Unawakened (36 page)

Maybe Rob had truly been right about me, doomed to be an unawakened until my dying breath. I couldn’t even bring myself to hope Rob hadn’t died.

I kept walking, looking for a way deeper into the ship. If I couldn’t find Kenneth Smith, maybe I’d find what he was carrying on board, for better or worse. If we didn’t cross paths, I’d land in New York, return to Baltimore, and find him.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Maybe I was a pawn, maybe I could only take one measly step forward at a time, but dae weren’t the only ones who could go up in a blaze of glory.

The engine sounds intensified the deeper into the ship I went. The few skeletons I encountered ended up as piles of debris on the floor. I kicked one of the more robust skulls ahead of me, enjoying the clatter when it bounced.

The skull located the next way down, disappearing from sight through a hole in the floor.

“Damned useless skeletons! You swore these would be good workers, Samael.”

I froze, my eyes widening. The hard edge in Kenneth Smith’s voice was accompanied by the heat of frustration. Who was Samael? I crept towards the hole, pulling out the gun with its single, special round.

I had thirty feet. Would I have space to fire? I considered going for the standard gun but decided against it. I would probably only get one shot, and if I missed, the blast radius had a good chance of killing him.

“They are. They do exactly what they are told, they do not argue with their master, and they are tireless. If you wanted intellect, Kenneth, you needed to ask for it. You wished for reliable workers who did as they were told. You got exactly what you wished for.”

Wishes. I clenched my teeth. What was it with dae and their fucking wishes? Why couldn’t they do anything normally?

“You knew what I really needed.”

“What you needed is not what you wished for, Mr. Smith. Are you done wasting my time? I met the conditions of your wish. I have accepted your payment for your wish. Unless you wish to negotiate a new agreement, we are finished here.”

“You gave me a derelict ship with a skeleton crew! They’re worthless.
Worthless.
” Smith’s voice turned shrill, and I cringed at the crash of a skeleton skull smashing into something metal. “Do you truly believe a year of Jacob’s service is worth
this
?”

“You received exactly what you wished for, Mr. Smith.”

I had no idea who—or what—Samael was, but I liked him. I lowered to my hands and knees, creeping towards the hole in the floor.

Once upon a time, a ladder must have been mounted in the circular gap, which was large enough to allow one person to drop through at a time. A cavernous space stretched out as far as I could see. While I heard their voices loud and clear, I saw no sign of the two men.

Not far below was a stack of shipping crates, which I could land on without breaking my neck if I really wanted to. I wiggled closer, careful to keep my breathing slow, steady, and silent.

“I wanted the girl,” my former boss hissed.

“Ah, but the girl wasn’t what you wished for, Mr. Smith. You wished for the means to your goal, not for the goal itself.”

“I am not enslaving myself to you for a year.”

“Then you do not wish for her enough. My price is two years now—you and your dae. For that, I will deliver her unto you.” The amusement in Samael’s voice made me grin. My theory on Rob being taken to make it easier to get me made sense, but there were too many gaping holes in my speculations.

Samael, if he was one of the dae who could grant wishes, hadn’t been the one behind the purple discs. Minangi had told Rob Ahriman had been the one responsible.

The discs had ceased appearing after Rob’s kidnapping. Resisting the urge to drum my fingers, I scooted forward, dipping my head into the hole in the floor.

A glimmer of light drew my attention beyond the stacked shipping crates. Tendrils of dark blue slithered through an aura of brilliant gold, reminiscent of Minangi’s dragons and the hilt of my katana.

Kenneth Smith stood on the fringe of the radiance, all his attention focused on the center of the light and the octopus flailing its tentacles in a pool of murky water.

I blinked.

The octopus splashed in its puddle, and when I squinted, I realized hundreds of smaller tentacled critters surrounded it. From my vantage point of thirty or forty feet up and as many feet away, I guessed the largest one was about the size of my head.

I blinked again and rubbed my eyes.

The octopus and its tiny army remained.

“What else can I offer you?”

“Everything on board this ship right now would be a good start. I could settle with a year of your servitude and loyalty. If you live that long, that is. You might not, Mr. Smith. You have angered the wrong individuals with your ill-advised plan. I warned you, you know. I warned you to leave the little unawakened’s toy alone. You already sold a year of your dae’s service to me. How much more can you afford to lose?”

The octopus was definitely the one talking. He drew himself up on his tentacles, and the glow surrounding him intensified, spread out, and where it touched, water bubbled up from below, seeping in through gaps in the steel plating.

His eyes were a brilliant gold and burned with the creature’s malice, which was fortunately directed at Smith and not at me. I shuddered as a cold chill ran down my spine.

Its silence frightened me even more than the hatred in its eyes.

“For just one little girl? She was mine to begin with. She always has been mine.
Mine,
Samael. Without me, she’s nothing.”

The octopus snorted. How did an octopus snort? There were also tiny, high-pitched titters from its companions, who splashed in the growing puddle of water. “I try not to bargain with fools, but it seems I have made an error of judgement. Your cargo, everything—everyone—on this ship. A year of your servitude and loyalty. For that, a chance to take your female back. Alexa is her name, correct?”

“Yes, yes, you know her name, you insufferable squid. I need a guarantee, Samael.”

“I cannot grant you such a wish, Mr. Smith. It is not for me to decide. You would need to petition another, and I do not believe he is as charitable as I am. I can provide you with chances, but no more than that. You will relinquish your cargo and those on this ship into my custody. Why don’t you wish for something you can afford? Perhaps a chance to save your life? If you leave the ship now, you’ll certainly die. You truly have made poor choices, little bonded. Very poor choices. I am not the aspect of maleficence after all. If I were, I would not be bargaining with you now. I’d be eating you for your insolence.”

