The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie Page B

Swift. The guy probably gets kicked out of funerals for looking too pleased with himself.
    I eat in silence and leave with Swift. We go back to her room, she throws a change of clothes at me, and it’s just like the first night, minus the punching. She just collapses in bed, rolls over, and I follow.
    But this time I don’t let her drift off. I have questions, and the first is, “Why do you guys like each other so much?”
    Swift startles. She lifts her head, her half-there hair flopping over as she twists to look at me.
    â€œYou and the other lack—trainees,” I continue. “Only one of you is going to be captain in the end, right? Shouldn’t you all be at each others’ throats?”
    For a moment I think she’s not going to respond, but then she rolls over to face me, and something seems to soften in her.
    â€œWe’ve been through a lot of shit together,” she says. “When you work like we do, when you hunt side by side—it’s something that bonds you. Sometimes the captain does stuff like this. She sets up situations where someone’s clearly getting special treatment, and yeah, it gets messy sometimes. But when you suffer with someone, you le arn them. And it’s hard to kill a person you’ve learned.”
    I nod. I’ve seen that kind of suffering-bond firsthand every time we have a pup in the stables—the caretakers of the newborn Reckoner become caretakers of each other. “But it can’t last, right?”
    â€œIt might have,” Swift sighs. “But then you came along.”
    I don’t know what to say. Does she expect me to apologize for being dragged bodily aboard this ship to raise a beast I want to destroy more than anything?
    â€œYou still on those pain meds?” she asks. “You’re awfully talky today.”
    I wrinkle my nose. “Reinhardt weaned me off them a week ago.” My ribs still twinge on occasion, but I don’t want Swift to know that—she’d probably jab them if she knew.
    â€œAh, so you’re just getting more comfortable.”
    â€œWell I am sleeping in your bed,” I grumble.
    She grins, and for a moment her eyes light up in the same way they do when she’s joking with the other lackeys. “Don’t get too chummy with me, Cas. I’ll eat you alive.”
    I can’t help it. I snort, and it gains momentum until I’m cackling. “Was that a threat ? God, you’re the least intimidating pirate I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.”
    â€œThen clearly you haven’t spent enough time around Varma.”
    It’s like Swift’s room is a whole other world, a subdimension of the Minnow where Swift isn’t a pirate and I’m not a prisoner. Here, away from the gaze of the rest of the crew, we’re talking and laughing together as if we’re something like normal. There’s something that unlocks in Swift when she’s sealed away from the rest of the ship, something honest. Something I actually can respect.

12
    The next morning, the captain wants to oversee my training session with Bao. She paces along the trainer deck as I lure the pup back to the ship with the homing LEDs. There’s a spark of excitement in her eyes, and it’s keeping the tension in my muscles.
    Bao’s blowholes flare as he approaches, blasting a fine mist into the air that hangs over the morning sea. A piece of fresh meat hangs out of the corner of his mouth, the twisted remnants of some fish he’s caught. At least he’s figured out how to feed himself on his own. That’s a weight off my shoulders, and the fact that he’s eaten recently makes me much less apprehensive about what’s about to happen.
    I’m dressed in a brand-new wetsuit that Santa Elena furnished. It’s made of some of the most breathable fabric I’ve ever encountered, but it’s snug and warm around my torso. A new, top-of-the-line