Chapter 5 Kaspar
Kaspar
“What a freaking asshole pirate,” I muttered under my breath, pushing the scrub brush way harder than I needed to, but I had to take out my anger and frustration on something.
I wanted to punch something, or rather, someone—a jerk with a handsome face. Ugh. Why did he have to be so handsome and such a goblin-dicked schmuck? I’d thought he was kind—I’d seen it in his eyes—but apparently my kind-o-meter was way off.
But I had seen him watching me.
All. The. Time.
Constantly.
Every second on this ship, I felt eyes on me, and ninety-nine percent of the time, it was because Mr. Reaper-the-Jerkface was watching me.
I saw how he looked at me too. Like he wanted me.
I wasn’t unfamiliar with that look in men. It was something I’d sought out in the past when looking for a bed partner.
And it was there in Reaper, I knew it was.
I’d kind of wanted him before, but he sure as hellfire wasn’t getting into my pants after being so cruel to me.
Mean and embarrassing.
As if I didn’t have enough to worry about from the other pirates, they now had confirmation that I was nothing but a worthless whelp. I’d thought I was starting to win some of them over, but after that display, I was likely back to square one. Lovely.
I sighed, dipped the scrub brush into the bucket, and then went to town on the deck again. This deck was going to be spotless if it was the last thing I did.
And if I was picturing Reaper’s face on the floor and using that as inspiration to scrub like I really meant it, well… no one else needed to know.
A caw from the port side startled me, and when I glanced that way and saw a gull flying beside our ship, all I could think was I wish that was a dragon.
My entire life, I’d dreamed of seeing one, but in the capital, there was little chance because the dragons knew to stay away. Out here on the sea, in the air, I’d hoped I’d have the chance.
With a sigh, I rolled up the billowing sleeves of the white linen shirt someone had left on my hammock last night and went back to scrubbing, still picturing Reaper’s face in the wood.
“Ghost?”
I almost ignored the voice, but I didn’t know what consequences I’d face if I didn’t reply, so I held in my sigh and turned. My eyes widened when I found Ariella, the windweaver, standing there.
She was a gorgeous woman who walked with so much confidence, it was easy to see the power she held, even though she was so young—younger than me by at least a few years.
I was pretty sure this was the first time she’d spoken to me, and I really hoped the kindness I could see in her blue eyes wasn’t fake.
Was she about to berate me too? Or was she coming over here to make fun of me and try to start a fight?
I just… really didn’t have the energy for another argument right now. I wasn’t sure what I’d do if she started something, but I’d have to be careful. After all, she could call upon the wind to fly me off this ship if she really wanted to.
Pushing my hair out of my eyes, I squinted at her because the sun was in my face. “Yeah?”
She stared at me for a few seconds before gesturing to the scrub brush. “Put that away for now and come with me.”
“I’m not done. I still need to wash the—”
“You can do that later. It looks fine right now, and you need to come with me.”
“But Reaper said I need to scrub the whole deck before I can—”
“Go with her, Ghost,” a voice called down from the quarterdeck, sounding absolutely exasperated. What the hell did he have to feel exasperated over? He wasn’t the one who’d just been yelled at by two jerks in a row.
I almost, almost, turned around and flipped Reaper off, but after that earlier display, I figured he wasn’t in the mood for my crap.
I didn’t know why my comment made him explode or how I ended up on his bad side, but I didn’t want to stay there for the rest of my existence. Being on his bad side sucked giant kraken balls.
My brain short-circuited for a second.
Wait. Do krakens even have balls?
Shaking that ridiculous thought off, I sighed and brushed off the new breeches I wore as I stood—whoever had left the clothes had left me two whole sets, which was nice so I had extra for washing.
Then I put the cleaning supplies away since the last thing I needed was someone tripping over them and blaming me.
Then I followed Ariella down to the lower deck.
“Where are you taking me?” I finally asked as we weaved through the sleeping pirates who were on night shift tonight.
Apparently, we weren’t moving quickly enough for Captain Viper, so Reaper had made shifts for all the aeronauts who actually knew how to fly this thing. We were going to be moving at top speed twenty-four seven.
That sounded exhausting, but what the hellfire did I know about flying?
I glanced at the corner where I’d been sleeping for the last week—as far away from everyone else as possible.
Reaper had given me a hammock, and I’d headed for the hold, prepared to sleep down there, but the man had stopped me.
