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 Ireallymeant 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 wasI 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 didhehave 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.
