Page 52 of High Seas

“Like hell I will,” I growled, following him out the door.

“Can you not – for once – do what you are told, woman?”

My brows shot up. Oh, no he didn’t.

“Enoch, I’m a specially-engineered warrior, and so help me, if you try to shut me in this room, I’ll burn it down and walk out of the flames with my stake pointed right at your heart!”

Enoch’s upper lip flinched, taken aback by my explosive reaction. “Fine. Then stay by my side.”

Titus stood back, watching the sparks fly between me and my target, careful to avoid the embers. “Wait,” he finally challenged. “Won’t they be aiming for you? Eve won’t be safe at your side.”

“Captain!” a crewman yelled.

“What is it?” Enoch answered.

“It’s Hornigold.”

Enoch’s shoulders tensed. Terah appeared beside him with a worried look on her face. Her golden hair was a tangle of knots. I’d never seen her look so… undone.

“Who is Hornigold?” I asked, throwing up my hands.

“Benjamin Hornigold is a traitor with a lying tongue – one I plan to personally carve out,” Enoch gritted.

“He’s also Edward’s friend and mentor, of sorts,” Terah added.

“Ready the cannon!” Enoch hollered, pulling a spyglass from his pocket. He extended it and peered through the lens at the approaching ship.

“How can they travel so fast?” Titus asked.

“Their ship is smaller, and therefore more agile,” Enoch explained.

“But they have fewer cannon, right? We’ll crush them.”

Enoch was quiet.

“Right?” Titus prodded.

“Terah, bring Thatch to the deck,” Enoch yelled as the crewmen shouted and scrambled below us, making the weapons ready. “He may be of use to us yet. Hornigold won’t fire if he sees him.”

“Let me take Edward over,” I offered. Enoch and Titus both tensed. I rolled my eyes, my mind spinning. I can do this. “Put me in one of the little rowboats and let me row him over.”

“I would never put you in harm’s way,” Enoch vowed.

Maybe there was a safer way to approach this… “Enoch, are all sailors as superstitious as your men?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“They don’t like the thought of a woman being aboard a ship, right? I’ve heard them whisper to one another.”

“Right,” he reluctantly agreed.

I couldn’t help but grin. “How do they feel about ghosts?”

I saw the moment the memory surfaced in Enoch’s face. I could be a walking apparition when I wanted to be. “Enoch, let me help.”

The jaw in Enoch’s jaw ticked. I let the circuits of my tech suit flare brightly, then I became invisible. The men aboard Enoch’s ship sucked in a collective gasp. One let out a “Shiver me timbers,” but the way he said it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

“They never saw the clone disappear?”

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