Chapter 10
Chapter ten
James
“It is another thing he has taken from you.”
That one line keeps playing on my mind on repeat.
My skin tingles, the scent of pine cloying in the small bathroom, now clinging to my skin as I lower myself in water that is just a little hotter than would be comfortable.
I am punishing myself for letting that vile pirate’s words get under my skin.
Peter didn’t take anything from me. He told me what life would be like if I went to move in with him.
It was a choice I made, and like every choice, you gain something, and you lose something.
Missing the sun and my parents doesn’t compare to all that Peter has given me. Being locked away by those pirates, practically being starved, has just made me delirious. My thoughts drift back to how Killian stumbled back when I told him I would get violently ill, from missing Peter.
The sound of boots scuffing against the wood planks all around us is the first signal something is happening.
I might have turned toward Captain Pestilence.
My eyes had been firmly fixed on the knot in the wood, to the left of his head.
Now they fly up to see what is going on.
The normally tanned skin is now gray and translucent, showing the veins beneath his skin.
Veins I wish I could slit so I could get this vessel to return me to the love of my life.
His eyes glaze over. It’s short-lived, not long enough to give me the chance to actually do something to harm him.
Still it is good to know he does feel guilt.
Aggression, fighting, has brought me nowhere.
Maybe I can play with other emotions. I need to find a way out.
All is fair in love and war. I will find a way to break him, and when I have done that, I will hand-deliver him so Peter can kill him.
It will be my apology for being hard-headed and naive, resting in Silvermist forest when I’d been told not to.
Water sloshes as my body moves, in the full tub.
Shivers traveling down my body. The water has cooled down, as I sat in it, still thinking back on every interaction to make sure I can escape this hellhole.
It must have been at least an hour as I sat here, like a frog in a pot of water slowly being brought to a boil.
“If you’re trying to drown yourself, just do it in the ocean.
Spares me having to clean up,” Killian calls out from behind the locked bathroom door.
Rolling my eyes again, I get up, shuddering as the cold water rolls down my body in rivulets.
The towel scratches my soft skin, the fabric of the pirate clothes I’ve been gifted itching against the now raw skin.
“Just feeling unwell,” I mutter as I walk outside the bathroom, hoping to seem pitiable, to evoke that same sense of guilt I saw pass behind his eyes earlier.
He doesn’t speak, and because I am avoiding eye contact for the first time since he hauled me along with him, I am not getting a read on him.
“So soon. You sure?” His voice goes up an octave. I can hear the intake of breath as he scoffs. Somehow, that bastard knows I won’t get sick this soon.
“Soon? I have been around you for 72 hours. I think I lasted quite long actually,” I quip back, bracing for another push.
Of the sharp sting of that bloody hook piercing my skin yet again.
But nothing happens, and the lack of a response scares me more than all the flashes of anger I had seen so far.
I have been prompting them to see how to get under his skin.
And his ability to suddenly ignore me is unsettling.
All he gives me is a cold, “We’ll eat in the mess.”
No room for arguments, no room to anger him, to make him falter. Leaving me with nothing else to do than to follow him to the mess. If it were up to me, I would eat breakfast in my room. Away from all of them. But I know nobody will listen to me, so I decide to spare my breath.
“I hope the food was to your liking…”
My mind had drifted back to Peter. Like it had the first time, when I get all floaty and achy from being away from him too long.
The itch to touch him is crawling over my skin, until concentrating becomes impossible.
Every fiber in my being is consumed with the need to find a way to touch him, to be close to him.
“‘S fine” I mumble, I hardly remember what I’ve eaten. Somehow it does feel like the all-consuming need did start sooner than normal. Most likely because I am not surrounded by his scent anymore.
“I know it is, and it’s not free,” Seviin tells me.
“Kidnapping me isn’t either, so we’re even now,” I say, sitting up a little straighter, spine stiffening, unwilling to work for the people who took me away from my home. They can’t be serious about this, can they?
“That’s not how it works here on the ship, darling,” Killian tells me in that same condescending tone he has been using with me since the start.
“It’s kitchen duty or scrubbing the decks for you.” They are serious. They are actually making me work on my own kidnap cruise. The hell kind of idiots are they?
“Kitchen duty,” I practically growl. Maybe I should fight them more on it, maybe I should refuse and cause a scene.
But I am dead-tired, my focus still loopy.
I am fairly sure I will not win this fight.
This way, at least, I get to pick what I’m doing.
I love cooking and baking, so I might even enjoy it a little bit.
And access to food, drinks, and knives might not be such a bad idea either.
“Don’t get any ideas in that pretty head of yours; we’ll be closely watching you. I can’t have you ruining my good looks with another nick on my throat,” Killian tells me like he is reading my damn mind.
“When do I start?” I’m not even going to answer him, about being closely watched. Right now, I don’t even care.
“Tonight,” one word, a casual dismissal, like this is normal.
Belichime gets up to take me back to my room.
All I want now is to get back in bed and get some more sleep.
I will enjoy the peace and quiet of being locked in a room today.
If I am lucky, they won’t bother me until lunch.
I need the food, though. I am sure that the fact that they have practically been starving me isn’t helping me either.
“Hold on my sweet boy, I am coming for you, I just need to find you,” I jolt awake, barely registering my muscles aching.
Barely realizing they are starting to feel overused again.
He is coming for me. I don’t get why it would take him so long to find me.
As far as I know, Silvermist isn’t that big.
I just need to have some faith in him. He took the effort to reach out to me in my dream.
He knows what happened to me. All I need to do now is wait patiently, making sure I survive, maybe find out more about the pirates, to find any and all leverage to make sure Peter will easily win this.
Using the water in the wooden bucket I have since they took the porcelain basin away from me, I wash my face.
The cold stings my face, waking me up. I need to be alert when they come and get me for lunch.
They cannot see me weak, even if their captain seems to know exactly what is going to happen to me now that I am away from my fated mate.
Come to think of it, he seems to be even older than Peter is.
Or older than Peter is in human years. I have no idea if fae age like humans or like faun’s or something in between.
Either way, I think he should be old enough to be with his fated mate.
He seems to be friendly with all the pirates, familiar even.
No one, however, seems to stick out more like a lover.
Does he know what happens when you are apart from your fated mate?
Did they leave him because they couldn’t bear being bound to a vile pirate?
I If so, it might be a weak spot for him.
I need to find out why he seems to be single, Samuel too, not Seviin, I think she is together with one of the other pirates.
It’s a bit of a mixed bag among the pirates, but a lot of them seem to be in couples.
The only upside to being on this damn ship is seeing so many queer couples, when at home, I am one of the few gay people.
I mean, it happens; if not, my parents wouldn’t have considered marrying me off to a rich man to help them with their financial burdens.
Still, it was far from as common as it is here on the Obsidian Oath.
A fitting name for the ship. The wood is stained black with something, might be oil to keep the wood waterproof.
A deep dark red, shining through if the sun hits just right.
The sails are a pure black, even blocking out the sun when we sail past it.
Dark as its captain’s soul. Like the sails of the Obsidian Oath block out the sun, Killian Tregear blocks the joy for others.
But I need to play him, my anger, my weary cooperation has gained me nothing so far.
No insight won, nothing to help Peter when he comes for me. So I need a change of tactic.
The longer I think about being a part of the kitchen crew, the more the idea started to appeal to me.
Any attempt at an escape is futile; we are out on the open seas, so far from the coast I can hardly imagine anyone being able to swim to the coast. Even skilled swimmers, let alone me.
Back home there never was the time to swim.
My parents did not have the time to teach me how to swim.
Hiring someone like the noble families did for their children was an even more far-fetched fantasy.