Chapter 1
Chapter One
CYRUS
The bang rings through the air.
Silence falling over the deck.
Many muskets have been fired over this deck tonight, but none silenced the air like this one has.
Blinking the blood from my vision– not my blood fortunately– I swoop my gaze over the deck.
There stands Mabel– our captive– with a musket still smoking, held out in her grasp. The body of her Father lying still on the wood a few feet in front of her. My breath whooshes out of me in relief. The battle is over.
And our side won.
That victory is short lived.
Mabel starts talking but I’m not hearing it. No, my gaze is trapped on the crumbled form of my Captain, my best friend.
Blood rushes from my face, as a soft breeze blows and chills me to my core.
No.
No. She can not be dead. I’m meant to protect her, be the one by her side no matter the personal cost. Yet I was distracted and allowed her out of my sight, and now she has paid the price for my failure.
The person I love is dead mere feet from me, and I did nothing to stop it.
I watch the scene unfold, like a spectre outside of my own body.
How Mabel runs over and drops to her knees, cradling her body around Amara’s broken and battered one.
As she moves Amara, I can see her face, and I can see she’s still alive.
Barely.
She’s clinging onto life and every word she speaks to Mabel chips away another little piece of her.
I can’t move.
Frozen solid, ice dousing my veins. Sound is muffled, nothing making it through the harsh buzzing sound.
I want to pay attention to what's likely to be Amara’s last words, but from the way she’s looking at Mabel, they aren't for me to hear anyway. That thought stabs me through the chest. Gliding between my ribs and getting a direct hit to my heart.
I’ve been there for her since the beginning, I’ve watched her fall in love with the enemy's daughter. Whilst I sat silent, never making my own feelings known.
Now it’s too late.
When Mabel looks up, tears streaming down her cheeks, it’s like the sound is turned back up. The sound of her voice screaming for me enough to break the buzz. “Cyrus! Find the keys and get these fucking chains off her.”
Snapping into action, I find those fucking keys.
Shutting out everything– every thought– that isn’t about those fucking keys. Dwelling can wait until later. It has to wait until later.
The rest of the crew moves into action, moving like blurs in my periphery doing fuck knows what, as I run up to the two moronic guards standing near them.
I don’t even have to give a threat or break a bone, the guard just hands the keys over to me with his head low before stepping back.
Fucking asshole.
My breath comes out in short stutters as I fall to my knees. The chains rattles ricocheting inside my skull as I work to get Amara free.
My heart hurts as she doesn’t even acknowledge my presence, continuing to talk to Mabel.
Mabel barks orders, while tears continue to fall down her cheeks. The words fall short to the sound of my heartbeat in my ears.
Amara’s breaths get shorter, her lips moving slower and slower.
She’s about to die.
She’s more than my Captain, more than my best friend. She’s the first and only person I’ve ever loved.
She’s about to die and I didn’t get the chance to tell her how I truly feel about her.