Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
She chuckles at that, giving me a wry smile. “Humans can be nice? This is coming from the Captain Ramsay Bones Battista, who slices heads off first and asks questions later?”
I shrug. “We all have the capacity to do monstrous things.”
I think of Maren. She might not be “human” in that sense, or perhaps she is, but she’s a good example, nonetheless.
Sam must pick up on an expression on my face because she says, “You know, the princess would make a fine pirate.”
“Aye,” I agree with a nod. “Though she’s not a princess anymore,” I add quietly.
She frowns. “What do you mean?”
I can’t help but wince as I tell her the truth. “The prince is dead. The mermaid too.”
“The mermaid and the hostage are dead!?” Sterling suddenly bellows from behind me.
Fuck. Why does he have to overhear everything?
I sigh heavily and turn around to see Sterling standing behind me. The rest of the crew has frozen in place, staring at me in horror.
I run a hand down my face, wishing I didn’t have to say any of this.
With another loaded exhale, I address my crew, ignoring Sterling entirely.
“Unfortunately, the mermaid was dying.” Everyone gasps. “She didn’t have any blood left in her to give and whatever she had probably wouldn’t have worked in the state she was in. She was a decaying fish in a tank, that’s all. So I killed her out of mercy.”
“You could have at least let us try!” Sterling growls. “We still could have fed from her! She had a hole we could have fucked.”
I glare at him. “It was the right thing to do.”
“And you killed the prince too?” he adds, spitting as he talks.
I hesitate. I don’t want to throw Maren under the keel, but I don’t want to lie either.
“The princess killed him. She had enough of his abuse,” I say.
“Then the princess is to be put to death!” Sterling yells.
“The princess, Maren, still belongs to me. Body if not soul. You know how it works, Sterling. I claimed her as mine and that is a bond that doesn’t break for any member of the Brethren.”
He lumbers toward me, trying to look intimidating. He reminds me of a rhino.
“A brand doesn’t mean she’s yours,” he ekes out.
“What about her orgasm?” I say, running my fingers under his nose, knowing the smell of her desire still lingers.
His nose wrinkles, his face going red hot.
“Our food supplies are non-existent!” he yells, giving his head a shake. “You killed the one thing that would have helped us, and you let the princess kill our source of income. What are we all doing this for if not for those things? You are leading us to poverty and starvation. You are not fit to be captain!”
I refuse to back down, pressing my chest right up against his and staring into his beady eyes. “Are you declaring mutiny?” I challenge. “Out with it then!”
“Captain!” one of the crew yells, and the warning tone of his voice causes both me and Sterling to look. Remi is pointing at the bow with terror in his eyes.
I whip around to see a waterspout forming on the dark surface of the sea, the column of water drawn higher and higher into the sky. I don’t know what to make of it, its creation doesn’t seem natural.
Then something shoots out of the top of the waterspout and with the way its wings are spread I think it’s a great gull or albatross, until I realize the wings aren’t feathered but slick and rubbery and belong to a giant manta ray.
The ray comes falling toward the deck and is about to hit when suddenly it starts changing forms in mid-air. The wings fold in to become human arms, the tail elongates and widens to become legs, and the manta’s mouth shrinks to become lips.
Standing before us, her feet gently touching the deck, is a sea witch.
“Nerissa,” Sam says softly from the side of me.
Nerissa fixes her gaze on Sam and gives her an impish smile. “You’re still here, Samantha Battista. I thought you would have died by now.” Then her focus comes to me. “And here’s the man I wanted to see.”
I swallow hard, summoning nerves of steel. Nerissa, like most sea witches, is a stunning woman, a human put together with dangerous magic. She’s as tall as I am, her body lush with curves that are accentuated under her gossamer thin gown made of pearlescent oyster shell which moves around her like liquid. Her hair is long and a perpetually wet dark-green that morphs into shiny kelp near the ends. Her skin is brown with a metallic pink sheen that shifts under the light, her eyes a bright glowing copper.
She has everyone on this ship mesmerized. I wish Maren could see her for herself since she was so interested in sea witches. Though now I’m wondering why.