A harsh breath, as if she was trying to hiss but couldn’t do it through chattering teeth, said she didn’t appreciate that reply.
“I thought you said this wasn’t cold?” I needled, unable to help myself. I was saved from her tart reply by the arrival of the rowboat. “What ho, Aoki.”
My first mate steered the lifeboat towards us, tossing a rope and wooden buoy with expert accuracy, which is to say it hit the red-faced wildcat in the shoulder.
“Watch it!” she exclaimed, dipping dangerously low in the water as she tried to grasp her injured shoulder.
Aoki offered her a sharp smile. “Ladies first, madam.”
With that wretched scowl of hers firmly attached to her face, she gripped the line and waited to be pulled toward the boat. I swam after her, choosing to expedite the process.
A shadow darted to the side. At least it was asmallshark. It darted away when Aoki dropped the line and buoy back in the water for me, somewhat needlessly.
A crewmember gripped each of my forearms, hauling me over the side far more gracelessly than Aoki had brought in the sodden wildcat, who now floundered on the floor of the boat with her posterior pointed in the wrong direction. That is, towards the sky.
When she tried to sit up, Aoki pressed down on her back with his boot. “Stay still, madam. Wouldn’t want to rock the boat.”
I flashed him a wolfish grin as I settled in at the stern. The crew began to row us back to my new ship.
On the horizon, one of my other ships,Temerity,appeared as little more than a speck. We were back aboard my newest acquisition before I even had time to shiver.
“Fetch the captain some dry clothes,” the pirate known only as the Lady de Gorm ordered the cabin boy, her Laufeean accent thick and prickly as she welcomed me aboard. “Will you be taking over the captain’s cabin, sir?”
“Naturally.”
“And where shall we put”—her lip curled at the bedraggled sorceress in the now-ruined purple gown—“her?”
“Give her a hammock below.”
Behind me, Aoki hopped onto the deck. “How do we know she won’t curse the crew? Curse usmore,“ he amended.
“She can try.” I removed my water-logged weapons belt, handing them off to the Lady de Gorm, who would do what she could to polish and save them from rust. I addressed the wildcat directly. “Now, wife, the reason I married you is so you’ll have no choice but to break the curse you now share with—”
“Sorceress Dar’Vester,” she snapped, hauling herself up on unsteady legs. Her unnaturally vivid red hair was a mop over her face, but she still managed an air of wounded dignity. “You will address me properly,Bluebeard.”
“It’s ‘captain’ to you, actually.”
She paused a moment—far too brief a moment—then belted out a harsh, nasty laugh. One that came at my expense. “You make your wives call you captain?”
“No,” I said more quietly. “Only you.”
“Only the ones who put up a fight?” She offered me a sneer as she strode towards the captain’s cabin.Mycabin.
Boots squelching, I kept pace with her, my sea legs (and longer legs) allowing me to outpace her easily.
She began to walk faster, her hands curling into fists at her sides. I glanced again at the many rings she wore alongside her wedding ring, wondering how much each was worth.
“It might surprise you to know that you’re one of only two,” I answered her.
“Two brides? That’s not what I’ve heard.”
“Not brides. You’re one of the few tofight me. Certainly the first to knock me overboard.”
“Oh, so you’re a liar, too? Youareversatile, aren’t you? Did you know it doesn’t count as coming along willingly when you use a siren?”
A soft intake of breath drew my attention to Safira, her braids carefully tied back and wrapped in patterned yellow fabric where they streamed from beneath her brimmed hat—a distraction that allowed the wildcat to reach the cabin ahead of me.
I slammed my hand against the doorframe, barring her just before she could enter. Her forehead collided with the back of my arm.
