Chapter 29
A sun-chapped hand shook my shoulder. “Rose. Time to get up.”
I wrinkled my nose and buried my face deeper into the pillow. “Just five more minutes.”
The whispered voice came closer, and warm breath wafted over my cheek. “I could do a lot in five minutes.”
My eyes flew open, and I rolled around so quickly that I crashed into my bedmate. Or rather, my former bedmate. Marc sat beside me, fully clothed and with a teasing smile on his lips. He grasped my arm to help me with my balance.
“Going somewhere in a hurry?” he teased.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Not if you keep holding me.”
He brushed his thumb over my arm. “I thought you might need the help, and it keeps me entertained.” His eyes dropped lower. “Though we could do more entertaining.”
I followed his gaze and saw that the sheets had pooled in my lap, revealing my bra and most everything else about me. A red-hot embarrassment climbed up my cheeks. I grabbed the covers and intended to yank them up, but he grabbed my hand.
“We don’t have time for that. It’s time to get up.”
I lifted an eyebrow and glanced at the window. No light came from the street besides lamplight. “What time is it?”
“Half past four,” he told me as he leaned back, releasing me. “The pirate hour.”
I sat up and furrowed my brow. “Really?”
“Any hour is a pirate’s hour if there’s treasure and adventure to be had,” he quipped as he stood. “We need to head out now so the night will cover our tracks.”
“It’ll be hard to cover shambling. . .” I murmured as I leaned over and grabbed some of my clothes.
A faint whistle floated from behind me. I twisted around and beheld Marc admiring my butt.
The covers had fallen further in my efforts to cover myself.
I yelped and dove under the sheets. “Turn around!”
A wicked smile slipped onto his lips as he tipped his head. “As you wish. I’ll meet you out in the hall.”
He gave me another appreciative look before he strolled out of the room. I hurried into my clothes and soon stepped out into the hall. The passage was cast in deep darkness. Everything was as silent as the grave. I only hoped it wouldn’t be mine.
A hand on my arm made me jump. I spun around to find myself staring into Marc’s smiling face. “You look much better without the clothes.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Do we really have time for that?”
“Not really,” he agreed as he took my hand and pulled me down the hall.
“How are we getting to the ship if Fidel hid it around the island?” I wondered as we slipped past the desk and out into the chilly early morning street. “We don’t even have the small boat.”
He guided me down the road toward the wharf. “There’s always a way for a pirate to escape land.”
My eyebrows crashed down. “Are we going to steal a boat?”
“That’s what pirates do,” he reminded me as we ducked around a flickering lamp outside a tavern.
“What if a fisherman needs it to make a living?” I countered.
“Do you want to stick around and wait for our friends to find us?” he asked me.
My frazzled brain couldn’t think of a good comeback to his question, so I remained silent. We hurried down the street and reached the docks without seeing another soul. Still, I felt as though someone was watching us. I searched the area looking for the source of my discomfort.
“Don’t look around.” Marc’s cool voice snapped me to attention. “They’ll know that we know.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. We crept down the dock, the weakening starlight casting our shadows on the boards. Marc’s brilliant eye examined each ship until we came to a small dinghy. Patches covered much of the bottom.
My face fell as I turned to my companion. “Is this safe?”
“We’ll find out,” he mused as he climbed in.
He was helping me into the boat when a noise came from the end of the dock.
Three shadowy figures and a small, lithe one hurried down the wharf toward us.
Marc yanked me into the boat, and a faint glow came from beneath his eyepatch.
The waters beneath us bubbled up, and the boat was propelled away from the dock.
We were well away from the dock when the men and their cat reached the berth.
Their eyes glowed bright red against the weakening shadows.
I sank into the seat at the bow, and Marc took up the place in the center. The waves splashed against the sides, and a little bit of seaspray sprinkled me with cold bay water. My heart still pounded in my chest as the dock and the creepy figures sank into the distance.
I shifted in my seat. Marc’s voice interrupted the stillness. “What’s wrong?”
I frowned at my companion. “I still don’t feel right about taking this boat.”
He grinned. “It’s no problem. I’m just borrowing it from an old friend.”
