Page 7 of Her Creation

The room was dark, save for the smallest amount of flickering saffron light that leaked in the crack under the door. The bed was empty. The screams were real.

I clamored to stand and ran to the door just as the wood of the brig let out a groan. I flung open the door and ran toward the horrible, unforgettable screams.

The deck seemed to tilt when I reached it—blood was everywhere. Splashed across the walls, which had started to fall apart with a fire that licked at their edges. Bodies lay scattered in pieces across the floor. Another shrill, bloodcurdling cry. My eyes lifted in time to see the captain and the strange man from last night standing a mere twenty feet in front of me, blocking the ladder. The stranger had ahold of the captain’s neck—or he did before he ripped Sheamus’s head from his body and thew his body to the ground.

My body shook until it could no longer function, and I crumbled to the ground, unable to stand. My hand pressed into something wet, and when I pulled it back, I saw it covered in sticky blood. I tried to wedge my body behind a barrel, but every part of me shuddered so hard I couldn’t move. All-encompassing fear gripped me—all I could do was look at the stray body parts scattered around me.

The monster’s head turned in my direction, and his yellow eyes landed on me. He’d spotted me.

The silver moonlight tipped down the stairs and silhouetted the enormous monster. Loud cracks echoed and rattled the boat as he moved slowly toward me. Beams fell from the ceiling, groaning before they slammed to the ground and the surrounding fire climbed the space.

Another pitiful scream erupted from my throat as I struggled to move my liquid legs. Even if they moved, I had nowhere to run. I’d never make it up the ladder before he caught me, and past that, I was on a contained vessel in the middle of the ocean in an unknown location. I was going to die, just like all the others.

He raised his arm high in the air, and the fillet knife Mick had given me last night gleamed with the flames.

“No! Please, no!” I hoarsely screamed.

His arm swung down to slash the bloodied blade into me.

My teeth clapped together as I flinched, waiting for the blow. When nothing came, I forced myself to look up and found he’d paused before striking me. His yellow eyes had softened slightly.

“Please don’t hurt me! Please!” I whimpered, clapping my hands together and praying that God would spare my life.

The monster’s thick brows pulled together. He threw the knife, and its pointed tip plunged into the wood of the barrel with a pang that vibrated through the air. He lurched forward to grab me, but I pulled away just before his large hands closed around my arms. With a burst of fear, I ran to the right, but he was there in an instant, his calm movements completely opposite to my frantic, panicked actions. I backed up, and he reached for me again just as a piece of timber snapped in half and stabbed into my side; the other piece dropped with loud, roaring crackles, nearly impaling me in the chest were it not for my small logbook still tucked in my petticoat, blocking the splintering points from my skin. I attempted to turn away, but the broken chunk of wood remained lodged in my side, skewering me in place.

“God, no, please,” I whispered, teardrops leaking from the corners of my eyes.

Pain seared into me as the monster pulled the giant stake from my side and threw me over his shoulder. I tried to struggle, but it was no use. He wasn’t even trying, and I was trapped in his arm’s iron clamp. My side felt hot and sticky, and then it was freezing cold, and I realized we were in the water. The man swam with me draped over him, and the cold water covered my body, causing the edges of my vision to blacken. I must’ve gone unconscious, for I couldn’t remember anything before opening my eyes again when we had made it to the rocky shore and were out of the water. My chin slammed against his shoulder, and it felt like I’d fallen headfirst onto a rock. My senses flooded, overwhelmed with the taste of copper, the smell of blood and the salt of the sea, and the feel of the crisp frozen air. I’d never been so cold in all my life, like the warmth had bled from my body and been replaced with shards of ice where bones had once existed.

My limp head struck his shoulder painfully as he climbed from the water, and I saw the ship anchored in the distance, a blaze of fire and smoke billowing from it. With a sudden bang I felt in my soul, the ship exploded. The black sea quickly claimed whatever was left of the ship and the crew.

“Mick,” I rasped as I fought to remain conscious.

But darkness followed, gentle and unasked for—and in it, I went looking for the rabbit.

Chapter 4

Day uncertain, 1803

Location: Unknown, within a wooden structure ashore

There was a pinching pressure at my side that I felt long before I could open my eyes. Had I died? No, I could still feel, so that meant I was alive. There was pain in my side and my chest, and I sensed someone above me. I found a bed’s softness under me, though I realized I couldn’t feel one of my feet no matter how hard I tried. My hands and fingers burned and throbbed. The image of the brig exploding flashed in my mind, and suddenly I felt too much, remembered too much. My eyes flew open.

“Inno.” The voice was female and right above me, pressing down on my chest.

I couldn’t see her; I couldn’t see anything. Everything blurred together with long trails of white. Iron pressed on my shoulders until my back met with the softness of the mattress again.

“Gentle or you’ll crack her clavicles.” The woman’s voice again. It was to the left of me now. There was a surprising amount of calm and steady authority in the woman’s smooth alto voice that eased my panic. Whatever ease the voice had brought was destroyed when my eyes focused on the yellow-eyed monster pinning me down. I screamed and flailed, desperate to be anywhere but near him.

The woman quickly moved in front of my face. I blinked and blinked until the trails of white only outlined her slight frame.

“That’s it. Focus on me,” she whispered, and I did.

She was beautiful in an unconventional sort of way. Silky black hair coiled neatly at her nape with a scarlet pin. Her large, dark eyes were like pools of night set behind black lashes, slightly too big for her face. She had a severe upturned nose that was not unbecoming to her features. High, round cheekbones and small, thin lips, a face that, were it not paired with such a velvet voice, would have looked severe and harsh though still beautiful in its own right.

The trail of white faded, and the lines sharpened in my vision, and with it the pain increased.

“Inno, you ought to leave before she fully wakes and sees you again.”