I could see the island nearing through the porthole. The anxiety of the whole ship was on edge, and I could only bear it for Kellen's sake. The night before we hit the ground, someone came over to our little corner, but I realized it was only to throw up out the porthole.

"Are you OK?" I crawled over to him and rubbed his back as he retched again. He sat up after that and collapsed against the wall near the porthole.

"I have been motion sick all trip," he laughed a bit. "I can't hold anything down."

"Well, we can't have you starting off with a disadvantage," I beckoned him over to our little area. We have some bread, but you can't overeat, or you will just be sick again."

"probably best not to. We are heading into the shallows. The boat gets bumped around a lot here." he hesitantly came closer to me and sat with us. Kellen had been calmer since she realized there was nothing to be done about leaving.

"you can stay with us, then trust me, we won't judge."

"Maverik," he said

"what"

"That is my name," he coughed a bit, probably covering up another heave. "I would ask your name to be polite, but who has time for niceties?"

"so you know my name."

"I know both of your names, the girls who surprised everyone by being here," he laughed, looking out at the sea. You weren't on anyone's list, but somehow, you were one of the shittiest prizes of them all."

"Yeah, that makes sense that people would talk about us and not to us." I nodded towards Kellen, still sleeping away. "Do people say anything else?"

"Not anything you want to hear," I stared down until he relented. "Fine, they say Kellen won't last a day and that they are going to use you to get to your sister."

"what a waste of time," I laughed

"Why"

"my sister suggested we not be anywhere near each other, so taking me is pointless."

"Push comes to shove, and I think she would protect you."

"We can leave that for now because we have bigger issues, " I told Kellen since she and I needed to start planning. Do you want to work with us? If you don't, then you won't hear the masterful plan I am about to devise to get us off the boat alive."

"Oh, so you weren't planning on walking out to your death."

"If I can help it, no," I glanced at him, "so it is time to decide. Are you with us"

"I might as well stick it out with you."

"perfect, tell me everything you know and heard." he glanced at the rest of the ship and smiled

"There are two major groups at play. They will team up to kill the other group before they turn on each other. Your sister is the ring leader of one of those groups. Tomorrow will be a blood bath to see who controls the ship."

"why"

"There is only one way off this ship, so it is a cattle run into a meat grinder. However, it is also easy to defend with only one access point, making this a place of strategic value. We must sneak through that blood bath to get off this ship alive."

"Water," Kellen cried, going over to the porthole.

"Yes, water," I told her, thinking over what Mavrik said, "and there are no other ways off the ship."

"There is one entrance and one exit if they let you leave, like I told you. That other team wants to use you as bait for your sister. She is the one to beat with four lines."

"I guess the other group is also led by someone with four lines."

"water" Kellen shouted again

"you would be correct; warriors respect power."

"how the hell are we going to get off this ship."

"Water." Kellen grabbed me, and I finally realized what she was saying

"Kellen, you are a genius." Maverik glanced at me like I lost my mind. "we are going to use the water route."