Thom’s arms tightened around her. She watched in horror as the monstrous armored shark sped straight toward the airship, the fin slicing through the path of moonlight.
And from the south, another fin. Oh, dear God.
Faint across the distance, shouts rose from the other boat. Water splashed as they began a desperate rowing. Two men jumped out, tried to swim back to the sinking airship, as if seeking safety.
There would be no safety there, either. A frenzy was starting. The giant sharks would batter the airship’s hull until they’d torn everything apart.
Nearing the mercenaries’ lifeboat, the fin disappeared beneath the surface.
“Don’t look, Georgie,” Thom breathed into her ear.
But she couldn’t look away. The other boat abruptly lifted up out of the water, as if on a huge wave.
And in one bite was gone. Soon the thrashing swimmers in the water were gone, too.
For a long moment, there were no more shouts, no sounds but Georgiana’s ragged breath. The bow of the airship suddenly tipped up, wood splintering. Another fin raced toward it. Georgiana clenched her teeth against a scream of warning. On the deck, a familiar silhouette—Mrs. Winch, standing with her feet apart. A gun barrel gleamed in her hand, pointed at the shark coming toward her.
A bullet wouldn’t do anything to a megalodon. Shooting a weapon beneath a leaking balloon would.
The fin went under. The airship tipped sharply to port—and Mrs. Winch fired her pistol.
The airship exploded in a bright ball of light. Muffling her cry, Georgiana turned her face against Thom’s throat. Heat rushed past her skin.
Then there was just cold again.
And despite Thom’s strength and how quickly he could row, with monsters swimming all around them, forty leagues seemed very, very far away.
* * *
The burning remains of the airship were nothing but smoking pieces of flotsam when Georgiana finally succumbed to sleep, held securely in Thom’s arms.
Only a few minutes seemed to pass before his low “Wake up, Georgie” pulled her back up, but when she blinked her eyes open, the eastern sky had paled, and pink traced the clouds.
The low thrum of an airship jolted her fully awake.
Still cradled in Thom’s lap, she sat up. Her gaze searched the air, her heart lifting when she saw the skyrunner coming from the southeast, her lines sleek and beautiful.
Thom pulled her back against his chest and pressed a kiss to her hair. “They must have seen the explosion,” he said softly.
And the remains of the airship burning like a beacon through the night. The etiquette of the seas demanded that any passing vessel offer help and rescue. Now the smoke led them here.
“Have the megalodons gone?” she whispered.
“I haven’t seen a fin in more than an hour. That doesn’t mean we’d be all right to start rowing.”
Georgiana didn’t want to risk it, either. She watched the airship’s approach, silently urging the engines faster. Slowly, Thom’s muscles tensed around her.
“Thom? Is it a shark?”
He made a slight choking sound that might have been a laugh. “In a manner of speaking. That skyrunner is Lady Corsair’s.”
The notorious mercenary. “I thought you were friendly with her?”
“I am. She’ll probably still charge us a ransom before she lets us go.”
Georgiana supposed it was the principle of the thing. She didn’t mind paying for a rescue, though. It seemed more practical than remaining here.
“All right,” she said, and felt Thom’s smile against her hair.