23. Chapter 23
My gut clenched at the sight of a cut across Kira’s cheek, which could have easily come from one of Eyepatch’s gaudy rings. Kira didn’t trip. She wasn’t clumsy. One of those assholes had hurt her, and I wanted to kick every one of their asses for it.
“You took your sweet time getting here,” Eyepatch said.
“Were you expecting us?” I asked.
“We needed you to come for your friend.” Eyepatch held up a hand to his crewmates as he stepped toward Ben and me. “Because I have a deal to strike with you.”
“So this is blackmail?” Ben snorted. “Don’t know what else I expected from pirates.”
“We won’t hurt your friend for as long as it takes for you to listen to me,” Eyepatch said. “Are we agreed?”
I met Kira’s gaze. She looked ready to lose her crap, her brow furrowed so hard that she may have added years to her face with that look alone. No skincare routine would stop wrinkles that intense. That would piss her off even more if she ever realised.
But it told me one important thing; she wasn’t about to back down without a fight, so neither should I.
“Sure. Let’s chat,” I said, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. “What do you want?”
“We aren’t going back to the ship,” Eyepatch said. “That is a given. What remains uncertain is whether you will live to go back to the ship. If you leave us alone here, we will let you all go. If not, we have no choice but to kill you. Starting with your friend here.”
“What about your precious captain?” I asked. Eyepatch had seemed eager to fulfil the Captain’s every wish when we were on the ship. Why didn’t he want to get back to his master and commander?
“Nothin’ and nobody could make me want to get back on that ship. Back into that endless limbo. Do you know how many times we’ve all killed each other on board that ship? How many throats I’ve slit and guts I’ve stabbed just to end our hell? Just for us all to return to health as if nothing ever happened? I won’t go back to it. Not for all the treasure in the world.”
That sounded like hell. But their confinement to the same place and time for eternity hadn’t meant to be a reward.
“You can’t stay here,” I said. “This time isn’t the same as the one you came from.”
“We will adjust,” Eyepatch said.
Kira snorted. “She wasn’t talking about you, dumbass. It’s the risk you pose to everyone else here that’s the problem! You didn’t even know civilised life before you got trapped on that ship. You all wanted to conquer Dusk for your own!”
“That was what the Captain wanted.” One of the other pirates spoke this time, and he trembled so hard that his sabre rattled in its sheathe. “Some of us only followed him because we had nowhere else to go.”
That didn’t reassure me in the slightest. Even if these people had once been good men, their most recent experiences may well have put them in violent habits. We couldn’t risk endangering our island or changing the past in this way. But ‘no’ wasn’t an answer these guys would hear. It was time to make them a little more compliant.
I opened my mouth to sing the same lullaby I had uttered to put an enemy to sleep. But the moment I uttered the first note, a strange sensation jolted up my throat. A ball of golden light shot through the air and disappeared into Eyepatch’s collar.
He teased a seashell on a chain around his neck out into the open, which glowed with the same golden light.
“Been around the cap’n enough to know that you should always have a siren song trap on hand,” Eyepatch said.
I tried to speak, but nothing came out. My hand shot to my throat. He had stolen my voice.
“Looks like they made their choice, boys.” Eyepatch tucked the seashell back into his shirt. “Deal with them.”
Two of the pirates drew their weapons while the third kept hold of Kira.
“Maeve?” Ben sounded uncertain as we backed away from the approaching men. “Did you have a backup plan?”
Panic engulfed me like plunging into icy waters. Even if I had a backup plan, I couldn’t exactly communicate it to him. The only sensible idea was to run, but I couldn’t leave Kira behind.
There was only one thing to do.
I grabbed the cutlass sticking out of the sand and pointed at the nearest pirate. He laughed and fell into a sturdy stance.
“You don’t stand a chance, little girl,” he said, grinning without the help of several teeth. With any luck, I would knock out a few more.
Luck. I rolled up my sleeve to press the good luck mark that Ben had gifted to me two portals ago. But to my dismay, my skin showed no trace of it. How had this happened? I hadn’t used even a smidgen of his luck so far.
I opened my mouth to shout over to Ben to get behind me, but not so much as a squeak came out. So I leaned over and grabbed him, yanking him behind me.
“Do you know how to use that?” Ben asked.
I waved a hand at him. It wasn’t important. Yet.
The pirate lunged, and I batted his cutlass away with mine, the grating of metal sending shivers throughout my body. With lightning speed, he stabbed the cutlass at me, and Ben yanked me back by my shoulders just in time to avoid the blade plunging into my gut. I stumbled, shoving the cutlass into the sand to steady myself.
“Not happening.” Ben grabbed the cutlass and slipped it from my grip, shielding me with his arm as he pushed me behind him.
I grabbed hold of his arm, ready to pull him out of harm’s way like he had for me. The waves lapped at my sandals and the urge to escape into the water surfaced.
No, you can’t. Kira needs you.
“You can’t run forever.” The pirate licked his lips before lunging once more, his foot slipping a little on the sand.
Ben’s blade met his, and before I could stop him, he swung himself around into the pirate’s space and grabbed his wrist. Bad luck inked itself down his forearm, and with a hiss, the pirate dropped his cutlass.
I dove for it, fumbling with the handle, before I found my footing and pointed it at him. The pirate held up his hands, staggering backward as Ben and I advanced on him.
“Stop right there!” Eyepatch bellowed from the rocks.
My heart thrummed too fast as I watched him press the blade of his own sword to Kira’s throat. His wrist twisted as if preparing himself to slice the sword into her skin. I opened my mouth to scream, but instead, a heavenly melody rang around the cliffs.