1. Mira #3
“Don’t see many female captains these days,” he drawls. “Heard this dump is your usual haunt. Kind of dirty… but raw.” His grin is wolfish. “Just the way I like it.” I let my eyes drag over him, slow, deliberate, then flick to the two women he dismissed like afterthoughts. Then back to him.
“It seems you’ve made yourself quite at home,” I say, voice low but sharp enough to slice. I don’t blink.
He chuckles, deep, smooth, entirely unbothered. Like the whole room isn’t being crushed by just his presence alone. “Jealous?”
I roll my eyes so hard it almost hurts, disgust curling in my throat like smoke. “Please.” My lips twist into a sneer. “I wouldn’t touch you if you were the last man alive on a raft in siren waters.” That only makes his grin grow wider.
He stares straight through me. Those hazel eyes, flickering between green-gold and stormy brown, like the ocean deciding whether to drown or spare. My body stiffens. But my soul refuses to strike.
Not yet. My fingers curl around the hilt of my cutlass. His eyes cut that intense eye contact with me to see where my hand moved to. “I wouldn’t do that, treasure,” Kai says. The word drips from his lips like honey laced with venom. “I’ve got men at every corner of this pub. Let’s play nice, aye?”
He’s infuriatingly calm, and it makes my blood boil.
My grip tightens. “There’s nothing to play nice about.
I want you gone from my town before we have to force you out.
” But his gaze doesn’t waver. It sinks into mine, deep, endless, and suddenly, I’m not in a pub anymore.
I’m in a memory that doesn’t belong to me.
Warm arms. Lullabies wrapped in seafoam.
A glowing map tucked around me like a blanket.
A siren circling a crib, her body pulsing with light beneath the waves. Guarding me.
I blink. Hard. My heart slams against my ribs. I know what this is.
Magic.
“You control thoughts,” I determine, voice turning to ice. “Stay the hell out of my mind.” Then I spit at his feet. He laughs. No one knows exactly what kind of magic Kai Eldoris holds. But for someone of his rank, with his bloodline… any kind is lethal. Especially if he can read minds.
“I didn’t show you anything that wasn’t yours already,” Kai says, voice calm.
Almost amused. “Those were your memories. Buried. Forgotten. Wished away. I only unlatched the door.” The entire pub is suffocating in silence now.
Every eye is on us. Even the filthiest criminals don’t dare breathe too loud.
You could hear a coin hit the floor and it’d echo like thunder.
Rare, in a place where pirates never shut the hell up.
I glare at him, every nerve in my body on edge. He tilts his head, smirking like this is a game he’s already won. “Seems like we’re after the same thing, treasure… Do stop chasing me. It’s getting a bit embarrassing.”
Then he turns and waves me off like I’m some tavern girl begging for a coin.
Dismissed. But then, he stops. Slowly, he looks back over his shoulder, locking eyes with me once more.
His voice drops. “I’ll let you live this time.
” He takes a small step closer, “But come near me, my ship, or my treasures again, and I won’t be so kind.
Would be a shame if history repeated itself.
Like the last time your family was on my ship. ”
The words hit harder than steel. And for the briefest second… I swear I hear my mother’s scream echo through the salt-heavy, muggy air of the pirate pub.
Anger surges through my veins like molten lava.
I don’t think, I move. One quick stride.
My hand cracks across his face, the sound sharp and explosive, echoing like thunder in the tight, suffocating air.
Pain blooms instantly in my palm. But the sting is almost satisfying.
Before I can blink, he catches my wrist, twisting it behind my back with iron strength.
Too fast. Too smooth. His grip burns against my skin.
Heat shoots through me, like gold struck alive.
Then, chaos. My crew lunges forward. His men surge to match.
The pub explodes into a violent symphony of clashing steel, snarled curses, and overturned tables.
But Kai doesn’t flinch. His eyes fixate on me.
He leans in, close enough that I can feel the warmth of his breath graze the shell of my ear.
“I could crush you as easily as I scrape barnacles from my ship,” he murmurs, voice low, sinfully smooth, dark as a storm rolling in.
“Never touch me like that again… unless I ask for it.” His words sink into my bones like poison, no, like fire.
I want nothing more than to smack him again, this time harder. He’s absolutely infuriating.
Kai shoves me into the heart of the brawl, where chaos and fury churn thick in the air.
I unsheathe my cutlass, slashing, blocking, taking down anyone foolish enough to cross my path.
But something’s off. I’m not fighting to kill.
I’m just moving. Reacting. Like instinct has taken the helm of my body, steering me with nothing but rage.
Across the room, Kai strolls in the opposite direction, completely unfazed. A glass of rum glides through the air from the bar like it was summoned, floating straight into his open hand. He takes a sip, never once looking back at the chaos erupting behind him.
His presence slices through the brawl. No one dares to go near him.
No one even tries. It’s like the air around him hums with something unseen, something waiting to strike.
Magic clings to him like a second skin, quiet but coiled.
He doesn't need to lift a finger to command fear. Maybe it’s a spell.
Or maybe it’s just him. Either way, Kai Eldoris isn’t someone you cross, because to cross him is to lose everything.