Who would’ve thought? Two people born of chaos and cursed bloodlines. The Pirate Lord and a siren-born girl, both drowningin each other. Our souls were made for this, fated from the moment we were born. I am so in love with him, it hurts. A beautiful ache that stretches through every rib, every bone, every breath. And then…
Silence. The cheers fade like a dream slipping through my fingers.
Kai gently sets me down, his arms still lingering as if reluctant to let me go. I don’t need to ask. I feel the shift in the air, too. A chill crawls up my spine at the weight of something watching. A ship looms through the fog, all too familiar.
“The kappas,” Kai mutters. Their ship hovers just beyond, cloaked in silence and deathly still. This kind of quiet only means one thing.
They are already in the water.
Kai steps in front of me, shielding me with his body. His eyes are sharp, but I see the worry laced beneath. “I’ll protect you with everything I have,” he promises. “But this isn’t just our fight anymore. It’s the battle of everything born from darkness. The kappas. The sirens. The pirates. It ends here.”
He turns to face me fully, his hands gripping mine. “If I’m not at your side, you have to protect yourself. Do you promise me that, Mira?”
I look up at him, heart pounding like war drums beneath my ribs. “Promise,” I whisper, sealing it with a kiss that speaks all the things I am too afraid to say out loud.
“It is so nice to see love,” croaks a voice, hoarse and splintered, like barnacles scraping the hull. “I don’t see that much anymore.” I turn slowly, every inch of me tensing as my eyes land on him.
Varn.
He stands like a nightmare risen from the ocean’s depths, water still clinging to his skin. His presence reeks of death and power, the scent of brine and decay clinging to him like a secondskin. Before I can breathe, Kai slides me behind him with a motion so fluid my body follows without hesitation.
I find the hilt of my cutlass at my side. I draw it with a steely whisper. My grip tightens. My jaw locks. I'm ready.
“Varn,” Kai says. He squares his shoulders, rising to his full height, even though Varn towers over him, half-sea creature, half-man, his skin slick and glistening with everything he’s dredged up from the deep. But it doesn’t matter.
Kai’s presence expands, larger than fear, bolder than death. Confidence rolls off him like thunder on the tide. He is the sea, and he is ready to fight for everything that matters.
“Kai Eldoris, you have a debt to be paid.” Varn’s voice slithers through the air, sending a chill straight down my spine.
Kai takes a slow, deliberate step forward, his entire frame radiating strength as he looks up at the towering creature. “I can’t pay it until I find the fountain, now can I?” His voice is steady, but the defiance in his eyes burns.
Varn’s eyes flick to the crew, who stand at attention like they too sense something is about to break. With a harsh tap of his sword against the deck, he summons his own crew from the shadows, figures slithering up from the sea, silent and soaking in menace.
His gaze never leaves Kai. “I wish to change what I wanted,” he rasps, thick with a dark, knowing resolve. “I want the bloody witch. The one you come from. She is of value.” Varn knows—somehow, he knows that to reach the fountain, he can trade her for entrance.
The air between us goes cold. I can feel the heat of Kai’s anger radiating off him like the sun beating down on the ship’s deck. His jaw clenches, broad chest rising and falling with the storm brewing behind his eyes.
“You made your deal, Varn,” Kai growls, his voice low and rumbling like thunder. “Stick with it.” Varn’s face twists. He isn’tused to being challenged, especially not by a human. But even now, as rage flickers through Varn’s monstrous features, it is clear that Kai’s power is more dangerous than any weapon the kappas could wield.
“If you don’t give me what I want,” Varn hisses, “then I will be forced to rain blood all over your ship. Till I leave with what I came to get.”
Kai doesn’t flinch. “You don’t get to keep changing your mind,” he says. “One moment you want a debt settled. Next, a witch. Pick a path, Varn. And don't change it.” Kai’s eyes darken. “I don’t take threats very well,” he says. “Especially not on my ship.” His grip tightens around the hilt of his sword, his knuckles turning white. As Varn raises his massive weapon, Kai moves with a perfect calm, lifting his blade like it’s an extension of himself. Steel to steel, man to monster.
“Keep your original deal,” Kai says, each word a blade of its own. “And I’ll give you your wish.”
Varn’s expression turns darker. “I’ve decided I’d like to stay alive a little longer,” he says, voice slick with venom. “So I’ll be handling some unfinished business.” He grins, feral, vile. “Besides, playing with little mortal pirates is fun in my free time.” His eyes drag across the crew. Then Kai.
Then they land on me with an unsettling hunger that turns my blood to ice.
Kai moves in front of me with a speed that leaves no room for hesitation. His back becomes a wall of stone between me and the nightmare before us.
“Don’t.” Just one word, sharper than the blade in his hand. The force of his protection, his raw, unwavering resolve to keep me safe, is more terrifying than anything Varn can conjure.
Varn’s eyes drop to the ring Kai slipped onto my finger only moments ago. A slow smirk spreads across his face. “Oh… she’s the key to your heart,” he taunts. “She means more now thanshe ever did before. Her blood, boy, it’ll be on your hands.” He keeps his vile look and adds, “Your wife's blood.”Wife.My heart warms at the word. Something that I never thought I could be.
His stance remains rooted, his grip solid, his gaze locked. He isn’t just shielding me. He is declaring war. A pirate’s life may be soaked in violence, but at this moment, Kai is no longer just a pirate.
He is a storm, relentless in his need to protect what is his. He became the lord of the seas within seconds.
