Page 105 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

“On the ship?” She turned back to look at the prince, who was only mere inches from her face.

He nodded. “You’re not safe, Nola,” he warned. His warm breath brushed against her temple. “You need to swim, now. Get off that ship and swim to me.”

Nola shook her head. “What? Why—why do you need me?” she asked again. She thought of leaving the ship but not going to Zemira. She had to trust her body to change. A change she had no idea how quickly it would work and if she would know how to use it. But what good would it do her to stay on a ship of pirates she did not trust. If she could swim, she could escape.

He smiled again. “I need your power,” he explained, “And I need the key.”

“A key? What key?”

“Your ruby, Nola. It’s the key to the Kroneon.”

The siren’s eyes narrowed. “My ruby?” she asked. “My ruby is a key?”

Elijah’s jaw tightened when her expression changed. A sudden uncomfortable feeling caught in her throat. She fanned out her hands and placed them over her chest.

“What’s happening to me?”

The prince’s face grew into a scowl. “Get off that ship and swim, dammit! Swim Nola.”

With his last words, she opened her eyes, watching Wentworth hover over her, pushing down on her chest as if he were trying to revive her heart.

Nola sat bolt upright and turned to him, breathing heavily as she was ripped free from her dream-prison.

“Wha’ the bloody hell was that?” he asked.

She shook her head, knowing she could not tell the man what she had seen.

“I have no idea,” she replied.

Nola thought about the prince’s warning. Examining the pirate before her, she realized she was uncertain who her real enemies were. The prince had sent that crew to bring her to him, yet his plea was to flee that same ship and go to him.

“Ye scared me witless,” Wentworth said. “Ye can’t die on me now.”

Nola closed her eyes tight with irritation. “Listen to me, Wentworth. You cannot take me to the prince. Do you understand?”

Regardless of what Prince Elijah said, she did not trust him more than she trusted the pirates who took her.

Staying with Wentworth and his crew nor swimming to the prince seemed like a good option. Both could or would get her killed. Both, she would have no freedom.

The old pirate grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet. Wentworth had removed the cuff when Nola had passed out.

“Yer a stupid girl,” Wentworth said. “Ye talk nonsense. The prince has offered me quite the treasure if I bring ye to ’im, whole,” he explained. “The amount of the bounty ’e offered will ’elp buy me another one of these ships.” He released her arm and picked up the chain from the bedpost.

“Be quiet and I’ll get ye some food,” he said.

Nola’s heartbeat sped up at the idea of being chained up again. She stared at the cuff and back to meet Wentworth’s eyes. “No.”

Wentworth turned to her slowly. “No?” he repeated, but when his eyes widened, she felt a slight sense of power, as if she may have been finally getting through to him.

But he was not looking at her. He looked past her through the porthole.

Nola furrowed her brow and turned around to look with him. Through the porthole and under the water, she spotted a thick tentacle move past the glass. Terror overtook her face when it went out of sight, and a large eye moved within view, looking into the room and right at her.

“Aye,” Wentworth said through a shaky breath. “’Tis a bloody Kraken.” He caught her wrist. Fear flashed in his eyes before he said, “Guess none of us ’ill be makin’ it back to the prince alive after all.”

“Wentworth?” her voice cracked, backing from the window and into his chest.

“We’re no safer above deck than we are trapped down ’ere,” he said.

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