“Duel! Answer me! What is this about?”
“You wanted to learn to protect yourself. I’m here to teach you.”
What? Stunned and confused, she blinked at him as he finally let loose of her arm so that she stood in the center of the deck, near the mainmast. “Pardon?”
He handed her a sword. “You’re going to learn to fight.”
Now? Had one of the demons possessed him? She’d never seen him quite like this. And she’d been jesting earlier. Surely he’d known that. By his actions, she’d assumed he’d known it for the japing it was.
Glancing around at the crew that had paused to watch them, she shook her head. “I don’t need to learn to fight.” It was what she had him for.
“Aye, you do.” He pressed the cool grip of the hilt into her hand.
She refused to take it. “What are you about?”
Pure unmitigated fury darkened his brow. It was so cold and fierce that it actually scared her—something she wouldn’t have thought possible. “Take. The. Sword.” Each clipped word cut even more sharply than that weapon would.
“What is wrong with you?”
His eyes flared vibrant red. “Take that sword!” he growled in that deep, demonic rumble. “Now!”
“Nay, I will not.”
Du shoved her back. “Is that your answer then? To let your enemies have you? To bleed? To die? To do nothing while they rape and dismantle you?”
“Captain?”
Du shot a fire blast at William as he came forward to lend a hand to her. “Stay out of this, Mr. Death, before I make your last name a permanent condition not even Thorn can save you from.” He turned back toward her. “Is it?”
Her lips trembling, she hesitated at the sight of what she saw in those red eyes. There was something a lot darker than a demon soul inside him. Something a lot worse had its claws in his heart. “Duel … I’m not going to get hurt.”
“Don’t patronize me. Not after what happened today.” He grabbed her hand and forced her grip around the hilt of the sword. “Take it and learn to protect yourself!”
With a ragged breath, she shook her head. “You can’t teach me to fight in one day … in one session. Duel, you know this! A single lesson is absolutely worthless. Do you really think you can train me to be you in one afternoon? How long did it take you to learn your craft or train an army?”
Anguish lined his brow as her sanity broke through his madness. His own breathing picked up speed. He glared at her with the worst hatred she’d ever seen on his face. It made a mockery of what he’d directed at her on the day they’d met. “I won’t bury you! Do you hear me, Mara! I won’t do it!”
Those words baffled her. “Then graft me and I’ll return.”
His nostrils flared and for the merest instant she’d have sworn she saw tears in his eyes before he stormed off toward his cabin.
Relieved, shaking, and still quite terrified, she glanced about at the stark and pale faces of the crew, all frozen in place by their captain’s strange outburst.
William was the first to recover himself. “Are you all right, mum?”
She nodded. “See to the ship, Mr. Death.”
“Aye, mum.”
With a deep breath to attempt to settle her raw nerves, she headed after Du.
Cameron was nearest the cabin door. “Are you sure you want to go in there alone?”
Not really. But it had to be done.
“Aye. I don’t think he’ll harm me.”
Or so Mara hoped.
