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“You need not do anything alone again if you don’t want to.”
It almost hurts to look into those golden-brown eyes. I know what he means by those words. He’ll be by my side always, as long as I want him there.
It’s so very tempting, but—“No. I need you below. We are vastly outnumbered. All hands need to take out those most loyal to the pirate king if we’re to survive this. And stealth will be needed if I’m to sneak up on the king while he sleeps. One person in the room is best.”
He nods, almost imperceptibly, but it is a nod, nonetheless. I kiss him for it, hating that I have to pull away so soon.
But what if it’s the last time?
I pull him to me again. I don’t care if it wastes time.
His arms come around me, crushing me, as if he means to permanently weld us together. His lips are frantic against mine, and they taste like salt. I wonder if he shed a few tears for Roslyn’s injury when I wasn’t looking.
Knowing that somehow makes me love him even more.
I pull back, even though it hurts, and turn to what’s left of my crew. “I expect to see you all again soon.”
“Whether in this life or the next,” Sorinda says.
Chapter 22
THEDRAGON’SSKULLISover three times the size of theAva-lee. While my ship was designed for stealth, my father’s was made for the complete opposite. Kalligan wants his victims to see him coming. He wants to invoke fear, to start attacking sailors’ minds long before he reaches them.
His flag bears a dragon skull with its jaws open wide, readying to breathe fire on its enemies. Men on the sea have learned to fear that flag.
My father no doubt thinks of himself as the dragon—the biggest and most powerful creature of all. Dragons, however, are myths. My father is very real.
He is the dragon I must slay.
Everything about the ship is a message to those on board.As I take the steps up the companionway, I can’t help but stare at the skulls skewered through the pegs in the railing. Each of them is a man my father killed. Not a single peg on this ship is empty. The ropes are spotted with red, whether paint or actual blood, I couldn’t say.
When I take the final step, a strangled cry interrupts the quiet, and a body falls from above. Sorinda must have killed another one of the night watches—someone up in the rigging. It’s unlike Sorinda to allow her kills to be so loud, but everyone makes mistakes. Thank the stars no one aboard can hear.
I freeze with my hand on the door to my father’s rooms. The reality of what I’m about to do hits me again.
Patricide.
No. Not that. Kalligan is a father in blood alone. What he’s done—to me and my mother—that does not earn him such a title. He is only a name. Kalligan. A nobody.
There are different kinds of fathers,Riden once said. I ignored his words then. I didn’t want to hear them. Kalligan was all I’d ever known. I didn’t realize things could be different.
Or did I?
The image of little Roslyn’s blood-streaked hair washes over me, a flare of pain and anger spreading through my otherwise numb limbs. I’ve seen Wallov with Roslyn hundreds of times. His kindness and compassion. His support and friendship. Yet his gentle discipline and direction.
I never realized that was what I should have had.
And because of Kalligan, Roslyn is fighting for her life back on my ship.
I meet no resistance when I push against the door latch. He must be inside if his rooms are unlocked. He always locks up when he leaves.
I shut the door gently behind me. I can’t help but keep my steps light, my breathing soft, even though I know no matter how I approach, he won’t hear me.
My pounding heart is the loudest sound as I walk through his sitting room. Chairs gather around a table. A storage of rum fills the wall with the finest vintages. His rooms are the only places on the ship that don’t scream of death.
The study contains a neat desk with map pieces and notes on the journey next to them. I move past it all to hover outside his bed chamber.
Pressing my ear to the door, I hold my breath.
