“We’re hoping for a closer look at the Kreak. Once we find its lair, we mean to arm our planes with rope and use that to capture the monster.”
Dahlia swallowed and lifted her chin in defiance of some unspoken truth.
“I’m in.”
“I knew you would be,” Victoria told her. “If we get a confirmation of its location tonight, we’ll tell the other girls. Dauntless squad can fly out and trap the thing. Once we’ve caught it, Uncle Jarvis can do nothing but investigate.”
“Think of the damage you could do if it was stationary,” said Graham, joining them. “Right now it dodges your flames and goes back into the ocean to put them out. That thing isn’t going to know what hit it.”
Dahlia’s expression grew more fervent by the minute. “No one should get hurt anymore,” she said adamantly. “And obviously our current methods aren’t working.”
“Oscar and I’ll be in the Aviatory to assist you all tomorrow,” said Graham. “We can sneak away to each of your hangars and meet you there to install the rope; we just need to be discreet. That uncle of Tori’s will come down on us like a rat on a Cheeto if we’re not careful.”
Victoria exchanged a confused glance with Dahlia.
“Sorry,” Graham said. “Cheetos are these awesome chips and—”
“And what will we do when we’ve caught the monster?” Dahlia asked, talking over him. Her eyes were deep shadows in the moonlight.
“We figure out how to kill it. Take it out, then and there,” said Graham.
“And Oscar and I would like to study it, for the prevention of future problems,” Victoria added.
Dahlia’s eyes glistened with determination, and her lips turned up in an amused smirk. “Never thought you’d go against your uncle’s command like this.”
“It will be worth it. This will work,” Victoria assured. Voices stirred from beyond the trees, and the three of them froze.
Oscar crested the top of the hill, hand-in-hand with Rosalind Baxter, of all people. Her hair flurried in the wind, and she hugged an arm to her chest.
“Rosalind!” Victoria exclaimed too loudly.
“I invited her along. I hope you don’t mind,” Oscar said, wincing and rubbing his shoulder.
Victoria’s brow furrowed. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” he said quickly, dropping his hand and sucking a slow breath. “Just an old injury.”
Victoria bit her lip but decided not to press him. “Well, of course we don’t mind.” She smiled at Rosalind, fighting off the unease at her very timid friend being here. What could the girl be thinking to join them in something like this?
“Are we done then?” Oscar asked. “Ready to commence?”
“You are,” Dahlia said, her eyes twinkling. She glanced at the dim yellow light in the watcher’s shed.
Graham’s brows drew together. “What does that mean?”
“The three, or—” Victoria paused, receiving a nod from Rosalind, “four of us are going to see if we can spot the brute, to determine its exact location, while Dahlia . . .”
Dahlia rested a hand on her hip with a confident swagger and flared the note Victoria had sent her. “I’m distracting the watcher.”
Oscar and Graham both grinned at this.
“Time to work my magic,” said Dahlia, strutting to the back door of the watcher’s shed. “See you all later.”
Victoria snickered. Dahlia had been making eyes at Harry Fenstermaker for some time. She practically jumped at the opportunity to meet with him at Victoria’s request.
This kissing for the cause was getting to be a habit.
Victoria and the others ducked behind the trees’ cover while a very stunned Harry opened the door and smiled at Dahlia’s low, flirtatious request to come inside and “warm up.”
“Are we ready?” Victoria asked once Dahlia closed out the light from the shed door.
“The boat is this way,” said Oscar, gesturing to his father’s shop and the boathouse to its side, leading out to a dock in the ocean. The four of them continued on toward the dock, scaling carefully across the rocks in the sand.
“I’m surprised you guys have boats at all,” said Graham. “It seems really dumb to go out in the ocean with that thing in it.”
“I don’t think they’ve been used lately,” said Oscar. “We do get the occasional fisherman who will venture out, but I haven’t seen anything like that in some time. And my father hasn’t dared to take his boat out in light of recent events.”
“Did he suspect anything when you rigged it to the dock?” Rosalind asked.
Oscar shook his head. Then he patted the pack around his shoulder. “I have my telescope. I’m hoping it will penetrate through the water.”
“We know this is investigatory only, right?” Victoria felt the need to clarify as Graham lent her a hand. She took it and climbed onto the dock’s wooden planks.
“Pretty sure we got it, Tori,” Graham said, hopping up after her. He strutted forward and gave her a wink.
“Your father won’t mind us taking out his boat?” Rosalind asked, ever the skeptic. Victoria could understand her unease, with how controlling Lord Baxter was. The unease didn’t bode well for their objective, however. Again, Victoria questioned whether Rosalind should be joining them or not, but she brushed the thought aside. This was her friend. They would be safe in the boat. All would go well.
“He won’t know.” Oscar leapt into the bobbing, fifteen foot boat first, extending a hand to help Rosalind climb in awkwardly after him. Graham did the same, hurdling over the side and helping Victoria climb over the wide berth. The boat wobbled beneath her feet, and she whirled around to grip the sides. She’d never been in anything like it before. She wasn’t sure she much liked the effect it was having on her stomach.
