Page 103 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

You will pay for that one too, you bloody bastard!

The shock of the blow stunned her. Nola placed her hand against her burning skin and cowered to him. She licked her lips, tasting the copper on her tongue.

“I’m going to kill you,” she said under her breath.

Nola assumed he had not heard. That or he ignored her threat—a stupid threat at that. Provoking a merciless pirate alone made her a damn fool.

“Ye can fight all ye want,” he continued, “but yer puttin’ on that cuff.”

She eyed the chain connected to the frame.

Nola scowled. “You are honestly going to chain me like an animal as I sit on this hard floor?” she asked, aghast. “I cannot swim, and I have no weapons to defend myself.”

The unnerving feeling hit her again. She had no protection. They could do whatever they wanted, and if her siren call would not work on Wentworth, her only hope to survive was nonexistent.

He huffed. “Prince Elijah mentioned ye were raised by humans, but that does not mean yer instincts won’t take over the moment ye ’it that water. Have ye ever seen yer tail? Ye surely look nothin’ like the sirens I ’ave seen in me days as a pirate.”

It was true; she looked human. Her parents suspected it was because she had been out of the water since her father found her. She had perhaps evolved into a new form of a siren. However, they had another theory. Maybe she was not fully siren. Maybe human, or something else.

Wentworth placed both hands on the mattress and leaned forward. “Put it on,” he said.

Resisting the captain was useless, and Nola knew it. Putting the cuff on felt as if she was giving up, though she knew she was not. The siren girl vowed to herself to fight when the opportunity arose.

She clamped the cuff and dropped it, listening to the clanking sound of the chain hitting the floor.

Nola let out an exhausted breath. “Do you have any water for me?” she asked, settling herself as comfortably as she could on the floor. The siren girl noticed a stream of emotions taking over her body. They were not the typical response when she was afraid. Something was wrong.

He nodded. “I’ll get ye water once yer secured.” Wentworth reached out and placed a hand on her cheek. “Ye do look quite pale,” he observed. “Are ye ill?”

She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the room spin.

“I—.” Nola glanced at the cuff. A strange sensation came over her body as if she were wrapped in a blanket of scorching heat. “No, I—” The siren held a hand to her forehead. She felt as if her body was floating above the clouds. “Something is wrong, Wentworth.” She glanced up; her eyes felt hazy. “Uncuff me.”

Nola’s siren senses dwindled into nothing while hearing the distant echo of the pirates on deck. Her eyes rolled back and entered a blackened murk in desolate darkness.

* * *

Prince Elijah held firmly to the Voleric pendant, keeping it secure into a tight-fisted grip as he clenched it to his chest.

He felt the siren’s presence at that moment. He sensed the power of Nola’s fear as it enveloped his mind. The prince also connected with her unfaltering courage, despite the danger she had put herself in.

Elijah shut his eyes.

“Focus!” he whispered.

Suddenly, a light shined brightly through the window like an intense beam of energy cracking through the glass. The sun warmed against his eyelids before opening to Nola being chained to the end of a bed.

Ah, there you are,he thought.

Elijah watched as Wentworth placed a damp rag to her forehead, but it would not do her any good, not until the prince woke the girl from the spell.

The prince’s mind transported him to another place where Nola stood alone. Bewildered, she turned on her heel to look into his blue eyes. A mossy tree with burgundy leaves fell slowly to the ground, surrounding the two in a colorful field of beauty beyond what either of them had ever seen. It was magical.

“Nola,” he said softly.

The siren’s eyes widened as she took a step back. “Where am I?” she asked. “How am I here?”

Elijah straightened his back before sauntering across the blossomed ground as if gliding on a sheet of glass.

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