“An old friend? Who? Marty?”
Marc chuckled. “Barreto.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “How can you be so sure it belongs to him?”
He nodded at the bow. “The name on the front. Barreto was crazy about a girl named Iris when we were kids. He always named his boat after her.”
I leaned over and squinted at the bow. The name ‘Iris’ was emblazoned on the side. “What happened to her?”
“She left even before I did to make a name for herself as a singer in the capital,” he told me as he examined the horizon. We had crossed the gap between the two arms of the bay and were now out to sea.
“Did she?”
“One of the most famous.” He leaned forward and squinted his eye.
His stiff manner made me twist around. I noticed a strange whirlpool about fifty yards ahead of us. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know.”
That scared me almost as much as his sharp tone. He steered the boat to the left away from the whirlpool. It followed us.
My heart pounded in my chest. “Are whirlpools supposed to do that in this world?”
“Not natural ones. Get down and hold on.”
I dropped into the bottom and gripped the sides of the boat.
Marc turned the boat sharply and quickened our speed.
The ship’s worn bow couldn’t cut through the water, and it ended up flying into the air and slapping hard against the surface.
The skeleton rattled, and one of the patches popped.
Water poured into the boat, soaking me in a matter of seconds.
“Marc!” I shouted as I clambered back onto my seat.
“Just hold on!” he yelled back as the waters shoved the disintegrating boat along its surface.
The boards rattled and more patches popped off. Marc shot up and stared at something. I glanced over my shoulder and beheld the shadow of a ship around the bend of the island.
“We’re almost there!”
The excitement in his voice was dampened by the speed of our pursuer. The whirlpool closed the distance, and its wake rocked our boat. My breath caught in my throat when a huge shape broke through the surface in the middle and rose into the sky, towering over us like a three-mast ship.
It was an octopus, but this one had dozens of arms, and they were all reaching out for us. Its black, lifeless eyes stare hard at our boat. My blood ran cold when I saw myself reflected in those glassy surfaces.
One of its tendrils latched onto the stern, and its suckers stopped us dead in our tracks.
Marc shot up and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me overboard with him.
I instinctively let out a scream as we crashed into the ocean, and water raced into my open mouth.
Marc’s magic abandoned the boat as we had and wrapped around us, drawing us to the surface and away from the dinghy.
The boat was crushed by the thrashing creature, who then tossed aside its remains and made for us.
Marc swept us through the waters and lifted us high enough to deposit us on the deck. I hunched over and lost an ocean’s worth of water out of my mouth. Ramaro scurried up to me. “Are you alright?”
Marc clambered to his feet and hurried to the wheel deck as the ship sharply turned thanks to his magic. “Fidel! The sails!”
“Aye aye!” his first mate shouted before turning his attention to the crew who were holding on against the sharp turn. “Hoist the sails! All of them!”
The sailors scrambled to obey as the creature burst out of the water on the starboard side.
Water poured onto the deck and crashed into many of the men.
They were thrown across the boards and into the railing.
Some of them disappeared over the side, their limbs flailing for something to grab.
Only Marc’s magic saved them from a terrible end as they were drawn back onto the deck.
I lifted my head and gawked at the impressive creature. It towered a hundred feet above the deck, and twice that stretched below and into the depths. Dozens of limbs of various thickness and length latched onto the ship and slithered across the deck.
Marc turned the ship away, but the monster held tight. Its hideous, lifeless eyes scanned the deck as though searching. That search ended when it fell on me. I gave a startled cry and scurried back. Its eyes lit up, and its tendrils slithered across the deck toward me.
Ramaro leaped to my defense, landing atop the first limb and biting down hard.
His sharp teeth cut clean through the tip, which flopped onto the deck.
Black blood poured out of the wound and filled the air with a putrid odor.
Another tendril lashed out and slapped him aside.
He was thrown into the cabin wall, where he slumped to the deck.
Fury filled my whole being. I whipped my head around to face the monster and its horrible black eyes. My reflection stared back at me as I climbed to my feet and allowed my instincts to take hold.
And they were telling me to scream like a banshee.