Page 28 of Of Song and Darkness

She slowly made her way back over to the ship. Her honey-swirled eyes reflected a mixture of anger and fear as she glared in my direction.

I would be lying if I said I did not find her spunk enthralling. When I looked down at her, I could not keep the smug grin from my face. It took a lot of guts to defy me and then gather her pride and return. I had the unyielding urge to forgo the punishment she deserved for costing me a monster kill, but the thought soured in my stomach as quickly as it had appeared.

When she had started weaving her trance through the air, I considered shooting her—until I was distracted by her ginger hair blowing in the wind. Her ability to commandeer the attention of my entire crew and a leviathan with just her song astounded me. I had never seen anything like it before. Usually, it took a school of sirens to take down an entire crew. This siren may be deadlier than I realized. Was that why the sea witch wanted her dead?

Her song had not influenced me, but I still found myself captivated by it. Her voice was like that of an angel, so calm and dripping with pure honey.

“Cap’n! That sea devil is climbing up the side of the ship,” Flynt thundered, leaning over the edge and pointing a pistol at her. “Want me to put a bullet between those pretty eyes?” He cocked the trigger.

Sink me. I had not yet prepared myself to explain to the crew why a siren was aboard the ship, but it looked like it was now or never. I needed to calm them before they slaughtered her and hung her head on the bow of the ship.

“Stand down,” I ordered as I shoved my way through the masses of men crowded around the side of the ship she was clawing her way up.

Shocked faces turned my way, but I ignored them as I lazily leaned against the railing, waiting for her to make an appearance.

“The Cap’n’s bewitched by the demon,” Flynt accused, and several rewarded him with grunts of agreement.

“I am bewitched.” I smiled at the crew. “Bewitched by the hoard of treasure the siren promised me in return for taking her to Medusa.” A hush fell over the crowd. Medusa was a name not lightly spoken of among monster hunters. None were as deadly as she. “The siren has promised the entirety of the treasures of a sunken ship if we take her to Medusa.” I raked my hands through my hair as I ensnared their greed with the promise of treasure.

“How do you know you can trust her?” a voice rang out from the back.

Good question. In truth, it didn’t matter one way or the other about the treasure she promised because she would be dead long before she had a chance to fulfill that bargain, but that was not something I was willing to confide in the crew. They would mutiny for sure if I told them I had made a deal with a sea witch.

“It’s real,” I promised.

Rhea’s hands latched onto the railing, and she hoisted herself over the side. The thought of being cordial and helping her skipped across my mind, but I booted it away. Especially with my crew watching.

She landed on the deck with a thud, pulling her long pink iridescent tail over the side. It landed with a flop in front of me. My gaze traveled over the length of her tail. It should have disgusted me, but for some reason, I could not take my eyes off the shimmering scales that seemed to explode with a different color every time the sun hit it.

“Sea devil.”

“Scourge of the sea.”

“You’ll get what’s coming to you, siren.”

The crew threw hate-filled remarks and slurs her way as she pulled her tail protectively closer to her body and tried to cover her bare chest with her long scarlet hair. She flinched as a few men stepped closer to her, the act igniting my anger.

I stepped in front of her, placing my hand idly on the hilt of my blade. The crew stopped moving. “Here are your options,” I stated plainly. “You can get back to work readying the ship to sail to Libya. You can pack your things if this task is too daunting for you, and you will be dropped off at the next port…or you can keep coming at the siren, and I will be forced to spill your guts onto the deck. The decision is yours.”

Their eyes shifted from me to my sword. Cael stepped next to me in front of the siren, sword drawn and ready as an added incentive. One by one, they slowly dispersed and resumed the work they’d been doing before Dante and the sea creature interrupted our task at hand.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Cael huffed and walked off to join the men.

I glanced down at Rhea, whose face was pinched with nerves and fury. I could tell by the sheer anger rolling off her that picking her up was a bad idea, but I couldn’t leave her sprawled out on the deck with murder in my crew’s eyes.

Against my better judgment, I bent down and lifted her. Her tail fin slapped against my thigh, soaking through my pants. She made the entire act all the more difficult by not wrapping her arms around my neck, but I could easily lift her dead weight without her aid.

I carried her below to my cabin, neither of us uttering a word to the other or allowing our eyes to meet. I sat her down in a chair near my desk. She adjusted herself and flicked her tail in what appeared to be annoyance. I turned to leave.

“You have the nerve to call us monsters? Monsters are not born. They are made by their acts,” her voice broke through the strained silence.

I stopped in the doorway, glancing back at her. A lone tear glistened on her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away.

“You’re calling me a monster?” I questioned.

“You are a monster.” Her voice rose an octave, and her gaze brushed across the floor planks, as if she refused to look at me.

I considered her accusative words, realizing she may not be completely wrong. “I never claimed not to be,” I answered honestly.

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