An Airship Named Desire (Take to the Skies Book 1) by Katherine McIntyre Page A

when the sodden curls molded together into one cohesive mass. Attractive.
    “Of course not. I’m leveling an aether bomb’s worth of fun. How do you feel about enemy pursuit? The captain mentioned the words port and fast, so he sent me down to help. You point, I grunt, go push button.”
    He lifted an eyebrow, and a laugh slipped from his throat.  “All right, we’re going to chart this course as fast as possible. Grab the Western Coast map for me. You can work through the preliminaries, and I’ll finish mapping our current trajectory.” As he spoke, the ship trembled.
    “Right, West Coast.” I stepped past his mess of compasses, chronometers, and rulers towards the hand-painted cabinet of our maps. Of course, the cabinet was covered in more roses, thank you, Isabella. Since our ship traveled all over the globe, we owned a definitive collection. Voluminous, yes. Well organized, no.
    I rifled through the folders, but most of the maps blended into the same scribbles on parchment. Pinpricks of nervous sweat tickled my neck and commingled with residual raindrops. At least in here I’d get some solace from the storm, even though my heart raced with the excitement from the torrents on deck. Obviously I had some mental issues if I got off on that sort of mind-numbing danger. My slick fingers printed wetness onto the maps, and I cursed my lack of foresight because I’d ruin our papers within seconds if I wasn’t careful. Further in, I rifled past a United States map, so I stopped and lifted it. Bingo, West Coast. Pulling the paper out, I slapped it onto Geoff’s desk.
    “Here it is.”
    He placed down his marker and glanced over. “I’m almost done with the first half of our coordinates, so can you start calculating the direction of our entry? We’re going to ride an Eastern current there and should be able to use the drift to accelerate our engines.”
    I blinked several times and pointed to myself. “Push button?” 
    Geoff let out a sigh and passed me a lopsided grin. “Look Bea, get this to Spade, he’ll know what to do. That way we can at least start moving rather than drifting like an open target. I should be able to take care of the second part while we start sailing in the proper direction.”
    Sometimes I loved that man. He handed me his scribbled over maps, and I folded up the paper, tucking it away into my side bag. Before I left, I bent down and gave Geoff a light peck on the cheek.
    “Thanks, chief!” I waved goodbye and ducked out the door before I noticed his blush too much.
    I started missing the shelter of the cabin the second the rain spat at my face with ill-tempered slaps. That leviathan of a merchant ship loomed closer, cutting through the space between us, but their cannons glinting in the distance proved more menacing than their proximity. A couple more meters and we’d be within their heavy artillery’s range.
    “Captain,” I called out, scrabbling over the slick deck, “Firing ahead!” My voice scraped against my throat, and my leather bag slapped my hip. I had to get Spade our coordinates. If we didn’t move, they’d start using those cannons. But they wouldn’t blow us from the sky, would they? If they did, their precious cargo sunk with us.
    Along the sides, their crew fired away, and the bullets peaked like fireflies before dropping down towards land. The tiny lights created a spectacular but deadly sight. A couple bullets pinged onto our deck, but most of their men fired for the sake of feeling accomplished. I snorted. Only fools wasted their ammunition. The ship veered closer, coming in parallel to line up their cannon sights for a clear shot. If they took aim, I wanted to be as far away from the side of the ship as possible.
    I raced faster under the canopy of our overhead balloon. An aluminum frame and plasma shielding reinforced our balloon, but enough shots would knock us straight out of the sky. And no one survived those crashes.
    A crack boomed in the distance.
    I