“Oh, you know,” she granted the herbal cloud freedom, “the red-headed bitch in the brig who is still unconscious, by the way. What the hell did you do to her, Vayne?”
Refined weaponsmith. Skilled roller. Irreplaceable navigator. Demanding quartermaster. Observant gossip hunter.
“Who told you?” Caspian demanded, pushing himself up from where he sat.
Leaning forward, she tapped the edge of the joint against his ashtray. “Why does it matter? Were you not going to?”
His hands slapped against the wood, his patience faltering. “That isn’t what I fucking asked, Sapphira, and I’m not playing this fucking game with you. Whotoldyou?”
“I’d tell him,” I suggested. “Before you find yourself strung up byyour intestines, as he’ll do to whichever poor bastard goes against his demand for discretion.”
“It doesn’t?—”
“Sapphira.I will not fucking ask again,”Caspian snapped as he lifted a hand to silence her before she spoke, the crimson in his irises seeming to shift to mirror the bloodlust that pumped through his veins. “And before you open your godsdamned mouth to argue with me, youarereplaceable.”
He wasn’t wrong. We all were.
“Since it’s thatdire,it was Tobias. He informed me you brought an unconscious woman onboard and told the men manning your deck that she was off limits until she woke up, but that shehadbeen purchased for the crew.” She blew out a lengthened breath, resting the joint between her lips once more. “That seems extremely soft of you to treat awhorewith such consideration, especially when you purchased her solely for her body to be used to fulfill your men’s desires.”
Caspian was in front of her before either of us could blink, the blade I’d re-sheathed freed from my waist by his hand and against her throat. “If you desire to continue testing mygood graces, I have no issue cutting out your tongue, so I do not have to hear?—”
“But I use my tongue formanythings. As you are aware, Captain?—”
“Enough!”I growled, sobered by my growing agitation. “While Caspian may be kind enough to spare your life, I will not be nearly as forgiving. You have a role and a place within this crew, Sapphira, and it seems you may have forgotten where you sit in our ranks of authority. So, either correct your fucking behavior, or I will leverage my title as second in command to handle you accordingly. And by handle, I meanbutcher.”
Her lips curled into a snarl, her brows dropping to hood her glare. “I fucking got it the first time, and I obliged, but since you wish to continue tossing rank around, I will see myself out.” Attention snapping back to Caspian, she crooned, “As long as I have your permission,Captain.”
“Get thefuckout of my quarters,” he snapped in reply, removing the refined edge of the knife from her neck.
Lifting her hands out of obligation rather than surrender, she bowed slightly. With a quick pivot, she turned her back to us, headingfor the door she’d silently entered only moments ago.
“Oh, and Saph,” Caspian hummed, dragging his finger along the edge of his desk as he went to sit back down.
“Hm?”
“Send me Tobias.”
CHAPTER8
Dreamscape
ROHEN
Serene.
That was all I felt as my feet settled onto the sea floor, the sand conforming to my bare soles with a soothing coax. The abyssal depths surrounding me went on for miles, the vibrant blue fading into taunting darkness. But where one would’ve felt fear, I felt the complete opposite.
Home.
This was home.
Shifting my attention, my scarlet locks swirled around me, distended in the liquid that’d somehow become equivalent to oxygen. A smile bloomed on my lips at the sight, and I used my arms to push myself backward, swimming across the bottom of the ocean.
A reef of coral came into view, and I approached. As feet turned to inches, its lively colors serving as a lure, I halted when I realized what I was heading toward—a drop-off that plunged into a looming pit of black. Where I’d assumed I had descended as far as possible, the maw of an entirely different beast taunted me, tempting me to dive into it without looking back.
As I pursued my desperate desire to vanish and never return, a rippleof movement tore through the expansiveness. The ocean shifted as if answering an unspoken call, funneling into the bottomless well of shadows. What was once a belief I’d escaped my damned existence turned into a pitiful bloom of terror as I dug my heels into the sea floor.
My toes curled around the lip of the cliff I was being shoved toward, and just before I stumbled into a never-ending cataclysm on the opposite side of the universe, the water suddenly fell still. Chest hitching as I struggled to gather my bearings, I slowly lifted my chin, and the sight that greeted me had me fearful for an entirely different reason.
