Chapter Fifteen #2
Desre and Captain Hin sat at a table set up in the middle of the deck, and of the two remaining chairs, one had chains.
Nick was sorely tempted to walk right by it and plonk down in the other chair, but Kit was so tense and quiet next to him that he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He sat. He let Kit secure the chains to his wrists.
There would be no nose-breaking this time.
Desre watched with contempt. Her nose, unfortunately, looked entirely healed; there was not even the shadow of a bruise left, never mind any swelling.
“Kit tells me you have learned to behave yourself,” Desre said with a smile sharp as a blade; this one looked as much a sneer as all the others.
It was as if she genuinely didn’t know how to smile.
“I am glad to hear it. Kits may get away with acting like animals from time to time, it’s in their nature, but I won’t tolerate it in a man. ”
“And yet you expect everyone to put up with you?”
Kit, halfway into his chair, froze. Captain Hin remained expressionless, but his gaze slid to Kit, studying his reaction. Desre’s eyes filled with something frigid and angry.
“Kit exaggerated your manners. Gag him.” She waved her hand at Kit, the gesture too controlled to be dismissive.
Kit stepped behind Nick’s chair, and before Nick could react, his jaw was grasped tightly and pried open, a leather strip forced between his teeth.
“Tighter than that, darling,” Desre said.
Kit adjusted the strip so that it pulled at Nick’s lips, holding them uncomfortably open.
“Tighter.”
Kit released one hard breath and yanked the leather taunt. Nick’s wrists wrenched against the chains as he reacted to the sharp pain, his jaw and cheek muscles immediately cramping.
“How we’ll make any use of him is a wonder,” Desre remarked as Kit took his seat.
“You’re too soft on him.” She reached out, smothering her hand over Kit’s gloved one.
“He needs to be intact to be useful, but this is simply unmanageable. You can be a little harsher, darling. You know how much a sharp tongue can get on my nerves.”
Beneath the table, Kit’s tail latched on to Nick’s thigh, tightening enough to hurt.
“You may come to my rooms later,” Desre said. “And we’ll discuss it.”
Kit flinched away as her hand snaked onto the bare skin of his wrist. Captain Hin looked away, expressionless. At once, Kit’s tension disappeared. His face relaxed, and his eyelids drooped. The tail tight on Nick’s thigh lost its grip.
Nick’s heart sank. The symbol didn’t work.
Kit bowed his head. “Of course, my lady,” he murmured, his voice sweet and affectionate.
Nick had just enough reach to grasp Kit’s tail. He squeezed it, a distressed and panicked feeling rising. He knew what a private audience with Desre meant for Kit. Nick’s elbow began to burn. Kit’s tail twitched to life, awareness filling his eyes a mere second before Desre turned from him.
She missed it.
Missed her influence burning up.
Kit didn’t turn to Nick, but the end of his tail fluttered.
Desre gestured to her handmaiden, and food was served.
Nick’s plate remained empty, but the others all ate methodically through a starter, a main and a dessert.
None of them seemed to enjoy a single bite, not even Desre.
And no one spoke, either. Desre’s attention moved between the three of them, her mean black eyes discontent.
Nick’s jaw ached fiercely by the end of the dinner. His cheeks reddened in embarrassment as he struggled to swallow all the saliva that pooled in his mouth and some leaked out.
The only victory at the dinner was that when Desre touched Kit’s skin—which she did often, and with purpose—Kit didn’t succumb to her influence. Nick felt his own mark burning, and he had the presence of mind to look down and pinpoint exactly what symbol was activating.
“Are you hungry?” Desre asked.
Nick stared at her.
She rose, and Evie brought her a plate. Kit quickly withdrew his tail before she saw it in Nick’s lap, severing their connection and the protection from her power.
Nick’s panicked feeling intensified. He doubted he’d be given free rein to wander now that Desre was no longer bound to her chambers.
Kit was going to go to her room tonight.
Nick couldn’t stop Kit from obeying; he knew he couldn’t.
Desre put her hand atop his. Nick’s arm burned like he’d thrust the thing into a fire, and his skin was blistering, dying.
Nick hid it. He bottled the pain and pushed it aside.
He’d been a live wire of tension for the entire dinner, but he forced himself to relax.
He let the muscles in his face slacken. Let his shoulders drop.
He even made himself blink slowly and didn’t open his eyes all the way again.
He forced his breathing to settle, even as his heart roared.
If she’d looked at his pulse, she’d have seen the deception.
Desre’s laughter was a keel of victory. “Darling, perhaps we shall save our meeting for tomorrow instead. I have been lax in greeting our new witch.”
