Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
“I’m not teasing,” she protests, and I see the sincerity in her eyes. “Take me below and have your way with me.”
I can’t help but give her a crooked grin. “Are you threatening me with pleasure?”
She presses her hand against my chest and stares up at me. “I’m serious. Take my blood. You said it had already run through your system.”
I grab the hand that’s on my chest and squeeze it. “I also told you I made a vow not to take blood that I didn’t have to. I don’t need it to defeat Nerissa and Sterling. Let’s save it for Edonia, for the both of us.”
She doesn’t seem so sure, but I meant what I said. Yes, I want her blood. Yes I want that incredible feeling that I got from it, that I was limitless and all-powerful, that I was a damn god on earth. I want that connection I felt to her as her blood mingled with mine.
But I know that not only could I get carried away at an inopportune time, but that it would drain her as well. I see it in her eyes now and she might think it’s just from drinking all the rum, but I know the look of someone who has had too much blood taken from them. I can’t weaken her now.
The Nightwind is now just a few hundred yards away. The bosun brings the ship so it’s broadside against the Nightwind, a defensive position. Every time I’m able to view my ship from afar, either from a dock or the ship’s boat as we’re rowing away, it takes my breath away. She’s a mighty ship, some might say even too big for a pirate crew such as ours, but she’s ours all the same.
“She is stunning, isn’t she?” Maren says as she admires her.
But now I’m looking at her, the pink of her lips, the softly upturned sweep of her delicate nose, her full cheeks sprinkled with freckles that seem to multiply by the day, and her dramatic eyes. “Aye. Beautiful and deadly all at once. The only kind of lady I fall for.”
She gives me a quick, wry smile, not accepting the compliment. Then she frowns. “Where is everyone?”
I look back to the ship. I was so busy admiring her lines that I didn’t stop to think how odd it was that there’s not a soul on deck.
Dread forms in the pit of my stomach.
What has happened here?
“Ahoy there,” I yell, my hands cupped over my mouth. “This is your former captain speaking. Permission to come aboard and cease fire?!”
But there is only silence in response.
“Now what?” Maren says. “Is it a ruse? If we board, will they ambush us?”
“Aye, it seems like a trap,” the quartermaster says. “Proceed with caution.”
I nod. “We can’t just sit here and twiddle our cocks. If it isn’t a trap, then my crew may need me, and fast.”
“And if it is a trap?” Maren asks.
“Then we take it moment by moment.”
And hope the moments are kind.
CHAPTER 29
Maren
The sight of the Nightwind completely empty, her decks bare of crew, sends a chill down my spine. Where are they? What has Nerissa done with them? Or Sterling, for that matter? It doesn’t seem feasible that any of the Brethren would listen to a big oaf like him, but I could be wrong. Perhaps there have been decades of festering resentment among the members, maybe even amongst his own family.
“Steady!” the skeletal quartermaster yells. “Get the plank ready.”
Some of the crew bring out a long wooden plank and lower it over the rail until it slams against the rail of the Nightwind. Ramsay winces at the sound, not wanting any damage to his beloved ship.
Then he gives a silent command with his hand for the crew to board the ship, moving as quietly as possible. Not that anyone on board wouldn’t have heard us already, but even so.
Ramsay looks back at me. “Maren, stay on the ship and guard it with the bosun,” he says, dropping his voice.
I look over at the bosun and even though the crew’s skulls seem to be grinning at all times, this one looks especially leering.
“I think not,” I tell him and, before he can stop me, I’m pulling myself up on the plank and quickly running across it. Normally my balance is atrocious because of my legs but because it’s the sea beneath me, the sea that I don’t fear, I’m able to cross it with newfound grace.
I give Ramsay a defiant look as I join him and he just shakes his head in response.
“No point telling you to do anything, is there luv?” He reaches into his holster and pulls out a pistol, placing it in my hand. “Here. Just in case.”
I relish the weight of it in my hands, though if it comes to it I’m ready to claw Sterling’s face off, perhaps even the witch’s too.