The jollies slowly moved apart, and I realized what Moonie had handed Maneater—a net. They each had an end, tying them to their jolly boats, and as they spread apart, the net grew bigger and bigger.
Moonie and Maneater moved together with practiced ease, losing altitude as they made their way closer to the trade ship.
I was confused why they were going so low until shots were fired from the merchants. Our ship was too far away and the jolly boats were too low for them to hit.
A sudden gust of wind made me suck in a breath as the two jolly boats were pushed quickly up in the air, and in almost a blink of the eye, they had the net wrapped around the trade ship’s bow.
The men on board were panicking now as they realized theWraith’s net and jolly boats were slowing them down. Slowing them down enough for our ship to close the distance with ease.
Apparently, those jolly boats had a lot more power than I’d realized. Although, if I concentrated on my magic, I could sense how much energy was in the fluxstones. Between theirpropellers and our windweaver, the trade ship had no chance of escape.
The merchants shot their guns at our two pirates, but they were both using the trade ship itself as cover. They had their jolly boats tucked in tight under the hull, holding the net and keeping their pirates safe.
Cannonballs were shot at our ship, but Ariella used the wind to force them to go wide. With another gust of wind, she brought us right up to the port side of the trade ship, so we were way too close for them to use their cannons without risking their own ship.
Plus, they had more concerning things to worry about because the pirates were throwing ropes, ladders, hooks, and planks, using them to infiltrate the trade ship.
The merchants started shooting their guns at us, but nothing seemed to hit our ship, so I assumed Ariella was using the wind to make them whizz right past us. Hopefully they ran out of bullets quickly. Guns weren’t as common as swords, and they held few bullets, but I knew how deadly they were. I could only pray that these merchants didn’t have many of them.
I watched in shocked silence as Butcher rushed across a plank, dropped to the trade ship’s deck, and fought a merchant with a sword. The merchant pulled a gun, but before he could even get a shot off, Butcher easily knocked it out of his hands. The merchant looked terrified as he refocused on using his sword, only for Butcher to use his brute strength to knock his sword out of his hand in only three hits and stab the guy straight through the stomach.
My own stomach twitched in response, and when blood splattered across the deck, bile rose in my throat.
My eyes skated across the other ship, one horror worse than the next.
Puffy chopped a man’s arm off in one sweep—the arm holding a gun—and he cheered and laughed as the man screamed in agony and fell to the floor, blood pouring out of him far too quickly. He definitely wasn’t going to survive that.
When another merchant attacked Puffy with a sword, he fought back, still laughing like he was having the time of his life, before he sliced the guy’s neck, nearly taking his entire head off.
“Oh, phoenix tails,” I whispered to myself, my hand coming up to cover my mouth and stop me from puking.
Two-Toed Roch jumped from the railing onto some man’s back, brought down her dagger, and stabbed the guy in the head.
So many of them were just… killing the aeronauts. They weren’t even trying to capture them or incapacitate them. They were murdering them.
I scanned the area again and blew out a breath when I saw Reaper knock someone out and push them off to the side before he chastised Puffy. I couldn’t hear what he said, but from the look on Puffy’s face, he’d gotten in trouble, and he waspissed.
Hawk-Eyes knocked a guy in the temple with the butt of her knife, and I watched the guy crumble to the ground before she pushed him out of the way with her foot and jumped into the fray again.
The more I watched, the more I realized that most of the pirates were actually… not murdering people unnecessarily. Like… murder was happening if it couldn’t be helped, and everything was wild at the moment, but there were a lot of pirates knocking people out and tying them up.
But then there were people like Butcher who were slicing off body parts and making people bleed out… like he was doing right now. I cringed as he used an axe to hack at some poor guy’s arm and chest.
“Holy dragon balls,” I murmured, bile growing again when I realized the guy was already dead, and Butcher was just… mutilating his body.
Before I could actually puke, someone hit me hard on the upper back, and I stumbled against the railing. With wide eyes, I turned to find Viper scowling at me. I jerked back because of all the pirates on this ship, he was the only one who actually terrified me. I was cautious around the others, but the captain… he was scary as hellfire.
“Go! Before I throw you overboard.”
My eyes widened in horror. Go? Go where? To the other ship?
He… he didn’t expect me to fight these poor people, did he? Reaper told me to stay here, so I didn’t think… I didn’t think I’d have to be involved.
Viper’s eyes narrowed. “Everyone joins in on raids, boy. Even whelps like you. You help, or you die, your choice.” He gave me another push, turning me toward a plank that connected our ship to the other. “Get the hell out of my sight.”
He jumped up onto the railing with more grace than I expected, grabbed hold of a rope, and quickly pushed off, swinging to the other ship. He was immediately surrounded by three men with swords, but the captain took them on with a yell and a… a laugh.
Good goddesses, he was having fun? He was as bad as Butcher.Blech.
