Mira
Chapter twenty-three
Flesh & Blood
We make our way back through the jungle under the glow of a full moon.
Fireflies light our path, flickering softly around us like they can feel the energy still humming beneath our skin.
Kai leads the way, never once letting go of my hand.
His grip is tight, protective, like he expects something to come from the shadows and take me.
Then I smell smoke. “What is that?” I ask, looking up at him. “Stay close to me,” Kai says sharply. I do without question. He has a sixth sense for danger. I’ve seen it too many times to doubt it. He always knows before anyone else does.
As we near the opening of the jungle, the glow ahead brightens. Flames. The small village has been overtaken, engulfed in fire. Screams echo. Steel clashes. Pirate flags wave in the smoke-choked air.
It is chaos. The town is under siege. I scan the harbor desperately, trying to find The Leviathan, but the smoke is too thick. Shapes move in the firelight, fighting, falling, fleeing. I can’t make out anything clearly.
“What the fuck is happening,” Kai growls, rage seeping through every word. He reaches for his weapons, twin blades strapped in an X across his back. The moonlight and flames carves shadows across the muscles and dark veins spread on his arms as he moves, all sharp angles and deadly focus.
I unsheathe my cutlass, the familiar weight grounding me as we move toward the burning town, smoke stinging my throat. Taking the black bandana from my hair, I wrap it around my nose and mouth. Kai suddenly turns and grabs both of my arms, his grip firm, his eyes locking on mine.
“If anyone comes for you, you run. You don’t look back. You swim straight to the ship and don’t stop. The ocean answers to you. That’s where you’re safest.” There was desperation in his voice. Fear he wasn’t even trying to hide.
“I know how to handle myself, Kai. Don’t forget, there was me before there was us. Not just anyone. A captain,” I say sharply. Something flickers in his eyes, hurt, maybe. Or guilt.
“I know that,” he says, softer now. “You don’t have to remind me.” He says this like he was repulsed that there was a life I led without him in it. He turns away and leads us toward the chaos.
“I’m going to the coastline. I might be able to spot the ship,” I say, scanning the horizon.
“No. Stay close to me,” he orders. But before I can argue, something shifts behind me.
There’s a rustle in the bushes. I turn just in time to see a massive figure emerge from the fog and the smoke from the fire. Seven feet tall, shoulders broad as a ship’s mast. His skin looks like weathered driftwood, his face torn with old scars and his eyes hollow.
He lunges. I barely have time to move. Kai is already there.
Steel flashes and in one brutal motion, Kai slices across the man’s gut.
His blade carves clean through flesh and muscle, and the man drops to his knees, entrails spilling to the ground.
He collapses. Dead. Blood soaks the earth at our feet.
Kai turns to me, eyes dark and wild with fear. “This is an ambush. These pirates are here for you. We have to leave. Now.” There’s no room for debate in his voice.
“How the hell do you know?” I snap.
“Because, Mira, people know who you are now. You’re not safe. We have to leave.”
I stop in my tracks. “I’m not leaving my crew.”
He turns, jaw clenched. “You will if they aren’t smart enough to be on that ship by the time we return.” I cross my arms and look him up and down, with a man's guts spilled at our feet from one quick stride from Kai. I still stand my ground.
“And what makes you so sure the ones after me aren’t already on the ship?”
His eyes go dark. “Because no pirate is stupid enough to step foot on my ship, not when they know who’s on it.
” I search my mind for who could already be there.
Then it hits me like a wave crashing over the bow.
His father. Kai warned me about him being locked away before I boarded The Leviathan, I haven’t seen him yet. He must be tucked away pretty well.
“Let’s go. Now.” He grabs my hand, and I let him lead me, my body pulled forward by instinct and dread.
As we walk the coastline, flames flicker across the water.
I can’t stop thinking about the people who lived here, the ones who didn’t make it out.
Who lost everything because someone’s looking for me.
Fire is the cruelest death I can imagine. If I have to go, I’d rather be taken by the sea. Dragged down by a siren. At least that would feel like something earned.
Through the thick smoke and rising heat, we see them, island folk clashing with invaders, fighting to protect homes. Pirates looting and laughing like devils. “Who do you think it is?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper.
“I don’t care to know,” Kai mutters. “I just want you on the ship.”
The moon paints a silver path across the sea as we slip along the shoreline like shadows. We’re invisible out here.
