Page 46 of Wicked Tides
The cotton fabric of my new garments itched. I squirmed in the oversized coat as I followed Vidar up the steps, angered that he had read me so well. I wasn’t even sure where the girls were. For all I knew, while I was in that cell, he’d tossed them overboard. Hurt them. Stuffed them in another holding cell of their own.
Only that wasn’t the case. When I came up the steps onto the deck, I saw far too many confusing things to process in the few moments I had to soak it in. I saw a good portion of Vidar’s crew. Some were wrapping ropes. Others were cleaning. Gus was tying a knot against a post with one of the older girls next to him. She was closely observing every loop he made just as Ahnah had observed me carving the tuna. All of them were eager to learn and… trusting. A couple girls sat to the side, warry of the men, but most of them were fully committed to helping with chores it seemed.
A hole in the clouds let some sunlight through that everyone seemed to eagerly be soaking up, but when I appeared behind Vidar, conversation slowed and eyes started drifting coldly toward me. Gus had the angriest stare of them all. His one eye was filled with more suspicion than ten of the crew combined. I lifted my chin and sighed. I was no stranger to scrutiny. But I was a stranger to letting a stare linger. If I had my way, they’d all be dead already, but slaughtering another crew in front of the girls seemed counterproductive now, especially after Vidar hinted at bringing them home.
I stopped and scanned the faces around me when one caught my eye. One that should not be on Vidar’s murderous ship.
Tied to the mast was Meridan, her arms bound tightly with twine. She was dressed in a pair of loose slacks and a large shirt that covered her just like me in filthy human clothes. Our gazes met and my jaw tightened. They’d caught her. Fury boiled beneath my cold skin and I curled my fingers into my palms, letting the pain of my nails piercing my skin calm me.
The metallic scrape of metal caught my attention. I glimpsed Vidar a few steps away with his cutlass drawn.
“Before you do anything stupid, she came to us,” he informed me.
My brow twitched with confusion. There was no way Meridan would willingly come aboard a hunter’s ship, especially the Burning Rose. The red sails fluttering above us moved like a demon’s wings painted with the blood of my people. So either she was there out of loyalty to me, which I never imagined would stretch as far as putting her life in the hands of humans, or she was more afraid of the water than she was of Vidar and his men.
The latter turned out to be the scarier thought but the more believable one. She was the one who freed Vidar in the first place if he was to be believed.
“Why?” I muttered, looking into Meridan’s pale eyes.
“We were hoping you would tell us,” Vidar said with a smirk. “She’s too mad at me to talk.”
I started toward her when Vidar stretched his blade out in front of me, stopping me in my tracks. I shot him a glare that could cut flesh and hissed, showing my teeth. Then I slapped the blade away with the palm of my hand. He quickly replaced it, that time with the sharpened edge against my throat. I felt the sting of the metal slice into my skin, making a shallow cut.
“Like I said,” Vidar reiterated. “Try anything, and these girls get sold at the next port.”
“Still don’t know why you think I care about a bunch of human girls.”
He cocked his head and stepped in close, keeping the blade in place.
“Ahnah is very talkative and turns out she adores you,” he said with disgust, his eyes roaming over my body like I was a rotten stain on his deck. “She must be daft, but it’s true.”
I pressed my neck against the blade, lifting my chin in challenge.
“You should know by now that content prey is more enticing. Otherwise, what use would our song be?”
“Ah. I must have forgotten,” he shrugged, pulling the blade away and abruptly heading toward a few of the girls huddled near some crates. Eyes watched him from everywhere. Even his own crew seemed surprised when he grabbed one of the older girls by the back of her shirt and tugged her up to her feet. “This one is sick and unable to pull her weight.”
Vidar swung the blade up to the girl’s throat and her friends screamed in horror. A few of the men protested as well with words like “whoa” and “Captain?” But I had no words. My body lunged forward faster than I could control. I intended to pull the blade away and sink my teeth into Vidar’s neck when he suddenly tossed the girl aside and countered me instead. I screamed, my voice full of all the frustration and anger I felt toward him. He moved his blade to the side as I lunged. If he hadn’t, I’d have skewered myself on it and been content dying as I used my last moments to bite a gaping hole in his neck.
As it was, there was no blade through my stomach, but I was still going for the kill. Vidar spun me around, grabbed my throat with his free hand, and slammed my body down on the floor. Guns were drawn. I could hear each one of them as the men crowded us. Vidar pressed his blade to my neck again and met my eyes, entirely unsurprised by everything that just happened. I was seething, my breath sawing in and out of me.
“Liar,” he muttered.
I knew exactly what he meant and I felt ashamed that my secret had been so easily uncovered. Now my worst enemy knew of two things I cared about and he had both of them in his clutches. Meridan was tied to the mast. The girls had nowhere to go. He was winning already and we’d only just found each other again.
“I’ll never be a liar quite as good as you,” I snarled.
Something flashed in his eyes as if those words affected him but he snuffed it out so fast, I hardly saw it. He looked over me, studying my face meticulously before his gaze settled too long on the scar across my cheek. His scar.
But then he was standing and letting me get off the floor as he slid his cutlass back into his belt.
“The girls are going home,” he said flatly.
My eyes flicked toward Meridan. “And my sister?”
“She’ll be sharing your cell.”
~ 19 ~
