Page 23 of Wicked Tides
The two girls met each other’s gazes as if silently asking if they should answer. They opted out of doing so.
Good girls.
Sighing, the captain handed the smaller girl to his men. “Take them to the Rose. We’ll keep searching.”
“And the cargo?” the dark one asked.
“Take it all. The men of the Cornwallis have no use for it and I think Whitton owes us whatever we find on these cursed waters.”
The two crewmen took the girls up the stairs and I watched as the captain and the old man met just at the bottom of the steps to talk. The captain scrubbed his face with his hands as if he was tired and shook his head.
“Blood’s old,” he said. “Sirens don’t leave survivors. They could be back. For all we know, they’re keeping these girls alive just to slaughter later. We’ll check the rest of the ship, move everything, and then I’ll stay aboard.”
“Stay?”
“Me and a few others. We’ll stay. If anyone is coming back for these girls, they’ll meet our blades instead.”
“It’s as good a plan as any. One your father would have made.”
The captain groaned and headed deeper into the lower levels. I knew he’d find more girls down there. If no one else followed, I’d have a chance to stalk him into solitude and take him.
“Relay my orders, Gus,” he said as he walked.
“Blade out, Vidar,” the old man called after him. “You’re not invincible.”
My heart thumped painfully, my breath catching like a weave of thorns in my throat.
Vidar.
I felt myself beginning to shake as the two men went opposite ways.
Vidar.
I listened to the captain’s boots venturing further into the ship and the long scar on my cheek burned at the sound of his name like the wound had reopened.
“Vidar. My name’s Vidar,” the boy said.
I swore to Lune I would never forget the name.
Vidar was Bone Heart. Vidar was the terror of the sea. The captain of the Burning Rose.
Vidar was that little boy I freed. The boy who accepted my mercy and then uprooted my entire life.
The man I’d been waiting to kill for eighteen years was only steps away and obliviousto my presence.
~ 10 ~
Dahlia
She was made to hate and hate would
drive her mad.
~Unknown
I froze when I realized Vidar was there. For the first time in nearly two decades, I could almost touch him. I wanted nothing more than to paint my ashen skin with his hot blood, but instead, I watched his crew scour the ship. They found every last girl and I watched as they were taken off the merchant ship and transferred to the Burning Rose. I knew I could have taken a chance and gone after Vidar in the process, but my gut told me to wait. It told me to catch him unawares. So far, the men didn’t seem inclined to harm the girls and after I got the flesh I was owed, I’d return to see that they were taken care of.
Somehow…
