Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Fifty

Aiden really liked to give people the benefit of the doubt. He liked to suppose that every once in a while, someone might have had a bad day. Now, hanging onto the window ledge of the lighthouse, Aiden wasn't so sure that anyone who had a hand in building this tower ever gave a shit. He wanted to believe differently, but this tower seemed to be made from nothing more than papier-mâché and guano.

Bricks from the catwalk kept crumbling off around him and it was getting harder and harder to hold onto the ledge. Not to mention the jolly pirates from the Alphard would be looking for an opportunity to knock him off the tower like some kind of festival game. The next window ledge was about ten feet underneath him, which was a decent free-fall away. Of course, there were some loose bricks along the way. All he knew was that staying up here at cannonball height wasn't the smartest move.

He set his sights on loose bricks and jammed it with his heel. It felt loose, but unless he pulled it out of the wall, it wasn't going to slip. He hoped. He lunged to the side, his hands breaking away from the wall for a moment as he reached for the brick. It wobbled in place. His chest fluttered, but the brick steadied and he hung, his feet suspended over forty-five feet off the ground. He'd lose feeling in his fingers before he even made it halfway down.

There was nothing else he could do now though. He'd have to keep going. There was a small hole in the tower. He jumped down and used it as a handhold, cringing when he realized he had found a nest of some sort. The tower rumbled again. He held tight, his feet desperately searching for something to rest on.

The wall caved in, a landslide of bricks and mortar. He pedaled his feet and arms through the air as he fell, catching onto the barred window. The metal was hot and rusted. It burned his hands and the rough surface scratched his palms. He held on tight, wincing as the tower fell in, the walls finally settling a few feet above his head. He was about thirty-five feet now from the ground now. If he let go, he'd hit the rocky bluffs on the coast.

So, he held on, his palms burning on the metal bars. He winced from the heat and the soreness in his arms. He tugged himself up, squatting with his feet on the window ledge. His eyes widened at an explosion. The Alphard fired off another cannonball. Before Aiden could think to move, the ball smashed through the tower only fifteen feet beside his perch.

The noise of stone crumbling and metal shattering left his ears ringing and his head pounding. When the tower came caving in at the side, all he could do was hold on tight to the barred window and hope it didn't break.

He examined the coastline when he saw a figure jogging toward the bluffs. Harris was looking at the Alphard. If she thought she could do something about it from all the way out here, then she was more than a little disillusioned. "Harris!"

"Payne!" She called back and went digging around in her bag for something. She pulled out a grappling hook. That would do. "Catch!" She swung it up in a circle before tossing it through the air. Aiden reached out for it, but his fingers only grazed the rope. It slipped from his grip and fell back onto the ground. Jade gave him a disapproving look and wound up the hook again.

The window ledge began to shift under Aiden's feet. He yelled, slipping with the stone, dangling from the barred window by one arm. The metal bars felt like they were loosening. "Hurry up!" She threw the grappling hook back up. He reached out for it, barely catching on. With tired fingers, he secured the hook around the metal bars. They had been holding his weight for this long. Jade held the end of the rope, which was best because he didn't trust the tower enough to scale down the side.

He let go of the window and put all his weight on the rope. His body tensed at a loosening. The metal barring wasn't happy about the arrangement. Amelia Rose was indeed much better at climbing than he was, but even with tired arms, shimmying down the rope was preferable than holding onto the side of the tower indefinitely. The metal bar lurched again. He climbed down faster, now only an easy ten feet away from the ground.

The rope gave away, pulling the window and part of the wall off the tower. Aiden fell to the ground, hitting the sand in a puff of dust, his fingers still laced around the rope. He looked up, only to see the window falling towards him in a puff of grey dust.

The rope yanked and he rolled across the lawn into safety, while the window smashed into the dirt beside him. He looked up, but Jade didn't look very impressed.

"Get up," she said. "We're leaving."

Aiden pushed himself off the ground and sat back on his ass. He wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his arm. It stung, which meant that he'd have a sunburn to enjoy later. "I almost died. Bother giving me a breath?"

"But you didn't, so get up." Jade tugged on the rope. He stumbled onto his feet. It was a good time to let go of the rope. He didn't want her leading him about like a dog. "I tied your horse up over there." She pointed at some trees farther away from the lighthouse.

He let go of some tension in his body. "Thanks."

"Go get it. We've got a second ship to sink," she said.

"But." Aiden shook his head. "Amelia Rose and Holden. They're still in the lighthouse."

Jade looked at the bay. "The Alphard will continue shooting until the lighthouse goes down. Our best bet at saving them is to cause a distraction."