The Sea King

by C. L. Wilson

  Grief lined his face with deep furrows. “I’m sure. We found . . . we found—” He broke off and cleared his throat. “I saw the remains myself. There’s no mistake. They were aboard the ship when it exploded, and they perished in the blast.”

  She stared up at Dilys, anchoring her gaze to his as the pain swamped her. She started to shake. She was scraped raw, her nerves lying so close to the surface, her control a thin, brittle shield, rapidly cracking now as the shocking news of her sisters’ deaths rapidly escalated to an emotional agony the likes of which she hadn’t felt since the day her mother died. The pain stole her breath and clenched around her heart like a steely fist.

  This was precisely the sort of pain she’d spent her whole life trying to avoid ever feeling again, precisely the sort of pain that had made her fight so hard against letting Dilys into her heart. It hurt. It hurt so much.

  Pressure built as her magic bubbled up, slamming against her fragile shields, seeking release just like the scream gathering in her throat and the tears gathering in her eyes.

  She wanted to kill the ones responsible for her sisters’ deaths. She wanted to hear them scream, as her sisters must have screamed, as her heart was screaming now. She wanted to watch them burn. She wanted to see the terror in their eyes and know she’d put it there. She wanted to watch their skin split, hear their bones shatter, feel the hot splatter of their boiling blood upon her face and know they would never hurt her or anyone else ever again.

  Her whole body was shaking now. The Rose on her wrist was on fire. Every breath was a gasp of searing air. She was dimly aware of Dilys’s arms around her, of her fingers grasping his upper arms, nails digging deep into the flesh. He was murmuring something. Words she could barely hear above the roaring in her ears.

  The scream was on her tongue, filling her mouth, pressing against the backs of her teeth. It tasted of fire and destruction and devastating grief and the need to kill and kill and kill and kill until the ones who had hurt her were wiped out of existence and this agony inside her had poured itself out like lava from an erupting volcano.

  She flung her head back and set it free.

  The scream tore from her throat, a wail of unbearable grief, the sound of a heart breaking, of love dying.

  The ship shuddered as if caught in the jaws of some great beast. The glass panes of the captain’s cabin windows rattled loudly, and a dozen of them cracked. A dozen more exploded outward, spewing a cloud of shattered glass into the sea. One full shelf of books toppled to the floor, and the lanterns hanging from their hooks swung wildly while the flames threatened to set the whole cabin afire.

  And then she became aware of Dilys, his body drawn tight, every muscle standing out in rigid relief. His eyes were ablaze. His battle fangs were fully descended. And in a choked voice, he kept saying over and over again, “Let it go. Gabriella. Give your pain to me, moa haleah. Give it all to me and let me bear it for you.”

  She drew in a shuddering breath. Her throat was raw, her lungs empty and aching from the force of her scream. Dilys’s palms stroked across her back, leaving trails of soothing warmth in their wake. His murmuring voice softened the sharp, searing edge of her grief, and the screams still trapped inside turned into broken sobs and a flood of hot tears. Then she was in his arms, clutching him tight, crying with abandon.

  She cried until there was nothing left, until the agony of grief faded to a sort of hollow numbness. The forlorn reality of loss settling in. Her body’s trembling slowed. Exhaustion fell over her like a heavy cape, and suddenly all she wanted to do was sleep. She wanted to sleep so that she could wake up to find that all of this was a very bad dream.

  But, of course, it wasn’t.

  Hiccoughing softly, Gabriella nuzzled the hard warmth of Dilys’s chest, drying her tears against his silky skin. She frowned a little at the sharp, acrid scent that prickled her nose, a faintly scorched fragrance.

  “Oh, no, did I catch something on fire?”

  Instead of answering, he just kept stroking her back in that rhythmic pattern. And it finally dawned on her that something was wrong. He was as rigid as stone, yet shaking like a leaf.

  “Dilys?” Slightly alarmed, she pulled back to look up at him.

  His eyes were squeezed tight, and there were white brackets around his mouth, etched deep. He was panting softly, shallow breaths. And the scorched scent was coming from him.

