The world had turned upside down. One moment I was on deck, the wind ripping at my coat, pirates shouting like demons, and the next, steel slid into me. A blade punching through my chest. My blood spilled hot over my shirt, sticky down my ribs. My legs buckled. The deck tilted.
I fell.
The sea swallowed me before I could scream.
Salt burned my wound. My lungs seized. I thrashed, tried to fight, but the weight of my clothes dragged me down. Darkness folded around me. My chest ached for air. I thought I would die there, nameless and forgotten, another corpse swallowed by the sea.
But I didn’t sink. Arms caught me. Strong, cold, pulling me deeper instead of up.
I gasped—expecting to drown—but the water rushed into my lungs and filled them like air. I coughed, sputtered, and still I breat
