Of Werewolves and Curses by Emma Hamm

Chapter 26

Eldridge hauled Leo to his feet, though the Summer Lord groaned like the hounds of hell gnawed on his bones. And perhaps that’s what it felt like. Freya didn’t have time to pity him.

She raced ahead of them with Cora on her heels. Freya tossed words into the wind and hoped the other woman would hear them. “We need a boat. A fast one that will fly through the waves.”

“I have a better one than he does.” Cora’s brows were drawn down in concentration. “The Summer Lady is always gifted a boat that has wings across the waters. The ocean will let us use that one.”

Freya wasn’t so confident. She had just spent a lifetime arguing with the sea, and maybe the great being would rather not help them any more.

With a flourish, Cora raced into the waves and raised her arms above her head. Sparkling gold cascaded from her fingertips and sank into the slow swells. The glitter spread over the surface of the water, reaching out into the sea where it disappeared into the depths.

Long heartbeats passed and Freya held her breath. Please let the sea help them this one last time. All she wanted was the chance to get Leo into the forest. The chance to get her father back.

A longship rose from the depths of the ocean. Its hull was solid gold, and though it shouldn’t float, it did. The sides were carved with swans, their wings outstretched and their necks creating a bannister on the edges. This was a beautiful craft that Freya could only hope would get them to the mainland faster.

Cora looked over her shoulder with a grin. “Will this do?”

The sparkling lights of her magic still surrounded the boat. Freya thought the entire thing looked like it had emerged from a dream. All she could stutter was, “Yes. That will do.”

They still needed to load Leo onto the boat and then get to the mainland, however. And though she’d argued well, and the sea was happy to give them the time they needed, she didn’t think that included stopping the sea monsters from their hunt.

Nothing was ever that easy in the faerie realms. Never.

Freya turned and watched as Eldridge dragged Leo down the beach. The Summer Lord was slowing with every step. When he reached their side, she could see moss had grown on his shoulders and reached for his neck.

“Not yet,” she snarled. Freya plucked it from his skin and tossed the moss into the sea. “I still have words to say to you, forest. I’m coming and you will not take him before we meet again.”

Eldridge lifted his brow as she met his gaze.

“What?” Freya asked.

“You’re impressive, that’s all. I wasn’t aware you were so... so...” He shrugged. “Feral.”

She pondered the word, rolling it over in her mind before nodding sharply. “I like it. Feral suits me well.”

“Indeed.”

The burning edge of his gaze was one of pure passion. Though they didn’t have time to entertain such thoughts, Freya was pleased to see she could still tempt him even when the world was falling down around their ears.

Eldridge’s lips spread in a wide smile. “Let’s get him in the boat, and then we’ll argue with the forest as you seem so dead set that we need to do.”

“We do,” she grumbled, though she wasn’t looking forward to it.

It took all three of them to load Leo into the boat. He couldn’t help at all. His arms flopped at his sides and his legs refused to hold his weight. Freya grunted, shoved his legs over the edge and winced when he struck the bottom of the metal boat hard.

“Step two, complete,” she muttered.

Eldridge helped her get into the boat. Cora leapt in gracefully and with no assistance. All the damn fae moved like water flowing through the world, while Freya was the awkward mortal that couldn’t manage without their help. Eldridge vaulted over the edge and took a seat at the helm.

“So,” he said, clearing his throat. “We’re off. Just how many monsters are going to try to stop us this time?”

Hopefully none. Although Freya knew that was wishful thinking. There were going to be a thousand monsters rising out of the depths with gnashing teeth, ready to tear this boat apart if they were given the chance. The sea wouldn’t make it that easy for them.

Cora leaned over the side of the boat and stuck her hand in the water. Her brows furrowed in concentration before she leaned back and flicked water from her fingers with the grace of a dancer. “Many. I didn’t even know some of them existed. The sea will make this a battle and I fear we will need your magic, Eldridge. Otherwise, this ship will sink.”

Right. This was Freya’s nightmare.

Loud barking echoed across the sands, and Freya turned at the last second to see a black and white body dashing toward them. “Don’t you leave without me! Don’t even think about it!”

Arrow darted toward the water and leaped. His body arched gracefully, but then landed in a smacking belly-flop that looked horribly painful. Still, he swam through the water to the side of the boat where he scrabbled with his claws to get in.

She should have known he wouldn’t let them leave without him. Freya reached into the water and scooped him into the boat. “This isn’t going to be an easy journey, my friend. We’re about to battle sea monsters and we can’t have you getting sick.”

“I’m stronger than I look,” he snarled, although he already appeared to be woozy. “I will muster my strength for this. My place is with you.”

Eldridge forced Freya to sit at the back of the boat. “You’ll have to steer, Freya. I need to be at the bow so I can use whatever magic might stop them. Arrow, you sit with Freya and let nothing touch her.”

The goblin dog straightened with pride. He puffed out his chest and took a very prominent seat directly in front of Freya. His legs were spread wide, ready to battle whenever the time came.

She didn’t think he’d do much against the sea monsters. They would probably look at him and chuckle in the way only sea creatures could. Then they would chomp him in half and dive for Freya next. But it's still nice to know she had someone who would at least try to save her.

Eldridge gave her a sharp nod, and they were ready to fly across the waves. Freya hoped the sea monsters were also slowed by time, but that wasn’t likely. The sea had given them one boon. It wouldn’t give them another.

She steered them toward the mainland and into the storm clouds overhead. Thunder rumbled, but no rain fell on them. Almost as though the sea wanted them to see they were being hunted. And they were.

