Rise Of A Shattered Luna (Natalie) by Kave Derry novel Chapter 360

Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

Natalie’s POV

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Every deck beneath my feet lurched as though the ocean–had wrapped invisible hands around the flagship and squeezed with merciless force.

Millions of gallons of Atlantic seawater, trapped beneath the engineering decks after Baron’s strike crippled the stern assembly, surged violently through the ruptured cargo shaft.

Every compartment beneath us was compressing beneath impossible pressure, forcing the ocean upward with nowhere left to

escape.

I tightened my hold around Beth before the current could rip her away.

She was trembling violently against my side.

The shattered remnants of her restraints lay somewhere beneath the dark water, but captivity lingered inside exhausted muscles long after iron disappeared.

Every movement cost her more strength than she had left.

Above us, the emergency speakers crackled.

“Warning. Emergency hydrostatic containment sequence activated.”

The mechanical voice sputtered between bursts of static.

“Level B5… lockdown… commencing…”

A deafening metallic scream echoed through the corridor.

Six tons of reinforced emergency steel disengaged somewhere ahead.

I lifted my head.

The containment gates.

Designed to isolate catastrophic flooding.

They were descending.

Slowly.

Their immense frames slid from hidden recesses inside the ceiling, throwing showers of rust and seawater as they descended toward the flooded deck.

Once those gates reached the floor…

Nothing on this level would leave alive.

“Natalie…”

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

Beth struggled to steady herself as another violent surge struck us.

“The gates…”

“They’re sealing the deck.”

Her breathing fractured.

“We’ll never outrun them…”

I looked straight ahead.

“They don’t decide where our story ends,” I said quietly.

My voice carried no panic.

“Stay with me.”

“My frequency.”

2

“My pace.”

“We leave together.”

The current shoved against us again.

My senses ignored the chaos.

Forty–six seconds.

Possible clearance beneath final threshold.

Eighteen inches.

Enough.

If we reached it.

Another tremor exploded through the ship.

This one wasn’t internal.

It came from outside.

The impact traveled through the hull like thunder rolling beneath the sea itself.

Steel shrieked.

Deck plates twisted.

Somewhere beyond the flooded stern, an entire section of reinforced structure tore free from its housing.

I closed my eyes for half a heartbeat.

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

Baron.

The signal tore through every marrow line in my body.

He’d done it.

The rudder assembly was gone./

The flagship no longer belonged to its crew.

Beside me, Beth inhaled sharply.

“The engines…”

“They’ve changed…”

The steady rhythm that had driven the vessel since we boarded dissolved into a broken mechanical whine.

Forward momentum vanished.

The Leviathan was no longer sailing.

She was drifting.

“He trapped them,” I murmured.

A smile touched my lips despite everything around us.

“He closed the circle.”

Now…

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We only had to survive long enough for him to finish it.

The gate descended another foot.

Time was over.

I shifted Beth higher against me, ignoring the weight dragging through the water.

“Hold on.”

Without another word, I ran.

Every step fought the Atlantic itself.

Water surged against my thighs, trying to pull us backward as loose steel panels and shattered piping rushed past in the current.

Ahead…

The gap beneath the gate narrowed.

Three feet.

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

Two.

Beth stumbled.

Her boot caught beneath twisted metal hidden beneath the water.

She lurched sideways.

I caught her before she fell completely.

“I’m sorry-”

“No.”

I tightened my grip.

“We keep moving.”

The gate was almost down.

There would be no second chance.

The opening beneath the emergency gate shrank with terrifying speed.

One foot.

Eight inches.

Six.

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There was no time left to calculate another route.

I drove forward with everything my body possessed.

The current clawed at my legs, desperate to drag us back into the flooding engineering junction, but my footing never faltered.

Beth’s weight shifted against me as I lowered my shoulder, protecting her from the descending steel.

“Now!” I barked.

She reacted instinctively.

Throwing her body forward, Beth slid beneath the narrowing gap just as the iron edge skimmed across her soaked jacket.

I followed immediately behind.

The gate scraped across the back of my coat, sending a shower of bright sparks across the darkness.

Metal screamed against reinforced fabric before the six–ton barrier crashed into the floor with enough force to shake the entire deck.

BOOM!

The impact echoed through every corridor of Level B5.

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

A heartbeat later, the deadbolts drove themselves into place with a series of deafening metallic clanks.

The flooding engine rooms vanished.behind an impenetrable wall of steel.

We were through.

Barely.

Beth rolled onto her side, coughing hard as she struggled to pull air into exhausted lungs.

I offered her my hand.

She accepted it without hesitation.

When I pulled her upright, neither of us looked back.

The lower engineering section had become a grave.