Apparently, I wasn’t allowed to sleep down there anymore, but I could sleep anywhere on the lower deck.
So I found a spot away from the others, set up my hammock, and that was that.
So far, I’d only woken up one morning covered with dead fish. I’d yelled and started whacking them off before I was fully awake. And then I’d realized there were a whole lot of pirates standing around me, laughing like a bunch of teenagers, the jackalope butts.
But it hadn’t happened again, so I was hoping those kinds of tricks were over with. Of course I knew more crap was coming my way since I was the new guy and a stowaway to boot, but one could hope, right?
“To Stitches. You need your head seen to.”
I stopped in my tracks for a moment. My head? What the hellfire did I need my head seen to for… Oh.
Oh.
Because Reaper had banged my head on the mast when he shook me. But… no one else knew that, did they? No one else was close enough to hear, and I hadn’t hit it that hard.
Had… had Reaper told her to take me to the doc?
Was it possible that he felt bad about it?
For some reason, my belly swooped at the thought, but I scowled the feeling away because seriously, what the hellfire?
He should feel bad. He was the one who’d hurt me. I mean, maybe it was an accident—and from the flash of regret I’d seen on his face, it had been—but he’d still done it. And he hadn’t apologized.
With a scowl, I murmured, “My head’s fine.”
She shrugged. “Still needs seeing to. And you need some salve for the sun.”
With another sigh, I followed her to the ship doc’s small room.
“Stitches, have you met Ghost yet?”
A very tiny, older woman turned around and gave me a big, warm smile. “Hi, Ghost. It’s lovely to meet you.” Her smile and warm tone were so sweet and welcoming, I felt like crying. She was the first person on this whole damn ship who actually looked… happy to see me.
Even though she only had one real eye—the other was glass—her hazel gaze softened, and before I could stop her, she pulled me into a hug.
“Oh, dear boy.” She patted my back. “It’s all going to be okay.”
Was it though? Because it really didn’t feel like it would be.
Even though it was weird since I just met this woman, I accepted the comfort, giving her a small squeeze back.
She released me and held my shoulders at arm’s length. “Welcome to The Black Wraith, sweetheart.” She looked me over from head to toe. “You need some sun salve before you burn to a crisp.”
Ariella cleared her throat. “He banged the back of his head.”
“Oh,” Stitches said, turning me around so she could look. “Oh no, you poor thing. Come sit down.”
The doc’s room was basically a closet, yet she somehow fit all of her supplies and even had room for a chair that she promptly sat me in.
Ariella said, “Ghost? After you’re done here, resume your duties.”
I gave her a nod, and she knocked on the doorframe three times before walking away.
“Don’t mind her. She’s actually very sweet.”
I couldn’t help it, I snorted. I wouldn’t describe a single person on this ship as sweet, except this woman.
I had the feeling Stitches thought even Reaper was sweet.
She grinned up at me as if sensing the words I didn’t say out loud. “She really is.” She patted my leg, then moved to the side of the chair and way too close to look at the back of my head. “You’ve got a small bump but no bleeding. Does it hurt?”
“Only when I touch it.”
“Then don’t touch it.”
I snorted. “Yeah, thanks.”
She let out a small chuckle. “Tell me what happened?”
I sighed. “Reaper pushed me against the mast, and my head banged against it.”
She hummed and tsked as she turned around and started going through the many jars she had lined up on the shelves. “That boy. He’s something else.”
I snorted. Reaper sure was something else. He was a scary man whose presence alone took up a whole room.
“How’d he get his name?” My mouth asked the question before I could even comprehend what I was thinking. I’d wanted to ask before, but no one was really talking to me—except to hurl insults—so I hadn’t.
“Reaper?”
“Uh… yeah.”
She hummed. “When he first came aboard The Black Wraith years ago, the ship made a pit stop at the Wicklam Keys. The cap’n wanted the spoils from another ship, but the ship was bigger and had a larger crew than ours, so the idea was vetoed.
There was no way we’d get out of a fight like that alive.
But Reaper didn’t see it that way. He wanted to show the cap’n exactly what he’s capable of.
So one night, after everyone was asleep, Reaper snuck over to the other ship and killed every single person on it.
He slit their throats, so none of them even woke up until the very end.
He killed them all in their sleep, then brought his prize back to the Wraith, to Viper.