I went for a walk.

  Nakten had been around for less than a day, but I had a weird feeling that the moment I ‘awakened’ her class, she was going to get a lot less flirty with me. Considering I wasn’t certain that sleeping with her would even do anything, I wasn’t eager to experiment.

  I’d not spent a lot of time watching sunsets, but the sun was already down by the time I got on the main deck, so there wasn’t much to see. Just a bunch of stars and the moon.

  I walked by the harpoon turrets. I wasn’t sure what level or Tier they were, but I knew better than to touch them. I wasn’t interested in having any level burns from trying to handle a weapon that was locked to someone higher level than me.

  “We’ve got four of them on each side.” A silver man smiled as he walked up to me. “You never know when you’re going to run into pirates or sea monsters.” He stuck out his hand. “Ken Numor.”

  “Bethy’s husband?” I shook his hand. “Atlas Vowler.”

  “The prime, yeah.” His black eyes looked me over. “You’re Trent Vowler’s kid. The one who’s taking Bridge.”

  “Bridge?” I scrunched my brow. “Oh, you mean Bridget.”

  “Yeah!” He laughed. “Always knew that girl was ambitious, but to land Trent’s kid…” He shook his head. “Never thought she’d aim that high.”

  “So you’re not her dad?” I almost smacked myself in the face when I remembered that Bridget’s father had died.

  “No…” Ken shook his head. “Joe died a while back.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve been trying to look out for her, but you can’t really ever replace someone like that.” He put his hand on the gray metal of the turret. “That’s why we got these things. They’ll blow a hole in any monster and…” Electricity arced on his fingers. “My magic can handle most pirates.” A look of pain crossed his face. “Still hasn’t stopped the casualties, but they’re much fewer now.”

  “Bethy said that someone died yesterday?”

  He nodded.

  “Sorry for your loss.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “Life moves on.” The silver man ran his hand through his white hair. He nodded out at the water. “You ever been at sea before?”

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  “Nope.” I shook my head. “I lived in Aurox for as long as I can remember and we didn’t have any lakes or pools there.”

  “What do you think?” He gestured at the open sky.

  “It looks empty.” I could see the darker shadows of islands, but if I hadn’t seen them earlier, I wouldn’t have known what I was looking at.

  “That’s the beauty of it.” Ken laughed. “Sure, we’ve got a schedule and places to be, but out here, we can go anywhere! Most of the Gods stay away from the water, which means true freedom!”

  “Most?” I raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “The sea monsters.” He pointed down at the water. “There are some big ones down there that have an appetite for them.” He laughed. “Which is why the Gods almost always travel by land. Coming out to sea is a good way to come face to face with a Sea Dragon.” He winked at me. “I’ve never seen one, but Bethy’s grandfather swears that he ran into one while he was transporting a group of Gods between Wards. That was back when they’d travel together. Ever since, he’s made it a policy that we don’t take more than one God at a time and always on one of the smaller boats.”

  The humor on his face turned to confusion. “What’s up? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

  “I…” I forced a smile. “I think I might be getting sick.” I looked around for the exit, then nodded my head towards it. “I’m going to go lie down.”

  “It’s less of a mess to hang your head over the side.” Ken called after me as I fled below deck.

  The floor of the ship felt like it had eyes as I ran as fast as I could back to where the RV was parked. I typed out a short message to Trent as I ran faster. Each creak and sway of the ship spurred my heart faster.

  I didn’t stop running until I got inside the RV. My breath was cold and labored as I sucked air into my lungs.

  “What’s wrong?” Ether stood up from her seat at the booth.

  I gasped for air as I rested my hands on my knees, then looked over at where Nakten was lounging on the couch behind the driver’s seat.

  “What… do you… know… about Gods and sea monsters?” I managed to pant out.

  “Is that what’s got you so worked up?” Nakten laughed.

  “Nakten.” I swallowed as I sucked in more air. My chest was still tight, but breathing was a little easier.

  “Once upon a time, there were sea monsters that roamed the sea. Any time a God would cross into their territory, the ship would be attacked.” She shrugged. “But the Primus cleared out the major shipping lanes. Even outside the major lanes, there haven’t been any attacks in a while that didn’t involve multiple Mantled Gods.” She puffed out her chest. “Lord Nevah and I got here without a problem.”

  “Right, but what about two Gods and two Nephilim?” I could feel goosebumps spreading across my arms.

  The ship rocked, sending me staggering across the floor. I caught myself on the wall behind Nakten and looked down at her. “This isn’t a major shipping lane, is it?”

  “No, they deviated to go to Iver first.” Ether looked at the map on the table, then turned to look at the two of us. “What does that mean?”

  An alarm blared as our answer.

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