The Abyss Surrounds Us Read Online Free

deck and snap on the LED beacon. It flashes her homing signal into the dark, and immediately she surfaces, her shadow looming against the glow on the horizon. I grab a spotlight and shine it on her as she approaches.
    A wave of nausea threatens to overtake me, and I have to fight to keep the spotlight pointed at her as she draws near.
    Durga is bleeding all over. The sickening stench of her blood washes over me as if it clots the air. Sores dot her back, some of them burst and ragged-looking, and I realize with a jolt that several of her keratin plates have fallen off. She groans again, the noise causing the deck underneath me to shudder, and I watch, horrified, as the plate protecting the top of her head slides forward, pulling free with a meaty snap . It plunges into the NeoPacific, sending up a spray of salty, gory water in its wake.
    I know I should call Mom and Dad immediately, but I can’t leave her side when she’s like this. “It’s gonna be okay, girl,” I call out to her. It’s a lie.
    â€œMiss Leung!” A deckhand stumbles out onto the trainer deck, his uniform askew. “Carriel wants to know what’s going on.”
    My lips struggle to find words that aren’t there. Nothing in my training has prepared me for this. This voyage was supposed to be effortless. Easy. And now Durga is dying, and I can’t do anything to stop it. “I … ” I start, but can’t finish. She’s hurting so much. The water that surrounds her is clouded with blood, and I don’t have the tools to put her out of her misery.
    The ship’s all-call crackles on. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Captain Carriel says, a slight tremor in his gravely voice.
    No.
    â€œOur radar has picked up a pirate vessel heading our way.”
    Not now.
    â€œWe ask that you please stay calm and remain inside your cabins until an all-clear is given. Locks will be engaging on the doors in five minutes.”
    Any time but now.
    â€œIn the meantime, the ship’s companion will see to the threat.”
    A chill starts at the base of my spine and works its way up until I feel like my brain’s been plunged into ice water. Durga can’t fight. Not like this. I spin, running my hands through my hair as I scan the trainer deck for something, anything to end her suffering. But Reckoners were made to be nigh impossible to kill, and there’s no humane way of ending the life of a beast this size.
    I’m suddenly acutely aware of the pill in the collar of my wetsuit.
    When I turn back to Durga, they’re on the horizon.
    The boat comes screaming in from the East, the rising sun at its back as it swings wide around the Nereid . It carves the water like a butcher’s knife and looks like it’s been cobbled together from bits of yachts and warships, the unholy bastard of some pirate colony junkyard. Its upper decks bristle with weaponry.
    I’ve let everyone on this boat down. Without Durga, we’re dead in the water against this sort of artillery. We’ll be boarded, looted, and killed, and it’s all my fault.
    Which is what I’m still stuck on when Durga wheels, swinging her snout toward the pirate ship. Her blowholes flare, her tail thrashes, and she launches herself toward the boat, the sea churning around her.
    Shit.
    She’s not strong enough to do this, but she also can’t suppress the instinct ingrained in her. Durga is bonded to the Nereid . Reckoner imprinting behavior ties them to their companion ships, and she’ll fight to the death to protect hers. But in her condition, there’s no way she’ll succeed. She’s already dying. It’ll only be more painful if the pirates have a say in it.
    And she’s only going to piss them off more. She’s going to give them a reason to kill every soul aboard this ship if she goes after them.
    I’ve got to stop her. I’ve got to do something.
    I hoist the homing beacon onto my back