Unhooked(64)

Pan’s eyes widen as he realizes what Will’s about to do, but it’s too late. With a vicious shout, Will smashes his fist through the cracked skin, and the weight of his body does the rest. One moment he is staring at us with challenging eyes, and the next, he’s gone. Fallen to the depths below.

“No,” the Captain rasps, his breath hot against my skin. His muscles quiver, and I can tell it’s taking everything he has not to let a sob break free, not to toss me aside and go after his friend.

Pan only laughs, examining the lifeless hand he’s still holding before he tosses it aside. “You can still save the rest, Captain. Give me the girl.”

The Captain is shaking against my back. His muscles tremble in their unyielding hold, but he doesn’t release me. “I’m sorry,” I hear him say, but I don’t know who he’s speaking to, and I don’t have time to figure it out. Without any warning at all, he hurls us both off the cliff, to the sea below.





His brother shook him. “If it comes to that, you will leave me behind. If it comes to that, you keep going. Swear to me!” But the boy wouldn’t. And then a shell screamed so close that the time for promises was at an end. . . .





Chapter 28


THE CAPTAIN’S ARMS ARE A cage around me as we plummet to the sea. The force of our fall sucks us both far beneath the surface. The shock of what just happened has me gasping for air, but the moment I feel the salty water rush into my mouth, I force myself to focus. Then I’m kicking up toward the light, the water above burning a lurid red-orange from the fire of the ship.

When my head breaks the surface, I gasp again. At first I can’t see anything but the churning sea and the dark smoke from the burning ship hanging above us. But then strong arms secure themselves around me, and a hand goes over my mouth before I can scream.

“Swim, lass,” Rowan orders. “And swim hard.”

Relief shudders through me. He didn’t give me up, I realize. He chose me.

And for what? He must be completely insane, because there is no way we will be able to get away from Pan, not when he can attack so easily from above.

I don’t argue, though. Black smoke hangs heavy in the air, blanketing the sky and giving us some measure of cover. Even though the water burns my eyes and chokes me with every misplaced breath, I do my best to keep up with Rowan’s steady strokes. I push and push until my legs ache with the effort of my kicks.

By the time we clear the wreckage of the ship and make our way across the open water, my muscles are screaming. I’ve been cooped up too long in ugly little cabins or pretty flower box rooms, and my legs feel weak and ineffective as I kick against the heavy drag of the current.

But when something cold brushes against my leg, I grab for Rowan.

“What is it?” he shouts, turning back to see what’s caused my distress.

“I don’t know,” I sputter, my arms and legs churning frantically to keep myself above the waterline. “I felt something.” I can’t make out anything in the depths below except murky shadows along the ocean floor.

He pulls me closer, his eyes serious and determined. “We have to go now, as fast as you can. And don’t be looking back.”

“But—”

“The Sisters,” he says simply, his eyes tense with fear. I give him a nod, to let him know that I understand, and he takes my hand and begins to pull me along.

The Sisters. Those horrible monsters that turned the sea pink with the meal they made of that boy. The Sisters, with their corpselike skin and tangled masses of seaweed hair.

A dark shape moves along the ocean floor.

“Swim!” he demands, and this time I’m able to make my body obey. But there’s laughter hanging in the air above us. I don’t need to look up to know that it’s Pan, floating safely above the deadly waves, waiting for us to leave the cover of the smoke. Mocking the pointlessness of our situation with his dark glee.

Rowan sees I’m lagging and he reaches for me, tugging me through the water as something cold and large moves beneath the waves.

“It’s not much farther,” Rowan calls, helping to tug me through the currents. The mouth of the cove is still about fifty yards off—a distance that seems endless to my aching arms and exhausted legs.

We’ll never make it without Pan or the Sisters catching us first. And even if we do, then what? All that waits beyond is the open sea.

But Rowan hasn’t given in, and neither will I. The water churns, and the cold bubbles rising from below turn the sea around us icy. But we swim on, him pulling me every so often, refusing to stop.

“Rowan!” I scream. Through the choppy waves, I see the massive creature.

I flail with a sudden spasm of terror, and my uneven strokes can’t keep my head above the waves. I come up again, sputtering for breath, trying to make my arms and legs work together to keep me afloat.

I thought the Sisters were terrifying before, but I didn’t understand. Not really.

The creature rising from the depths below is covered in a mossy layer of algae and speckled with bright patches of white. Barnacles, I think at first. But I’m wrong. They’re bones. Strings of skulls drape across the huge body of the beast, a horrible necklace of its trophies.

Both Rowan and I struggle against the pull of the water, which sucks us toward the creature as it rises from the deep. The opening of the cove is closer now—maybe thirty yards away. But the Sisters are closer too.