“You all right?” Graham asked, one hand on her back. Victoria straightened, refusing to allow Graham to think her weak the way she had just done with Rosalind. She didn’t fail to notice the fact that Graham did not remove his hand from her back and was near to holding her around the waist.
Propriety demanded she push his arm away, but she did not. “Of course I am.”
A smirk played at Graham’s mouth. “Just checking.”
Oscar untied the tether and gave the boat a push from the dock. He and Graham worked together to wind the motor, and soon they sped off toward the coordinates of Oscar’s compass.
Wind and sea spray whipped Victoria’s face. The exposed speed brought its own sense of release. While flying, she was always enclosed in her plane, and she loved its motion. But plunging forward like this in the open air soon grew on her, and she found herself whooping at the exhilaration of it.
Her elation quickly faded the more the shed shrank behind them, however, and the four of them rode out in silence for several minutes. Once she and Graham had crossed over the farm lands, something had shifted in her beloved sky and had returned them to this very shore. Would it work the same from this end? If they went out too far across the ocean, would they end up in a boat, stranded by farmland?
The boat hit a wave, jostling her to where Graham sat. He braced himself with a steady hand on the boat’s side. Instead of moving to a gentlemanly distance, Graham remained fixed, allowing her to be cocooned next to him.
She should move, she knew. But he made no objection, so she nestled in beside him, feeling his warmth in the chilly air. Slowly, his arm moved, resting across her shoulders and holding her to his side. A belonging, a rightness burned in her chest, connecting her to him by more than touch alone. She couldn’t believe how strong the feeling was, how it popped in her chest and made her feel more alive than she ever had.
The lantern on the boat’s helm gave off a hazy glow, spearing yellow brightness to guide their way. Victoria stared at Graham’s other hand, resting on his leg. She fought the urge to touch it, to fe
el his fingers with hers.
Suddenly Rosalind stood, joining Oscar at the narrow helm of the small boat. “What is that?” she called.
Victoria snapped her attention away from Graham and stood as well, stumbling forward for a better look.
“Stop here,” Graham called from behind her. When Oscar gave him a questioning look, Graham added, “It’s as good a place as any.”
Oscar stopped the ignition and lowered a small anchor, letting the boat bob slightly on the water’s uneven surface. He removed the case from his pouch and assembled the telescope, piece by piece, until it became a long, golden tube. He directed it toward the murky water.
“Anything?” Rosalind asked.
“It’s so dark,” Oscar said. “I can’t see a thing. I should have known this wouldn’t work.”
Victoria chewed her lip. They should have thought this through more carefully. They should have planned some way to light the water. They couldn’t very well dip the lantern in—how would they get back to the shore if they couldn’t see?
Oscar inserted the scope over the boats’ side, lowering his face and attempting again to stare into the depths.
“See anything?” Graham asked, sounding doubtful.
“I think something moved,” Rosalind said, gripping Oscar’s shirt with one hand and pointing with her other. “There.”
Victoria glanced in the direction she indicated, but there was nothing aside from the teeming waves.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” said Graham, kicking off his shoes.
“What are you doing?” Victoria asked as he went on to unbutton his shirt and remove it, showcasing his bare chest. Victoria’s eyes widened.
Rosalind said, “Now really,” before turning her back to them.
“You’re not meaning to swim out there, are you?” Oscar asked, sounding aghast.
“Your scope thing isn’t working. It only shows a small section of water anyway, and in case you didn’t notice, the ocean’s pretty wide.”
“You can’t,” Victoria said, panic seizing her. “No one dares to swim in the ocean. It simply isn’t safe!”
Graham extended his arms, showcasing the tattoo on his left forearm. “Do you guys want to find out where it lives or not? You don’t have a submarine, and standing around like this is pretty pointless. I was on the swim team back home. I won’t be gone for long.”
“Here,” Rosalind said, apparently adjusted to seeing a man half-naked. “I was planning to give this to Oscar, but you may need it.” She handed him a compact the size of her palm. “It hangs from a chain around my neck for more lighting while playing in a darkened room. I do not know if it will work in the water, but it is worth a try.”
Graham took it and faced Victoria. His hair flew in the heavy breeze, reminding her again of a pirate from a story than a real person. The boat swayed, and her feet struggled to keep her upright. She was bursting to say something to him—anything.
“Be careful,” she finally said. Moonlight played on his features, and he gave her a reassuring smile before diving over the side of the boat.
“He doesn’t know what that creature is capable of,” Victoria said under the wind, her heart wrenching the longer she stood there. Rosalind nestled in beside Oscar at the helm, and the three of them sat in anxious silence. Oscar paced to the backside of the boat, then to the left, peering over, desperate for a glance.
“There!” Rosalind said. “Again! I knew I saw something.” She pointed out near where the beam of light spread before the boat. In a calm area of water, the surface bubbled as if a fire burned beneath it.
“Graham,” Victoria said, ripping the telescope from Oscar and dipping it into the water.
Twenty-seven
Graham swam through the warm water with ease, kicking deeper. Rosalind’s light dangled, looped around his throat. It gave off enough of a glow that he could see some fish straying here and there. He could also decipher rocks at the bottom of the ocean, which meant they weren’t in as deep as he’d thought.
