Tides of Torment (Immortal Realms Book 2)

The horror registered just seconds after the shock, as the monstrous shark broke the surface of the water. It rose into the air, giant snout pointing to the sun. As it crashed back down against the sea, water sprayed twenty feet into the air and sent a tidal wave rushing into the side of The Saorsa, rocking her violently.

Sereia grabbed onto the railing. Her heart thudded chaotically, and dread filled her belly. She could not look away from the beast: rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth the size of boulders, and a jaw large enough to bite their ship in two. “By the sea and all the depths below,” Adrik croaked out beside her.

“Harpoons out!” Sereia shouted, pushing herself into action. “Cut off the ropes. We don’t need ourselves tied to this thing. Aim for its eyes and gills.” All around her, the crew were already moving, following orders before she’d even finished them. “Yon! I want you in that crow’s nest with eyes on it at all times. Do not let this thing disappear on us and take us by surprise.”

Yon leaped onto the rigging and, like a spider, scurried up the mast to the lookout above.

“Adrik!” Sereia shouted at her first mate who, along with Boran, was now bringing armfuls of harpoons from below to the main deck. “Leave Chailai and Boran to harpoons, I want you focused on the cannons. Don’t stop firing at it until the thing is a bloody pulp.”

Adrik nodded quickly and was off, ordering Donae and Friggid to follow him.

“Captain!” Yon shouted from the crow’s nest, pointing to the other side of the ship. “We’ve got other sharks in the water! Smaller, but many!”

Just as Sereia pulled her eyes away from the massive fin dicing through the water and spun on her heel, the first shark struck, ramming into the bow. The Saorsa groaned in protest, shuddering from the impact. Knocked slightly off kilter, Sereia staggered to the rail.

“Not today,” Sereia growled and extended her hand to the water.

Around her, the boom of cannons echoed, making her ears ring, while smoke choked her lungs. The iron balls flew through the air, striking one shark in the side and leaving the water bloody. Another did nothing but spray water into the air as it struck the surface.

Calling to the water, Sereia kept her hand outstretched, even as several of the smaller sharks rammed into the side of The Saorsa. It sent Sereia staggering backward once more. Several crew members fell over, and one howled in pain as the cannon rolled back on their foot, rocked free of its wheel locks.

Sereia grabbed at railing to keep herself from going overboard and began to form a wall of water around the ship, hoping to push the beasts away. “Tie yourselves down!” she shouted to her crew. The wall of water grew larger and, gritting her teeth, Sereia drew her hand to her chest and then flung it out before her. The wall of water became a tidal wave, rampaging over the sharks and sending them reeling through the water away from the ship.

It worked, but only long enough to give the monstrous shark time to slice through the water toward them. Harpoon guns fired. The sharp spears soared through the air at the massive beast just as another cannon fired. The harpoons struck the shark in the back, just above the fin. They pierced its tough hide, but not deeply enough, bouncing into the air from the powerful motion of the shark’s body, then fell away, useless.

The cannon ball had just as little effect, not slowing the beast down in the slightest.

Sereia threw her hand out, trying to create a current to slow its progress.

“Hold on!” Adrik shouted just before the shark rammed into their bow and sent The Saorsa careening to her side.

Creaking wood snapped through the air around them, and the red sails dipped low toward the water.

The ship would have capsized if Sereia hadn’t used all the force of the water below them to push it back into an upright position. The Saorsa was saved, but there were several cries for help from those of her crew who had fallen overboard.

“No!” Sereia screamed as both Dannae and Hakai were yanked beneath the surface, nothing but a cloud of red left in their wakes.

Frantic, Sereia pushed one shark away with a current of water, while with her free hand, she created a wave beneath Batteo and shot him back onto the deck.

Farther down the ship, Adrik shot a harpoon into the side of a shark, giving Sereia a chance to pluck Yannik from the water, just shy of the beast’s jaws. They were not fast enough for Svenik, though, whose cry of agony as two sharks tore at him from below were as an arrow straight through Sereia.

Hollowing in pain and rage, Sereia thrust both hands out in front of her, picturing the water like a forceful wall, and shoved both sharks as far away from them and their ship as possible.

The final crew member was hauled aboard, clutching desperately to a buoy and rope and coughing up mouthfuls of water.

Sereia didn’t even have time to be grateful for the ones they had managed to save. The boom of cannons filled the air as both Speedwell and The Saorsa aimed for the giant shark circling between them. One cannonball hit the creature in the head, while the other struck its gills. The creature seemed to falter for a moment, and then its actions grew more frenzied. It rammed into the stern of The Saorsa, causing her to spin violently on the water. Crew screamed, and Sereia tumbled to the deck, rolling head over heels until she finally fetched up against the railing. Her ears rang, and her head throbbed as it collided with the thick wood.

