Tags:
Paranormal,
YA),
Young Adult Fiction,
Young Adult,
teen,
teen fiction,
ya fiction,
ya novel,
young adult novel,
Paranormal Fiction,
teen novel,
teen lit,
abyss surrounds us,
emily skrutsky,
emily skruskie
âLook, I donât know if youâre keen to how things work around here, so Iâll lay it out simply. Santa Elena picks the best from the ranks to be her trainees. She teaches us the ins and outs of leading this ship and pays us a cut above the rest. And one of us is going to take her place someday. I fought tooth and nail to get where I am on this ship, and I wouldnât give two shits about you if my own neck didnât depend on it. But the captainâs gone and made this one of the perverted hoops I have to jump through if sheâs ever going to name me as her successor. So if you could just shut your mouth, work with me, and not try to off yourself again, thatâd be great. Thatâd really do me a favor.â
Weâre alone in this empty hall, with the captain locked away in her throne room and the other crew members dispersed. Iâm starting to pick up Swiftâs patterns. Sheâs a squall, a tantrum of hatred and stubbornness when someoneâs around to watch. But when itâs just herâjust her and someone she considers so far beneath her that their presence isnât worth acting forâSwiftâs just a survivalist.
I can almost respect that.
Almost.
I feel skewed, as if someoneâs taken my values and tugged them so far away from me that it seems ludicrous to reach out and try to grab them again. I canât be empathizing with these people. Survive , I remind myself. Everything is secondary to keeping myself alive. If I play my cards right, I can escape this boat, and no one will ever know what I had to do to get there.
So Iâll play Swiftâs game until the time is right.
âI donât exactly have a choice,â I tell her, making another attempt to break her grip. She lets me go this time, but her hand immediately drifts down to the gun on her belt. The imprint of her fingers lingers on my flesh, and I cringe.
âRight. Fine. Basics of the Minnow . Follow me.â
I wait for her to grab me again, but it doesnât happen. Swift stalks away, and I realize this is the first time sheâs turned her back to me. She seems smaller. My gaze flicks to the nape of her neck, to the place where a guillotineâs blade would fall, and I spy a little smudge of ink. Her Minnow. Santa Elenaâs words come back to me all at once, and in that moment I understand a little bit more about Swift.
If a brand on the back of her neck is how she sees the ship, we have a lot more in common than I first thought.
7
Swiftâs introduction to the ship is about as half-hearted as I expected. First she leads me up a ladder to the main deck and breezes through the shipâs arsenal, including the two massive guns at the fore and aft. Phobos and Diemos, she calls them, then warns me never to call them that around the captain. I stare up at them, fighting to keep my expression unchanged as I remember their fury, the blaze of the guns pumping as they drove round after round into Durgaâs hide. My eyes burn, and I squeeze them shut before anything escapes.
Then itâs on to the Splinters, the needle-like gunboats tucked against the Minnow âs hull by a set of pneumatic braces. Swift introduces them like a tour guide at an art museum, but her boorish accent keeps the impression half-baked.
I lean over the railing to get a good look at the Splinters. Iâve seen ships like this escorting vessels too small to have Reckoners. Theyâre tiny and terrifyingly fast, and Santa Elena didnât need to deploy them to take down the Nereid .
I lean a little farther, letting the railing take my full weight as my gaze shifts to the night-dark ocean flying by beneath us. For a moment, I feel weightless. For a moment, I forget.
Then Swift yanks me back by the collar and gives me a warning look.
Thereâs a beat of awkward silence. She glances around the deck, the wind whipping her hair as she searches for something else to point out to me,