Page 27 of The Song of the Void

Ash had given me a cherubic smile. “Rei will make sure you’re safe. Have fun!”

A gunshot split the darkness of evening, echoing from the rowdy town up ahead. Gray-brown haze nearly choked out the lights of the buildings.

“Let go of my hand,” I hissed to Reiven. The thin glass vial I had tucked into my bra felt cool against my skin. With its sleep-inducing contents and a bit of luck, surely I could get rid of Reiven long enough to pay Gatelo for the weapon he acquired for me earlier.

“Hell no. Even if the Eventide Brigade has some kind of permanent call for peace here, you’re a walking target and you know it. Stay close to me.”

More shots rang out into the night, layered with the sound of screams. As if I wasn’t already jumpy enough.

Peace, huh?

Reiven cast a wary glance at the dingy, darkened houses that lined both sides of the path as we drew closer to town. They appeared to sag, completely lifeless. The jungle foliage looming behind them was eerily silent as well. I hadn’t seen a single person since we set foot on shore, but I couldn’t accept that all these buildings were abandoned.

Gatelo spoke up. “No one will hurt you if you’re with me, Zephra,”

The grip Reiven had on my fingers tightened. “Tell me why you needed to come with us again?”

“I feel safer with him than I do with you,” I snapped, as if that were true.

The town itself proved far worse than the sad assortment of silent, dirty houses. Scantily clad women with bright red lipstick cooed and called out to us from the doorways of the brothels we passed by. It was difficult to make out what exactly they said, what with all the noise—laughter, off-key singing, and clinking glasses and bottles coming from the bars, gunshots and the clang of steel as drunk pirates settled their differences in a bloody mess on the street, and of course, the moans and cries that poured forth from the brothels. I was already overwhelmed by the time Gatelo pointed out a tavern, and we entered.

“This is the place,” he said.

“Take a seat, lads!” the plump barmaid called as she turned around with three beer mugs in each hand, only to drop them all with a crash when she saw me. “And…Siren lass.”

The rowdy bar crowd went eerily still at that. Even the loud group in the far corner halted their card game to stare. The three of us sat down at an empty table smack in the center of the teeming tavern, and I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for everyone to go back to their own business. But even as the barmaid took our order and eventually delivered the food and drinks to Reiven and Gatelo, things were still uncomfortable and quiet.

“Feels like forever since I’ve had fresh food. I’m so sick of hardtack and beans,” Gatelo moaned, digging into a bowl of some kind of stew, and Reiven grunted his agreement over his roasted chicken and vegetables. All I asked for was water, but the moment I dared lift it to my lips, a hand clamped down on my shoulder.

It was one of the card players, a rugged-looking man with missing teeth and a scraggly black beard. Three of his equally unkempt companions stood behind him, their hands on their pistols and sabers in some attempt to intimidate us.

“You, boy. How much for a night with the Siren?” He directed his question at Reiven, who flat out ignored him as he downed an entire mug of beer.

“Hm…More than you could ever pay. Besides, she’s mine,” Reiven finally said. “Get your hand off her.”

The card player’s eyebrows shot up in annoyance, and rather than letting go, he yanked on my shoulder and pulled me out of my chair.

I crashed on my side onto the wooden floor, sticky with spilled alcohol. Before I even processed what was happening, Reiven was on his feet, cutlass in hand. Luckily, he managed to not get any blood on me as he slashed into the pirate’s arm. The hand he had laid on me fell with a thud to the floor beside me, sending a wave of nausea into my throat.

Reiven’s blade flashed in the lantern light, two, three, four times, and the pirates that had dared to step up to him crashed into the ground, their lives ebbing away with the blood that soaked the grimy floorboards. I averted my eyes, but I couldn’t block out the wet, choking sounds of their final struggle to breathe through the gaping holes Reiven had sliced into their throats.

The Timebreaker’s bodyguard just smirked and extended his hand to help me up. After a moment of staring up at the blood splashed across his shirt and the confident glow in his eyes, I carefully took his hand and let him tug me to his side. He set one hand firmly on my waist to keep me molded against him and pointed his red-slicked cutlass at the rest of the bar patrons, raising his voice to shout, “The Siren girl is mine. Any pirate that tries to touch her will burn in the corpse pile before he can blink.”

I tried not to gape up at him, but it was almost impossible. Something about how easily he just killed those men to protect me sent warmth flooding through my body, urging me to press closer to him. I dug my fingers into the fabric of his shirt and only realized how tightly I held him when he tried to move away from me. My grip on him didn’t weaken until he glanced pointedly down at me with a devious grin.

After such bravado, Reiven plopped into his seat unceremoniously and called for another beer.

Gatelo hadn’t even raised his face from slurping down his stew. “You’re just asking for someone to shoot you in the back, making a show like that.”

“Sometimes a show is necessary.” Reiven shrugged, then motioned for me to come closer, rather than sit back down in my chair. “Come here.”

“N-no. I’m not yours,” I spat, despite all the heat in my veins that threatened to paralyze me if I got close to him again.

“Well, pretend you are, Blue. Don’t want another pirate grabbing you again, do you?” While I hesitated, Reiven yanked me to sit on his lap. He didn’t even bother to hide his grin at how I pushed against his chest to keep my distance. “Now, now. I thought you enjoyed faking things.”

I glanced around. Several of the bar’s customers had paid for their tabs and left after Reiven’s little demonstration, and a few of them dragged the bodies of the men he had killed outside, leaving streaks of crimson across the floor. The remaining patrons, aside from us…they were nonchalant about it, but they were watching us still. I didn’t get the sense that Reiven was truly worried they might attack, but he wanted me to play along with his ruse to try to disinterest them further. My skin sizzled as I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned close to his ear to whisper, “Maybe I’ll fake tearing your throat open with my teeth.”

Reiven chuckled.