Tags:
Paranormal,
YA),
Young Adult Fiction,
Young Adult,
teen,
teen fiction,
ya fiction,
ya novel,
young adult novel,
Paranormal Fiction,
teen novel,
teen lit,
abyss surrounds us,
emily skrutsky,
emily skruskie
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 itâs just like the first night, minus the punching. She just collapses in bed, rolls over, and I follow.
But this time I donât let her drift off. I have questions, and the first is, âWhy do you guys like each other so much?â
Swift startles. She lifts her head, her half-there hair flopping over as she twists to look at me.
âYou and the other lackâtrainees,â I continue. âOnly one of you is going to be captain in the end, right? Shouldnât you all be at each othersâ throats?â
For a moment I think sheâs not going to respond, but then she rolls over to face me, and something seems to soften in her.
âWeâve been through a lot of shit together,â she says. âWhen you work like we do, when you hunt side by sideâitâs something that bonds you. Sometimes the captain does stuff like this. She sets up situations where someoneâs clearly getting special treatment, and yeah, it gets messy sometimes. But when you suffer with someone, you le arn them. And itâs hard to kill a person youâve learned.â
I nod. Iâve seen that kind of suffering-bond firsthand every time we have a pup in the stablesâthe caretakers of the newborn Reckoner become caretakers of each other. âBut it canât last, right?â
âIt might have,â Swift sighs. âBut then you came along.â
I donât 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?
âYou still on those pain meds?â she asks. âYouâre awfully talky today.â
I wrinkle my nose. âReinhardt weaned me off them a week ago.â My ribs still twinge on occasion, but I donât want Swift to know thatâsheâd probably jab them if she knew.
âAh, so youâre just getting more comfortable.â
âWell I am sleeping in your bed,â I grumble.
She grins, and for a moment her eyes light up in the same way they do when sheâs joking with the other lackeys. âDonât get too chummy with me, Cas. Iâll eat you alive.â
I canât help it. I snort, and it gains momentum until Iâm cackling. âWas that a threat ? God, youâre the least intimidating pirate Iâve ever had the misfortune to meet.â
âThen clearly you havenât spent enough time around Varma.â
Itâs like Swiftâs room is a whole other world, a subdimension of the Minnow where Swift isnât a pirate and Iâm not a prisoner. Here, away from the gaze of the rest of the crew, weâre talking and laughing together as if weâre something like normal. Thereâs something that unlocks in Swift when sheâs 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. Thereâs a spark of excitement in her eyes, and itâs keeping the tension in my muscles.
Baoâs 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 heâs caught. At least heâs figured out how to feed himself on his own. Thatâs a weight off my shoulders, and the fact that heâs eaten recently makes me much less apprehensive about whatâs about to happen.
Iâm dressed in a brand-new wetsuit that Santa Elena furnished. Itâs made of some of the most breathable fabric Iâve ever encountered, but itâs snug and warm around my torso. A new, top-of-the-line