Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
I look to the lady and she gives her head a fearful shake.
“Take them aboard Nightwind,” I say to Thane, then I brush past them and run down into the lower deck. There are moans down here from fallen men and small fires caused by the cannons, the gangways a mess of splintered oak. I quickly search through the ship, trying to pick up on the scent of anything floral and feminine above the smell of destruction that lingers with the smoke in the air.
I follow my nose into one of the cabins at the aft and am met with sea air and broken glass. I rush to the shattered window and look out.
Sure enough, there’s a woman in the water below, her pale yellow dress floating around her like a dampened sail, black hair spooling like ink. Her head keeps dipping underwater like she’s unconscious or close to being so.
“Not so hasty, Princess!” I yell from the window.
She doesn’t stir. Still, I should save her while I have the chance. She won’t be much good to me if the sea claims her.
I stare at her for a moment longer, something about her making me pause. From this height, her features are obscured and yet I’m strangely compelled by her. It’s like she’s not even trying to stay afloat, like she wants the sea to swallow her whole. She wants to give up.
And I’m here to ruin it all for her.
I squeeze my frame through the window feet first then drop down into the water, managing to do a twist into a swan dive part-way through. The water is cold but refreshing and I glide through the waves with ease, popping up right beside the woman.
“Princess?” I ask, and the woman stirs, her eyes widening, as if she’s suddenly aware that she’s floating in the ocean. “I’ve come to rescue you, milady,” I tell her, flashing her a grin and spitting out sea water.
I expect her to scream for help or try to swim away.
Instead, the princess punches me right in the face.
CHAPTER 4
Maren
I thought I had died.
Once upon a time, when I was young and probably being a pain to my sisters, my mother told me that if Syrens were bad they never achieved immortality in the afterlife, and instead they became the sea foam on the waves. I was certain that the moment I hit the water that I had dissolved into that very foam, punishment for trading my tail away for legs that don’t even work well half the time, for turning my back on my family forever, for forsaking what the gods made me.
I’d had thoughts of letting go for a long time prior, of course. Sometimes the thoughts were truly suicidal, other times they were desperate wishes for a different life, for an escape. But when I thought I was dying I realized how easily I succumbed to the idea of death.
I forgot about the ship and Aerik and Daphne. I just thought of my family. I thought of starting over. I thought of all my regrets.
There have been too many regrets.
The water was so very cold and dark and my dress was so heavy and I thought maybe instead of swimming to shore, I’d just sink to my own watery grave and finally be done with it.
I wanted to become sea foam.
And then I heard shouting. Yelling.
A strange male voice, a vaguely Scottish accent.
I opened my eyes to see a man swimming toward me, grinning as if we had both gone for a swim together.
He called me Princess. Told me he was here to rescue me, but from the triumphant and devilish look on his face, I knew he wasn’t my rescue.
He was a pirate.
So I did what I always yearned to do to Aerik.
I punched the man in the face, feeling the satisfying snap of bone under my knuckles, and started to swim away, as fast as my dress would let me.
I didn’t get far.
The man was taken by surprise by my hit (as was I, quite honestly) but it did nothing to slow him down.
Instead, he grabbed me around the waist and wrapped his arm around me, as if we were lovers going for a stroll, and started swimming toward the ship, so fast and strong that he caused a ripple of envy through me, for once upon a time, I was able to swim that way as well.
It shouldn’t have been possible for a man to be so strong, and that’s when I knew what I know now. This was no ordinary man.
This was the notorious pirate, Captain Bones.
And I was doomed.
“I have the princess,” the captain announces as he drags me on board the ship. I don’t know how he was able to hang on to me, despite my kicking and squirming and the fact that I weigh a lot in a soaked dress, and pull me up the rope onto the deck of his ship, but he did it like I was only a cumbersome sack of potatoes over his shoulder.