Page 22 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

Isla went first. Grabbing onto the rope ladder, Reva steadied herself. She watched her friend’s ankles disappearing into the gloom. Sucking in a breath, Reva attempted to calm the nerves in her stomach. Although she’d made the climb onto the deck of a ship many times, she’d never done it when it was black as tar outside.

You’ll be fine, she told herself once more and hoisted her body onto the ladder.

Isla certainly managed the climb with more speed than her. In fact, oddly, by the time Reva got close to the railing, she heard voices and murmurs. A frown pinched between her brows. Hadn’t Albus claimed everyone on board was asleep?

He must have been mistaken about everyone being asleep, which meant this had all been a false alarm.

Was it, though? As she reached out and grabbed the wooden railing, she heard Isla’s voice, “Get your—”

But the words broke off abruptly.

Reva faltered. Who on the Perseus would have the nerve to silence Isla, the first mate and favored of the princess?

“Isla?” she called to the darkness above her.

There was no response.

Dread pooling in her stomach, Reva wondered if she could grip her dagger in one hand and still climb. She opted to slip the blade between her teeth. Then she had to decide if she would continue boarding her ship. But it was either climb on deck or go back down the ladder, and she could hear Albus scrambling up from below, blocking a descent.

And if she didn’t behave as expected, what would happen to Isla?

So, Reva ground her teeth together and finished the climb, leveraging her body over the railing and dropping lightly onto the deck.

Thump.

Before she had a chance to grab the dagger from between her teeth, hands grabbed her from both sides. She shrieked around the dagger in her mouth and felt fingers probing her face.

“The bonny lass has a blade between her teeth,” someone whispered, half-laughing. “You know how to pick ‘em, Cap.”

Cap? As in…

“Keep a civil tongue in your mouth, mate,” said a certain silky-voiced pirate.

Chapter Seven

Heat washed over Reva in uncomfortable waves. What the devil? Why was Rency on board the Perseus?

Rency appeared out of the shadows, his angular face illuminated by the storm lanterns hanging nearby. He leaned over Reva and grabbed the handle of her dagger. She ground her teeth together as hard as she could and shrieked at him, yanking furiously at the hands holding her arms behind her back.

“Don’t be like that, love,” Rency whispered as he jiggled the dagger, jarring her teeth up and down as he attempted to extract her one and only weapon. He seemed loath to simply yank it out—which would surely slice her lips open.

Apparently, he wanted her alive and unspoiled.

Reva struck out with one foot, but he knocked her boot to the side with a gentle kick of his own.

“You promised they’d not be harmed.” Albus spoke over her captors’ scuffle, his voice trembling.

“And they won’t be,” Rency said, still wiggling the dagger between Reva’s teeth. “Good man for bringing her to us. You’ll be handsomely rewarded just as we discussed.”

Rency had paid that baby-faced cabin boy to betray her?

Reva screamed between her teeth just as Rency succeeded in stealing her blade. It scraped against the tips of her teeth, creating a bone-chilling sound in her head. She winced and spat at the pirate captain in a most un-princess-like manner.

He just laughed.

Fury and frustration tore through her, and she stomped madly for the toes of the men who imprisoned her, but they shoved her to her knees. She felt the point of a sword at the back of her neck.

“Don’t fight it, Princess,” someone said in her ear. “You’ll just make this more difficult.”

---