Page 16 of The Song of the Void

“Yes, ma’am!” Lyneca twirled away from me and gave us newcomers a flamboyant curtsy. “Lyneca O’Gaine, first mate and ship’s cook. Nice to meet you, loves.”

Two unfamiliar faces already had me overwhelmed, but luckily Captain Larsel didn’t bother to introduce us to the deckhands who would travel alongside us. The two women ushered us around the ship, pointing out important places for us to note. Apparently, Ashkade would have the captain’s quarters, and Reiven and Captain Larsel would each take one of the officer’s quarters, but there was no mention of where I’d be sleeping. Maybe with the crew? Our tour ended on the quarterdeck, at the helm of the ship, where Captain Larsel explained the route they had plotted out.

“Around six weeks in we’ll need to make a stop for supplies. Unfortunately, it’ll have to be at Redsand Cove. While I’d like to avoid it, it’s the only way we can make it without starving ourselves.”

My blood went cold at the mention of that island. I had never been there, but word reached even Kirdiak of the shady characters and treachery that teemed on Redsand Cove like fish in a reef without predators. The Eventide Brigade, a group of especially powerful pirates, had slaughtered the previous inhabitants of the island and claimed it as their own. It was mostly lawless there, from what I heard, but the Eventide Brigade was the only authority that would bring respect from the awful Humans who called piracy their way of life.

“Assuming good wind and fair weather, we estimate about three months until arrival at Ghrysim Isle,” the captain said.

It was a long time to be magically chained to Reiven, but I’d been held captive for six years, so I could power through. I had to.

“Captain! You’re fully loaded!” one dockworker shouted up to us.

Captain Larsel shouted back her thanks, and upon confirming that the crew had finished their preparations for departure, her brow furrowed as she studied the deckhands milling about on the main deck below us. “Hey, where’s that new carpenter kid?”

Lyneca shaded her eyes from the sun and glanced around too. “I don’t see him.”

“We leave him behind then. Raise the gangplank!”

Just as the crew moved to follow the captain’s bellowed order, another voice broke through the crashing waves and screeching seabirds.

“Wait! I’m coming!” A young man sprinted up the gangplank and leaped onto the deck, glancing about wildly. He visibly cringed at the weight of the captain’s glare when he raised his eyes up to us.

“Gatelo!” she barked. He cringed again. “Where the Mourner Hell were you?”

“Sorry, got waylaid…” His gaze fell on me and lingered, so I openly studied him right back. Shaggy brown hair fell over his forehead and a cruel scar cut across the corner of his lips. His shirt fluttered in the wind, left unbuttoned to reveal his lean, tanned body, marked by several small scars across his torso. He flashed me a grin. “Hi there.”

Young. Obviously interested in me. A perfect tool.

I wasn’t sure how I’d use him just yet, but with a bit of flirtation and sweet-talking, I had a wonderful feeling he’d do anything I wanted. Just like Jereq.

“Waylaid by what, a pretty girl? You’ll be scrubbing the deck for three weeks for your tardiness,” Captain Larsel snapped.

With another grumbled, half-hearted apology, Gatelo meandered away to assist with hoisting the sails. I didn’t even realize the tiny smile that might have betrayed me until some asshole snapped his fingers in front of me, tearing my attention away from my new potential tool.

“Stop making eyes at the crew. Come on Blue, let me show you where you’ll be staying.”

Why did I not like that smirk in his voice? My protests that I wanted to stay topside to watch the water were met with silence and his fingers wrapped around my wrist again. Damn him. I growled and dug my heels into the weathered chestnut wood of the deck, but he just yanked me down the stairs.

“Probably going to make me sleep in the bilge with the rats, right?” I snarled.

But much to my horror, he didn’t drag me further into the bowels of the ship; he pulled me towards one of the officer’s quarters. “While that sounds fun, I don’t trust you not to cause trouble while we’re sleeping, so Ash agreed to let you stay with me.”

“With you? Fuck no. I’ll take the rats.” The thought of sharing a cabin with this insufferable man made my skin crawl.

Reiven rolled his eyes and pushed open the door to his room, nodding for me to go inside. “Welcome to your own personal hell for the next few months. That’s your corner over there.”

He gestured to the corner farthest away from the cot, where my clothes and bag of medical supplies had been stashed, along with a bit of rope and some fabric—was that meant to be a hammock? Hooks had been nailed into the wall for me to hang it up, but why did he get a cot and I only got a hammock? Meanwhile, he also had an entire chest of his belongings and a hutch for storage, too.

“I get an entire corner? How generous of you,” I said. “Look, just because we’re chained together doesn’t mean you’re in charge here.”

And yet he went to lounge on the cot as if he owned the entire ship, watching me with a stupid, sardonic grin. “Actually, I am in charge here, and I intend to watch your every move, Siren. So be good.”

Choking down a torrent of curses, I began to clumsily tie up the ends of the hammock. Knots weren’t exactly my specialty. When I tried to sit on it, they came undone, and I crashed into the solid wooden floor, no doubt bruising my ass.

Reiven snickered at my misfortune.

Don’t worry. I’ll make this a special hell for you, too.