He’s infuriatingly calm, and it makes my blood boil. My grip tightens. “There’s nothing to play nice about. I want you gone from my town before we have to force you out.” But his gaze doesn’t waver. It sinks into mine, deep, endless, and suddenly, I’m not in a pub anymore. I’m in a memory that doesn’t belong to me. Warm arms. Lullabies wrapped in seafoam. A glowing map tucked around me like a blanket. A siren circling a crib, her body pulsing with light beneath the waves. Guarding me.
I blink. Hard. My heart slams against my ribs. I know what this is.
Magic.
“You control thoughts,” I determine, voice turning to ice. “Stay the hell out of my mind.” Then I spit at his feet. He laughs. No one knows exactly what kind of magic Kai Eldoris holds. But for someone of his rank, with his bloodline… any kind is lethal. Especially if he can read minds.
“I didn’t show you anything that wasn’t yours already,” Kai says, voice calm. Almost amused. “Those were your memories. Buried. Forgotten. Wished away. I only unlatched the door.” The entire pub is suffocating in silence now. Every eye is on us. Even the filthiest criminals don’t dare breathe too loud. You could hear a coin hit the floor and it’d echo like thunder. Rare, in a place where pirates never shut the hell up.
I glare at him, every nerve in my body on edge. He tilts his head, smirking like this is a game he’s already won. “Seems like we’re after the same thing,treasure… Do stop chasing me. It’s getting a bit embarrassing.”
Then he turns and waves me off like I’m some tavern girl begging for a coin. Dismissed. But then, he stops. Slowly, he looks back over his shoulder, locking eyes with me once more. His voice drops. “I’ll let you live this time.” He takes a small step closer, “But come near me, my ship, or my treasures again, and I won’t be so kind. Would be a shame if history repeated itself. Like the last time your family was onmyship.”
The words hit harder than steel. And for the briefest second… I swear I hear my mother’s scream echo through the salt-heavy, muggy air of the pirate pub.
Anger surges through my veins like molten lava. I don’t think, I move. One quick stride. My hand cracks across his face, the sound sharp and explosive, echoing like thunder in the tight, suffocating air. Pain blooms instantly in my palm. But the sting is almost satisfying. Before I can blink, he catches my wrist, twisting it behind my back with iron strength. Too fast. Too smooth. His grip burns against my skin. Heat shoots through me, like gold struck alive.
Then, chaos. My crew lunges forward. His men surge to match. The pub explodes into a violent symphony of clashing steel, snarled curses, and overturned tables. But Kai doesn’t flinch. His eyes fixate on me. He leans in, close enough that I can feel the warmth of his breath graze the shell of my ear.
“I could crush you as easily as I scrape barnacles from my ship,” he murmurs, voice low, sinfully smooth, dark as a storm rolling in. “Never touch me like that again… unless I ask for it.” His words sink into my bones like poison, no, like fire. I want nothing more than to smack him again, this time harder. He’s absolutely infuriating.
Kai shoves me into the heart of the brawl, where chaos and fury churn thick in the air. I unsheathe my cutlass, slashing, blocking, taking down anyone foolish enough to cross my path. But something’s off. I’m not fighting to kill. I’m just moving.Reacting. Like instinct has taken the helm of my body, steering me with nothing but rage.
Across the room, Kai strolls in the opposite direction, completely unfazed. A glass of rum glides through the air from the bar like it was summoned, floating straight into his open hand. He takes a sip, never once looking back at the chaos erupting behind him.
His presence slices through the brawl. No one dares to go near him. No one even tries. It’s like the air around him hums with something unseen, something waiting to strike. Magic clings to him like a second skin, quiet but coiled. He doesn't need to lift a finger to command fear. Maybe it’s a spell. Or maybe it’s just him. Either way, Kai Eldoris isn’t someone you cross, because to cross him is to loseeverything.
Neressa’s back presses against mine, steady and familiar, as we fend off a group of drunken bastards, men easily a foot taller than either of us. But size doesn’t matter when you’re fighting like we do, furious and precise, shaped by a life balanced on the blade of violence. She lands a swift kick to a man’s gut, sending him crashing down with a satisfying thud. This is nothing more than a warm-up for her.
