Sail (Haunted Stars Book 1)

by Lindsey R. Loucks

  “What?” Captain Glenn said, turning to me. “James, what’s going on?”

  Shame burned my face from the inside out. I had no idea what to say, so I clamped my mouth shut.

  When no one said anything, Captain Glenn snatched the wanted paper from Mase. He tried to grab it back, but his fist closed around empty air.

  “A fugitive?” Captain Glenn said, shaking his head as if to make sense of the truth. “James, or…whatever your name is…are you wanted by the law?”

  Seconds passed. A bright red anger stormed through my veins. How dare Mase betray me like this. Had he just been using me? Had he been paying me back in iron, sexual perks, and false support to fight off my past so I’d make him dessert and repel the ghosts for a little while? I clenched my fists, waiting for a sign from him to prove me wrong.

  Minutes before, I’d been happy kissing him, but his instant disloyalty carved craters into my chest. Just add water, and they’d consume me. Drown me.

  “You want me to strip for him, Mase, so he can see the truth?” I said with gritted teeth.

  To the captain, that must’ve been as good an admission as any. “There’s a bounty on your head,” he said. “That’s enough to cover the costs of Ida and Rozza’s medical bills and pay off the drug baron who wants you dead, Mason.”

  My jaw dropped. Drug baron? Had Mase been planning to turn me in for the bounty from the very beginning? Did he see anything more than credit signs when he looked at me? The backs of my eyes burned with the fury shooting through my veins.

  “You make me sick,” I spat, but the wobble in my voice warped it to a pathetic sob.

  He turned away, his jaw rigid.

  The captain stared at my picture, one hand braced against the wall. With his other hand, he massaged the bridge of his nose, like he was trying to knead this new knowledge into his brain.

  “Did you murder these people?” he asked.

  “No.” I glared lasers into the floor while I whisked away the tears as fast as they fell, my mind reeling.

  A number of things could happen before they had a chance to turn me in for the bounty. The ghosts could kill me. The ghosts could poltergeist something and kill them. The captain or Mase could accidentally fall on my ice pick. Daryl or Nesbit could kill me. But none of these scenarios ended with me finding Ellison.

  How much time did I have before we landed on Europa? Maybe a day? Then I needed to find out what the ghosts knew about her before my time was up. Even if I was sentenced to the prison planet, I needed to know what happened to her. The captain and Mase could do whatever they wanted until then. I was through with both of them anyway.

  Breath held, I slid along the wall toward the door to make my escape.

  “Mason,” Captain Glenn barked, dropping his hands to his sides. “When were you going to tell me we’re being followed?”

  “What? No.” Mase sat in the pilot chair and flew his hands across several buttons. “That’s just Absidy’s sister’s ship.”

  Was it moving toward us? Could she really be on board?

  I elbowed the captain aside. “Show me.”

  Mase looked up at me for half a second, and his guilt-ridden gaze sizzled angry heat over my face. “I guess I was too busy looking forward,” he said, his voice soft.

  “Don’t make me tell you twice,” I said.

  “Fine.”

  Instead of only stars in front of us, the view reversed, and a close-up of my sister’s ship appeared. I swallowed, shivering in my coat, while I wriggled my numb fingers as if to gather my wishes from the air. Mase magnified the screen past it, farther and farther back to where we’d been hours before. And sure enough, a ship the size of a pinpoint cruised after us.

  I clenched those broken wishes in my fists as my pulse rocketed. Who was that?

  “Shit,” Mase muttered. “It might be the baron.”

  Captain Glenn rested his hand on the back of Mase’s chair and leaned in. “It’s too far away to read its markings. Whoever it is, that’s a hell of a big ship and they’re coming fast.”

  I took a step back. Moon had said the police were tracking me with that series of clicks and beeps I’d heard when I’d called her. What if it was them?

  “Then we’ll go faster,” Mase said.

  “No, then we might overshoot our trajectory of Europa. We’re making this delivery if it’s the last thing I ever do. And it may be the last thing I ever do after the luck we’ve been having.” The captain’s voice rose in volume with every word he said, but I didn’t have time to hear him complain.

