When we finally made it to the saloon, I was relieved that Hawk-Eyes pushed me into a seat. But then I took a long lookaround and huffed. It wasn’t much better in here than it’d been out there—people were loud, crude, aggressive, drunk, and uncaring of others around them—but at least I could sit back and watch instead of being right in the center of it.
There was a band playing in the corner, a bartender behind the bar along the far wall, and several waitresses, as well as a bunch of women—and a couple of men—walking around with barely anything on, who were clearly sex workers.
When one of the women came over to our table, Willy blushed, which made him even cuter than he already was. After flirting for a minute, the woman walked away with a wink in his direction. She must’ve picked up on the fact that no one at our table wanted to take her up on her offer. Well, Willy probablywantedto, but I doubted he’d go through with it.
“You okay over there, Willy?” I asked, trying to hide my laughter.
He sighed and put his head in his hand, elbow on the table. “Yeah,” he said dreamily, staring after the woman. “I’m good.”
That made me laugh, and Sage flicked some water at him with a chuckle. “If you want her, go barter a deal with her.”
Willy blushed again and shook his head before taking a long sip of his beer. “Nah, I’m good.”
“You don’t need to be shy.”
He shrugged. “Just because I like lookin’ doesn’t mean I wanna touch.”
Sage grinned and lifted his cup at him. “Fair enough.”
I clinked glasses with them both before taking a sip of my beer. It tasted foul and horrible and nothing like the beer from home. But I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, so I kept on drinking without a word, hiding my grimace with my cup.
Ariella came over and slapped my shoulder. She glanced around the table before pointing at Willy. “You.”
He pointed to himself. “Me?”
She nodded, looking super serious for a minute, but I could tell she was only joking around. “Yes, you.”
Then she grabbed Willy’s hand and tugged him along and through the array of tables and chairs, taking him closer to the music. She threw her arm around his shoulders and started swaying them both as she loudly sang along with the band, looking like she was having a great time.
Willy’s entire face was red with embarrassment, but he was smiling widely—wider than I’d ever seen—and gamely going along with her, so he was having fun too. I was glad. After what he went through, I’d been nervous that the crew would be cruel to him. But my… friends—were they my friends?—were going out of their way to include him, and he seemed happier for it.
I was honestly surprised by how many of our crew came out tonight. I would’ve thought that after spending weeks on end in each other’s space, they wouldn’t want to spend even one more minute together. But I thought wrong.
Butcher’s crew apparently went to a gambling den and had no plans to come here—thank the goddesses. But all theWraithpirates I’d befriended, minus Reaper, were here, and they were all having a grand old time from the look on their drunken faces.
Seeing the crew like that brought a big smile to my face. Sure, they tended to eat dinner together and maybe play a card game, but I’d never seen them so relaxed. On the ship, everyone was tense, as if waiting for the next encounter with Viper. But here, they didn’t have to worry about him, and it was easy to tell what a reprieve it was.
Thoughts of Viper made me uneasy. Everyone onThe Black Wraithwas made to fight, and after what happened last time, after I’dkilleda man, I… didn’t know if I could do it again.
Glancing around the saloon, I saw a few other pirate crews that were having just as much fun together as theWraith’screw was. Most everyone had smiles on their faces.
Did other crews fear for their lives the way everyone did on theWraith?
If I was aboard a different ship, would I be forced to fight? Forced to kill again?
As my thoughts twirled and twisted in my mind, the itch under my skin grew and grew until it was unbearable. I couldn’t take it any longer.
I needed to release my magic or I was going to come out of my skin.
Everyone else was occupied and didn’t seem to notice how fidgety I was. They were probably too far gone with drink to care. If I was going to take a chance on another ship, now was my time.
And holy phoenix tails did I need to release this magic.
Now.
I’d been there for nearly two hours before I finally saw my chance to leave. As quickly and as quietly as I could, I snuck out of The Sea Serpents Saloon while the entire bar sang a shanty I didn’t know the words to. They were having so much fun I doubted any of them would even notice I was gone.
When I escaped, I stopped and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath of the foul air—Duskwater Harbor was filthy, and it smelled horrible—before glancing around. I’d memorized the route here, so I knew the way back to the ship.