The ship rocked dangerously, rigging creaking as the main boom swung, knocking several crew off their feet. Shaking her head and clinging onto the rail, Sereia fought to slow the spin of the ship, struggling to orient herself with the water enough to know where to put the pressure.

Eventually, they stopped careening out of control long enough that she was able to climb to her feet and look back at the sea.

The giant shark had disappeared. “Yon, where is it?!” She looked up to make sure that Yon was still there.

The woman looked a little green around the collar but had maintained her position in the crow’s nest without being thrown from it. “It’s nowhere to be seen, Captain,” she shouted back down.

Sereia’s eyes searched the water rapidly. How could something so huge disappear so easily? It certainly hadn’t left. The issue would be where and how it would return.

“There! North-east!” Yon proclaimed.

Sereia caught sight of the tip of its fin, still the size of a dingy, before it disappeared below the surface yet again. The back of her neck prickled as a chill of foreboding washed through her. Everything had gone deadly silent except for the creak of the mast and the flap of the sails above. The very breath in their lungs seemed to have stilled as everyone waited for the next sight of the monstrous shark.

When it breached the water once more, Sereia’s heart faltered, leaving her breath to catch in her throat. It crested so high above the water that it made the Speedwell seem like a toy, and as it crashed down beside it, the royal ship swayed dangerously on the choppy waves. Sereia did what she could to protect the ship and keep it upright, feeling sweat glisten along her hairline and a strain inside her from the extent to which she was using her magic.

“Fire!” Adrik barked, and soon after, the boom of cannons sounded all around them.

Some missed, others struck, but it did nothing to bring down the monster. The giant only became more furious, its gaping maw widening as it turned on the Speedwell. Sereia could do nothing but watch in horror as it bit down on the starboard side, large teeth and powerful jaw tearing through the wood of the hull without issue.

When it came away, an enormous hole had been torn into the side of the ship, which was soon filled with rushing water looking to displace the emptiness. Men and women screamed, bodies torn in half floating along the riotous surface of the ocean. Those that were lucky enough to still be alive fought to get clear of the smaller sharks circling, only to be dragged below.

“We have to get to the survivors!” Sereia waved to her boatswain, who happened to be the closest to the wheel. “Bring us around, now!” Travion was on that ship. Travion could have been right where it had bitten.

Her heart hammered so loudly in her ears, Sereia was dizzy; the world wanted to close in on her. It was becoming difficult to breathe as panic threatened to seize her like a tight fist clenched around her chest. Dread cascaded beneath her skin, traveling her veins and setting her entire body to ice. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not after everything.

The Saorsa shifted on the water, beginning to turn back toward Speedwell, but she wasn’t quick enough. Already the ship was tipping forward as the water rushed into it, filling her hull and pulling her down.

To make matters worse, the large shark returned, leaping into the air and crashing through the middle of it, destroying what was left of her hull. The shattered bits of timber scattered over the water, while HMS Speedwell, beautiful ship that she had been, steadily sank beneath the waves.

“Travion!” Sereia felt the scream tear from her throat rather than hearing it, her senses dulled to everything but the need to get into the water and over to him. She was at the railing and almost over it before she could think.

This wasn’t going to happen. She would not let him die. Not before her very eyes.

It was only a firm arm around her waist that kept her from leaping. Frantically, she fought against it, struggling to pull herself that last little bit over the railing.

“Let me go! I have to get to him. He’s over there somewhere. Let me go!” Desperation made any other thought leave her. There was nothing left but the all-consuming need to be over the side of the ship and into the water, searching for Travion, wherever he may be.

He was still alive. She had to believe it, and she would cut down anyone who got in the way of saving him.

Adrik shook her, trying to jostle the sense back into her perhaps. “And what is it you’re going to do against a massive man-eating shark?” Adrik growled in her ear. “You’re not going overboard, Rei. I won’t let you kill yourself for nothing.”

“It’s not for nothing! It’s for Travion!” Her voice broke, tears of agony threatening to claim her.

“No,” was his simple yet firm retort. Adrik kept his firm arms around her, holding tightly enough that she could not break free but not so tight that he would hurt her.

Sereia struggled against him some more before finally letting her body go slack. “Get us over there. Now.” Her words were quiet but steely.

“We’re going.” He hadn’t released her yet, as if not trusting that she had her wits about her.

“You can let me go now.”

Adrik hesitated, then finally, his arm slipped away from her waist, and she was left free of his sturdy frame that had helped to ground her in the moment. They didn’t say anything, just stared at each other, understanding passing between the two of them. “Let’s get those survivors! Everyone to the nets, ropes, anything that we can fish ’em out with!” he shouted to the crew.

Sereia took a deep breath. This time when she moved to the railing, she was calmer, at least on the outside. Inside, she was more tumultuous than the water itself, roiling and brewing like a hurricane on the horizon, waiting to descend upon land.

“If we don’t find him, Adrik . . .”

“We will.”