  I backed toward the door while their gazes pointed ahead at the screen.

  Captain Glenn took a deep breath. “Mason, James—or whatever your bloody name is—there’s something I need to tell—”

  But I didn’t hear what else he had to say because I was already sprinting out of the cockpit. If the police were already on their way here in a hurry, if I decided I was too much of a coward to accept who the universe wanted me to be, then maybe I could find a place to hide where nothing or no one could find me. Doubtful, but maybe. Then once the ship landed on Europa, I could sneak off and try to find Ellison some other way.

  But there was no other way. I knew that way down deep.

  When I reached the last stacks of grain, I slid to a stop to catch my breath. Next to my arm, a burlap sack read ‘potato’ written in large yellow letters. I tried not to let it damage me but failed miserably.

  My eyes welled. Happy, tingly memories choked up my throat, but I forced them down behind gritted teeth. Depending on how good my hiding spot I found was, Mase may be lucky and never see me again. He may not think I was so sweet and kind if he did. Honestly, I had no idea what I’d do if we met up again, but several ideas involving sharp objects came to mind, which made me hate him even more for making me think maybe I was capable of murder.

  Even if I wasn’t, was I capable of communicating with ghosts and surviving? Was there a way to show them that I called the shots? Not them. Me. Somehow I needed to make them understand that yes I would help them like they’d helped me, but only on my terms with far fewer broken bones and no blood transfusions. There wasn’t any need to try to kill me especially since I wanted to communicate. That had to count for something.

  I patted my pocket with the fleck of iron inside. My mouth felt strangely empty without it, especially when I kept it closed. So I opened it.

  “I’ll help you,” I murmured to the puffs of breath hanging in the air. “You hear me?”

  I felt ridiculous talking to the titanium walls, but I figured it was good for warming up my nerves. Besides, the ghosts could be listening in already while watching the girl who no longer repelled them, who attracted them, ride down the screeching elevator to the second floor. I refused to let that image slow my steps into the hallway.

  As I rounded the corner to the Vicious door, a gust of arctic air swung the overhead light back and forth in rhythmic creaks. I stopped, expecting it to snap at any second, while the energy around the room seeped horror into my lungs. My breaths turned to gasps. My eyes locked on the door, but my feet stumbled back. I knocked into the opposite wall, unable to tear my gaze away. There was no iron barrier between me and it, nothing to protect me from what lurked inside.

  I sagged against the wall down to the floor and hugged my knees to my chest to make myself as small as possible, just like I did when I was a terrified child. “No,” I said, because I wasn’t that child any longer.

  The metal behind me ran shivers down my back, hard and bone-chilling just like the wall itself. The tremor rocked me back against it so that it bit deep into my lower vertebrae. I gasped, not from fright but from pain, and shifted my weight to steel my spine against it. Head up, chin lifted almost defiantly, I stared down the door without really meaning to and waited.

  Nothing happened. I didn’t trust my voice to speak again, yet I needed to make them understand that I should be in control. I was in control, despite the battering the titanium was taking f
rom my heartbeat.

  “I’ll help you,” I whispered again.

  The light above me snapped. I screamed.

  The door in front of me opened in one long, silent swing. The darkest black I’d ever seen painted the inside of the room. From its new slanted position, the broken light tried to reach its glow inside the Vicious room, but it couldn’t penetrate the piles of dark shadows inside.

  My blood ran ice cold. I hugged my knees tighter to my chest.

  Something creaked, almost like the sound of old rope. Lots and lots of rope. Down the length of the hallway, nooses hung from the grating in the ceiling, and the creatures I’d seen before hung from them. Gray scales covered their enormous bodies. Long snouts sagged against a bulbous, skeletal chest. Claw-tipped arms dangled to almost the length of their legs, and two smaller arms fell to their knees. All of them hung cramped side-by-side and swinging in a steady wave.

