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A crack, even louder than the storm I open my eyes to see that the tornado has snapped the bowsprit in two Needles of water sting my cheeks and eyes In moments, we’ll be ripped apart and washed away

Hector’s hand slips beneath ers slide across ently I cover his hand with my own "The chah she pass through the shadow of darkness, she shall not fear, for God’s righteous right hand shall sustain her and give her new life triumphant"

The warmth inside me becomes an inferno My body blazes with heat, with desire, with desperation The Godstone is riotous with it, pulsing with unused power God, I want to live I want all of us to live What should I do? Why did you lead us here?

Another snap, a sail ripped asunder The ship begins to pivot

And then I sense it, tiny tendrils curling into me I can’t see the fro with the right now, I’hts flit toward me and feed my stone with even more power

The tornado rips into the side of the ship Planking and splinters fly everywhere

Hector’s prayer falters His grip on , even ainst my cheek, just in front of my earlobe

He says, "I love you, Elisa"

Sohter than daylight for the briefest moment--debris froest wave I’ve ever known loo but darkness and calm and a stillness like death

I can’t see I can’t feel h I’ve ceased to exist, save for hts in a vast emptiness

And then a heartbeat, true and steady No, it’s two heartbeats,at all

Chapter 25

I’M lying onHector’s body curls protectively around ht that I blink against the pain of it A soft breeze caresses ull cries, a slide of sound fro, I sit up

Crewht be dead, but then reat beard twitches as he mutters and stirs from the place he fell Others stir around us

Alive All of us, alive

I look down at Hector Sleep has softened his features He see, I’ down his cheek, to the shadow of his cheekbone, where a drop of blood has welled It’s caused by a splinter; it must have speared into him when the tornado hit

Alarmed, I look closer to make sure he breathes Where there is one splinter, there could be more There could be a whole plank, impaled in

His eyelids flutter

"Hector?"

When he sees me, he shudders with relief "We’re alive," he whispers

"I did order you to live, after all"

He sits up and looks around "How?"

"I have no idea So to do with everyone’s prayers, I think, channeled by my Godstone Be still I have to pull this out" I brace his chin with one hand and reach for the splinter with the other Just enough protrudes for ently but steadily, trying to keep to the exact angle of entry

He gazes at ht--the length of the first joint of ood bit of blood wells up after it I toss it to the deck

I’ers but he traps theoing to die after all," he says "Right there at the end"

I think about the way he held ers on my Godstone, on ainst tears "You ht have saved me Saved us all I don’t kno the Godstone’s poorks yet, or hoe survived, but you kept aze drops to my lips "I shouldn’t do this--"

"You really should" And I close the distance between us

His lips oner there Instead he kisses the corner of my ard ret telling you what I did"

"That’s good, because you did say it, and I can’t unknow it"

He lifts an eyebrow, sly amused, and I marvel that for all his usual stoicis so personal "And I can’t unfeel it," he says "I won’t let it interfere with s will bedifficult"

"Oh, yes," I agree "Very difficult"

"Land!" someone yells "Dead ahead!"

We jun of the storhtly, teased by a breeze I could al

Except that the Aracely is a disaster, especially the port side, which has a huge, uneven gouge in the hull where planking was ripped away Only one sail remains intact, and we sit much too low in the water In the distance a bluish luer than ever, pulling h to get there

"We should check on everyone," I say

He nods "See to Mara I’ll look for Storm and Belén"

We part, reluctantly, me for the captain’s quarters, Hector for the lower deck

The quarters are in shas and bits of furniture litter the floor, water streaks the walls, and the glass in one of the portholes is shattered, its jagged edges sparking in the sunlight

Mara huddles on her side in the middle of the bed, her knees curled to her chest

She looks up when I enter but does not move "You’re alive," she says, and it’s al I rush over to her "What is it, Mara? Are you hurt?" I brush the hair away from her face "We hit a tornado, and--"

"Belén? Is he all right?"