I turned to Freya. “Better sharpen your blades. We’re going to be in for …” I watched her stiffen, eyes widening. She put a hand to her chest. “Freya?” I reached out for her.
“No!” she shouted, putting out a hand to stave me off. She dropped to her knees. “I’m … I’m sorry.” Her eyes became unfocused, and then she straightened, her stance changing entirely. She grinned an evil grin and flipped her hair back before her eyes settled on me. “That is so much better.”
My eyebrows knit together as she got to her feet again. And then I realized what was happening. Ghosts rising from the ocean floor; Freya, with her body made from previously dead parts and previously under the rule of a cruel necromancer.
Ambrosia was back.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Freya glanced atAuggie. “Ah. How thoughtful of you to have the bounty on hand. Quite convenient.” She turned back to me. “You’re about to see what happens to people who cross me.” She took a threatening step in my direction. “Because not only will I kill you, very, very slowly. But even in death, you won’t be able to escape my wrath. I will continue to inflict pain and punishment upon you, until I grow bored.” She paused, tilting her head. “And I do not grow bored easily.”
“Um … what’s happening?” Auggie asked as the captain sprinted onto the deck, barking orders to her crew.
“Stay back,” I ordered Auggie, voice strained, eyes never leaving Freya, even as my hands slipped into my pockets, searching out ingredients. “She’s not Freya anymore.”
“More like a new and improved version, with a mind inside that is able to do what needs to be done: kill.” Freya reached back and pulled her swords from her scabbards and rushed me.
I managed to crush a gargoyle’s finger in my right hand before she reached me, making my arm hard as rock. I held it up like a shield, bracing myself for the impact of her swords. Her blades struck my forearm, sending sparks flying, but they couldn’t penetrate the skin. She blinked, staring at the place where her missing arm had been previously. Her axe-wielding arm. The necromancer hadn’t been aware that Freya had lost that arm. If Freya hadn’t, I’d likely have been decapitated by an axe.
I blew the ingredients for the slow-motion potion into her face, shouting “Natare in harenae.” Freya cursed before leaping back, but she wasn’t in time, already slowing to a speed that made her appear as if she was fighting quicksand with each movement.
I let out a breath, swiping at my forehead. I sent a shaky smile back at Auggie, who was wide-eyed with concern. “Are you all right?” I asked him.
“AmIall right?” he rushed over and hugged me. “That was bloody brilliant.”
My eyes darkened as the world around us began to glow an eerie green. “Oh, it’s not over yet.”
A large black clipper ship swung alongside theKoriko, slimy with algae and covered in barnacles. Seaweed hung from the mast where sails used to fly; the ship gleamed with wet, the scent of damp wood thick in the air. Skeletal pirates watched us hungrily, their bones glowing that ethereal green color as rags of clothes clung to their rib cages and pelvises, while scarves covered their gleaming skulls. A few of them had eye patches, and one boasted a hook for a hand. But there was no mistaking the captain, a man with a large black hat, a skull painted across it, a black beard managing to remain on a face picked clean of flesh by fish long ago.
“Good Lord,” Auggie whispered, clinging to me.
The pirates worked as one, three planks raised and dropped over the edge of the ghost ship to connect it to ours. Captain Mary’s crew tried to dislodge the planks, but they wouldn’t budge. Of course. The planks were made of wood. Dead trees. I knew all too well that Ambrosia could ensure they would remain in place.
The pirates began to cross the planks. Captain Mary stood firmly at the other side of the plank, ready with a sword, her men and women following suit. Narcissa flew between the ships and released a barrage of flames, setting the planks ablaze, but that didn’t stop the pirates from crossing them. They merely walked through the flames, undeterred, the fire extinguishing as quickly as it engulfed them.
“Ready!” Captain Mary shouted, lifting her sword as the pirates drew nearer.
“Do something!” Auggie demanded, yanking on the front of my cloak.
I was trying to determine how best to aid the captain, when the pirates leapt at her crew, clearing the distance between the ships with magnificent bounds. I watched the woman who’d brought us to Captain Mary’s cabin initially, as a pirate slammed into her. She didn’t fall under its impact as I expected her to, but rather, the pirate’s bones fell apart upon impact, dust exploding across her.
Perhaps Ambrosia’s subjects weren’t as strong as she’d imagined. But then I noticed that the green glow had left the bones … and now populated the woman’s eyes.
The same thing was happening to the crew. As the pirate’s skeletal bodies shattered, the green energy was transferred to each of Captain Mary’s crew members. I watched helplessly as the same happened to Captain Mary herself. Studying the process carefully, I could make out that the green energy rose in a plume with the dust of bones, then rushed into the captain’s mouth and nose, as if she’d breathed them in.
When Captain Mary turned to me next, her expression was slack, and her eyes glowed sickly green.
“Um, Mr. Witch,” Therese said. “I don’t think this is good.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” I murmured.
I checked on Freya, who’d managed to finally turn her body back in my direction but hadn’t begun to make any headway yet. I couldn’t keep the spell going forever, however, as the orb on my chest was slowly bleeding my reserve magic. And I now had a possessed crew to reckon with. Could I do the same to them? Slow them so they couldn’t harm us? No. My magic would run out far too quickly. I needed another solution.
The crew turned on us and strode purposely forward, closing in around us.
I licked my lips, thinking as I took a step back.
“Mr. Witch,” Therese repeated, voice rising in pitch. “Now would be a good time to do something witchy.”
