With an irritated grimace at her fretting over him that was softened by a peeking dimple in his cheek, he rose and squeezed her hand gently in his, then pressed past her to examine Kalder.
“What happened?” Duel demanded, kneeling beside the merman.
“Bastard shifters took our Miss Jack.” Bart added his jacket to Kalder’s shivering body so that he could use it to blot the water off his skin and hair. “We were trying to stop them from fleeing when lackwit Kalder jumped in after them in an effort to save her. Sadly, didn’t work.”
Duel cursed. “Anyone else go over?”
William shook his head. “They be the only two, Captain. Miss Jack and Shite for Brains. But we did lose a couple below earlier to the takarum.”
Ignoring the epithets he agreed with, Devyl met Mara’s fretful gaze and bit back what he really wanted to say. Instead, he let out a long, tired sigh. Damn it all. He hated to lose any member of this crew. For anything.
Things were getting bad.
Worse?
He was getting desperate.
Devyl ground his teeth. “You know, when I become the sole voice of reason in any given affair, we’re in a sad, sorry state, mates.”
William laughed, until he met Devyl’s sinister grimace. That quelled his mirth. “What are your orders, Captain?”
He glanced over his shoulder to where Belle and Janice stood, both soaked as much as Kalder.
And that gave him an idea.…
“We need to raise a water witch.”
Sancha laughed out loud. “I’m not that drunk, Captain.”
“Then you need to grab yourself some more rum, Miss Dolorosa, for that be the next step. We’re going in for a long, deadly haul.”
Belle paled considerably. As did Janice and Kat. “Have you ever raised a witch of that magnitude, sir?”
“Aye.” But it’d been a while and hadn’t gone very well. They tended to be cantankerous bitches, hence the boo-hag moniker they’d earned.
With no better plan, he locked gazes with Mara and waited for her to join the others in calling him a fool.
“Are you sure about this, Du?”
Not even a little bit, but he couldn’t let the others know how much he doubted his own intelligence in this.
Or his abilities.
“We can’t leave Miss Jack with them. Signal to Santiago, and we can transfer the bulk of our crew to his ship. I’ll need a few volunteers to—”
The sound of their protests drowned him out. But none were louder than Mara, Bart, and William.
“We’re in this together, Devyl,” Will said. “To the end. Come what may. Ain’t a man-jack or molly here what’s going to leave the others to burn.”
“Aye!” they shouted in unison.
“We burn together!”
“But I’d rather we try other means, first.” Valynda cleared her throat as she spoke over their raucous voices. “Not that I’m afraid, mind you. Just, being made of straw, would rather we think about it first. And set fire to our enemies before we give up our ghosts so cavalierly.”
“Hear, hear!” Zumari agreed. “Died once. Not eager for a repeat.”
Sallie snorted. “Bugger that. I say we set the whole of the world on fire. Damned be he who cannot fight and get out of our way!”
