Page 70

Perhaps it’s my eyes bulging in tandem with my dangerously high pulse. Either way, I’m screwed.

My head whipped to the side as I took in the foggy whisps of sickly grey smog emitted each time a cannon was fired hovering between billowing charcoal-colored sails, and the blurry distorted shapes of bodies locked in the macabre dance of battle. My eyes darted in all directions, and key knowledge sunk into my swarmed mind too late—Sheer chaos reigned, enveloping me in its arms.

Use your brain, Miko.

I pushed to my feet and ran across the deck on wobbly legs, uneven wooden planks thudding beneath me. The next thing I knew, my stomach somersaulted and my legs kicked at nothing but air, the familiar sensation of flying overtaking me as a strong arm cinched across my ribs. I blew out a breath and turned my head to look at him.

Thank fuck, Bane found me.

The thought shattered almost as soon as it was formed, then dread squeezed my guts, my head lightening as all the blood rushed from it.

A scream leapt from my tongue as I faced the precipice of death once more.

“I’ve got your whore, Hook!” a magical sounding, young male voice shouted far too close to my ear. “Return my lost boys and I won’t harm her.”

“I’ve no carnal knowledge of that woman,” said a man, his voice sounding like an aristocrat from overseas, and I could only assume was the aforementioned Hook. His eyes heated and he continued speaking, “But bloody hells would I like to.” Hook tilted his head to the side. “Seems you forgot to don undergarments, love. Besides, Pan, you’re too late. I ordered Smee to toss them overboard not two hours past.”

The arm banded around my belly loosened, allowing gravity to take hold. For a moment, nothing but air touched me as I fell, pillowy clouds racing by in my peripheral. I stretched out my arms, reaching for something, anything to slow my fall.

My arms strained, hands brushing rough ropes strung up the mast and crisscrossing the sails. I ignored the searing of my fingertips as they burned away on the rope, nevertheless, they remained out of my grasp. A strong gust of wind battered into me and my body swayed sharply midair, changing my trajectory and twisting me so violently nausea boiled up my throat. The lavender sky and puffy white clouds swirled with the dark hues of the ship as I fell, yelping in surprise as I connected with a sail then slid partway down its length before dropping back into free fall.

Hard planks rose to greet me as I landed directly on my back, every ounce of air whooshing from my lungs. It’s like I aimed for a dive but instead executed a perverted form of a bellyflop, my mind suggested helpfully. I laid there, lips opening and closing like a guppy in search of algae, utterly exposed and helpless.

A shadow broke my view of the cloud strewn battle above and a gorgeous, feminine face smiled down at me. I analyzed her perfectly symmetrical features as she came further into focus, noting she was completely free of cosmetics aside from an artful dash of glitter highlighting her high cheekbones. My eyebrows furrowed.

I closed my eyes tightly, then flinched as they fluttered open, bouncing to a distractingly bright ring of light framing her entire body, but particularly around her head. She was almost entirely haloed by two bright streaks of sunlight piercing through the clouds, streaming down from opposite directions, shining through her golden strands styled into two large buns. Somehow, despite the fighting surrounding us, not a hair was out of place, the slightly curled pieces of hair on either side of her part, clearly bangs.

My mind fixated on the conundrum. How the hell is that possible?

I felt as if I was drowning, my pulse thudding rapidly in my ears, but I realized muffled indistinguishable voices peppered my hearing as if through something akin to a veil. My heart crashed against my ribs as a spot within me burned deeply, but I was too absorbed in the ethereal beauty’s attention to care. Who is this woman? My brain fogged as if it were being stirred with a poorly sanded wooden spoon, lodging splinters in my gray matter with every stroke.

“Poor baby,” she cooed, crouching and leaning over my face. I blinked rapidly, my eyes snagging on something opalescent and shimmery lazily moving behind her. My eyes squinted. No, flapping at her back.

Are those wings?

The woman reached out and lifted a dainty finger to tap the end of my nose, giggles bubbling from her lips. “It’s too bad really, you and I could’ve had such fun together, lovely,” she whispered and raised a cutlass above my throat.

“Not my fated bestie, you sparkle-cunt.”

CHAPTER 29

Worlds Collide

MIKO

That voice.

I knew all too well who that voice belonged to, cutting through everything around me. “Mo?” I whispered as the ethereal woman was tackled from the side.

My lungs inflated on a sharp, choked gasp.

“That’ll do, Nixie,” a cultured-voiced man commanded, gripping the stunning woman by the arm and hauling her to her feet.

She shoved away from him, upper lip curling and revealing a set of tiny, sharp fangs. “I can take care of myself, Captain Hook.”

“Oh, don’t I bloody well know it, Sister. Still, I cannot have you offing unarmed women on my ship.” He sighed, clasping his hands behind his back as Monstera offered me a hand up. “Also, you should have better manners than to call me that. Only Pan calls me Hook you are well aware how much I despise it.”

“Your ship,” she scoffed, “the Jolly Roger belongs just as much to me as it does you. If you recall, our parents bequeathed it to us equally.” Holding up a finger stained with blood, Nixie continued. “And the only reason you got a share was to move your whoring carcass out of their castle without causing a scandal the crown cannot afford, Captain Nereus.”