POV: Beth
We move fast.
Alaric doesn’t shout orders—he throws them. His voice slices through frozen crew like the crack of a whip.
“Sails up! Turn starboard! Move!”
Men scramble, alive again only through panic. Kaine drags a terrified pirate off his knees and forces him to haul rope. Wood groans as sails snap open. The ship shoves away from the Kraken’s domain.
My chest still feels tight. My pulse is out of rhythm—ocean thunder in my blood. My hand keeps shaking, but I try to hide it.
“What… what just happened?” I whisper to no one.
Nobody answers.
Fog swallows the last trace of the Bone Fleet. The sea calms with suspicious speed—silence too heavy to trust. My knees feel like water. I grip the railing hard.
Alaric stands beside me, staring ahead, but his gaze is distant—stuck back in that moment of terror. In the way he froze. In the way the Kraken bowed to me.
I want to speak. To ask what he saw years ago when he lost his throne. What the Kraken took from him.
But his jaw is locked shut, and that silence is louder than screams.
I swallow fear. “Alaric—”
“Don’t.” His voice cuts, short and jagged. “Not now.”
I shut my mouth, frustration mixing with dread.
We sail away—but nothing inside me leaves that fog behind.
The crew keeps glancing at me—sideways, quick, afraid. Whispers coil like ropes:
“She made it bow—” “She’s not human—” “Witchborn—”
My heartbeat stutters.
I excuse myself from deck and slip below to Alaric’s quarters, locking myself inside. Alone, I stare at my hands. Fingers curl around air.
I can still feel the hum under my skin.
Something living in waves recognized me.
Something monstrous.
I squeeze my eyes shut, breath shaking. “I’m not a monster. I’m not—”
A knock interrupts. Not harsh. Not demanding. Just… present.
I wipe my face quickly. “Who is it?”
Alaric. “Open the door.”
I hesitate—then unlock it. The moment he steps in, he stops. He looks at me like he’s seeing two versions of me—the one who used to row and cry… and the one the Kraken bowed to.
Fear. Respect. Anger. Confusion.
All crashing in his stare.
“You’re shaking,” he says.
“So are you,” I whisper.
He ignores the comment. “We’ll reach port by nightfall. We need a new ship, new supplies, a crew that won’t piss themselves at the mention of Kraken.” His tone is steady, but his eyes keep flicking to mine as if checking if I’m… still me.
“I didn’t do anything,” I whisper. “It just… looked at me.”
“That’s the problem,” he says a little too quickly. His voice lowers, rough. “You matter to it.”
“And that scares you,” I breathe.
He looks away. His silence is answer enough.
I take a step forward. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He presses fingers to the bridge of his nose, sighs like the weight of his throne falls fresh every day. “I can’t— Not now.”
I clench my fists. “So I’m supposed to just accept that I might be some… creature’s chosen one?”
He lifts his head, finally meeting my gaze fully. “I’m trying to figure out if that creature expects to claim you.”
His anger turns sharp—not at me. At what he can’t control.
He turns to leave.
“Alaric,” I call, stopping him. “Do you think I’m dangerous?”
He pauses at the door. Doesn’t face me. Just answers with a truth that lodges into my ribcage like a hook.
“I think the sea is choosing its queen,” he murmurs. “And I don’t know if I’m meant to stand beside her…”
He looks over his shoulder—fear hidden beneath smirk.
“Or drown under her.”
He leaves before I can breathe again.
Alone, I stare at the waves through his window—black, endless, waiting.
Silas’ offer still whispers in my head. Kraken’s gaze still burns into my bones. A queen of monsters? Or a girl pretending she isn’t one?
The ship sails on—but I feel like the tides themselves have begun chasing me.