Prologue
The night was consumed by an implacable fury. A tumultuous deluge of rain hammered down upon the deck, while deafening thunderclaps completely drowned out a desperate, cracking voice that was screaming from the dark, begging for a salvation that was nowhere to be found.
Harrison Blackwood stood at the edge of the collapsing vessel, his knuckles turning bone-white as his bloodied hands gripped the fraying ropes of the sails. He exhaled a heavy, ragged breath, staring in utter horror at the pure chaos unfolding around him; his entire crew was broken, bleeding, and gasping for their final breaths under the crushing weight of the sea.
For the first time in his life, the tactical mastermind was completely lost—defeated, and paralyzed by the sheer terror of the horizon.
He collapsed backward against the splintering wooden wall of the ship, his eyes welling with silent, bitter tears as an enormous, towering wave crashed directly over the deck, swallowing the entire vessel and dragging them all down into the pitch-black abyss of the ocean floor.
BAM!
Harrison’s eyes snapped wide open.
He threw his upper body forward, sitting bolt upright in his bed as he gasped frantically for air, his chest heaving as if he had just crawled out from the depths of the sea itself.
The suffocating weight of the salt water vanished, replaced only by the frantic, loud thumping of his own heart against his ribs.
He gripped the edge of his bedsheet tightly, sweat dripping cold down his temples, his mind racing to separate the lingering phantom chill of the deep ocean from the absolute stillness of his bedroom.
