As soon as I had the thought, the man practically threw me through the door into the captain’s office, making me tumble and catch myself on my hands and knees, crying out as my knee hit the floor.
Okay then. Maybe not. Maybe he wasn’t on my side.
“Found a stowaway in the hold, Captain,” Pretty Eyes said, eyeing me and nudging me with his boot as if telling me to get off the floor.
I didn’t want to. I wanted to sink right here and melt into the floor, just so I didn’t have to face the most terrifying pirate captain in the entire world. But… if I wanted even the slimmest of hope of getting out of this, I needed to stand up on my own two feet and look fear in the eye… or something like that, anyway.
Plus, Ihadto survive. If not for myself, then for my sister and nephew. For years, we’d been talking about getting out of Sunada, traveling to Asteris. Things were better there, or so we’d heard. My powers being discovered was the worst thing that could’ve happened to us, but I supposed it’d done one thing—given me the courage to get the hellfire out of there.
I needed to get to the Asteris Kingdom and send for them. I needed to find them a better life than the one they had. We lived in the slums in Sunada, so I’d always hoped we could find a better home. Aside from my own job, Kayla apprenticed for a seamstress, and Cody had to work at the bakery after school just so we could pay the bills. Without me there to help, things would be even more dire, but at least we’d saved for emergencies, so they’d be okay for a while.
So I took a breath, stood to my full height—which wasn’t all that impressive, if I was being honest, but it was what I had to work with—and met the eyes of Captain ‘Viper’ Van Jagger.
And then I flinched, and the cruel man smiled.
But I couldn’t help it. I’d never in my entire life seen eyes as cold as his. There was absolutely no warmth there, and in one look, I could tell why he was so feared.
His long black hair under a tricorn hat and wild and bushy beard only made his cold eyes seem worse somehow, and that skull tattoo on his cheek added to the creepy factor. He looked exactly like he did on his wanted posters, although nothing could capture the pure… malice coming off of him in waves.
The man stood and walked around his desk, a strange grin on his face making a gold tooth reflect the light coming in through the door.
“Well, well, well, what have you brought me, Reaper?”
Reaper?
Oh, unicorn horns, the pirate beside me was Reaper?TheReaper?
I jolted with the realization, and then I wanted to laugh at myself for thinking the first mate ofTheBlack Wraith—theWraith’sReaper—could’ve ever been on my side.
Reaper said, “Stowaway. He stole some food from the galley and a bedroll. Figured we could have him work it off—”
“I have a better idea.” The captain’s grin turned malicious, his gold tooth almost teasing me, and he gestured to the wall on my left. “See that there, boy?”
I glanced at the wall and jerked back, a surprised yelp fell from my lips. And then I got a better look. I wasn’t about to be eaten by a hydra, but there, sure as hellfire, was a group of giant hydra heads mounted on the wall. It wasn’t alive, thank the goddesses.
Holy phoenix tails, he’d had a hydra taxidermied and hung on his wall.
The monster had four huge heads, took up the entire wall, and each one’s face was scarier than the next. One had its mouth open and looked like it was coming right at you, ready to bite off your face. Another was somehow sly-looking, as if it was going to snake around and get you from behind. Yet another was showing its teeth in a way that indicated it hissing. And the one in the center had its jaws around some other kind of creature, perhaps a lusca—an octopus-shark-like creature that was large in its own right.
What in the holy goblin claws?
My gaze moved across the room, and I realized with horror that the crazed man in a tricorn hat had… monster trophies all over the place. It made it feel crowded in what would’ve otherwise been very large quarters without all the…taxidermy.Blech.
There was a sea serpent head and partial neck on the wall across from the hydra, a griffin head beside it, a mermaid tail flipped upside-down and bent in half to be used as a small table between two armchairs—armchairs made out of two dragon clawed feet—a tooth that was likely taller than me sitting in the corner like a statue, and goddesses, was that a… a dragon wing on the wall behind him?
And fuck me, the desk was covered in scales… dragon scales? Sea serpent? Siren? Who knew?
Dragons were so rare, and seeing so many dragon parts was shocking and really horrific. I’d always wanted to see a real-life dragon, but not like this. Never like this. Some creatures were threats that needed to be dealt with, sure. But unlike the vicious sea serpents that attacked ships, dragons shouldn’t be hunted. They should be celebrated and left to their own devices.
Sure, we built walls to keep the dangerous monsters out—the ones that saw humans as prey—but dragons weren’t like that. They were known to be gentle, playful creatures—unless youattacked their young—so having dragon… parts all over the place was… disgusting.
Well, all of it was disgusting, and I suppose it was meant to be intimidating to anyone else in here. And, well, it worked because I was so terrified, I was shaking, my heart was racing, and my head felt slightly dizzy, like I might pass out.
Everywhere I looked, a new horror made my belly queasy, and for a few seconds, I was sure I was about to puke all over the rug made of… was that unicorn hair? Was this rug actually a unicorn hide?
How in the hellfire did he manage to kill a unicorn? They were pure magic and not easy to hunt in Escaster Forest.
A hand suddenly rested on my shoulder, heavy and warm but not unwelcome. It steadied me, giving me a moment to gather my wits about me. The pirate—Reaper—was the one holding me still, stopping me from passing out and falling to the floor in misery. A part of me wanted to shrug his hand off, but most of me kinda liked the weight of it. I had a strange urge to sink back into him.
