“I’ll say. Wait till you see the weapons I got off them.”

“Bright,” I muttered. My brain seemed to be working again. Almost.

“Probably.” Daniel slid a hand under my elbow, tentative, like I might recoil and run. “Breakers, need you to go tell the others, if they haven’t noticed already: wind’s changed direction. There’s . . . something like a nor’easter coming, and we’re heading into it.”

“Instead of Leon?” She was disappointed.

Daniel looked to me.

“In addition to.” I was as hoarse as he was.

“Oh.” Breakers slowed her wanderings. She’d finally caught on to the tension in the room. “Okay, that’s not good. I’ll let them know.” She stepped away, then back. “But you’ll come along quick now, right? Let me clean up that face of yours some.”

“We will.”

I turned to follow, but Daniel held me back. “Hold a moment.”

I didn’t resist. I was thinking about weather.

When Breakers had gone down the hall, he said, “I just need to know if you’re okay. We’ve some hard sailing ahead. You’ve got to hold it together till we’re somewhere safe.”

“I’m fine.”

He looked unconvinced.

Okay, sort of a lie. I was hardly in full control. In between conjured images of Category 6, I kept flashing back to the big Adder’s hungry gaze dropping on me like a net, to the gun’s hot recoil, but all with an odd sort of disconnect, like only my quaking body was reacting to what I’d done. I’d killed a man. Two men. Bad. But it really had been them or me. I wasn’t letting terror win out again and drag me back into the void I’d been working so hard to climb out of. A beacon to lead me forward.

I eased out of his grip. “I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.” Needing to sail for my life should provide a potent distraction.

Daniel prodded me back to Melville, loading both of us for the climb down with Breakers’ collection of state-of-the-art sniper’s rifles, stacked at the top of the fire escape. Seeing Jenn and Jandi emerge scared and hopeful from the cabin shored up my resolve: we had to get everyone through this in one piece.

“Is it over?” Jenn called.

“Pretty near.” A definite lie this time.

We didn’t mention the weather, which seemed to be taking a breather—the rain slackened and the wind gusted restlessly, like gathering itself up for the next onslaught.

As Breakers got out the first-aid kit to patch up Daniel, I handed Jenn my high-tech armload. “Can you find a safe place for these below?”

She looked them over. “Wow.”