Chapter 47
Dominic was halted the moment he stepped off the gangplank with a sword at his throat.
Adara assumed this man was the captain based on his long, immaculate coat that trailed close to his brown boots, the compass hanging from his belt, the tricorn hat placed atop his unruly dark hair, and the way the crew looked to him with anticipation.
“Now do we get to blow shit up?” Caleb whispered at her side.
“No,” Tobias responded, abandoning his post at the cannons and gripping a staff.
Caleb groaned. “You’re lucky I love you, or else I would have strangled you by now for contradicting every idea I have.” With that, he charged across the plank to the other ship.
“You’re lucky I love you, or else I wouldn’t put up with your idiotic ideas,” Tobias replied, trailing after him.
Adara followed Tobias, sword at the ready.
The moment her boots landed on the deck of the enemy ship, her arms were wrenched behind her back, eliciting a muffled noise of protest from her.
Dominic’s head whipped in her direction, ignoring the blade aimed at his exposed neck.
She merely gave him a reassuring smile that promised death and let them pry Infinova from her grasp.
“I see you brought us a nice little plaything,” the pirate holding her drawled. Adara almost gagged at the smell of his breath caressing her cheek.
She pretended to struggle against his grasp, thrashing and kicking. “Let me go!” Her voice took on a higher pitch, edged with hysteria.
Asher narrowed his eyes at her from across the gangplank, still aboard The Lykren with his bow trained on the face of her assailant. Then the corners of his lips pulled up in a subtle smirk, as if reading her mind.
“A pretty thing like her would fetch a fine price at a brothel in Jeotom,” another pirate said, tracing a dirty, cracked nail along her jaw.
Adara jerked her head away, but the pirate caught her by the throat, squeezing. She did not give them the satisfaction of seeing her struggle for breath.
“But we could have some fun with her along the way.” He released her neck, shoving her back into another’s arms. A knife replaced the hand that had been at her throat.
A vicious smile from the captain had Dominic tensing as he glanced between the pirates and Adara.
The rest of the Andreilians boarded the ship, save for Asher, Vesper, and Sawyer.
Their bows were better from a distance. A blur of blond hair caught Adara’s eyes as Zephyr—who also remained behind—ducked to hide behind a cannon.
None of them dared move without Dominic’s orders, glancing nervously at the blade at Adara’s throat.
“I’ll make you a deal, boy,” the captain finally spoke.
Dominic rolled his eyes.
“Give up the girl, and we’ll let you all go. Or keep her and hand over any valuables on that puny ship of yours. It’s only fair that I take something of yours after you killed my first mate in cold blood.”
Dominic gritted his teeth, knuckles going white around his sword’s hilt.
“You touch her, and I’ll kill every single one of you.
And it will be a slow, painful death.” His voice was calm, lethal, dripping with venom.
“I’ll break every bone in your body, bleed you dry until you’re nothing but a husk of pain and misery, begging for death at my feet. ”
Adara’s lips curled into a coy smile. “We could have some fun,” she mused, before Dominic could make any more threats that would ruin her plan. Blinking up at the captain through her lashes, she giggled playfully. “But I warn you, I bite.”
The captain smiled, dismissing Dominic with a wave. “It seems she’s tired of you.” His crew aimed their weapons at Dominic as the captain strode toward Adara.
His brown eyes and dirt-speckled, pale skin filled her vision. The way his gaze raked up and down her body had bile rising in her throat, feeling like spiders skittered along her skin. The pirate behind her tightened his grip around her hands.
She could easily get out of this, but Adara couldn’t resist distracting them as the Andreilians quietly made their move, surrounding the crew.
“A feisty one isn’t she?” the captain said, raising a brow at Dominic. “No wonder you kept her around. Will you serve me the way you served him?”
Dominic took a step toward her, eyes darkening with savage intent. Blades were at his throat in a moment, giving him nowhere to move. The captain chuckled.
Adara leaned forward, giving him a seductive smile. “I suppose I could make things a little more . . . heated for you,” she said.
The captain grinned, his leering gaze roaming over her once more. Adara was grateful for the black pants that shielded her thighs from his fingers that trailed up the side of her leg and settled at her hip, for the high-necked tunic that protected her chest from his prying eyes.
