Page 7 of Ship of Shadows
Wood splintered and shot out, some people ducking, others instinctively throwing up their magic. Fire sprang from one woman’s hand, incinerating the wood before it hit her. People screamed, crouching down. Others shielded loved ones.
This was a nightmare.
Still, the crowd stayed, everyone curious to see the king who was about to emerge from that ship.
I stepped forward, readying myself to jump up and yank him out if need be, but it turned out I didn’t have to.
He rose from the deck floor, standing up slowly, scratching his head through that thick black hair.
My mouth dropped open, and a collective gasp sounded from the crowd.
It wasn’t my father at all.
It was him. Bastian Lore. The pirate lord of the Dark Seas.
Chapter Four
Bastian’s cold, hard stare speared me, nothing like the man who’d spent months whispering sweet nothings into my ear. Worse, he didn’t look well. Purple smudges stained the area under his eyes, his normally tanned face was pale, too pale, and he hunched like he was in so much pain he couldn’t stand straight.
For a moment, the world faded away as I stared at him over the crowd, and he stared right back at me, his face bunched in a grimace. My heartbeat pounded in my ears. My fists curled at my sides, breaths coming in quick spurts.
Then everything came tumbling back into a stark reality. Yells exploded as the crowd surged forward, everyone talking all at once, some wondering who this man was, others already whispering his name: the pirate lord. His face was plastered on Wanted posters in every court across Arathia. At this point, he was a well-recognized man.
Just another reason it had been so foolish to dream of a future together.
Leoni and other guards tried to stop the crowd from rushing the ship. Bastian didn’t move, just leaned against the bannister. He looked barely conscious.
“Do something, Princess Gabrielle!” Leoni shouted over the crowd, who was now calling for the pirate lord’s head. I stood frozen on the boardwalk behind everyone, thankful they weren’t looking at me and the horrified expression that was no doubt plastered to my face.
Lochlan had always teased that I was terrible at hiding my emotions.
“He’s a criminal!” someone shouted.
“He’s killed the king of Apolis,” someone else yelled. “Why else would he be on thePearl?”
“What in the bloody skies is going on?” someone else asked.
The crowd shoved forward, clamoring to get to my father’s ship and yank Bastian from it.
It was mass hysteria.
I shook my head, snapping out of whatever trance his appearance had put me in. I rushed down the boardwalk steps and pushed through the crowd.
“Move,” I yelled, shoving my way through until I stood in front of the rope ladder dangling down the side of thePearl.
I climbed the ladder halfway up, then turned and held out my hand, summoning a sword made of water.
“Don’t come any closer,” I shouted, hanging from the rope with my sword pointing outward. “The pirate is in the water court’s jurisdiction, and he will be dealt with accordingly.”
A man with fiery red hair stepped forward, a scowl on his face. I recognized him from the frost court. “And how do we know we can trust you?” he asked, ice crackling over his hands. “Apparently your king is missing? And now his ship appears with the pirate lord steering it? What in the spirits below has been going on in the water court?”
At his words, yells once again erupted from the crowd. I was losing them, losing all the control. Blood and water. This daycouldn’t be any worse. I was supposed to be able to tell them what had happened on my terms.
Now it definitely seemed like we were hiding something.
“Why is the pirate lord on the king’s ship?” another voice yelled.
That was a very good question. One I intended to find the answer to. I whipped around on the rope ladder, arching my neck to look up at Bastian. He hadn’t moved, was still hunched over, and I could’ve sworn he let out a groan.