Until he sees us. The largest pirate of them all. He must be the captain. “Kai,” I whisper, “He’s coming.” I brace myself for the impact of whoever this pirate is. Kai moves without a word, stepping in front of me. His body blocks the moonlight, his shadow falling over mine.
A massive figure steps through the haze, shoulders squared and arms thick as iron chains.
His coat, singed at the edges and layered in gold and red, clings to him like battle-worn armor.
Straps of old rope crisscross his chest, and his beard braided with coins and carved charms, tokens of every ship he’s conquered.
One eye is cloudy, the other pure gold, gleaming like a cursed jewel.
When he smiles, his jagged teeth catch the light, and for a heartbeat, he looks like a man who’s eaten gods for sport, a legend bled into myth, and proud of it.
“Like father like son, aye, Kai?” the man calls out. Kai says nothing. He stands his ground, too calm, too quiet. The captain may be larger than life, but Kai is bigger where it counts. He is the Lord of Pirates, and no man outranks him.
“If you give me the girl,” the captain says, voice like gravel soaked in blood, “you can leave with your life. Sounds fair, aye?” Kai steps closer, shrinking the man with nothing but his presence.
“Touch her,” he growls, “and I’ll slit your throat in front of your entire crew. Just enough to let you choke on your own blood.” The flames flicker in his eyes, matching the wildfire behind him and the one inside him.
They aren’t strangers. That much is clear. “Don’t tell me,” the captain sneers, his eyes dragging toward me, “You’ve fallen for the creature.” His gaze is cold. Inhuman. “She’s nothing but a bargaining chip. An expensive one. Now hand her over.”
The words slap me like a crashing wave. A fucking creature? Not a woman or a soul? My blood boils. “Fuck you!” I blurt out. Kai moves his arm, holding his sword out in front of me. The captain lets out a low chuckle of a laugh.
“That arm of yours has the sea's curse, aye?” His eyes measure up Kai's body, pinpointing any weakness. “You don’t have too much time left, do you?” he mocks.
I can see Kai’s jaw ticking. He dismisses the comment the captain made. “Step back, Archer,” he warns, voice cold as steel. Archer. I know that name. My father beat him in battles many times. However, he did give him a run for his coin.
The name unlocks something deep in my memory.
I’d heard whispers of him long ago, back when my father ruled the sea.
Archer was a name pirates didn’t speak lightly.
He was a master of the duel, one of the few who gave my father a run for his treasure.
He was the closest to the title Pirate Lord, that was until Kai slayed the Kraken.
I hadn’t thought of him in years, not until tonight.
And now I’ve seen him with my own eyes. Felt the weight of his threat.
“I’ll kill you. No one touches her.”
Archer raises his sword. Kai mirrors him. The sound of their blades colliding rings through the air like thunder. Sparks fly. Two more pirates surge forward to defend their captain.
Kai doesn’t flinch. He strikes first, one clean, devastating slice across the chest, and the man collapses at his feet. Dead before he hit the ground. It looked effortless.
I turn just in time to catch movement from the corner of my eye. A man charges at me, gun in hand and eyes locked on mine. I move quickly.
Then, a gunshot rings through my ears. The gunshot cracks through the air, louder than anything I’ve ever heard.
My body hits the sand hard. The force of it knocks the breath from me.
I look down. My arm is bleeding, just a graze.
But I’m not the one who falls. The attacker crumples at my feet, his face half gone, blood pooling into the sand.
Standing behind him, gun still raised, is Smith. “Mira, up. We need to go,” he says, voice flat. There’s a look in his eyes, one I can’t quite place, but it feels wrong.
A heavy, twisting feeling settles in my gut. A warning. Don’t go with him. “Mira,” he says again, stepping closer. “Let’s go. I’ll get you back to the ship.” His voice is too calm, so unlike the man I know. There’s something twisted lurking just beneath the surface.
I look over to see Kai still locked in battle with Archer, holding his own.
Blades flash in the firelight. I take a step back from Smith.
The look in his eyes gives him away. It isn’t him anymore.
He’s never looked at me like I’m something to win or bargain with.
Unease ripples through me, followed by heartbreak so deep it nearly splits me open. He’s always had my back. Always.
But he’s made a deal. He’s made a deal with the devil. My eyes narrow. “What are they promising you?”
His stare darkens, like something ancient has rooted itself behind his gaze. “Power,” he says, smiling. But it isn’t his smile. It’s something else. Something so dark and twisted, possessed.