Ferrick shakily untangles her sopping tunic from his belt and tosses it her way.

Ferrick pants prayers under his breath while Bastian dry heaves into the sand.

“I thought your sea magic was rusty,” the pirate grits out between ragged breaths, his body shaking.

“It is.” Vataea’s palms are shaky as she wipes the drying blood from her nose and examines it with a grimace.

I feel a rush of gratitude toward Vataea. It would have been so much easier for her to leave us in the water. Without her help, we’d certainly be dead. But after the fight with the Lusca, something between the four of us changed. I trust them, and I get the sense that they’re all starting to trust one another, too.

It’s like we’re becoming a real crew.

“When we get to Arida,” I tell her as I fall to my back, sucking in air like I might never have it again, “I’m throwing a banquet in your honor. You can have all the gold and all the food you want. Thank you.”

Grunts of agreement echo my words, and I sneak a glance at Vataea, who dips her face toward the gray sky and exhales a sigh of relief. The tiniest hint of a genuine smile plays at her lips.

Once again, I can’t help but be thankful she’s on our side.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE


While Ikae’s streets are stained glass and Kerost is made from cracking cement and cobblestone, Zudoh greets us with towering gray peaks and limestone caverns that stretch through the beach and deep into the land. Thankfully this area appears to have been long deserted, so no one’s around to see our arrival. There’s not even a bird in the sky to crow a greeting.

I hug my arms tightly around myself as we travel along the shore, having paused long enough to catch our breath. Frosty air bites my skin, still damp from soaked clothes and wet hair, and I shiver. Several yards ahead looms a giant building with reflective glass that winks at me in the sunlight that’s slowly beginning to peek through the thinning gray fog. I squint back at my reflection. The building is bigger than any I’ve seen before—sleek and white, with strange panels atop the roof.