This time, I fight it.
I don’t want to go.
I want to stay here. With her. With my mate.
I fight with everything I have.
But it’s not enough.
The darkness takes me anyway.
Chapter Five
Calista
“Pull it up,” I order.
The whole crew—minus Zephan in the kitchen of course—gathers round to watch the giant trap as Drakor hauls on the rope with everything he has, his big face turning red with the effort.
“Krathbag,” Petr swears as the nearly empty trap tumbles onto the ship. He kicks it and the three bouldercrabs inside go scurrying to the other side.
Three.
That’s it. It appears that my luck on this haul has run out.
On a good day, these traps can each catch over one hundred bouldercrabs and take two men to pull up. This is the fifth trap I’ve checked out of my lot of fourteen. Not one had more than five even though we set them four moons ago.
“Dat's it?” Petr says in disgust, kicking the iron trap again. The bouldercrabs inside raise their claws like they’re gettingready for battle. “Dat's all dis rotten ocean's gonna give us? Four measly crabs?”
Edrik laughs. “There’s three in there. Where did you learn how to count, Petr?”
“Watching your mama with all her men,” he says, glaring at him.
“The water is not cold enough this time of year,” Valther says. “They hide out deep when the water is warm like this.”
“Warm?” I say, shaking my head with my hands on my hips. I touched the water a few days ago and it was freezing. How cold do these damn creatures want it?
“Should I toss it back in, Captain?” Drakor asks.
I take a deep breath and look at the endless ocean. The sun is starting to set. If we get going now, we can collect all our traps and head to a new spot.
I have the deepjaws to consider. They’re not going to survive long in the vault and they should be my top priority.
They should be… But they’re not.
My top priority is currently lying in my bed, moaning and writhing around in pain.
I don’t know what to do with him.
The yearning I’m feeling is only going stronger with every day that passes.
Briallen says we should drop him off in the wolf territory, but I can’t bring myself to do that. We’ll sail away and I’ll never see him again.
He opened his eyes yesterday for the first time and I still get shivers when I think of the way he was looking at me. It didn’t last long. He fell back into a fitful sleep and I spent another night by his side, holding his hand, praying over him.
We should probably head for land somewhere, but I’m worried that once he’s off my ship, he’ll no longer be under my control, and I might not see him again.
I can’t even think of that.
