Covered in furs, the captain stood on the deck of his boat, laughing into the rising storm winds and telling his men that, “If all goes well, we will die with honor among the sea gods, my friends!”

The dragons and Riders turned their attention back to Zoya, who shrugged once more and said again, “I thought I helped.”

* * *

Aidan sat down next to Brannie and offered her dried meat. She waved it away with a distinct look of disgust on her face.

“While I am stuck on this death trap,” she said, her voice nothing more than a rough growl, “I am not eating anything.”

“At least keep drinking water.” His canteen was beside her and he picked it up and handed it to her.

She took several large gulps of the water before putting the stopper back.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

Aidan blinked. “For what?”

“For being afraid to stand up because I’m afraid I’ll fall into the water and never come up again. For being afraid to eat because I’m afraid I’ll vomit . . . everywhere. For being afraid to even look in the water because I’m afraid of what will look back.”

“It’ll be you,” he said simply.

“What?”

“If you look in the water, you’ll mostly see yourself looking back. Water’s reflective.”

“Yes, you’re right.” She gave a little laugh. “Silly me.”

“If it makes you feel better, the closer we get to the storm area Keita is so concerned about, the less we’ll see of the Fins.”

“Have there been Fins?” Brannie asked.

“None. But it’s probably best they don’t know there’s a boat of dragons making its way across their ocean.”

Brannie looked down. “Excellent point.”

Aidan moved closer to her, their shoulders touching, but Brannie immediately leaned away.

“I don’t need that, Aidan.”

“What if I do?”

She thought a moment. “Fair enough.”

Brannie leaned against him and Aidan put his arm over her shoulder, pulling her even closer.

“We’ll get through this,” he told her. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad anyway. You know how Keita can exaggerate.”

“You think?”

Aidan rested his temple against Brannie’s head, closed his eyes. “Of course. She’s overdramatic.”

“Really?” Brannie asked. “Is that overdramatic, too?”

Aidan opened his eyes and saw the wall of water heading right toward them.

* * *

Kachka watched the wall of water bearing down on them.

“This cannot end well!” she yelled over the roar of the ocean.

It was what they had to get through, though. Not just the wall of water heading straight for them, but the violent storms behind that water. They’d need to deal with all that if they hoped to make it through the night.

The Northland men yelled orders to each other as they prepared themselves and their boat to fight what was before them.