Marcelina smiled. “I’m not a lady, child. You misunderstood Du’s words, as was no doubt his intention.” She passed a chiding grimace toward Captain Bane.
Confused by that, Cameron waited for an explanation. William laughed while Bart bit back a smile.
Devyl gave each of the men a chilling glare before he explained the lady’s comment. “Mara is this ship we sail upon, Miss Jack. Our warden—in all senses of that word—for this grand misadventure.”
“Pardon?”
“Perhaps this will help?” Marcelina posed herself like the ship’s figurehead. Before Cameron’s eyes, she turned into the wooden piece from head to toe.
“Holy mother of God!” Cameron crossed herself.
Marcelina returned to flesh. “No need to panic, child. As Du said, I’m the guardian for all who reside here. So long as you fall under my protection, I will do anything to keep you safe.”
“And ensure you have no fun whatsoever,” Bart mumbled under his breath.
The captain elbowed him in the stomach hard enough that he doubled over.
Shaking her head, Cameron did her best to absorb all of this, but … “How is this possible? How can she be the boat?”
The smile returned to Marcelina’s face. “I come from an ancient race. We are the wood and the wood is us.”
“They were the gods and guardians of the forest,” Devyl said. “Ever lurking among humanity and causing problems for them and us.”
“I don’t follow.”
Marcelina glared at Devyl. “We are the protectors—”
“My ass cheeks.”
“Du, please! Watch your language!”
“Watch your lies! Are you really going to stand there and preach that as if I wasn’t there?”
Marcelina grimaced at him. “And what of yours? How many fell to your race and army? Need I remind you how we met?”
“Need I remind you how we parted? Blood soaks us both!”
“And you’re an unreasoning beast!”
“Better than being an unreasoning—”
“Don’t you dare!” Marcelina shrieked, cutting him off before he could insult her.
A fierce tic started in Devyl’s jaw as his eyes glowed a deep, dark red in the dim light.
Her breathing ragged, Marcelina turned toward Cameron. “Anyway, my race predates the existence of mankind by centuries.”
Cameron frowned as she tried to understand what they were telling her. “Then why have we never seen you? How is it that I’ve never heard of your people?”
Marcelina turned another hostile grimace toward the captain. “War thinned our numbers to virtual extinction. While there were millions of us centuries ago, there are but a handful now.” She gestured at the captain. “Du and I had our destinies bound together long before the world you would recognize came into being. So when he accepted this task, I was forced to it, as well.”
“Payback’s a bitch,” he mumbled under his breath.
Cameron didn’t understand his hostility, but at least she was beginning to figure out his peculiar relationship with his crew and boat, and why they spoke of things the way they did. As William had warned her, things here were not as they seemed, in any sense of the word.
She inclined her head respectfully to Marcelina. “So you’re the captain’s wife, then?”
Captain Bane snorted rudely. “Hardly. I’d have slit my own throat first.”
