“Where are Eno and Rayne?”
“Checking the other levels for you,” Drayce answered briskly.
“The explosion?”
“Caspagir’s navy or possibly one of the onshore defenses.” The lines cutting across Drayce’s face deepened. “We’re running behind. This is a big fucking ship. We should have located you already. We—fuck, yes!” he exclaimed as he located the right key and unlocked the first cuff. He made quick work of the second, and Caelan exhaled with relief.
“Can you send a message to Rayne and Eno? Tell them you found me.”
Drayce stood and pulled out his phone. He typed out a message while Caelan rubbed his sore wrists. Around them, the ship thundered with explosions, some coming from the ship and some coming from Caspagir.
“They’re meeting us on deck.”
“Good, let’s—” Caelan didn’t get the chance to finish the thought. Drayce planted a hand in the middle of his chest and slammed him against the wall. Caelan gasped for air, but he didn’t get to demand what the hell Drayce was doing. His best friend covered his mouth with his own and kissed the sense out of him. Caelan stood frozen, his brain trying to catch up to what was happening.
Just as he was starting to appreciate the wonderful softness of Drayce’s lips, the man pulled away and glared at him. “Don’t you ever fucking kiss me and run away again. You got it?”
Caelan licked his lips and nodded because his brain was fried. Drayce had kissed him. He was definitely pissed about their first kiss, but Drayce had kissed him.
Another explosion pulled him out of his daze. Time to get moving.
Caelan took a gun off the unconscious guard and followed Drayce as they moved quickly through the corridors. At first, everything was empty as the other seamen were at their posts, fighting the Caspagir navy as well as the defenses on land.
But the closer they got to the top deck, the more crowded things became. Caelan snagged weapon after weapon from fallen Empire soldiers, trading one gun for another until the ammo ran out. He would have preferred his sword, but there was no room to swing it in the narrow corridors. The best he could do was fire any gun he could find and wrap both him and Drayce in a protective shield when possible. Not the easiest thing to do when on the run. He’d had more practice throwing up the shield when he was standing in one place.
“I thought you needed fire!” Drayce shouted in surprise when he threw up the barrier to block the onslaught of gunfire.
“I’ve found I can do it without the fire now that I’ve got Kaes rattling around in my brain,” Caelan admitted.
“That’s a scary fucking thought,” Drayce muttered as the last Empire soldier dropped dead with a bullet to the throat.
At long last, they punched their way to the main deck to find the world on fire. The ship rocked hard to the left, and they were thrown stumbling across the deck into the railing. The night sky was ablaze. Gunfire between the land and ships screamed overhead. The entire harbor was burning. Several of the Empire ships were also on fire, sinking lower into the water.
All the New Rosanthe ships needed to be sunk. He needed to stop the spread of their forces throughout the world. It was the only way to keep the Emperor and his companion from stealing all the godstones and destroying Thia.
“We need to sink these ships,” Caelan shouted at Drayce above the roar of noise.
“What?” Drayce looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Our goal is to get you the fuck off this ship and on land.”
“We have to sink them. The Empire is going after all the godstones,” Caelan countered.
Lit by a brilliant explosive flash, Caelan swore all the color drained from Drayce’s face as he stared at Caelan. “But how do they know?”
Caelan didn’t have a chance to answer. Eno and Rayne part ran, part slid across the deck toward them. A shot landed next to the side of the ship, sending up a massive spray of water, dousing them all.
Eno expertly angled his slide so that he moved closer to Rayne. He wrapped an arm around the slender man’s waist and pulled him in close, preparing to cushion Rayne’s impact as they reached the railing.
“We need to jump now!” Rayne shouted as he fought to regain his feet. His glasses were missing and his wet hair was dripping in his face. Caelan had no idea how bad Rayne’s vision was, but he was glad Eno was sticking close for protection.
“We can’t! He says we have to sink the ships,” Drayce countered.
“No! We jump!” Eno bellowed over another blast that violently rocked the ship. The way things were going, there was a good chance Caspagir was going to sink most of the Empire’s ships, but Caelan couldn’t rely on that.