Chapter 8
Tink
The ship rocked, nearly tossing Tink from the bed.
Thunder cracked. Lightning flashed outside the windows.
Tink curled in on herself, begging every holy, revered elder the pixies had to keep the little food she’d eaten in her stomach.
Hook wasn’t here. She hadn’t seen the irritatingly handsome pirate since she’d fallen asleep the night before last… handcuffed to his bed.
He’d slept, or played at sleep, in the window seat across the room—far from the reach of her short chain. When she’d awoken, he was gone. Though a day and a night passed, he didn’t return. Where, or if, he slept, she could only guess.
Just like so many other terrible humans, he’d asked for her dust. Well, too bad for him.
And he thought she’d made a fortune selling it?
Hah! What a joke. Fortune indeed. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
She had sold some of it, what little she had left after saving Lily from Blackbeard.
A bit here and there for food and supplies, to buy passage to see the merfolk, but not enough to generate any real wealth.
As for creating more…she could have at home. It had never been a problem there. But here, her wings just wouldn’t do it, and now they were plumb out of dust.
With a sigh, she wiggled down into the inviting sheets.
It was the best rest she’d had in months.
Not that she’d ever admit it. The comfortable bed cradled her far better than the stiff cot in her treehouse and many times better than the forest floor and other unsavory places she’d slept before she found her temporary home.
The storms came during the second night, tossing the ship as she plowed on toward the merfolk’s Azure Lagoon. Tink slept little since then, though she tried. Food and water had been more of a challenge. Everything she took down wanted to crawl back up her throat.
She screeched as another wave rocked the ship and pulled the sheets over her head with her free hand. Wood cracked in response, a sound like the ship being torn apart.
“Stop screaming like a wounded harpy!”
She gasped and jerked the sheets down. Hook loomed in the doorway, strong and steady despite the rocking of the ship in the storm.
But his expression was anything but calm—thin lips, stiff jaw, hard gaze.
He was the spitting image of the fierce pirate rumors claimed him to be.
Dark hair clung to his face while rivulets of water streamed to the floor.
If he’d been wearing his hat, it was long gone.
Another swell made her stomach drop and slosh. Tink clapped her hands over her mouth. Durin’s beard, she couldn’t get sick in front of him. She wouldn’t.
Hook’s harsh expression vanished, smoothing out into something like pity. “This is your bloody fault.” He slammed the door behind him and approached her. “Cursing the sea against me.” Though the ship bucked, he walked with practiced ease.
“I didn’t—” She braced herself as another swell rolled the ship. Ugh, she’d get nowhere arguing with him. “Are we almost there?”
“Yes.”
She nearly cried with relief. Surely the merfolk’s curse wouldn’t call a storm down on their own land.
“My men think you’re torturing yourself. Say it’s bad luck to have a screaming woman on board.” He stood right in front of her now, rain-soaked clothing dripping onto the elaborate rug.
“And whose fault is that?” Tink rose up on her knees, a poor attempt to make herself intimidating. “You brought me here, you—” A scream swallowed up her tirade as the ship canted to the side. Before she could steady herself, she careened off the bed, right into the captain.
They toppled to the ground. Hook groaned as he smacked against the floor.
Tink’s face smashed against his wet shirt and the hard chest underneath.
For a moment, a blur of color swarmed her vision.
Buzzing rang in her ears. All at once, her senses returned.
She straddled Hook—hard, wet, and very much a man.
Tink shoved her now damp hair out of her face as she sat up.
He made a sound low in his throat as she moved.
Not in pain. No, she’d heard this sound before, the moment she’d crawled into his lap the night they first met.
Tink went still as her gaze caught his. Hooded, stormy grey eyes stared up at her.
The captain made no attempt to move as his lips curved into a slow smile.
A strong hand slid up her leg. Heat blossomed low in her belly.
The wetness growing between her legs had little to do with the rain soaking into her breeches from Hook’s drenched clothing.
Her wings fluttered as his thumb rubbed a slow path up and down her thigh.
She forgot where she was, the rocking of the ship, the shackle on her wrist, everything but the man below her.
For the briefest moment, she even forgot who he was and why she loathed him.
His gaze traveled over her, and his eyes widened. “Your wings are shimmering, love.”
He may as well have dumped her into the sea.
