The second I stepped onto the main deck, I nearly ran into a tall, hard body, but managed to stop myself a moment before impact—thank the goddesses.
My head tilted back to see who was standing at the top of the ladder like a creep, and my glare intensified when I found Reaper staring back at me. What in the world was he doing blocking the ladder like that? And why in hellfire wasn’t he moving out of the way?
His gaze moved across my face, examining me in a way that had me squirming from the intensity. What was he doing now? Looking for something else to chastise me about?
But then he opened his mouth and asked the last thing I thought he would. “Are you okay?” His voice was quiet, like hedidn’t want anyone else to hear, and I blinked at him, my brain taking a couple of beats to process his words.
Reaper seemed to take that to mean I wasn’t okay, and he grabbed my arm and moved me to the side so Willy could rush down the ladder. Reaper cleared his throat and continued to speak in that quiet voice. “Do you need a break for the rest of the day?”
I opened my mouth to reply, then snapped it shut, too surprised for words.
“Ghost?”
Clearing my throat, I shook the cobwebs out of my brain and finally said, “No, I’m fine to work.”
He scowled at me. “You know I can simply ask Stitches, and she’ll tell me if you’re supposed to rest.”
“I’m not. She said I was fine. It’s just a bump, no big deal.”
He grimaced, grinding his teeth. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. I didn’t mean to—” He cleared his throat and went to speak again, but Viper yelled his name from somewhere above us on the quarterdeck, and Reaper snapped his mouth shut with another grimace. “If you need to take it easy, just let me know.” Then he turned on his heel and rushed for the stairs that led to the quarterdeck while I stared after him.
“Reaper!” Viper yelled again.
“On my way, Captain!”
That had been the strangest interaction I’d had with the man yet.
What in the hellfire had that been about?
One minute, the man was acting like a complete douchenozzle, and the next, he was being… sort of sweet and checking on me.
The man was going to give me whiplash.
But… but that sort of solidified what I thought I’d seen in his eyes. There was kindness hidden there, hidden very, very deep, under the guise of an evil pirate. But it was there all the same.
With those thoughts swirling through my head, I went in search of my cleaning supplies.
A battle cry came from somewhere below deck before stomping footsteps rushed up the ladder. My nerves were on high alert as everyone ran around the ship, preparing.
And I stood there, silently freaking out.
The Black Wraithwas chasing a merchant ship, and I was terrified because we were gaining on her.
The atmosphere was filled with excitement from most of the others, although there were a few rare aeronauts that seemed as nervous as I was, like Stitches. And possibly Ariella, but I didn’t know her well enough to know, and if so, she was hiding it well.
I stood in the middle of the main deck, unsure of what to do. Everyone was walking or running around me, bumping into me without even realizing it—or at least I hoped this many people weren’t doing it on purpose. It was like I’d become my name and really was a ghost on this ship, haunting them, on the outside of them, and not a part of the crew at all.
“You need a weapon.”
The voice made me jump in surprise, and I turned to find Reaper staring down at me.
When I didn’t respond, he repeated, “You need a weapon.”
“I… don’t have one.”