Ahead stretched the receiving vestibule.

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Unlike the engine corridor, only a shallow sheet of water covered the floor here, rippling around our boots as cold wind seeped through the seams of the cargo hull.

Everything else was dark.

Every emergency light had failed.

Only the amber glow of my eyes illuminated the corridor.

Outside…

A distant mechanical roar rose above the Atlantic.

Twin turbines.

Closing.

Fast.

My mate bond pulsed warmly beneath my ribs.

Baron.

He was almost here.

Beside me, Beth suddenly stiffened.

“Natalie.”

Her whisper barely carried above the wind.

“We’re not alone.”

r

I followed her gaze toward the iron staircase leading back toward Level 84.

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

Someone stood there.

Half–hidden by darkness

The logistics officer.

Gone was the arrogant administrator who had catalogued lives like merchandise.

His soaked uniform clung to his body.

Blood streaked one side of his temple.

His respirator hung uselessly around his neck while shaking fingers fought to force another magazine into his rifle.

He looked less like a commander…

…and more like a man watching the world collapse around him.

When his eyes found mine, whatever remained of his composure disappeared.

“You…”

His voice cracked.

“You broke containment.”

“You brought them here.”

His breathing became uneven.

“The exchange…”

“The accounts…”

“They’re gone.”

“They’re all gone.”

For one long moment…

Neither of us moved.

Behind him, the ship groaned again.

Steel protested.

Somewhere far below, another compartment surrendered to the sea.

“You still don’t understand,” I said quietly.

The words carried effortlessly through the darkness.

“You lost this battle before you ever touched my family.”

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

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His face twisted.

“You think you’ve won?”

He laughed once.

It sounded broken.

“Do you even know what waits beyond this ship?”

“I do.”

My gaze never left his.

“And so do you.”

His fingers finally forced the magazine into place.

The sharp click echoed through the vestibule.

Instinct replaced reason.

With a desperate roar, he raised the rifle.

My body shifted before he pulled the trigger.

Not because I feared the bullets.

Because Beth stood beside me.

Gunfire erupted.

The confined corridor amplified every shot until the sound became almost unbearable.

Rounds tore through the darkness, ricocheting wildly from reinforced bulkheads.

Concrete burst apart.

Steel screamed.

One round grazed my sleeve.

Another shattered a valve somewhere overhead, releasing a spray of freezing water across the floor.

None of them found their mark.

His hands shook too violently.

His fear aimed the weapon long before his eyes did.

Then…

Everything changed.

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Chapter 360 The Breach threshold

A thunderous impact exploded through the outer hull.

CRUNCH!

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The world lurched.

The reinforced cargo doors folded inward like paper beneath overwhelming force as twisted steel, shattered rivets, and white Atlantic spray erupted into the vestibule.

The logistics officer never had time to react.

The shockwave hurled him backward.

His rifle spun from his grasp before his body slammed violently into the stairwell railing.

He collapsed into the shallow flood without another shot.

Smoke drifted through the torn opening.

Beyond it…

Twin turbines roared.

The black bow of an interceptor gunboat emerged through the wreckage, its engines still snarling despite the collision.

For one suspended heartbeat…

The world became perfectly still.

Then I saw him.

Baron stood at the prow like something carved from the storm itself.

Sea spray clung to his broad shoulders.

His clothes were soaked.

His hands bore the scars of battles that had never truly healed.

Yet none of those things held my attention.

His eyes did.

Amber met gold.

The mate bond surged with enough force to steal the breath from my lungs.

He didn’t advance immediately.

He stopped.

Only for the smallest fraction of a second.

Long enough for his gaze to travel over me.

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

My face.

My shoulders.

The soaked fabric of my coat.

The broken silver restraint lying near my feet.

Relief crashed through him so fiercely that I felt it as though it belonged to my own heart.

Then the hesitation vanished.

He crossed the distance between us in a blur.

One moment he stood on the interceptor.

The next…

He was in front of me.

His hands rose almost reverently.

One cupped my cheek.

The other settled against the back of my neck.

His touch was firm.

“Natalie.”

My name left his lips like a prayer he had been holding for far too long.

I leaned into his hand without thinking.

“The perimeter is clear,” I whispered.

“It is over.”

His thumb brushed lightly across my cheekbone.

A quiet rumble escaped his chest.

Nyx answered immediately, rising beneath my skin with calm, unquestioning certainty.

For the first time since this nightmare began…

Neither of us was hiding.

Neither of us was restrained.

Neither of us stood alone.

I turned slightly, guiding Beth forward.

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Chapter 360 The Breach Threshold

“We have one more promise to keep.”

Baron’s gaze shifted toward her.

Then back to me.

He nodded once.

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