This is the same group we brawled with at that tavern in Iaspus. The ones Kai cheated at cards. On multiple occasions, apparently.
The pirates drag each of us from our pens with curved blades pressed to our throats.
I’m weak,I tell Zadyn.I’m not sure I can fight like this.
Allow me to assist,Furi purrs.
Furi wants to know if she should attack,I relay.
Not yet.His response is muffled, like hers.You win more bees with honey, and right now we could use more allies than enemies. Let’s try the diplomatic route first.
Spoken like a true emissary.
Going to charm the Pirate King?I tease, allowing a bit of a smile to color my words.
If that’s what it takes. He winks at me.
It seems we have now graduated to mind flirting, even in the face of imminent danger. Not that I’m mad about it.
We’re dragged up the decrepit wooden steps, onto a massive deck. It’s dusk, the sky an eerie, sleepy blue, casting the bodies around us in navy shadows. A heavy layer of fog clings to the air, obscuring the sea beneath us and keeping our whereabouts a mystery.
There are pirates everywhere, swinging from ropes and pulling at sails, shouting commands back and forth in some coded language as we’re ushered toward a cabin with thick stained-glass windows.
“The Pirate King will see you now. Try anything and you’re dead.”
We glance at each other warily before the cabin door opens, and we’re flung inside.
The Pirate King of Bleakwater Bay rises from his seat, removing his wide-brimmed black hat and placing it atop the old wooden desk. Platinum-colored waves tumble out, and eyes of ice blue rimmed with gold peer out from between the curtain of long hair. Our mouths drop open.
The Pirate King is ashe.
“You’re a girl?”Kai sputters, his jaw slack.
“And you’re the little prince that’s been causing my crew so much trouble lately. Cheating them at cards, burning their cargo, swindling them out of their purses.” She walks around the front of her desk, her heeled boots clacking against the hollow floorboards. “You’ve been somewhat of a thorn in my side.”
“Well, if I had known whose side I was pricking, I would’ve let them take me a lot sooner.” Kai’s eyes sparkle as he drinks in the stunning female before us.
“Crossing a pirate is punishable with the plank.”
“My blood belongs to the sea. Rest assured, I am an excellent swimmer, my lady.”
“Your Grace,” she corrects, her voice velvet-smooth. “You will refer to me as your Grace.”
“And how will you refer to me?”
“Kai, shut it,” Dover hisses, but Kai delights in the challenge. He stares at her like she’s an anomaly, and truth be told, she kind of is.
She offers up a canary-like smirk, leaning in to grab his face. “Astonishing. You second sons truly have nothing but dicks for brains. Dismantling you is going to besucha pleasure.”
“Forgive me, but I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding.” She pins Zadyn with a slow glare. “Your Grace,” he adds, an edge to his civil tone.
Releasing Kai with a shove, she spins toward the desk and lifts up a stack of flyers with our names and faces.
“I beg to differ. I’ve been seeing you lot around. There’s quite a price on your heads. Happy accident that the little prince happened to be with you. I’ve been searching for him for some time now.”
“Darling, the feeling is mutual.”
A nip of fear climbs up my legs. “You’re going to sell us out to Vod?”