The waves were taller than ten feet high. The white foam at their crests bubbled like a witch’s cauldron. Freya took them over the first dark swell and lightning struck nearby. The flashing light blinded her for a moment. When she opened her eyes again, the entire sea had come alive with sharp teeth.

A shark swam directly next to them and hit the boat with its tail. They rocked dangerously to the side. Freya made the mistake of staring into the water and made eye contact with a beast that looked like a squid. But its eyes were larger than her head, and its tentacles were tipped with sharp barbs.

“Freya!” Eldridge shouted. “Turn the boat!”

She threw her weight in the opposite direction and turned the rudder with a wild jerk. They narrowly missed a giant whale with teeth as sharp as a shark. It blew air from the top of its head and sharp shards of ice rained down from above.

Eldridge threw his arm around the swan figurehead, holding on for dear life as he spun his first spell. Shadows gathered around him, yanked from the very sea itself before he unleashed his magic. Each of the shadows took on a life of its own. They sank into the waves and darted toward creatures where they wrapped around each one like chains.

For a brief moment, the sea was quelled.

Then they heard a deep rumble. A scream that echoed and something massive rose from the deep. Freya swallowed hard and stared wide eyed at the giant wave that rolled toward them. Lightning flashed again. The entire wave illuminated, revealing the silhouette of tentacles as large as a ship, each one reaching for their tiny boat.

“Turn!” Eldridge shouted. “Freya, turn!”

Where was she supposed to go? There was no where for the boat to turn. Those tentacles were everywhere. The beast was larger than anything she’d seen before. Larger than a city.

She couldn’t turn the boat because then they would head right into the mouth of the beast. Craning her neck to look behind them, she stared in horror at the rest of the creature’s body that had risen from the waves.

It was a monster from the ancient stories. A creature made of nightmares and sea barnacles. The mouth opened wide, jaws filled with a hundred rows of teeth. She didn’t know where its eyes were, or if it even had eyes. But the creature would not stop until they were in its belly.

“Freya!” Eldridge shouted again.

What did he want her to do? If they hit those tentacles, then the creature would devour them whole. It would drag them toward its mouth, and then they would never get out of its clutches.

Unless she slipped between the tentacles. And the only way to do that was to sneak up that wave and be quick.

Their boat was the fastest in the Summer Court. She narrowed her eyes and drew down her brows in concentration. Perhaps it was her imagination, but it seemed like the golden swans did the same. “Everyone hang on!” she shouted.

Cora dove for the bottom of the boat and wrapped herself around Leo. Eldridge sat down hard and hung onto the sides, though he glared at her for taking such a risk. She already knew he was going to shout at her.

And why shouldn’t he? She was jeopardizing all of their lives in doing this.

Freya directed the boat at the small gap where it seemed like the creature was missing a tentacle. She thought maybe she could sneak through. Maybe.

It was a ten percent chance they’d make it, but that was more than what would happen if she turned around.

Every muscle in Freya’s body locked up tight, and she guided the boat up the wave. “Slowly,” she muttered. “Take your time until the last second. Surprise the beast.”

Arrow pressed his face against her knee and Freya touched her hand to his head. Grinding her teeth, she shot the boat diagonally across the wave. It moved with all the speed of a flying beast, and then the tentacles came out of the water.

Great, meaty appendages swung over their head. As if the creature was trying to terrify them into hesitating. But Freya refused to let it scare her, not when she had conquered so many beasts here in the faerie realms. No sea creature was worse than what she’d faced thus far.

There was the gap. The smallest gap and she couldn’t move until the right moment. She blew out the breath she’d been holding slowly, letting it leak out between her lips so all the sound in the world disappeared other than the next great inhalation she sucked into her lungs.

“Now,” she whispered.

The boat careened up, up, up the wave and the beast let out a scream that rocked the slow moving crests. She set her grip hard on the handle that guided the ship and closed her eyes.

Perhaps it made her a coward to not see what happened. But in that blissful moment of darkness, Freya watched all the memories she loved play behind her eyes.

Death had come for her many times, and Freya had slipped away from its cold clutches every single encounter. If a giant sea monster was what finally claimed her, then so be it. She would gladly accept that heroic death.

But that death did not come.

They darted between the tentacles and slid out into a calm sea. The storm disappeared behind them with the call of the ancient beast as it sank back into the depths.

The boat moved with grace and calm ease. No more waves rocked the gull. They skidded across a mirror-like surface of water so pure that she could see the bottom. Azure light glimmered in the depths, and only kind creatures watched them as they passed.

The time for death had ended. Freya took a deep breath of salty, warm air. They had made it.

None of them said a single word until the boat hit the shore of the mainland. The soft crunching of seashells seemed to break the spell of silence they all had upheld.

Arrow was the first to speak. He snuffled loudly and then declared with confidence, “I will never step foot on another boat in my life.”

A chuckle burst from her lips and then once it had been released, she couldn’t stop laughing. The other two faeries joined her. Their laughter rose into the air, and all the last remnants of tension and fear drained from Freya’s body.

“You know,” she said, still laughing with tears streaming down her cheeks, “I don’t think I want to get on another ship any time soon.”

“Neither do I,” Eldridge replied. He leaned down and picked up Leo’s limp body, throwing him over his shoulder. “Now, why don’t we go convince a forest that this lump of flesh is worthy of being the Summer Lord?”

Of course, they still had work to do. Freya catapulted her body from the ship and splashed onto the sandy beach. “I think that’s a grand idea. It’s been a while since I’ve shouted at an ancient being.”