She shoved off him, leaping away as if burned. The rope binding her to the bed held firm as she tested its limits to get as far from him as she could.
Hook groaned again as he sat up, a wet heap of man on the floor. “Care to tell me what that means?”
Tink turned away as her cheeks flamed. “No.” Absolutely not. Never. She chanced a glance back at her wings. It isn’t possible, is it?
She rubbed her hands down her face, a poor attempt to scrub all thought of him from her mind. Only then did she notice the ship had stopped rocking. “We cleared the storm?”
“Aye, feels like it. We should be near the Azure Lagoon by my estimate.”
She bobbed on the balls of her feet, not caring about the way her stomach still flipped and flopped. It would settle soon. She’d be out of this room, back in the fresh air. On land! Blessed land.
A hard rapping on the door made her jump. She whirled around to find Hook on his feet. A brief flash of annoyance faded from his features.
“Captain!”
“What is it, Smee?” he called back.
“Another ship anchored outside the lagoon. Looks to be the Siren.”
Tink stiffened. “More pirates?”
Hook nodded. “Run up the flags. Anchor farther out.”
“Right away,” Smee called back through the door.
Great, just what she needed—more greedy pirates who’d undoubtedly want to use her for their own supply of pixie dust.
“It’s best if they don’t know what you are.” He gave a meaningful glance at her wings.
For once, they agreed.
*****
Tink followed Hook onto the deck, savoring her freedom. She’d bound her wings and tucked Hook’s billowing shirt into her breeches. A cloak over her shoulders further hid her wings, and a bandanna over her hair kept her ears tucked away. To anyone they encountered, she’d look like a simple deckhand.
Thunder rumbled from the storm nearby, a mass of dark clouds and pounding rain at their backs. The island was a peaceful oasis, as if they’d sheltered in the eye of a hurricane. Beyond it, more dark clouds loomed in the distance.
Rowboats hung ready to be lowered into the calm sea just outside the merfolk’s lagoon. Hook gave orders to his crew, pointing them this way and that. “You four, with me.”
Tink straightened. Two of them were female. She slid closer to Hook. “You were worried about my safety with your crew, but not theirs?”
“Anne and Sage?” He chuckled as he looked over at the two women climbing into the boat. “They can take care of themselves. Besides, Sage’s one of the ones who might have pulled you into her bed.” He winked.
Tink notched her chin higher. “And I can’t take care of myself?”
“Can you?”
“Give me a dagger, and I’ll show you.”
He looked her up and down, the rounded edge of his hook tapping against his chin. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Laughter and joyful squeals rolled across the calm swells to their rowboat, a sharp contrast to the crack of lightning at their backs.
Tink kept looking over her shoulder, expecting the storm to draw closer, but it never moved, as if an invisible wall held it at bay.
An element of the merfolk’s curse, Hook said, protecting their lagoon from the effects of their own wrath.
Crystal blue, clear skies stretched above, with the sun shining down bright and hot on their backs.
As they edged around an outcropping of rock, the merfolk came into view—lounging on the rocks, playing in the water.
A few leaned on the wooden dock that thrust out from the beach, where several humans gathered with them. Crew members of the Siren, no doubt.
A mermaid, or possibly a merman—it was hard to tell the difference, with so much of them hidden under the water—popped their head out of the water near the boat.
Pale-pink hair decorated with small shells trailed down over dark shoulders.
A high-pitched giggle chimed out between pointed fangs. “Come to play?”
Hook stood up and edged to the side of the boat. “Captain Hook.” He tipped his hat to the mermaid. “Come to see Queen Titania.”
Tink blinked away her surprise. Hook wasted no time.
The mermaid let out a dramatic sigh. “We shall see.” Without another word, they vanished into the sea, barely a ripple in their wake.
Sailors gathered near the end of the pier as the rowboat approached carrying Hook, Tink, Smee, and a handful of Hook’s crew.
“Captain Hook!” a woman bellowed from the end of the pier. She wore a wide-brimmed hat with dark curls billowing down around her shoulders. A few streaks of silver colored her hair, but the woman stood with all the strength and confidence of youth. “I hear it’s you we have to thank for this storm.”
“Happy to oblige, Cressida.” Hook thumped a booted foot onto the edge of the boat and swept a dramatic bow in her direction.