Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Green fire sputtered to life in the lanterns and cast the inside of the ship in an eerie glow. Moonlight reflecting off the water shimmered through the window and danced with the fire, its iridescent glow as magical as it was haunting.
Especially as those heavy boots came slowly down the stairs.
"Shit," I whispered into the darkness.
The air thickened, a palpable weight pressing in. Each creak of the wood, every slosh of the waves against the hull, amplified my growing dread. I pressed myself further into the shadows.
One heavy step, then another.
I clapped my hand over my mouth and tried to calm my heavy breaths.
Pull it together, Godwin.
When the boots hit the landing, I closed my eyes. Maybe if my brain wasn’t registering the movement, my body would stop reacting as if it were capable of swimming back to shore faster than the pirates could grab me.
When the footsteps picked up again, my eyes snapped back open. Apparently I was the kind of woman who wanted to give the arrival of her demise her full attention.
A chill crawled down my spine as a shadow cut across the green light and stretched toward the bars. I still couldn’t see a face. Just the shape of a person too big to be one of Quincy’s dock-rats and too calm to be one of his guards.
Pirate, my mind supplied instantly, because what else boards a ship and kills everyone on deck like it’s part of the evening’s entertainment?
A bit presumptuous, Corynne, to believe the pirate is a he. A woman would make a fine pirate.
The thought lasted exactly one heartbeat before a voice rolled out of the dark, rough and amused in a way that made my skin prickle.
"Come out, come out," he drawled, "wherever you are."
Another round of goosebumps pimpled my skin.
Did he know I was in here? Or was there another person in holding that I’d missed? That had to be it because surely to the gods he wasn’t—
"Corynne Godwin," he said.
Shit.
Everything inside me froze at the sound of my name.
I was trapped.
The flickering green fire illuminated the contours of his face, revealing a man both captivating and terrifying.
"If you like to play games, Miss Godwin," he went on, his tone bored and unbothered, "I will happily become your new opponent."
I had two options: One, I could cower some more and hope he’d give up. Unlikely, especially since he knew me by name. Or, two, I could enter the game he proposed we were playing and get a leg up.
Option number two seemed best. Not for self-preservation, of course, but for practicality. At least, that’s what I was trying to convince myself.
I burst out, "What do you want from me?" There was no room for fear now. Though I did wish I’d said something a bit more clever.
He stepped closer, his shoulders blocking the meager light from above, casting the hollows of his face in darkness while the green flames caught in his eyes.
"That is no way to talk to your superior, little bird.
" The words came out slow and measured. His voice was so low it vibrated in my chest before I fully registered the words.
‘Little bird’ made my skin crawl. The words weren't meant to be endearing. Little birds were fragile and incapable of defending themselves.
"Superior," I echoed a touch breathless over the pounding of my heart. "Is that what pirates call themselves after they've left a deck slick with blood?"
His calculating gaze flicked over the bars, over the lock and then finally, over me. I lifted my chin. Damned if I let myself curl inward under the weight of his scrutiny.
A scream tore through the ceiling planks above. Then another that died in the middle as fast as a drenched flame. The man standing before me didn’t react. He might as well have been carved from stone.
That's when the chill settled in my marrow, deeper than any anger could burn away. Quincy's men had scrambled, swearing and wild with fear. Even August, with all his swagger, would have spared a glance upward when death came knocking.
This man, with his piercing blue-grey eyes, watched me smugly as if the ending had already been written, and he alone had read the final page.
I swallowed and tried again, worried that if we didn’t move this along, the fear creeping up my spine would make me piss myself. Which was very unladylike. "I asked you a question."
Again, he ignored me. This time, however, I could not feign bravado as he advanced another step. The man towered over me.
A shiver ran down my spine, my traitorous skin reacting to his proximity in ways my mind refused to acknowledge.
"Is survival important to you?" he inquired with a quirk of his brow.
I bared my teeth. "Generally speaking, yes."
"Then my orders will be followed."
"Difficult to feel cooperative," I gritted out, "when one is already behind bars."
Something like amusement flickered in his gaze. His eyes moved over my face the way I’d once seen a professor do when studying an equation he hadn’t expected to be so perplexing. For one horrible moment, I found myself wanting to know what conclusion he’d reach.