  “Oh, Helos!” She tried to yank away, certain she’d done him harm, but his arms were locked in place. “Dilys!” She reached up to clasp his face. His skin was hotter than she’d ever felt it. As hot as her own had been only a few minutes ago. “Dilys! Talk to me.”

  Sweet Halla, what had she done?

  The cabin around them was dry as a bone. A single spark would send it up in flames. The floor was littered with broken glass and the ceiling overhead was cracked, the timbers bulging upward. Beyond the broken windows along the stern, the seas had grown rough, and the previously clear summer sky was dark with ominous clouds. Rain had begun to pelt down in sheets, while gusting winds howled across the ocean’s surface and whipped the ship’s sails. In the explosive fury of her grief, she’d nearly Shouted the Kracken to splinters and set it on fire and while simultaneously summoning a tropical storm, which was tossing the ship about like a cork.

  She could have killed them all. She nearly had.

  But Dilys had stopped her. Somehow—miraculously—he’d stopped her!

  “Dilys?” She stroked his face with shaking fingers. “Dilys, speak to me.”

  He muttered something that sounded like, “Give me a minute,” and his tone was more than a little cranky.

  She bit her lip and tried not to feel offended. She had, after all, channeled the equivalent of a hurricane, a firestorm, and an earthquake into him in the span of a minute or two. And as she had observed over the years, most men went into attack mode whenever they were feeling tense, wounded, or vulnerable. Rather like Khamsin had always done. It was just a shock to see Dilys exhibit that behavior—especially towards her.

  Hoping to soothe him, she began to stroke his back and murmur softly, “It’s all right. It’s all right.”

  But instead of being soothed, he went even more rigid. “Blessed farking Numahao!” he gasped. “Gabriella! Stop!” With a guttural roar, he grabbed her wrists and shoved her halfway across the room.

  She grabbed hold of the splintered remains of his desk and gaped at him in shock. He’d just sworn at her and had practically thrown her across the room. As if her touch were anathema. The rejection struck at her soul. She didn’t know whether to shout at him or cry.

  Before she did either, he whirled around. And the scathing scold on her tongue died without a squeak. His eyes had turned white gold and there was steam coming off his skin.

  “Forgive me,” he bit out, and he dove through the stern windows of his cabin and into the sea.

  “Dilys!” She ran to the shattered windows. Wind and rain pelted down, whipping her face. The ocean below should have been a churning froth of angry waves, but there was a marked circle of calm radiating out from the Kracken on all sides. The crew must have been using their seagifts to calm the area around the ship and keep them steady despite the storm she’d generated. The only visible sign of turbulence below was the small area of froth where Dilys had dived into the sea.

  “Myerialanna!”

  “Princess Summer!”

  Behind her, the door to Dilys’s cabin burst open. Commander Friis and Dilys’s first mate, Kame, rushed in.

  “Princess!” Friis exclaimed. His sword was unsheathed and held before him, ready to slay whatever threats he found within the cabin. “Are you all right? What happened?”

  Kame was not armed, and he looked more concerned than aggressive. His bright golden gaze swept swiftly across the battered remains of Dilys’s cabin, taking in all the signs of destruction. “Myerialanna, where is Myerielua Dilys?”

  Her mouth started to tremble. She was verging on tears again and t
he power she’d just expended was starting to build back up. She’d done something to Dilys when her grief had made her lose control. He’d told her once that she couldn’t hurt him, that of all people, he would be entirely safe around her even when her emotions got out of hand. But clearly that wasn’t the case. Those blazing white-gold eyes . . . that steam rising from his flesh . . . the frantic way he’d dived through the glass windows to reach the sea far below. Oh, yes, she’d done something to him all right.

  “Myerialanna, answer me,” Kame prodded. “Where is Dilys?”

  She clenched her jaw and wordlessly pointed a finger towards the broken window.

  “Alive?” Kame barked.

  She nodded. Then felt her soul quail.

  There was a strange surge of power, muffled so that it felt like the pop of a soap bubble on her skin. Yet it made every hair on Gabriella’s arms stand on end.

