The *Storm Kraken* bucked like a living thing.
Kael clung to a rope thicker than his waist. Legs dangled over a drop that swallowed clouds. Two weeks aboard. Two weeks of curse-sped growth. He stood four feet tall. All elbows and hunger. The crew called him "Runt." He let them. Names were weapons. Better they underestimated the blade.
Ravenna strode the quarterdeck. Coat snapped. "Reef the mainsail, ye bilge rats! Tempest's teeth incoming!"
Lightning forked. The air tasted of copper and wet iron. Kael's skin prickled. Lustforge stirred. Semen pooled as raw mana in his veins. He was nine in body. Ninety in soul. Puberty hit like a cannonball.
A deckhand shoved a bucket at him. "Swab, Runt. Earn yer grog."
Kael took it. Inside not water. Viscous blue fluid. Kraken ichor. Fuel for the ship's engines. One drop on the skin could flay a man. He dipped the mop. Muscles already corded from nights hauling rigging.
The storm hit.
Rain lashed sideways. The deck tilted forty degrees. Kael slid. Boots skidded on slick brass. A wave of cloud-water crashed over the rail. Thick as milk. It soaked him to the bone.
Ravenna's laugh cut through the howl. "Hold fast!"
She leapt the gap between masts. Boots sparked on metal. Her eyepatch gleamed. The kraken tattoo on her wrist. His first Stigma. It glowed faint violet. She didn't know what it meant yet. Soon.
Kael's bucket overturned. Ichor spilled. It hissed where it touched wood. Pain lanced his palms. Burns that healed in seconds. Curse knitted flesh. Power trickled in. A thimble of mana. Tied to the ache in his groin.
He needed release. Needed *her*.
Night fell hard. The storm passed. It left the ship glazed in frost. The crew collapsed in hammocks. Kael slipped belowdecks. Bare feet are silent on ladders.
The captain's cabin glowed under the stern. Door ajar.
Inside. Charts pinned with daggers. A hammock swayed. Ravenna stripped off her coat. Scars crisscrossed her back like lightning frozen mid-strike. She poured rum into a tin cup. She muttered at a map.
Kael watched from the shadows. His cock strained against roughspun trousers. Child's body. Man's curse. The sight of her. Sweat-slick skin. The curve where the spine meets the ass. It drove needles of want through his gut.
She sensed him. "Runt. Can't sleep?"
He stepped in. Voice cracked. Half boy. Half growl. "The storm woke something."
Ravenna turned. Her good eye narrowed. "You're growing too fast. Unnatural."
Kael closed the door. Click. "So are you."
She laughed. Short. Sharp. "Cheeky." She ruffled his hair. Fingers lingered. Static jumped between them. The tattoo flared.
Memory hit her like a harpoon.
Her knees buckled. "No. Not again."
Kael caught her. Small hands on her waist. Steady. Strong. "You feel it. The pull."
Ravenna's breath hitched. "I dreamed of a man. Confessed under aurora. Died in my arms." Her voice cracked. "You're him. Reborn."
He nodded. The cabin shrank around them. Walls pressed close.
She kissed him first. Hard. Desperate. Tasting of rum and salt. Kael's world exploded. Her tongue invaded. Claiming. He grew another inch in the crush of it. Bones creaked.
Clothes tore. Hers. Buttons popped like gunfire. His. Ripped away by her frantic hands. She lifted him. Easy. He weighed nothing against her strength. She pinned him to the chart table. Ink smeared under his back.
"Show me," she growled. "Show me the curse."
Kael's cock. Now adult-sized. Veined with faint violet light. It throbbed against her thigh. He guided her hand. She stroked once. Twice. Mana surged.
The kraken tattoo burned.
Light poured from their joined skin. A new sigil etched itself on his chest. Coiling tentacles. Ink-black and alive. Stigma One complete.
Ravenna's eyes rolled back. "Gods, it's—inside me."
He flipped her. Surprising strength. He spread her across the table. Charts crumpled. She was wet. Scalding. He entered in one thrust.
The ship groaned with them. Sails unfurled on their own. Lightning answered each slap of flesh.
She came first. Clamping. Screaming his true name though she shouldn't know it. Kael followed. Seed erupted like cannon fire. Mana fused. Sky and kraken. Storm and depth.
Hybrid spell born. *Tempest Grasp*.
He could summon clouds with a thought. Crush enemies in pressure that tasted of her.
They collapsed. Panting. Sweat cooled.
Ravenna traced the new tattoo. "Every life, you find me. Every life, I lose you."
Kael's heart. Stupid. Treacherous. It swelled. Love. The death flag.
24 hours started now.
Outside the aurora began to bleed across the sky. Green fire. Calling him to confession.
The air tasted of rust and ichor. Silence thick as wool muffled the thunder.