His lip quirked. It wasn’t a smile exactly, but I had a feeling it was as close to one as he could get. He reached one hand through the bars and I froze as he fingered a lock of my hair.
"Take her to the Star," he said, eyes locked on mine.
He pulled his hand back and metal shrieked against metal as his fingers closed around the lock. The iron gave way beneath his grip, crumpling like paper before clattering to the floor.
"What in the he—"
Two brutes rushed forward, rum-sour breath filled my nostrils as a calloused palm smothered my words. Another pair of hands gripped my shoulders, steering me forward.
The captain moved like a striking viper.
His fist bunched in my assailant’s collar, fabric straining at the seams. Their noses nearly touched as he leaned in, voice dropping to a whisper that somehow filled the entire hold.
"If anyone’s skin so much as grazes hers, I’ll feed it to them strip by strip. "
What…the fuck?
Had he just threatened to feed a man his own flayed skin? And for what? Not protection out of any kindness. Probably more like a filthy pirate claiming ownership of his newfound treasure.
"How chivalrous," I said, voice dripping acid. "Are you keeping them at bay out of decency, or are you simply reserving me for yourself?"
His eyes swept over me, calculating, cold, and whatever hunger lurked there was overshadowed by something more dangerous that I couldn’t yet name.
"Is that what you want, Miss Godwin? For me to have you all to myself?" One salt-calloused finger swept a line across my cheek, then down my neck, and I couldn’t stop my pulse from jumping beneath the touch.
"Filthy pirate," I spat through clenched teeth.
His eyes darkened and he growled, "Take her."
Hands like iron bands clamped around my biceps, fingertips digging deep enough to leave purple crescents by morning. I thrashed, kicked backward at shins, twisted until my joints screamed.
"Let me go!"
"Quiet down, wench," one said, an irritated edge to his voice.
"Captain says come, you come," growled the other, his accent thick as tar.
My heels dragged across splintered wood as they hauled me up the stairs as if I were naught but a sack of grain shared between them. It was bloody infuriating and I told them as much.
But when we hit the deck, all of my words died in my throat as my feet skidded on blood-soaked boards.
The salty air smelled of copper, and before me a scene of carnage unfolded.
Bodies lay twisted and still, a grim mosaic across the ship’s planks that burned itself into my memory.
The deck, a battlefield moments ago, was now a sight of this man’s murderous lust.
My captors, however, seemed unfazed. Their grip tightened as they dragged me toward the planks linking the two ships. Was this to be my fate? Or worse? Were they taking me to have their sick way before dropping my lifeless body off at the next port?
No bloody way in hell.
My shoulder wrenched as I made one final desperate lunge. Something popped and I couldn’t suppress the whine of pain that burst through my lips.
"Easy," one of the brutes grunted, adjusting his grip when I tried to wrench free hard enough to take my own shoulder out of its socket. "Ain’t worth losin’ an arm over, love."
"I'm not your love," I hissed through the bile rising in my throat.
They dragged me across the deck to a board bridging the two ships, and it swayed violently with the waves. My head swam so badly from the pain of my shoulder, in combination with the wet blood and roiling sea, that I conceded the fighting and let them haul me to their ship.
One must know where to fight, and atop a rotting plank swaying between massive ships seemed the wrong place to do so.
When my knees hit the deck of the pirate’s ship, I lurched to the side to vomit.
One hand clamped my hair back; another gripped my shoulder to keep me from pitching overboard. I loathed both of those holds and hated that I needed them. The queasiness only grew worse as the pain from my shoulder spread.
The familiar thud of the captain’s boots sounded off to the side before they appeared in my line of sight. My breath caught as I looked up at him. Something in his stance, the way his shoulders held the weight of command, stirred a treacherous flutter beneath my rage.
A raucous cheer filled the air, and I hated how part of me thrilled to it, as if I'd accomplished something by being captured.
"Welcome aboard the Mourning Star, little bird," he said, and I despised both the warmth that bloomed at his voice and the chill that followed.
"Fuck. You." My words slurred as darkness threatened to take me under.
His dark smile above me was the epitome of evil.
"As you wish."