Page 78 of Wicked Tides
“Looks that way, you crazy bastard.”
Scanning his body, I found his hand cupped over his stomach. Slowly, I pulled it away to see streams of blood pouring from his abdomen.
“Ahh, you’ll be fine,” I said.
“Aye,” he shuddered. “Been shot worse.”
When our eyes met, the truth of it bounced between us. We both knew he was dying. I squeezed his hand and by the mercy of the gods, I watched the life fade from his green eyes, taking his suffering with it. Uther was still kneeling on the other side of his friend’s corpse, his eyes reddened with sadness. The two were like brothers and they’d both joined my crew at the same time.
I ground my teeth together and gently placed Brom’s hand on his chest.
“Those weren’t sirens,” Uther said. “Those were men. Are we fighting men, now?”
I glanced up at him from the crest of my low brows. “I’ll fight whoever I have to fucking fight,” I snarled, standing.
The silence in the tavern grew as the men came to terms with Brom’s sudden death until finally, Mullins stepped up beside me.
“We really going to let him do this, Cap’n?”
“Not a chance,” Gus said.
My jaw clenched and slowly, I slid Lady Mary back into my belt.
“Gus,” I said calmly, staring at the door where Collin had disappeared with my things. “Gather the girls. Stay with them. Thelasa will help you.”
“I know where to take them,” the woman said from behind the bar, shaking as she stood.
“Everyone else,” I continued. “Return to the ship.”
“What will happen when he tells Whitton about all this?” someone asked.
I cracked my neck to one side, relieving some tension as I marched toward the door.
“Whitton won’t hear a damn thing about this.”
~ 28 ~
Dahlia
Withered are we when we dream of water
With our roots trapped in sand.
~ The Flower Bed
“Move, you dirty dogs!” Collin shouted, his two men dragging me through the mud toward the docks.
I tugged and writhed to get free of their grip and once it angered them enough, they lifted me. One carried my kicking legs and the other had hooked his arms under mine. Every kick and thrash was met with more force. Ahead of me, Sakari was wide-eyed, constantly looking back at me for reassurance.
It was the same way Meridan looked at me sometimes. The same way Kea used to. And though Voel never needed my reassurance, she always knew I was with her.
And I’d failed them all. I didn’t ask to lead them, but they expected it from me nonetheless and my selfish vengeance had skewed my judgment.
What thefuck was I doing?
Sakari had no weight to her. A lean diet on ships had weakened her, but even if it hadn’t, she was small. She was dragged down the dock into a boat and gagged as if the men truly believed she was like me. A siren. They could not be more wrong. I doubted Sakari had ever hurt anything in her life.
I gnawed at the gag between my teeth. Not that my voice would do me any good when all of the men wore silentiums, but my teeth were sharp and could break bones.