  The hairs at the back of my neck lifted. My breathing stopped as a pair of brown boots emerged from the Vicious room. The shadows behind the ghost swallowed the rest of her.

  A strangled sound escaped my throat, but at that point I couldn’t move enough to say or do anything else.

  An icy chill burned through my pants just above my ankle even though nothing visible gripped me. Charred stripes seared through the fabric. I yelped and kicked before it could burn my skin, but my cry turned into one of terror when my body slid halfway across the hallway. My head slammed against the wall, shooting stars around my skull, and then it cracked onto the flooring as something hauled me toward the Vicious room.

  The shadows inside engulfed me and my screams before I had time to process anything else. The door slammed shut behind me. Sealing me in. With them.

  Chapter 19

  Total and complete darkness squeezed my breath into gasps. Whatever prowled this room was probably skulking up to me to deliver the final smash that would end me right then.

  I wasn’t ready, for death or for attempting to communicate with ghosts. This had been a stupid idea.

  “Fuck,” I moaned and fluttered my hand over my pocket. I could end this now. The idea of snatching up the iron made me salivate but I resisted. I wasn’t dead yet.

  A light in the center of the ceiling snapped on, and I blinked into the brightness, my stomach tightening at what I might see. Rusted red walls wrapped around the small room. Heart pounding, I scooted closer to the one at my back.

  My fingers grazed short ruts, about two inches long, and I traced each one in a long line. They grooved all four walls and the floor, all in a continuous row. They were a darker red than the rust color, and bits of orange flecked the edges like they’d been carved by something sharp.

  A faint hissing sounded from across the room. It grew louder, slithering across the floor toward me. “Absssssssss.”

  I jerked my knees to my chest with a gasp and squeezed my eyes shut at whatever came at me. But nothing did. I let my breath out in short bursts, waiting, just to be sure.

  “Absssssssidy,” the room whispered, like an echo through a long tunnel with a voice scraped raw. It was like it was trying to roll my name around in it to see if it fit.

  “What do you want?” I forced out. “Who are you? What does Ellison know?” The words tumbled out fast, and between that and my trembling voice, nothing alive or dead would likely understand me. I pulled in a blast of arctic air, coughed it back out, and tried again, this time a little slower. “I’ll try to help you like you helped me, but just… There’s no reason to try to kill me.”

  The red-haired woman appeared on the other side of the room.

  I whimpered and shrank back, my fingers scratching at the wall as if they could dig a hole I could vanish through.

  She stepped toward me, her head listing to the side. Her boots thudded with each step forward, and the rope burn around her neck oozed a black necklace. She jerked her head like a dying bird, then an audible crack popped it into place so she could stare at me straight-on with dead, black eyes.

  I gagged on an attempted scream. Terror sawed at my frayed nerves, but I willed them not to snap. I had to do this. This was the only way. I would not look away from the inky darkness in the ghost’s eyes that gripped my gaze.

  Half a dozen monsters materialized behind her. Their gray scales, fangs, and long claws miniaturized the woman with their size. The stink of rotten death and tobacco choked the air from my lungs. More and more creatures appeared behind the woman, crowding the entire room, until she’d crossed it and stood toe-to-toe with me.

  A wintry chill swept bone-shaking shudders up and down my spine. Instinct told me to run, but I needed to stay. Instinct told me to close my eyes, but I needed to keep them open to stare all the ghosts down. The instincts I’d lived with forever warred inside me, weakening me. But what if my instincts had been wrong? Could I accept who the universe wanted me to be? I had to find out. I stood and faced them.

  “I’m in control,” I said, and I wanted so badly to believe it. “You won’t kill me.”

  The light sputtered, throwing the room into darkness before flickering wildly. The woman bared her teeth and leaned toward my face as if she was going to eat her way into my mouth and through the other side.

  I clamped my lips shut and turned away, another whimper seeping out. She wasn’t listening to me. Didn’t she believe I was in control? Did I believe I was? How could I convince us both?