Dominic’s expression was livid. Adara’s eyes locked on his, and she winked, ensuring him that she had this handled. If it weren’t for his trust in her, she didn’t doubt this entire crew would be nothing but a pile of bloodied flesh and bones for speaking to her in such a sordid way.
But Dominic held his composure—barely—as the rest of the Andreilians either circled their crew or searched the ship.
The veins in Dominic’s forearms bulged as he gripped his sword.
His nostrils flared with every breath, hardly containing himself from slaughtering them all.
His emerald eyes held the promise of a slow, torturous death for the captain, but that was not what Adara had in mind.
She wanted him dead before he even registered that his precious little plaything was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The captain stepped closer, and as much as Adara wanted to shrink away from his bulky frame pressing toward her, she let his large fingers skate along the sheaths at her ribs, settling below the subtle curve of her breast. His rough, graying beard scratched her cheek as he leaned in, bringing his neck closer to her.
His lips caressed the shell of her ear as he whispered, “I’m going to put you on your knees until you are begging me to—”
Adara’s teeth morphed into fangs as she sank them into the captain’s exposed neck and ripped out his throat.
The tang of copper filled her mouth. Blood sprayed across her face, gushing onto the deck and bubbling from his lips.
Gurgled sounds came from the captain as he collapsed onto the crimson-stained wood, his mouth working for words that would not come.
Fire flooded her veins, pleading—no clawing—to be released as the light left his dull eyes.
The pirate behind her tensed, unable to move.
Heat radiated from his body, still holding her tight.
The crew gasped, horrified eyes locked onto Adara, onto the smoke that rose from the pirate behind her.
He tried to scream but all that came out was a choked gasp.
Blood leaked from his mouth and eyes. As he released Adara, she smiled and turned to him, spitting out a chunk of the captain’s flesh and wiping blood from her lips.
“I warned you,” she said, flashing him a bloodied grin.
Flesh sloughed off his bones, blistered and charred to a burned crisp. He, too, collapsed into a pile of carnage on the decks, melted alive from the inside out.
Let me out, the voice inside her head demanded as she stooped to retrieve her sword. Let them burn.
No, Adara thought to herself. Not yet. She could not risk releasing more of her power now.
Infinova was forged to withstand the flames, to help control them when her hands could not.
Adara feared that if she unleashed them now, they might burn and burn until nothing was left.
The Andreilians needed to be off the ship before she could do anything.
She could not let them perish under her power.
“Demon!” someone shouted.
Metal split the air, and Adara whirled, bringing Infinova up to defend against the attack. But it was too late. Someone already fired an arrow through his throat.
“You’re welcome!” Asher shouted from The Lykren, nocking another arrow in his bow and firing at a pirate charging across the gangplank. The ship plunged into chaos, a blur of bodies and steel and blood.
A pirate lunged for Adara, with a cutlass aimed for her gut.
With Infinova, she quickly deflected, drew the dagger from her vambrace, pivoted around him, and plunged the knife into his side.
She yanked the blade free, leaving him to bleed out.
Another swiped for her head. She ducked, extending a leg and sweeping the pirate’s feet out from under him and going for the throat. Blood leaked from his slit neck.
Adara searched the ship for Dominic, blade arcing gracefully as she defended herself from the masses. Pain lanced through her scalp as someone yanked her back by her braid. An arm wrapped around her throat. Her vision went blurry, and her lungs constricted as he squeezed and squeezed.
Dominic retrieved a sword from a fallen pirate, raised both his blades, and slashed his way through the fray, emerald eyes fixed on her.
Gods, the way he moved—it was like he was the magic coursing through him.
He didn’t need to command it when it was intertwined within him.
He struck and blocked, swift as lightning.
Ducked and rolled, the boat rocking along the waves with him.
He whirled and struck, hard and lethal as a strong gale.
His blade met the enemy’s, ringing out across the deck, wind whipping the sails with the motion.
No, he wasn’t commanding his power at all.
It was simply built into him and followed without thought.
Like one’s lungs would breathe or one’s heart would beat.
A heart he didn’t have, replaced by magic cascading through him like a living, writhing being that kept him alive after he’d tossed his heart into the sea.