“Aye,” Bane agreed. “Not unless you want to be seeking the ground for your teeth.”
He cast them both a dry, annoyed look. “Brace yourselves. There’s a lot of shit coming.”
He wasn’t exaggerating for dramatic effect, or wrong. Nibo cringed as he saw the next wave of fun that was gearing up to descend upon them. Lowering his arms, he stepped away and shook his head. “Well, that finishes me. Anyone else with any ideas? I’m quitting while I’m behind.”
Marcelina and Belle gaped at the large shadow he’d accidentally freed that moved toward them at an unholy speed. “What isthat?”
Sick to his stomach, Nibo wished he didn’t know what it was he knew. More than that, he wanted to put this particular genie back in its bottle and send it home on a tidal wave. Or put them in another dimension far from it. “TheFlying Dutchman.”
“The ghost ship?” Their voices assaulted him as a single unit.
“Sort of.” Nibo turned even greener around his gills as he watched it closing in on them with a speed he knew he couldn’t outrun.
“What does he mean,sort of?” Simon asked Thorn.
Kalder, still wet from his dousing and covered in his strange Myrcian markings, stepped forward to answer. “That it’s not crewed by men who were damned for their deeds. That would be us.” He jerked his chin toward the ship making fast for them. “That be crewed by the women who’ve died on the open seas who are hell-bent to make pirates pay for what was done to them. It’s why you can hear them screaming out so in the night. For they come for flesh and blood and will be satisfied with nothing less.”
He was right about that. Unholy tribute was what they were after. And not just any kind … “They feed the goddess Tiamat, who survives on violence and blood.” Nibo sighed. “She’s unleashed them on us because I opened the gate.”
Thorn applauded sarcastically. “Good job, man. Want to disembowel us while you’re at it?”
Nibo smirked at the bastard. “Well, I didn’t see you helping! And I don’t have to, since they’re here to do it for me.”
Bane whistled loudly to get their attention. “Enough! Beat each other’s arses later. Right now, we have a much more harrowing problem to solve, and I’m open to solutions.”
Bart gestured to Kalder. “Feed them a mermaid and hope that satisfies their bloodlust.”
Cameron gaped before she shielded her husband with her wings. “I think not!”
Nibo smirked. “Wouldn’t work anyway. He’s not large enough to satisfy them. He’d only whet their appetites.”
Valynda went still as she heard the voices of the crew calling out to her.
“Sister, sister, is it true?
“Tell us the name of he who betrayed you.”
Those words enchanted her like a siren’s lure. They were warm and sweet, and wrapped around her. Over and over they were repeated until they lulled her into a peculiar fog. Her entire body was numb and needing.
Valynda wanted to join them where they were. It was as if someone or something pulled her toward the sea, physically. The urge to jump in was so compelling that it was almost impossible to resist.
“Watch the women!”
Nibo looked up as he saw that Valynda wasn’t the only one being lured. Sancha, Belle, and Elyzabel, Bane’s sister, all were suddenly glassy-eyed. None seemed to have control of themselves as theFlying Dutchman’s crew sang to them, wanting them to join them for their unholy quest.
Worse? The Dark-Huntress tried to come up from belowdecks. Thankfully, Thorn saw her and rushed forward just as Janice would have stepped onto the deck and burst into flames.
Screaming, Janice fought against Thorn’s hold as she tried to get to the others. Bart captured Belle while the captain grabbed his sister. Jake picked up Sancha and Will also helped with Belle, but it was no easy feat to keep them from jumping overboard.
As was evidenced when Valynda sank her straw teeth into Nibo’s arm and drew blood. Pain exploded through his body. Damn it all!
Nothing had hurt so much since the day his brother had blindsided him with a club. Who would have thought straw teeth could be so miserable?
Yet there was no denying this!
All of a sudden, Strixa began to whine. An instant later, her Strykyn began to fall from the sky. As the war owls landed on board the ship, they turned into men.
“What the hell?”