I scowled as the two dae discussed me like I were up for sale. The only dae I’d even consider allowing to indulge in such behavior was gone thanks to Smith—and possibly thanks to his cephalopod accomplice.

The golden eyes with their dark pupils focused in my direction. Samael winked and waved one of its tentacles at me.

Instead of suckers, the slimy, wiggly appendage was covered in eyeballs.

“Who would I need to petition?”

“There are a few who might grant you such a wish, if you’re willing to pay the price.” The subtle amusement in Samael’s tone wasn’t lost on Kenneth Smith, who straightened his back.

“You’re mocking me.”

“Oh, no. I’m not mocking you, Mr. Smith. I wouldn’t do that. You amuse me, and it has been a long time since someone has amused me so. Come now, though. You know the ways of this world. Nothing is free. What will you give me for the names of those who might grant you the wish you have always desired and cannot win for yourself?”

I sucked in a breath, remembering what Rob had told me about the nature of the bonded, the dae, and the dreams and wishes binding them together. Had Rob been telling the truth, or was Samael playing Smith for the fool?

Could the bonded wish for what they had sacrificed to create their dae and gain their powers? I shifted my weight, bringing my gun with its lethal bullet closer to the hole, careful to turn off the safety and keep my finger away from the trigger.

“A choice of anything on this ship for each name of someone who can—and will—grant my wish.”

“Intriguing. One day of your servitude and loyalty in addition to my choice of anything on this ship. A crate is a choice. A person—or a member of my crew, which I granted you in your wish, is also a choice.”

“I am not a choice.”

“Agreed, but I will not back down. One day of your servitude and loyalty in exchange for the names of those who can help you. I will be generous, and I will offer to tell you what they’ll likely ask for in compensation, should you give me two days of your servitude and loyalty.”

“And you swear these dae can fulfill my wish?”

“They can, for a price. I make no promise you will want to pay the cost, but that is not my problem. I can grant you your wish of a name and the price of their service to you. You know my price for this. Decide, bonded. I do not have an eternity to wait on you.”

“Fine.”

“Then make your wish,” the octopus ordered.

Being the object of a wish did not amuse me in the slightest, and I reconsidered taking the shot before finding out the names of the dae who thought they could hand me over without my consent. I relaxed my grip on the gun.

Their names might be worth something, even if only to give me a stepping stone to figuring out how wishes worked and just how much I could be influenced by someone else’s wish.

Why couldn’t people take matters into their own hands? Most importantly, why was Kenneth Smith so obsessed with me?

“I wish to know who could grant me the wish of having her for myself, and I offer a choice of cargo, of anything on this ship other than me, and two days of my service and loyalty in payment.”

“Munkar would demand the eternity of your loyalty and service to him, as well as your full obedience.”

I stiffened, opened my mouth to protest the absurdity of the dae’s proclamation, but before I could make a sound, something slimy slapped over my mouth and wrapped around my neck. The stench of seawater filled my broken nose, which functioned barely enough to let me breathe.

“I have laid claim over one object on board this ship, and two days of your loyalty and service belong to me, beginning now,” Samael proclaimed.

The bright golden eye of a rainbow-hued octopus stared into mine, and I could swear it grinned at me. The colors of its canopy shifted hues with its movement, and it nuzzled its head against my cheek.

Its slimy tentacle, stuck halfway in my mouth, muffled my shrieks of protest. Another octopus joined the fray, curling several of its pale tentacles around my gun and walking away with it.

“You’re fucking kidding me, right? If I wouldn’t pay you two years, do you really think I’d pay this Munkar the entirety of my life?”

“An eternity is far longer than merely your life, Mr. Smith. Your life could end tomorrow. It could end in five minutes. You do not know. I spoke truth. I told you you would not like the price. Truly, I offered you a very competitive rate for such a fascinating creature. Will you make another wish?”

Samael toyed with the drug lord, his tone both a taunt and a challenge. Part of me wanted to flail and try to dislodge the octopus stuck to my face, but my body froze in place, and I was unable to tear my gaze away from the two below.

When I stopped making frantic noises, the octopus’s tentacle slid off my mouth, allowing me to breathe easier.

The fishy tang of the sea on my lips left me shuddering and tempted to gargle with an entire bottle of Sullivan’s whiskey to kill the taste.

“Fine. I wish to know who could grant me the wish of having her for myself, and I offer a choice of cargo, of anything on this ship other than me, and two days of my service and loyalty in payment.”

Had Kenneth Smith always been so stupid? I shifted to grab the second gun from its holster to discover it, too, had been stolen. The thieving octopus skittered out of my reach, leaving suction-cup prints in its wake.

My eyes widened as I realized it had also pilfered the tiny gun stashed in my cleavage.

“You wretched little slimy sea rat,” I hissed at it.

It sprayed ink in my general direction, leaving the floor black and shiny. I considered myself fortunate it hadn’t hit me with any of the strong-smelling, salty fluid.

“Netzach. His price is, after a period of one year of your undying loyalty and servitude, to have the enjoyment of ripping your right kidney out through your left nostril while ravens feast on the remainder of your internal organs.”

Before I could laugh, the octopus slapped its tentacle over my mouth.

“Preposterous!”

“I have laid claim over one object on board this ship and have added two days of time to your owed loyalty and service.”

When my silent chortling grew too much for my strained nose to handle, the octopus released me long enough to catch my breath. It winked at me with its luminescent eye.

“This is bullshit. Why would I agree to cut my lifespan to a year?”

“She’d be all yours until Netzach had fun with your internal organs?”

I bit my lip so I wouldn’t make a sound, sparing myself another stint with an octopus tentacle shoved in my mouth.