The pressure of holding his breath didn’t burn his lungs like he knew it should. His mind kept telling him to pop up for air, but as the need for sleep had been evading him every night since he’d come to Chuzzlewit, the need for breath left him now. He kept going, swimming away from the boat’s lantern light at the surface. His eyes searching for a sign of the strange metal thing he’d seen the first day he met Victoria.
“He should be back by now,” Victoria said, tapping her feet. Rosalind continued watching the eddying water through the telescope, waiting for any sign of anything. Oscar hadn’t once peeled his attention from the bubbling surface ahead of them. It frothed and widened, and he took the telescope from Rosalind for a better view.
“That is no wave,” he said. “If only Graham would return. We really should relocate.”
Rosalind sounded frantic. “What if he’s drowned?”
An invisible fist clutched Victoria’s chest. “He hasn’t drowned,” she said, bending to remove her own shoes. She’d never swum in water this deep before, but it couldn’t be that difficult.
“What are you doing?” Oscar demanded, his eyes bulging wide as Victoria began unlacing her corset.
“That is certainly no wave,” Rosalind said, eyes boggling at the frothing water that had grown to the size of a small geyser.
The wind whipped the boat so hard Victoria stumbled to the boards, her hands scraping hard. Oscar darted toward her, and she looked up in time to hear Rosalind scream.
Graham pulled against the water to move forward. Pull, kick, pull. He still hadn’t surfaced for breath, though it had been at least ten minutes. Coach Kress would go nuts. Graham had always been good at sports, but here it seemed he could keep a pace he never had before. And on no sleep for days? It had to be the town, though he still didn’t know why. Another question for Jarvis Digby, whenever he managed to get him alone.
Something moved in the darkness beyond the reach of the light drifting from his neck. Graham paused, waving his hands to tread in place. He squinted at the dark mass’s uneven and jarring movements.
Water began to push against him in a way it hadn’t moments before. He fought to not drag away in the pull of it. A large, metal claw slogged upward as the creature came into view, and Graham would have gasped if he could.
He wheeled around, searching above for the boat’s lantern light—had he gone too far down? Long, clockwork arms reached. Graham searched around the thing for a sign of its home—a cave or something, maybe?—but the long, clockwork arms pushed the beast’s bulk with such force that Graham rocketed backward in the water.
He spun several times before getting a grip on himself. The light from the boat drifted above him, rocking from the increasing waves, and the creature the size of T-rexes riding piggyback was heading straight for it.
Frantically, Graham swum straight for it and grabbed a hold of one of the metal circles making up the Kreak’s massive leg. The minute he did, the Kreak let out a guttural roar, kicked off from the ocean floor and speared upward so fast Graham could barely hold on.
Victoria couldn’t believe how foolish they’d been. Why had they come all this way without any weapons? Why had she not alerted the other Nauts? They should have known coming out to it would upset the brute. Oscar struggled to ignite the boat’s engine. In fact, he struggled to stay upright amid the boat’s heavy rocking in this sudden current. Rosalind dove to help him, and together, they managed to pull the string.
The boat’s engine puttered to life. Victoria dashed forward, nearly knocking into the wheel as Oscar shifted into gear. She yanked his arm away from the wheel.
“No! We cannot leave Graham!”
“We cannot stay here either,” Oscar shouted over the sea spray. He wiped his brow and urged Rosalind into the seat behind him, the boat rumbling beneath their feet. The frothing geyser before them
suddenly doubled in size with a fantastic spray of white and sea water, knocking the boat back. Rosalind screamed.
Victoria clung to the sides for dear life and blinked through the water dripping from her nose and into her eye lashes to the stars above. “What have we done?” she asked them.
The stars didn’t answer.
Oscar barreled straight for the shore instead of back toward the dock. His father would be upset, but he didn’t have any other choice at this point. Wind whipped his hair back, and he forced his eyes to remain open through the spray. Though he’d tried to make her sit, Rosalind stood just behind him, hugging his waist and resting her cheek against his back. He couldn’t say her closeness didn’t provide a small amount of assurance. She needed him. And he needed her too.
A loud roar crackled across the sky, and the Kreak burst from the water’s surface. Oscar’s heart plummeted. Graham. What had they done? It was not possible for them to wait around any longer, though. He wasn’t sure what else he could have done.
The Kreak followed the motorboat at breakneck speed. Oscar propelled the boat to accelerate rather than slow, despite the nearness of the shore. Victoria clung to the boat’s side, her face glaring in determination toward the creature behind them. She shouted something, but Oscar couldn’t make it out amid the tumult. The shore was drawing nearer, much too quickly.
“Brace yourselves!” he yelled over his shoulder. Rosalind’s grip tightened around him. His hands jerked from the wheel as the boat wedged forward, cutting into the sand. The three of them lurched, miraculously remaining in the boat until friction slowed it to a stop.
Oscar panted in disbelief. His right shoulder ached clear to the bone, stronger than it had ever done since he’d first injured it in that fire so long ago. He stared back at the arrow they’d cut into the sand, and gasped in horror.
The Perilous In-Between Page 18