Page 8 of The Lost Child

WHAM.

Another growl and rush at the bars, but this time I was prepared. I knew he couldn’t reach me, so I focused on memorizing his face as it came at me. A large, flat nose above meaty lips that were bared in a snarl. Of course he had fangs. But it was his eyes that held my attention. They were large and almond shaped. A bright green iris surrounded the pupil. Red strands of hair hung in large, messy dreads around the horror that was his scalp. Did they not bathe him or allow him other necessities? From the stench, I doubted it. Why wash his hair when they were content to let him sit in his own filth?

“He can take out an entire crew in five minutes and not get a scratch on ‘im. Those scales are hard as nails,” my father boasted as if this draken were a prized sword or ship and not a living creature. “We keep him chained, but this crank on the wall can tighten him flat to the floor. Can’t move a fucking muscle when we do that.” My father spat on the floor, gesturing to the large wooden crank I’d missed initially.

It hooked into the stone wall above just above my head, thick chains coiled around a wooden base. The spears of wood were similar in function to the capstan on our ships, and I traced the chain with my eyes as it snaked from the crank and through the iron door, and around the draken.

I blinked, trying to regain my bearings. “And the reason for his … condition?” I asked frankly, since it summed everything up succinctly.

My father gave my head a patronizing pat. “Nerissa, this here’s a dangerous creature. Stubborn. Doesn’t do as he’s told.” My father directed the last sentence right at the monster, who hissed and bared his teeth. Father reached over the crank, and gave one hard tug that tightened the chains and pulled the draken a foot away from the iron door. The draken glared, but went silent.

Something in my mind was sending up a distress signal, and it wasn’t just because my father and his men had literally beat this creature into submission. The bright red hair triggered a memory.

“Have I seen him before?” I questioned.

My father shrugged. “Maybe the day he was brought in. Everyone came to see him then.”

My breathing hitched, and my stomach clenched. He couldn’t possibly mean…no.

He was the boy in the cage.

“I saw him,” I insisted. “But, he didn’t look like this. He looked—”

“Like us,” Father finished. “Apparently, they got human forms. He’ll switch sometimes if he thinks it’ll get him something, more food or whatnot. Hasn’t done it in years though.”

A big, black pit opened in my stomach as horror and pity filled my veins.

I’d thought he was taken in by one of the other men. I didn’t realize.… I never checked.…

I’d been a child. Logically, I knew I didn’t owe this draken man anything, but I still couldn’t help but feel as though I’d let him down somehow.

I jumped about a foot in the air as he roared unexpectedly, ratting his chains and staring me down at the same time. I accidentally met those green eyes, and for a split second, our gazes locked, and I saw … something. He was certainly feral, but beneath the rage and anger in his eyes lurked more. Need. Intelligence. Desperation.

I backed away, overwhelmed. He’d been here this whole time.This whole time.

“Now you see why it is foolish to think of ever running this company. You’d never be able to control this monster or beat him. I suggest giving up this fantasy and contemplatin’ a different future. Men would pay a lot of money for the daughter of a pirate lord, especially one with witch blood. Even if it’s broken,” he stated factually, eyeing me up and down.

My lips thinned. “I’d die before I wore a dress,” I intoned, my voice flat.

Father rolled his eyes. “Quit bein’ dramatic. This ain’t no place for a dress, and I’ll be damned before I put you in front of this lot in a corset.” He snorted. “Let’s get going.”

If he thought redirecting my anger toward a possible marriage would detract from the draken in front of me, he was wrong. This was a secret and a dirty one by the looks of it. I’d never heard of these drakens, but the one here wasn’t a mindless beast like the various creatures that we’d caught in the ocean. There was more going on here.

I would find out what.

And his claims that I couldn’t control a draken? He’d be eating his oversized hat once I figured out to gain the draken’s trust. And believe me, I would.

I was reluctant to leave the draken alone in the dark now that I knew he was there, but my father left me no choice as he took the torch with him. I cast a look back at the monster, only catching a shimmer of scales and a flash of those green eyes before he disappeared into the darkness. How did the sobbing child in the crate become this weapon?

I already knew the answer, even if I didn’t like it. My father had made him this way. I grit my teeth and jogged to catch up to him.

“Does he have a name?” I asked, trying to keep my tone nonchalant.

Father waved a hand carelessly in the air. “Canavar.”

Monster.

That’s what it meant.

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