  Kame’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Shoto!” he cursed. “Grab something and hang on.” Not waiting to see if she and Friis obeyed, Kame spun and ran back out onto the sterncastle, shouting in Eru so the White Guards would understand, “Rogue wave! Rogue wave! Brace yourselves!” Then, in Sea Tongue, “Calbernari! Spotters to the rigging! The rest of you to the rails, quickly!”

  Gabriella grabbed one of the support posts and wrapped her arms around it.

  Friis did the same. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  Even as he spoke, they heard the shout from up above. “Astern! Astern!” Gabriella looked out the stern windows and in the distance, maybe a mile or two from the ship, the storm-tossed ocean surface rose as if being lifted by a tent pole. It grew higher and higher until it filled the entire expanse of windows along the back of Dilys’s cabin

  “Calbernari!” Kame’s voice rang out. “Hard about! Quickly! He’s sending it away from us. Don’t let it get beyond our reach!”

  She swelled of magic that had felt like a soap bubble popping on her skin grew exponentially stronger, and her mouth filled with a sharp, salty tang as every Calbernan aboard the Kracken directed his seagift into the ocean. The ship began to roll and toss as the Calbernans turned all their magic away from calming the ship’s path and towards calming the monstrous wave that was racing away from them.

  The ship heeled hard about, and she lost sight of the enormous wave. Ignoring Commander Friis’s sharp cry of alarm, she released the support post and staggered across the now pitching deck towards the cabin door.

  They were in the full fury of her storm now. The sails were whipping wildly as the wind gusted from multiple directions. Waves were crashing over the sides of the boat, forcing the deckhands to constantly stop and grab the nearest mast or railing to keep from being washed overboard.

  The monster wave was in front of them, racing away faster than they could chase it, and all the efforts of the Calbernans didn’t seem to be doing much either to shrink it or to slow it down.

  One of the Calbernans spotted her in the doorway and tapped Kame on the arm, pointing and shouting over the noise of the storm.

  Kame staggered across the deck towards her. “Myerialanna, get back in the cabin! It’s too dangerous out here for you.”

  She shook her head. Rain plastered her hair to her face and soaked her gown. “The wave. It’s going too fast. You’re losing it.”

  “Tey, the storm is slowing us down.”

  She looked at the angry clouds overhead, the sheets of rain pelting down. “I can help with that.” She pried one hand off the doorway to show him the red Rose on her wrist. “I am a Summerwitch, after all.”

  He grinned, and the heavy rain sluiced over his dark skin and dazzling white teeth. “So you are, Myerialanna.” He waved a hand at the roiling black sky. “By all means, then, your help is most welcome.”

  She didn’t grin back. There was too much fear roiling in her belly. She wasn’t nearly as confident of her abilities as she’d just implied. The barriers keeping her magic in check were utterly shattered, its full power unleashed for the first time in her life, and she had no idea how to wield it safely.

  But this situation was all her fault—the storm, the wave, whatever she’d done to Dilys.

  She’d literally exploded people with her magic before. What if she’d just done the same to him? What that was the reason he’d dived through the window and leapt into the sea—because she’d turned him into some sort of magical bomb and he was desperate to get as far away from the Kracken as he could before he exploded?

  Her magic spiked with sudden ferocity, and with a gasp, Summer wrenched her thoughts sharply away from the idea of Dilys dying. She couldn’t think about him right now. Her emotions were too fragile, the yawning abyss of grief-borne madness closer than it had ever been.

  Focus, Gabriella. Focus.

  “Kame, if I get the wind blowing in the right direction, can you calm the seas so we can put on some speed?”

  “Tey.”

  “Good. Let’s do that.”

  Kame shouted orders. The Calbernans who had directed their magic towards containing the wave once more channeled their power into calming the seas before the Kracken. Summer sent her consciousness out into the storm. As she had done that first day when she’d awakened in that cage in the pirate ship, she heated certain sections of air before the ship, making it rise and creating low pressure that drew cooler masses of air in. Back then, the storm had built slowly, requiring her consistent effort and attention. Now, with her barriers down and her magic in full force, the clouds formed as swiftly as any storm Khamsin had ever called. The wind changed direction, blowing towards the areas she had chosen. The Kracken’s sails filled with a satisfying crack. The waves before them parted by magic, and then they were flying across the sea down a narrow channel of calm, pond-still ocean, gaining on the monstrous wave that was racing before them.

