Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
But it wasn’t. I’d lost Ashley and Priest.
All had been taken from me, and soon my last breath would be taken, too.
My lungs began to give out. Something crashed into my head from behind. Pain shattered. My heartbeats slowed, and the inevitability of the end fell upon me.
I wasn’t ready.
I wasn’t ready.
I wasn’t ready.
I was floating.
Not in water.
Not on a ship or a piece of flotsam.
I floated in the air, held up by an unseen heavenly force.
It must have been a dream. Certainly not death, for when I departed, my destination would be far below the seabed, down in the infernal regions of torment for the bad and the worse.
A breeze kissed my face, warm and briny. It felt so unreal I didn’t want to open my eyes to reality. But my lashes lifted on their own, pulling against the weight of a strange drowsiness. My head felt achingly heavy, my lungs bruised and eyes bleary.
Sprinkles of light filtered in, dominated by one brilliant color.
Blue sky.
Blue water.
Blue eyes.
My heart missed a beat.
I struggled to sit up, but there was nothing beneath me.
Except arms. Strong, masculine arms.
Salt stung my skin and burned my nose. I gulped in air, coughed, and blinked rapidly, trying to focus past the daze. Then I saw him.
“Welcome back, Goldilocks.” Ashley smiled down at me, his full lips tipping wearily amid a glow of blinding light.
“What?” I wiggled and twisted, unable to find purchase, swimming in confusion. “You died.”
“Did I?” He was standing, cradling me against his bare chest and controlling my movements with his hands. “Calm down. You hit your head rather spectacularly.”
“We’re alive?” I squinted against the brightness of the sun, trying to see where we were and who was with us. The light tortured my eyes, igniting agony in my skull. “Are we safe?”
“For now.” He glanced around, his expression tired and perplexed. “I believe we washed ashore on the southern coast of Eleuthera.”
We escaped the battle? And Madwulf? And the murder of the admiral? How did we not drown or get blown apart by gunfire?
My vision blurred with tears. Through the wet sheen, a pink sandy coastline took shape, stretching left and right.
This was real. He was alive. We were on land.
My heart took flight, bursting from my chest and soaring over the sea. I threw my arms about his neck, inhaling his clean scent. He was breathing, standing, sweating, alive!
“I thought I lost you.” I kissed his throat, his hard jaw, his beautiful mouth. “I watched you get ripped away from me. I couldn’t find you. I looked everywhere. The ship, the bodies, so much blood and—”
“Shh.” He kissed me back, his lips soft and chaste. “You’ve been in and out of consciousness all morning. I’m concerned about your head.”
I touched the back of my skull where it throbbed and found a swollen bump amid the salt-encrusted tangles. “No broken skin? Are you hurt?”
“Not one open wound between us. Do you have any pain?”
“Just a megrim. I’ll be fine.” I hugged him tighter, afraid to let go, terrified this wasn’t real.
He seemed reluctant to release me, too. How long had he been standing here on this beach, cradling me in his arms?
Behind him, nothing but dense wilderness was exposed to my view. I didn’t know what inhabited this island other than a few farmers. Were there wild beasts within those woods? Other extremities likewise? If there were a weapon left between us, I would be shocked.
I shifted in his tight embrace, following his gaze to the sea. Floating wreckage and cargo scattered the rolling waves. A great many bodies and busted barrels bobbed amongst the flotsam.
I looked up and down the shoreline, scanning for signs of life. “Are there survivors?”
“Just us.”
The admiral’s flagship was gone. I’d watched it burn and sink and take hundreds of men with it. But what about HMS Blitz?
“Where’s your ship, Ashley?”
“Besieged.” His jaw clenched. “She’s an unthinkable prize for a pirate like Madwulf. I imagine he’s on his way this very second to plunder every treasure ship on the high seas. With one-hundred guns at his disposal, it’ll take an entire fleet to stop him.”
Madwulf would offer Ashley’s crew democratic freedom and a share of the spoils in exchange for their loyalty. No one in their right mind would turn down an opportunity to be rich and free. Most pirates were, after all, deserters from one navy or another. Those who refused to convert to piracy with Madwulf would be put in the hold or killed.
While Madwulf turned Ashley’s soldiers into outlaws, Priest would still be pursuing that ship. Only death or capture would prevent my husband from hunting me.
“I’m sorry.” My heart constricted in terror for Priest and sadness for Ashley.
“Yes, well, I’ve proved to be a rather incompetent commodore. I allowed the heaviest ship in the Royal Navy to fall into the hands of a pirate. For that, I shall be the target of mockery and ridicule for an entire nation and will never again be able to show my face in society.” He paced along the shore and set me down. “But I’m not sorry.”