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“Kill your own father?”
I switch the dagger to my left hand and draw my sword. “What we’re about to do has nothing to do with power. It’s about making things right.” I have lost crew members because of this man.
He reaches for his own cutlass, a look of indifference upon his face. “You will accomplish nothing. I can assure you of that.”
The ship rocks at the same time the boom of a cannon ignites on the air. The motion is slight, not enough to knock over either of us.
But it’s surely enough to wake everyone on the ship.
Someone in his crew must have spotted the girls and fired a cannon to wake the rest.
“You’re not as careful as you think,” Kalligan says. “Everything you do, I am always one step ahead.”
I realize then that we’re conversing, which means he doesn’t have his ears covered. Not like the rest of his men. He must have heard the dying call of the man Sorinda killed. It would have been slight in here, but enough to wake my father.
“The sirens will have you,” I tell him, trying to hide my rage. I’ve doomed my whole crew. They can’t have killed enough of Kalligan’s sleeping men. If they even made it that far.
He grins, something born of triumph and greed. “The sirens can’t touch me. I am immune.”
I blink. I’ve always knownmysong doesn’t affect him because of the blood we share, but he can’t be immune toallsirens. But what does he gain by lying?
Nothing.
Shouts interrupt the quiet outside. Night is over. I can see the sun rising out the window now.
Our final battle has begun.
He makes the first move, a swipe meant to take off my head. I duck it and thrust at his gut. He tries to dodge it, but my sword catches him in the side. The tip of my sword comes back bloodied, like a spotted dog’s tail.
I know better than to relish over the victory. My father does not weaken like a normal man after being struck. Pain fuels him, makes him stronger.
Makes him charge me.
I’ve already begun backing up, slamming the door to his bedroom in front of me. I do not turn my back to him.Never give your back to an opponent.Even now his training directs my movements.
BAM!
My arms barely shield my face in time. Wood splinters dig into my skin as the shattered door explodes in my direction. The blood lust is upon my father. His battle rage makes him forget pain. Forget reason. Rather than opening his door, he punched his weight through it.
It’s a move meant to scare, intimidate.
And it works.
I falter a step, but manage to get the door to the deck open. I don’t want to be enclosed in his quarters with him. Can’t be. I need the dawning light from outside to capture him. To remind me he is only a man. If I avoid looking too hard at his face, I can forget it’s one I’ve grown up seeing my whole life. One I actually loved.
I press my back into the outside wall to his rooms, right next to the door opening, and spare a glance at the scene below.
The girls are keeping themselves busy on the deck of theDragon’s Skull. They’ve come above from the sleeping quarters and are bottlenecking my father’s men as they come up through the hatches.
Mandsy, you brilliant, brilliant woman.
Such a large ship has two hatches, one on either end, but she’salready divided up the crew, half at each hatch, and they’re cutting away my father’s men before they can surround them and use their superior numbers to overpower.
I register this all in less than a second.
My cutlass is poised beside me, waiting to strike my father when he exposes his back by rushing through the door opening.
I lose my breath and sword when a bullet streaks through my right arm.