  The surrealistic effect of the Calbernan magic—that calm valley between mountains of churning waves—left Summer both awed and elated and nervously optimistic. It was working.

  They chased the massive wave nearly twenty minutes before catching up to it, and as they drew near, the Calbernans in the rigging gave an elated shout.

  “Myerielua!” the spotters cried, and they pointed towards the crest of the wave. The Calbernans aboard the Kracken began to cheer.

  Gabriella looked in the direction they were pointing, and the bitter dread that had been churning in her belly dissolved into breathless relief.

  Dilys! Oh, blessed Helos, and thank the sweet mercies of all the gods! She hadn’t killed him!

  With his knees bent, his arms extended, and the long coils of his green-black hair flying behind him like pennants, Dilys was surfing the crest of the monster wave. His ulumi were shining bright, power radiating from him like a beacon as he rode the enormous wall of water. As she watched, the wave began to shrink, its crest sinking lower and lower as Dilys forced its rolling energy to dissipate.

  Summer directed her attention to the storm, using her gifts to break up the low-pressure center and disorganize its energy. By the time she was done, the storm was over, the rogue wave had vanished, and Dilys rode a spout of water back aboard the deck of the Kracken.

  “Well done, Alakua!” Kame crowed as Dilys strode towards them. “That was some kind of wave taming, my prince! I’ve never seen the like.”

  She wasn’t feeling quite so thrilled about the show. “I thought I’d killed you!”

  He didn’t answer Kame, and he didn’t pay any attention to her scold, either. Instead, he walked straight up to her, caught her face in his hands, and kissed her until her knees gave out and she collapsed against him.

  “Dilys!” She gave a startled cry as he swooped her up into his arms and carried her across the quarterdeck to his cabin.

  “You,” he snapped at Commander Friis. “Out. Now.”

  Friis lifted a snowy brown and looked to Summer for instruction. “Your Highness?”

  She stared at Dilys, at his fierce expression, the blazing gold of his eyes, and every par
t of her body, from the top of her head to the tip of her toes all but burst into flame. Lust swamped her. His as much as hers. Sweet Helos, she could all but feel him swimming through her veins, setting her afire from the inside out.

  There was a song singing. Words she didn’t understand, but they wrapped around her, tangling her up until she couldn’t move, the song growing louder and more compelling with every passing moment.

  “It’s all right, Commander,” she said, her unblinking gaze fixed on Dilys. Her heart was pounding. Her breath getting faster, shorter. “Do as he says.”

  “There. You heard her. Go.” When Friis didn’t move fast enough for him, Dilys set Gabriella down, frogmarched Friis out of the cabin, and slammed the door shut behind him.

  When Dilys turned back around, Summer was still standing where he set her, watching him with wide, shocked eyes. Her face was flushed, her chest heaving.

  In her shoes, he supposed he’d feel the same. The events of the last hour must have seemed more than a bit bizarre. But to him all the pieces of the puzzle had finally clicked into place, and for the very first time, everything made perfect sense. At last, he knew exactly what she needed from him. Exactly what he must do.

  He couldn’t form the words. There was still too much of that electrifying energy flowing through his veins. Too much of her inside him. Wild emotion. Raging grief over her sisters. Fury towards the ones who’d caused their deaths. The shame and humiliation of what the Shark had done to her, and ferocious desire to hunt him down and kill him in the slowest, bloodiest, most painful way possible. A soul-deep yearning for Dilys, coupled with a desperate, clawing fear of giving in to that yearning. Not just because of what the Shark had done to her but because of her terror of letting herself love. Fear of unleashing all that endless, raging power inside her upon the world. And underneath it all, an aching loneliness. A soul starved for what it needed most. A desperate need for something good to help erase all the bad.