Page 24 of Pirate Witch
“So, a cage big and strong enough to keep two shifters, a vampire, a fae, and a bloody powerful mage,” Cirio muses. “Any ideas?”
“With Elsie and Reva here, we’ll be able to enchant metal to make it unbreakable,” I say. “But it will take time.”
“Once they get here, we can lure them into it easily enough,” Sade adds. “All we need is your scent to act as bait, and they’ll run straight for it. We’ll need a strong sample...”
Blood. She means I need to bleed all over a cage in a city full of vampires. I sneak a look at Klaus, and he gives me a nod, reassuring me that he understands and has my back.
“Fine. Let’s get to work.”
ChapterNine
NILSA
It doesn’t take long for their sails to appear on the dusky horizon. My new hobby of staring at the sea from Sade’s terrace means I spot them at the same time her sentries do. I never thought I’d come to recognise a ship so quickly from such a distance, but I can feel my mates drawing closer. All of my muscles start to unwind the closer they get. My body doesn’t understand that theyarethe danger now.
They’re too early. It’s the last night of the new moon. Reva and Elsie aren’t here yet. The cage we’ve built is still just earth and metal. There’s no way it will hold them.
Even if we manage to get it enchanted, it will deplete the magic reserves Opal is holding for me.
In the distance, the ships of Cirio’s fleet begin to move, forced aside as something massive—Cas—moves through the water beneath them. Carving a path through the blockade for theDeadwoodto sail through.
“Nilsa, we have to go.” Klaus rushes into the room, carrying my broom. “Your friends aren’t going to make it—”
“So little faith,” Reva’s snarky voice cuts through Klaus’s warning.
We both whirl to face her as she lands on the patio behind us. By her side, Elsie topples from her broom and flings her arms around me, hugging me so tightly I can barely breathe.
I eventually hug her back, patting her shoulder awkwardly as I rake my gaze across both of them.
The two of them are exhausted. Their eyes are framed by dark shadows and their hair is windswept and unkempt. They must have flown hard to reach me in time, and my heart clenches with gratitude as I start to try and unwrap the Solar’s arms from around my waist.
“Elsie, we don’t have time for this,” I remind her, gently.
She springs away from me, as if she’s only just remembered that we’re together for an important reason, and I have to suppress the wry grin that threatens to escape.
The Solar is definitely a hugger.
I offer Reva a nod, then freeze as I notice the third person with them.
Cooper Castleman is just as gangly and awkward as I remember him. His ginger hair has grown so long since we last met that he’s pulled it back behind his head in a leather tie, giving the lean lines of his face a sharper look.
“Don’t ask,” Reva grumbles, noticing my stare. “I’ll explain later. We have work to do.”
I glance back at the shifting water of the bay and nod. “This way, quickly.”
The room we’ve converted for our purpose is buried deep underground. It has one door and no natural light. It was one of Sade’s wine cellars, but her vampires cleared out the casks and bottles to make space for a cage in the centre. It’s not the nicest room, but it’s clean and dry, and—once we enchant the place—it will keep my pirates secure until we’ve prepared the ritual to break their bargain.
“Have you got what we need?” Reva asks, drawing a dagger from the sheath at her side.
“Yes.” I grab a handful of finely chopped wormwood and lemongrass from the bowl at the entrance and make for the opposite side of the room. The herbs sting as they come into contact with the still-healing wounds on my hands from an hour ago when I spread my blood in the cage as a lure. “Have you got enough power stored with your familiars?”
The other two both nod as they follow my lead. The final day of the new moon, and the fact that it isn’t night, means Reva and I are going to have to be careful with our power. This mission just went from dangerous to downright suicidal.
I don’t need to tell them that. The knowledge hovers in the tension-filled air as they start carving into the rock with their daggers and sprinkling the herbs across the space.
Klaus watches us work for a few seconds before he takes up a defensive position in the doorway, trident in hand. Cooper hovers beside him—looking gormless and a little bit lost—as transmutation circles flare to life in his palms.
Imprisonment. Powerlessness. Defence. Holding. Binding. I dredge up sigils from my memory as I work, scoring into the stone with my magic and waiting for the sparks to die down before packing the grooves with herbs. Opal winds around the room beside Milo and Reva’s black familiar, the three of them providing us with magic.
