My bare feet touch the deck of the ship. My crew and Kai’s were all here. Kai was right. They were smart enough to make it back. “Cap’n,” Nate calls, stepping forward. “You okay?”
I don’t answer right away. My eyes cut across the deck, my hand instinctively brushing the hilt of my cutlass. Staying close to the ship’s edge, where the sea waits, comforting, deadly,mine.It’s a strange thing, realizing you trust the ocean more than the wood beneath your feet.
“I’m fine,” I say, voice steady. “What the fuck happened?”
Nate hesitates, taking a cautious step forward.
“That’s far enough,” I warn, sharp and sure. He freezes, hands slightly raised.
“They hit the island hard. We couldn’t find you or Cap’n Kai. We thought the safest move was to regroup here. The town’s gone, torched. They were looking for you.” His voice falters as he glances around the crew. “Smith… he was paying someone off. Last time we made port. They’ve been tracking us since.”
A cold, slow fury rises inside me. “You knew Smith paid someone off and didn’t tell me?” I growl. “Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”
“I didn’t know until tonight,” Nate replies quickly, eyes wide. “If I had, I swear I would’ve said something. Most of us thought he was paying off a prostitute, as usual.” I narrow my eyes at him, searching for a crack, a tell, anything. But there is nothing. His eyes, clear and sea-blue, give nothing away.
Still, something in me stays on edge. My trust, once given freely, now has thorns. And I don’t plan on bleeding for anyone ever again.
I look up at the rest of the crew. Every one of them wears the same haunted expression, concern etched deep into their features. Before I can speak, Kai vaults back onto the ship. The second I see him, the tension in my chest loosens. Relief crashes over me, stealing the breath from my lungs. Just knowing he’s been out there, onshore with too many ill-intentioned pirates to count, has my stomach churning, bile rising in my throat. After what we just shared, the thought of losing him now makes something inside me claw to the surface.
But a part of me also knows that Kai rarely loses. He is the first and only Pirate Lord for a reason. He carves that title out of blood and grit. Pirates worship him for it.
Kai steps toward me, slipping an arm around my waist to turn me. Then both of his hands come to rest on my arms, steadying me in place. He searches me, eyes burning gold beneath the moonlight. His gaze drags over every inch of me, inspecting.
When he sees the dried blood at my chin, he brushes it away with his thumb, gentle, yet fierce with intent. His touch lingers for a second, as if trying to take the pain from me.
He has a long gash down the left side of his face, slicing from his brow to the edge of his jaw. My breath catches. I reach up and touch the cut, fingertips brushing away flecks of sand, the gesture tender but filled with worry.
He has blood all over him. I can only pray it isn’t his. “I’m okay,” I say softly, offering the words before he can even ask. He gives a slight shrug, eyes already scanning the crew.
Then his voice cuts through the silence. “If any of you is a traitor,” he says, low and deadly, “I’ll kill you in front of everyone. I’ll make sure they all watch you die a pitiful death. If that’s you, I suggest you walk the damn plank now. Andprayto whatever god you believe in that I don't catch you.”
He starts pacing the deck, each step deliberate. His hair is soaked, dripping seawater onto the wood. His jaw ticks as the rage in him boils. I wonder briefly how his swim with the sirens went, what they said and what they showed him. Did he even swim with them at all?
Under the moonlight, he looks carved from vengeance itself. His fury stretches him taller, makes the air around him hum with menace. Every muscle is tight with restraint, but only barely. He's livid, at Smith, at the betrayal, at how close danger had crept to me without him seeing it first.
I look around the deck. His crew looks terrified, as if they’ve seen what he can do before and have no desire to see it again. My crew, while tense, is calmer. They haven’t yet witnessed the full extent of Kai Eldoris’s wrath. But they will understand it soon enough.
“Jay, come with me. I want a full report. Everyone else, back to work,” Kai orders, his voice like steel against the crashing waves. He turns without waiting for acknowledgment, walking with the confidence of someone who’s already made up his mind. Jay follows close behind, both of them disappearing into a part of the ship I haven’t explored yet. A war room, I assume. Which then leads me to the thought, where does Kai keep Captain Eldoris stored away?
For a moment, I consider going after them. But something tells me to give Kai space, to let him cool off and strategize. He needs that, and frankly, so do I.
What I want is simple: to strip out of my salt-stiffened clothes, crawl into bed, and watch the waves slap against the hull while I bite into something sweet. Chocolate. I always have a secret stash.
But the ache in my chest doesn’t fade. Smith’s betrayal leaves me feeling hollow. His words sting like a box jellyfish, sharp and venomous. I can understand his grief, maybe even his bitterness. Watching crewmates die protecting me isn’t easy. But he knows what he signed up for. He knows what this life demands.
Smith was the closest thing I had to a father. He helped raise me. Protected me. Watched over me when no one else would. He taught me how to tie my boots when my fingers were too small to get the knots right. He was there when I cracked my ribs in a training match and said I took it better than most grown men do. He trained me for battle, taught me how to fight smart, taught me how to survive.
If he truly had been my father’s first mate, then he knew everything about my mother, about the choices my father made. About the risks of protecting someone like me. He was supposed to be my ally. Now I’m starting to see why Neressa slaughtered all of her mentors. So no one alive knows her next move.
When my father was off chasing some cursed treasure, it was Smith who trained me and who watched over me. Smith who told me to never let anyone take me, not even him. But that man is gone. And now, so is the lie he wrapped around me.
His betrayal will weigh heavy in my heart. But his death will float, light as a feather, now that I know who he truly was.
I’m left uneasy, haunted by Smith’s final words. Power, he said, like it was worth more than life itself. Worth more than the crew, than me. Does no one realize that killing me would shatter the ocean’s balance? That my death wouldn’t just end a life, it would unravel everything?
I’m still trying to understand the weight of what’s been placed on me. To make peace with it. But I know Ihaveto live. Not for myself, but for the sea and for Kai.
The poisoned Soul of the Ocean has grown sick, twisted by greed, betrayal, and ancient rot. I am the only thread left holding it all together. The only hope to restore what’s been lost. Every step I take from here on out is for the creatures who swim beneath the waves. For peace, for this war that is being built from the deep trenches to be stopped. For Kai. And for the sirens, creatures I once feared, now deeply tied to me. Misunderstood, mythologized, and feared for all the wrong reasons, but they are not monsters. They are fiercely loyal and they’re my home now. I want to know them for what they truly are.
