Miss. A jack’s flank slid off his mandible.
Kael stood on the floating carcass of a half-eaten mullet, panting. His chest heaved. His feathers were plastered to his bones with fish oil and spray. He had eaten four fish. Maybe five. His crop bulged.
The rapid rush was over.
Not a sound. A pressure. A displacement. The entire school of sardines—thousands of them—imploded into a single, dark sphere and shot straight down. The jacks followed, their silver bodies turning into vertical rain. The surface, for one heartbeat, went still.