Page 18 of A Captain So Callous and Cruel

But the other men—those who were calling her out, were dressed far too well. When she had emerged her head, her terrified eyes locking to mine, one of the men said something to her. Something that made her eyes glisten with tears.

I was scared, but I knew Clara would use her siren song to stop them from hurting me. I kept waiting for it to come, but her lips merely wobbled with emotion.

I wouldn’t understand until later that a siren’s song waned close to shore. That we needed the power of the ocean to carry it.

Without fighting, she let them drag her out of the water and set her down on the boardwalk beside me. Still dazed, I sobbed for her as she pleaded for them to give her a few minutes to tell me goodbye.

“Run, Hali,” she whispered in my ear. “You must pack your things and run. Never look back.”

She embraced me as I lay there, barely able to move, my head throbbing as I realized they were going to hurt her. She embraced me, and then she offered herself to them. I crawled back, watching them form a circle around her, feeling a fear so thick, it felt like a weight around my throat. They paid me no attention as I hid behind the water barrels used to refill docked ships. I watched everything unfold, hanging on to every word as they mercilessly stole the best and most beautiful person I had ever known.

I don’t like to think about it.

Of the vile things they did. Of the promise of riches they later exchanged to one another. Of how they were going to sell her tail, and they knew just the right buyer.

I grew up in that single moment. My childhood was gone. I was never the same again. I can’t remember what life was like before that night. I just knew there was a single name they uttered, the name of the buyer who would make them rich.

Staring at Captain Erickson, I wait for his response.

My eyes are surprisingly dry as I think about my sister. I’m not emotional, as I usually am. In fact, I’m full of barely restrained rage as I stare at the very man that purchased my sister’s tail.

This is personal, I remind myself. I need to be here. To look into the eyes of the man that still has a piece of her.

“Your turn,” I say next, and it sounds unlike the meek girl I’ve pretended to be.

He stares at me for several moments. “My turn?”

“I can have whatever I want,” I remind him.

“And what do you want, Red?”

“I want a truth from you.”

His brows lift minimally. I detect the surprise in him. Of all the things I could want—the food, safety, the comfort of his quarters—I’m instead asking for the same thing he did of me.

He takes a drink of his glass. It’s amber liquid. Tougher stuff I can tell by the hiss he blows out as he presses the drink back down. For once, he’s quiet, like he doesn’t know what to say. He’s always been taking the lead; begun and ended every conversation, treating me like a pawn, but it’s different now. There's tension in the air.

When he looks at me, he’s not just loaded with that desire, but curiosity, too. It’s so thick in him, it might even outweigh the desire.

He doesn’t look at me, his eyes drawn to his wrist. I watch as he rubs at a bracelet there; his eyes losing focus, and for a moment, he’s very far away. I look down at the bracelet, wondering what emotion or memory it is attached to.

He lets out a long, shuddering breath. “Me, Red? I’m cursed.”

I wait for the punchline. For something vicious and cold. There is none.

Clearing my throat, I feel a little unnerved by the attention he gives to his bracelet. He nearly looks like a lost man. Someone you’d find tucked in the corner of a bar, drinking his sorrows away. There’s so much pain in that single look, I have to look away.

I’m being ridiculous.

There’s nothing there.

I’m simply searching for what can’t possibly exist, and so what if he was sorrowful about something? It doesn’t excuse the long history of treachery he’s left behind.

Still, I can’t help myself.

“Cursed?” I whisper.

I keep my eyes trained downward as I wait for his response. He shifts in his chair, and I sneak a glimpse up, watching as he licks his bottom lip, glistening it, and goes to speak.

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