Chapter 9 #2
“Isn’t that the Yarrow kid?” she heard one of them whisper, and her stomach sank. After all her scolding, she would be the downfall of the family.
They dropped their guard for a moment, but that was all Erinna needed. She lunged at the closest man and landed a fist below his chin, causing him to stagger.
Erinna had basic training in defensive dueling, but a head-on fight with three soldiers was ill-advised. It was guaranteed to end in failure—but doing something was better than nothing, and Erinna had at least one advantage.
All her life, Erinna had been vastly underestimated by anyone outside of her close circle.
Nothing about her frame suggested danger—just a shipwright’s daughter, lean from hauling timber and supplies for a living.
Her strength was real but easy to dismiss.
And anyone who knew of her father’s druidic Talent also knew of Erinna’s dearth of ability.
Talentless. Worthless.
That was the soldier’s mistake to make. His hands closed around her arm, fingers digging in with painful force.
She had seconds before he understood she wasn’t entirely helpless.
Erinna reached for the pommel of his unsheathed sword.
The soldier’s fist landed square in her shoulder with a rattling pain.
Erinna grunted through the ache and pulled the heavy sword away from her adversary.
Surprise flickered across his face before morphing to fury. Erinna retreated as fast as she could, the tip of the sword aimed at her assailants.
They paused briefly in shock. Erinna only had seconds to flee before they recovered.
Erinna and Inez turned to flee, but another soldier rounded the opposite corner, boxing them into the alley. She raised the sword, steadied her stance, and swung down.
Her opponent countered and swung a sharp punch, his fist slamming hard into her stomach. Pain lanced through her core and rattled her ribs. Erinna cringed and choked down rising bile as the soldier wrested the sword from her hand.
By the time her head stopped spinning, her arm had been painfully bent behind her back. She winced, kicking and flailing against her captor’s hold.
Resistance was met with harsh force. The soldier yanked her closer, locking his arm around her neck. He squeezed. Hard.
She tried to suck in air. Her vision hazed from insufficient oxygen. Through a blur of tears, she saw another soldier round on Inez just before she made it around the corner and out of the alleyway. He caught her by the hair and dragged her forcefully to the ground.
Doom.
They had failed.
She had failed.
Erinna’s lungs burned, desperate for air. The guard would hold her until she passed out.
Or died.
Then, for the first time in ten years, the cold hum of energy buzzed beneath her skin. It had been a decade since she last felt her Talent, and this time, there was no way to fight it.
The soldier’s heartbeat thrummed loudly in her ears. A taste of ash formed in the back of her throat, and the sticky warmth of his lifeforce wrapped around her fingers. If she pulled hard enough, perhaps…
The arm around her throat went limp as his body crumpled at her feet.
The smell of burning flesh permeated the air.
Erinna fell to her knees, gasping for air.
The ringing in her ears subsided in time for her to hear the sickening thud of a sword meeting flesh.
The tide of power receded as quickly as it came.
Her Talent falling back into its useless slumber.
“Yarrow?” asked a voice that filled her with dread. Erinna blinked the haze from her eyes and stared as Captain Kane Atwater appeared among the carnage of his own violence as if summoned from the depths themselves.
He stepped over the bloody, charred body of the soldier who had nearly stripped Erinna of her own life.
Her eyes flitted to the string of bodies crumpled on the ground.
Every soldier was reduced to a lifeless husk.
Erinna nearly gagged from the smell of burned flesh and blood as it invaded her senses.
Kane neared, and Erinna snapped her attention back to the pirate. Blood splattered his jaw and decorated the collar of his shirt. His chest rose and fell in steady rhythm as if he had done nothing more strenuous than climb a flight of stairs.
His amber eyes bore into hers, and Erinna couldn’t find the strength to move away. It was easy to hate him from afar. For the bodies he left in his wake, the boats he sent to the bottom of the ocean. But up close, it was fear that gripped her.
She’d just witnessed what he was capable of.
His ability to cut and burn through trained guards like they were nothing.
But why was he here, of all places? Why had he saved her life?
Erinna bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper, all in an effort to keep from trembling, to remind herself not to show weakness.
Kane was so close she could feel the heat from his body as he offered his hand to her. Erinna swatted the gesture away on instinct.
In return, Kane wrapped his fingers around her forearm and hauled her to her feet. Erinna tried to pull free, but his hold wouldn’t budge. His eyes narrowed, near predatory, his face inches from her own.
“You reek.” In one swift move, Kane pushed her sleeve up with his free hand, exposing the mark. He eyed the inky black constellation of bleeding stars.
He arched a brow, returning his focus to Erinna’s face. “You shouldn’t be awake.” His tone was more curious than anything else.
“You shouldn’t be alive,” she spat with immediate post-insult regret. She was lashing out—using her distaste to distract herself from despair.
Kane grinned and released her. “I guess that makes three of us.”
His humor didn’t land. Erinna stared back at him, rubbing the mark on her arm, trying to figure out how to put as much distance between them as possible.
Everything about him was lethal, from the way he deftly used a blade to his posture that seemed ready to pounce if they tried to run.
Kane shoved his hands into his pockets as his eyes carved a path to the mark, then back to her face. “It’s a curse.”
Panic. Erinna rubbed the sweat from her brow as the word settled over her. Curse.
“What do you mean?” Her throat tightened. “What kind?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know, just know it’s a curse. A witch or mage would know more. But it is old magic, that’s for sure.”
Erinna’s chest squeezed, and she dropped her arm back to her side, shoving her sleeve back down to her wrist.
There was too much to think about. Too much to comprehend. One problem at a time. First, she needed safety. “I need to get home.”
Kane swung an arm out, as if encouraging her to start moving. “All right, then. Lead the way.”
“Excuse me?” Erinna almost stuttered.
“Sorry, was I not clear? I’m seeing you home.”
She glanced at the bodies and the blood-soaked cobblestones behind him. There was no way in all nine Hells that she was going to lead the pirate back to her home.
“You’re not coming with us.” Erinna wrapped one arm around Inez and stepped away from Kane.
His eyes narrowed, as if he could sense Erinna’s intention to abandon him and run. “I saved your life and will continue to do so to uphold my side of the bargain. But I don’t have to do it pleasantly.”
Bargain? Erinna was ready to continue her barrage of questions, but the cry of another hawk and the faint sound of boots bid her pause.
Erinna eyed the alley frantically, mind reeling. Was she foolish enough to attempt an escape? Take Inez and try to outrun the pirate, or lead the man home with her?
Kane closed the distance between them. “Unless you want me to throw you and Inez over my shoulder—which, believe me, will be no issue—then I suggest you start to move, Yarrow.”
With a sweeping look at Kane, his broad shoulders, hard muscle, and cocksure attitude, Erinna made her decision. The last thing she needed was to be strung arse-up over a pirate.
“Help her and follow me,” Erinna hissed, brushing past the pirate and further into the mess of old alleys. Kane left no time for Inez to protest, nor did the young aberrant deny the assistance. He draped his own cloak around her shoulders and, in one swift move, lifted her onto his back.
Erinna was surprised at his level of tenderness. Like he may actually care about getting them to safety.
Kane’s gaze flitted to hers. A grin pulled at his lips, and he looked ready to send some retort Erinna’s way, but she turned on her heels before he had the chance.
A hawk cried in the distance.
They needed to get out of sight. She led them further into the maze of old alleys that paved the way home.