“You couldn’t have told me he was here?” I grunt, deflecting a wild swing from a thick-armed brute.
“He wasn’t here when I left to find you,” she says, calm as ever, knocking another man out cold. “But I heard rumors he was in town. Follow me.” Without hesitation, Neressa grabs my wrist and pulls me toward a narrow hallway, cutting through the fight with practiced ease. The chaos fades behind us, swallowed by distance and shadows, as we move deeper into the dark hallway.
“What the fuck, Neressa?” My voice is low. Dangerous. “Hiding something like that could’ve gotten me killed. Do you even understand that?” She smirks like she has no remorse. She never has. Neressa kills for a living. Buries her guilt sixfeet under and pours herself a drink over it. And I know that, I always have. Even though everyone tries to keep information hidden from me. Still, the fire in my chest is spreading fast. I narrow my eyes. “What’s going on with your face?” She bursts out laughing. That laugh, like we’re in the middle of some joke I haven’t been let in on, only makes my face flush more.
“Do you really think he’d kill you?” she teases, grinning like the devil herself. “Did you not see the yearning in his eyes?” She leans in, voice sing-song and deadly. “My sweet Mira, men aren’t just for a crew.”
I shove her. Hard. She hits the wall with a thud, not because I’m strong enough to throw her like that, but because she allows me to. I put distance between us, just in case she tries to grab me again. Her laughter echoes down the hallway, unapologetic and wild. And I can’t tell if I’m angrier at her or at myself for not knowing which part of her is right.
I try to walk away, anger bubbling inside me like a storm waiting to break. But before I can take more than a few steps, Neressa steps in front of me in a feline-like manner. “There’s more than meets the eye, little sister. Play your cards right. That man is the biggest Pirate Lord on the seas, the most cunning and lethal. If you really think I was going to kick him out of my pub and get marked…” She pauses, her eyes flicking toward the pub, where the brawl still rages on. It’ll continue until either I leave or Kai does.
Her fog-colored eyes narrow, locking with mine. “Then you’re surely mistaken.” I don’t look away.
My gaze stays sharp. Unforgiving. I know she cares for her business and her title. But choosing Kai's title over blood? Or is there something else she’s keeping to herself? “His father killed my mother when I was a child. You knew that. She was like a mother to you, too.” I step closer. “There was noyearningin his eyes. He wanted to kill me. Wanted my blood on his blade.” Myvoice turns razor-sharp. “For someone who kills for a living, I’d expect you to be able to recognize bloodlust.”
I hold her stare, letting the venom in my words settle like poison. For just a moment, something flickers behind her eyes. “I don't kill without intent,” she slickly says, then whispers under her breath the numberthirteen. I know her past with killing hasn't been easy. Being trained as a slayer is some of the most brutal training you can endure. And starting at such a young age? It's inhumane. In a selfish way, I’m glad my father didn’t train me like he did her.
The lantern light catches her irises, igniting her usual icy calm with a flickering flame of something else. It unsettles me that death is her trade. Rich beyond measure, still she commands the deadliest slayers in the world. She’s unmatched, unstoppable, yet she never seems to rest her blade, only bury it in another body. I think she's scared to put her blade down. Maybe it’s the quiet that terrifies her the most. The way she does it without a flicker of hesitation, without even a blink. She’ll slit a throat while holding their gaze, steady as steel. I resent her for it, even knowing it’s all she’s ever known. She’s stopped slaughtering the innocent, but the truth is, Neressa is as hard as diamond. Beautiful, yes, but it’s the flaws that cut, the imperfections that make her dangerous and stunning. I could never hate her for what she is. Neressa is the dark to my light, the shadow I will always need. She doesn’t unmake me; she balances me.
I don't say another word. I walk past her. She leans back against the wall, cutlass still in hand, relaxed, but watchful. If she had more to say, she would’ve stopped me.
Even as I leave her behind, it isn’t Neressa I can’t shake, it’s Kai. And if he finds the fountain before I do, gods help us all.
Chapter two
Mira
Witchwater
