I stiffened as a scream sounded from somewhere onboard, cutting off suddenly. I also realized the boat engine from earlier sounded far away now. Had Harris escaped? I couldn’t worry about him now. As I’d told Sebastian, we’d catch him in the city. My anger boiled up as I thought about his part in this. He would pay, one way or another. Kylen lifted his head to watch as Arella handed Larea to me and I heard Arella’s breath catch as she saw the boy’s bruised, swollen face. With the spotlight from the Sea Witch, I could see the bruising more clearly and the tracks of barely scabbed over needle marks lining each child’s arms. Someone must have been bleeding them several times a day for their arms to look like this.
Arella made a distressed noise as she saw the full extent of the children’s injuries, but she dutifully handed Larea over to me. “Now the last boy. Set him in front of me.”
Arella took the child from Dorn and situated him just in front of me, nestled between my body and Rikshi’s dorsal fin. I trusted Trixie to do whatever it was she did to hold them to me and said, “We’re ready.”
The orca pushed forward, careful to keep us above water. My legs were in the water all the way to mid-thigh, but it wasn’t as cold as I’d thought it would be. The Sea Witch had drifted further from the pirate’s ship, floating perhaps forty feet away now, but the orca made it there smoothly in what felt like only seconds. Tess and Danai were waiting to take the children. Nervously, I looked back at the other ship. I’d only seen that one last man with a gun, but we were completely unprotected back here and I could see the coven’s shield weakening.
I jumped as a head appeared in the water beside us and began to haul himself out onto the boat. Dysak—fully clothed, thank goodness. He balanced on the ladder and reached out. I handed him the girl first, waiting as he carefully passed her on to Danai. She ran for the cabin with the girl. He lifted the unconscious boy from my arms next and handed him to Tess, who hurriedly followed Danai. When Dysak tried to take Kylen from me, the boy’s arms clutched me so tightly he nearly cut off my air supply.
“Kylen, it’s alright. Dysak is going to help you.” The boy wouldn’t even look up from my shoulder. “I promise, he’s going to take you to the other children and stay by your side.” I looked at Dysak, who nodded. “I have to go back and help fight the bad guys so they can’t do this again.”
A deep shudder went through the boy’s body, but his grip loosened enough for me to draw a full breath. Which I immediately regretted, because I was as covered in filth as the children were. He allowed himself to be pulled away from me, but he still grasped one of my hands. “No more bad people?”
My eyes teared up, and I shook my head. “No more bad people. I’m going to go help the big cat get rid of them.” And I wasn’t sure now if I would bother taking prisoners.
He released my hand and Dysak lifted him fully into his arms, rushing toward the cabin after Danai and Tess. Kylen’s gaze remained on me until he disappeared from my sight.
I looked up as Shay flew over us. She circled once and then landed, shifting as she did so. One of her arms was bloody and she limped. She grabbed the blanket she’d used to cover herself before, but didn’t seem overly concerned about her nudity. “The kids, they’re safe?”
“They’re with the healers. Where’s Jeremy?”
“He went after that Harris guy. He wanted me to see where everyone was at. I need to get back.”
“Wait, aren’t you hurt?”
She looked down at her arm. “I’ve had worse scrapes.” With that she shifted and flew off again.
The coven watched her go. I sighed, feeling the weight of the night hit me hard.
“Are you guys holding up okay?”
They nodded, but I could see their magick was beginning to flag. “I’ll hurry. If you need to drop the shields, do it. Save your magick. I don’t think anyone else is going to be firing on us. Go below if you have to.” I looked up at the cockpit. “That goes for both of you, too.” Sam gave me a jaunty salute.
I needed to wrap this up so we could get those children away from here as soon as possible.
Not sure if he would understand me or not, I asked, “Rikshi? Would you give me a ride back, please? I have business to settle.”
The orca circled around, waited patiently while I situated myself on his back, and raced toward the other ship. I clutched his dorsal fin the entire way, but I was thinking a dunk in the ocean might be a good thing at this point, if only to get rid of the smell.
I can help with that, Trixie said. Before I could ask why she hadn’t offered that earlier, a huge spray of water washed over me, leaving me sputtering. Oops! That wasn’t supposed to happen quite that way.
Rikshi rolled when he got to the platform, depositing me in a dripping heap on the deck. Coughing, I accepted