“My Lady, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kit objected, an edge in his voice. One that hadn’t been directed at Desre before now.
Desre trailed her fingers down the side of Nick’s face. The burning intensified.
“Take the gag out,” she ordered. Her gaze moved assessingly over Nick. “You are well-muscled for a student. Tidy, too. Your face and hair are plain, and your eyes are…” She grimaced. “Where is that blindfold?”
There was no answer but the river rushing by, and the gentle swish of oars dipping into water. “Remove the gag, Kit,” she said.
Something in Kit calcified. Nick felt it in the air. Felt it as Kit’s tail wound protectively around Nick’s leg.
“Your manipulations could affect his ability to do what is needed.” It was a desperate argument.
Desre’s gaze wrenched up. “Manipulations?” she repeated, furious. Captain Hin sipped his wine, looking pointedly away from them. The sip didn’t hide his grimace, nor the apprehension of his now tense body.
Kit’s head ducked. He said nothing.
She leaned across Nick and glared at Kit, nails digging into Nick’s forearms hard enough to draw blood. “Remove. The. Gag.” Her voice was a warning. Either Kit did as asked now, or he was in trouble.
Even in turmoil, Kit’s breaths weren’t loud.
They were quiet. Steady. But Nick heard the panic.
Heard the resounding no in Kit’s silence.
She could have asked anything. She could have told Kit to beat him, burn him, throw him overboard, and Nick knew Kit would do as he was bidden.
But he wasn’t going to capitulate to rape.
Kit’s lips parted. Nick saw his mouth shape ‘no’.
Nick didn’t let him say it.
He slammed forwards. Cartilage crunched against his skull.
Desre fell, screeching. The impact jolted Nick’s neck, and relief filled him as the symbol on his arm stopped burning.
Laid out on the decking, Desre’s hands were cupped protectively to her face.
Blood streamed out through her fingertips, smelling not of iron, but rot.
Evie leapt to her aid.
Kit tried to haul Nick from the chair, only to come up short as the chains bit into his skin.
“Kill him! Kill him!” Desre shrieked.
“I’ll lock him up below,” Kit said.
“Cut his throat,” she snarled.
“We can’t return with only the ire of the merfolk as our prize,” Kit reasoned, a distinct note of panic in his voice.
His tail lashed, forcing the sailors who had sprung from their stations on the deck to back up several steps.
Captain Hin rose from his seat, and Nick, in the chaos, noticed him coolly assessing the scene.
Nick’s heartbeat roared in his head. He waited, helpless, for a man to step forwards and do as ordered. He waited for Kit to bend to Desre’s will and do it himself.
Instead, Kit planted his hands on Nick’s shoulders. His tail lashed dangerously through the air, coming so close to Evie that the girl was forced to duck.
Captain Hin stooped to help Desre to her feet, grimacing when they made skin-to-skin contact and quickly releasing her when she was upright. She swayed, her balance teetering to the side. She kept a hand covering her face, but as she fixed her eyes on Nick, he saw they’d already begun to swell.
“Ten lashes on his back,” Captain Hin suggested. “And no food.”
“I want a hundred!”
“A hundred will kill him.”
“Fifty.”
Captain Hin looked, not at Nick, but at Kit. He seemed to be weighing something up. Nick saw the man note the way Kit’s grip was digging into Nick’s shoulders. The protective way his body curled around him.
“With his disposition—the lad’s been deathly ill most of the journey here—fifteen is the most you’d get away with and not kill him.”
“Fifteen is nothing. Fifteen is for thieves! For impertinence!”
“And no food,” Captain Hin pointed out.
Desre released a furious sound from deep in her throat.
“Bring the whip,” Captain Hin said.
“My man has a whip, and he’ll use it!” Desre snarled.
Kit’s tail froze mid-air. Nick heard his low growl of alarm.
Captain Hin quickly strode forwards into the range of Kit’s tail. Captain Hin put his hand down on the back of the chair, near Kit but without actually touching him. He spoke quietly. “Just because he can resist her, doesn’t mean we can. Satisfy her, or she will kill him for that.”
Captain Hin unlocked Nick’s chains and dragged him to the main mast, looping each wrist into a nearby rope and hitching his arms up with a quick snap. Nick was aware of Kit’s presence at his back from his low, distressed hum.
“Stop before she hears,” Captain Hin warned.
Kit strangled the hum.
When Captain Hin stepped away, the entire world went quiet. The only thing Nick could focus on was the light sound of Kit’s tail moving through the air. His mouth was filled with leather, so he couldn’t even say a word.
Desre finally snapped, “Do it.”