“Cammy-belle? Where are you? Help! I need you!”
“It’s him!” Cameron fought with renewed vigor against Simon’s hold.
And she’d almost succeeded in gaining her freedom when something struck the ship so hard, it knocked it off keel, tipping it dangerously to the starboard side. They all stumbled, fell, and rolled to the starboard wall.
Everyone paled as objects skittered across the boards and slammed into them. Several sailors screamed out as the takarum reached from the shadows and claimed them.
Valynda and Belle combined forces to form a shield wall while Bart and William were forced to extinguish their torches or risk setting the ship on fire.
“Where’s the captain?”
No sooner had Roach asked the question than a booming voice answered. “On deck! Now! All of ye! Move your sorry arses!”
There was no missing the fury in Captain Bane’s tone as he ripped open the door that was no longer locked.
He and Marcelina came into the room and helped them up, and then one by one they left the room until they were outside in the rainstorm.
The ship finally began to right itself so that they could stand on deck and not risk being swept overboard.
“Stay out of the shadows,” the captain ordered them. “Sancha, head us due north toward the Quella.”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” She ran to obey him.
As he started below again, Cameron stopped him from his descent. “They have me brother, Captain.”
He paused to meet her gaze. “Nay, lass. I fear something a lot worse than the takarum has your brother. Now stay here and let me clear them.” He gave her a gentle push back toward Marcelina before he vanished through the hatch.
She turned toward Mara and scowled. “I don’t understand.”
Marcelina handed Cameron the medallion she’d loaned to Thorn. “Paden’s been seduced by the darkness, child. He’s no longer the man you knew him to be. Rather, he’s someone else entirely.”
Nay, Paden wouldn’t have done that. She knew better. “I don’t believe you.”
Thorn came up on deck, not far from them. “Believe it. I did everything I could. I’m sorry, Cameron.”
Nay …
Nay! This wasn’t right. Cameron could feel it deep in her soul.
But she didn’t know how wrong things were until a moment later when William and Belle swung about.
“Cameron! Avast! Them ain’t Thorn and Mara!”
“They be shifters!” Belle warned. “Duck, lass!”
Before Cameron could move they seized her and swept her overboard.
16
“Duel … it’s not what you’re thinking.”
He arched a brow at Mara’s whispered, guilt-ridden words. “Then you’re not intending to hand me over to your sister as soon as we reach the gate?”
She cringed as she realized that he did indeed have an exact handle on her original plan. Pity, that, for her, anyway. “It was the plan.… But things have changed.”
“I’m sure of that.” Sarcasm dripped from his tone.
A sarcasm Mara didn’t understand given all that had transpired this day. “Meaning what?”
