Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
I can’t go home without them. Heir or not, my mother will rip out my throat for failing so spectacularly. We can’t have someone weak leading the family when she’s gone. If she’s ever gone. At this point, I have no doubt that she intends to live forever.
If I was anyone else, I wouldn’t go home at all. My mother isn’t known for her patience, and if she didn’t need me to create little vampire babies, she wouldn’t have deigned to give me a second chance after my failure to protect the family heirlooms. She simply would have killed me then and there, and moved on with her life.
I fight down a shudder. Best not to think too deeply about how she’s taking my absence. Successful or no, there will be a price to pay when I return home. I’ll endure it just like I’ve endured all my mother’s lessons and then come out stronger on the other side.
A quick shower does wonders for my morose mood. I dress in dry clothes and pull my hair back into my preferred high ponytail. I’m in the process of debating if I’m up to dealing with people when the door opens and the selkie steps inside. She stops short. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t realize someone was already in here. This is the cabin that Nox sent me to.”
I’m going to rip out the captain’s spine and feed it to them. There are other cabins. When Evelyn, Bowen, and I helped Nox to stage a mutiny and dispatch the last captain of the Audacity, half of the crew went with him to the watery depths. We’ve been refilling those ranks slowly since, allowing other sailors to join up, but we’re nowhere near fully crewed. Nox could’ve sent this woman to one of those empty cabins. Instead, they sent her to me. Since they do nothing without purpose, it’s enough to make me wonder . . .
“Nox won’t help you with the pelt problem?”
The selkie blinks those big dark eyes at me. “With all due respect, I don’t know you. You’re obviously a conscript, which means I can’t trust you. I don’t know why you’re asking something you already know the answer to, but I’m not interested in playing whatever game this is.”
I step aside as she darts past me into the bathroom. It was the tiniest show of backbone, but I can’t help the reluctant approval that flares inside me in response. Weakness is for prey, and I would have categorized this woman as such, but maybe there’s more to her than a damsel in distress.
Or perhaps I’m looking for an excuse to explain away my attraction to her. I like pretty things, but I learned a long time ago that I tend to break them. While some of those pretty things were meant to be broken, there are those that leave me with the taste of regret on my tongue. Over my long life, I learned to indulge only with partners who have their own claws and teeth and thorns.
They tend to survive longer.
Evelyn must have fucked up my head more than I realized if I’m considering taking someone to bed who looks like they’ll fold if I speak a harsh word. I shake my head and leave the cabin, once again searching out our wayward captain. Nox might play the frivolous fool, but there’s a canny mind behind those pretty eyes. I suspect they have a secondary reason for assigning Maeve to my room.
I walk through the door of Nox’s cabin without knocking, only to stop short at the sight of a naked Nox. They truly are well formed. I’ve never found tan lines intriguing before, but I can’t deny that it only adds to the allure of them. They raise their blond brows. “Unless you’ve decided to take me up on more than flirting, normally people knock when they come through my door.”
I kick the door shut behind me and cross my arms over my chest. “If I wanted to take you to bed, you’d know it.”
They laugh, completely unfazed. “The fact that you haven’t tried to rip out my throat means you aren’t totally opposed to it. But since you’re clearly determined to keep breaking my heart . . . What do you really want?” They grab a shirt from their bed and drag it over their head.
“You’re really not going to help the selkie retrieve her pelt? After you went through so much to save her?”
“The selkie has a name.” Nox pulls on their pants, somehow making it smooth instead of awkward. “But, no, as much as I would like to, I can’t chase down the pirate who stole Maeve’s pelt. It was risky enough saving her, and I can’t afford for the Cŵn Annwn to look too closely at our actions. If we keep diverting from our normal sailing routes, someone on the Council is going to start asking questions.” Nox hesitates and there’s something almost like guilt on their face. “And I meant what I said earlier. I’m sorry for Maeve’s loss, but her ability to shift into a seal is the least of her value to the rebellion. The needs of many outweigh the needs of a single person.”