  With stiff, jerky movements, I turned my head back to her and let my mouth fall open a fraction to demand one thing: “Help me.”

  My feet lifted from the ground, and my body dragged up the wall behind me within seconds. “No,” I screamed but the ghosts below just stared with dark eyes.

  They had complete control over me. Whatever made them want to help ward off Nesbit in the kitchen had been forgotten. With all of them wanting to go to the other side, my chances of surviving were nil.

  I scratched at the wall to try to stop my ascent, but the invisible force that held me was too strong. My head bent at an odd angle at the ceiling, then my body was shoved along it so I stared straight down. I pressed my fists to my eyes, not wanting to see, not wanting to believe this was really happening.

  Hot tears seeped out at the thought of Ellison’s face, so like mine. Something had happened to her, and now I couldn’t do anything to help. I’d die on this ship while she suffered somewhere without me.

  My body lurched to a stop in the middle of the ceiling, jarring my hands loose from my face. The light flickered next to my head and darkened the ghosts below with leaping shadows.

  The light. It didn’t hang from cords like those in the hallway. It had screws.

  I gasped. Hope blossomed inside my chest, but I immediately quashed it. The light flickered. I stared at it until spots flecked my vision. My arms were the only thing not pressed into the ceiling, as if for a reason. I shot one out to work a screw loose. Whatever happened next would happen, but not before I tried everything I could to live.

  My heartbeat marked the seconds in triple time while I waited. I ticked my gaze around the sea of black eyes below and clutched the screw like it was the key to Feozva’s heaven. I would likely find out soon enough if the key worked.

  “Do it then,” I whispered.

  A black pair of eyes met mine as I said it, and they belonged to the tallest monster in the room. It dissolved into black smoke. Dark wisps rolled up with my next inhale. Pain seared down my throat.

  I clutched at my neck while my body bucked against the ceiling because I couldn’t breathe around the awful pain. I couldn’t do this, not if it felt like I was being torn in half.

  The room shifted and changed underneath me, and as it did, my body seemed to fade into the ceiling. The pain dulled enough so the screaming stopped. Had that been me? I couldn’t be sure.

  Instead of the rusted red color, the room matched the silver of the rest of the ship. Creatures huddled in corners with their heads bowed. One scraped a long claw down the wall beside a long line of ma
rks. Another traced each one as if it was counting them.

  The door flew open, and a man with a pudgy face leaking with sweat staggered inside. He threw an armload of various sized scrap iron onto the floor where it clanked loudly. Some creatures jumped at the noise. Others pointed luminous green eyes at the man. One flashed an arm out toward the pile and crammed metal into its mouth.

  “It’s seven o’clock,” the man said, slurring. “You know what that means. Who’s it gonna be tonight? You.” He snapped his fingers at the creature who’d just eaten. “Get up. You try anything funny and I’ll paint the room with your blood.”

  The creature stood slowly since its legs were shackled together. It raised four claw-tipped palms to the man who peered down at them like they held handfuls of precious metal through some kind of scanner. But after looking at them for several minutes, he swatted them away.

  “This one’s all dried up,” the man announced. “Red? String this one up with the others.”

  A black woman with cropped, bright red hair entered the room with a cigar plugged into her mouth. “Find someone else to do it,” she said and puffed a roll of smoke into the man’s face.

  The man snatched a knife from his waistband and slashed the buttons from her shirt. It fell open to reveal her bra while the buttons bounced around her brown boots.

  “You’ll do what I tell you,” he shouted. “Saelis are useless to the Ring Guild if they don’t have the whatchamacallits for their space rings, so string it up and get the hell out of my way.” He shouldered past her roughly and barged out of the room.

  Hatred sparked bright in Red’s eyes as she glared after him through a cloud of smoke. She yanked her shirt closed and rested a hand on the coiled rope at her side.

  The room below changed again, and the pain sharpened to a jagged tip as I breathed in. More and more creatures evaporated into dark smoke and funneled inside me with each inhale. It burned my throat raw, or was that the screaming reverberating the room?