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The woman’s gnarled fingers snap as she digs at the crew’s hands. Five of them now try to shove her in, but she manages to claw her way out before they can shut the grate. Her body isn’t strong enough to endure this sort of fight, though… Not anymore.
Blood drips from her wounds, staining the deck crimson, and my stomach somersaults at the sight. Her pallid skin is covered in an intricate web of dark veins—the signs of death trying to claim her. Even if we don’t throw her overboard today, she won’t live much longer. Once those show up, a shade’s days are numbered.
Her deep-set malevolent eyes are clouded as if she’s void of sight. She was beautiful once… Her features would be perfect if it weren’t for the rotting flesh, broken teeth, and dark oozing gums. Skin is missing on her shoulder where she’s tried to cut out the witch mark placed on her. The one that matches mine.
The harsh black lines of two circles and quirky symbols stand out against the raw, reddened layer of wounded flesh. She realized the same thing my father did. There’s no way to remove it. Not by cutting it away or scarring the flesh above it to obscure the mark from view. It’ll always shine through and even if it doesn’t right away, it’ll burn to the surface the moment you use magic.
Once marked, the only way to hide it—besides covering it up with clothes—is to use a glamour. Even those are only temporary though and require a great deal of power to make. I’m still not sure how Sebastian managed to get his hands on one the night he pledged to enter the gauntlet.
It took the power of twenty-seven mages and druids to hide my mark for the wedding. If it weren’t for that, my father would’ve had to disclose my mark, and no one would have pledged. They’d have thought I meant to sacrifice them or was rotting on the inside. And believe it or not, even ruthless monsters have standards in who they’ll take to bed.
I swallow hard, trying not to look away or draw attention to the fact I’m about the hurl.
“What do you plan to do with her?” Trying to keep my tone indifferent, I do my best to act as if watching them torture someone is an everyday occurrence.
“Float her the moment we’re far enough from the isles.” Sebastian is at my side, his face an impassive mask as he presses a hand against my back. Gently, he slides it up and down the length of my spine, like he’s trying to soothe me, likely sensing through the bond that I’m barely keeping it together. I lean into the comfort he offers as the ship lurches away from the dock, sails billowing in the wind thanks to the air elementals and their gifts.
Sebastian clears his throat, pulling me closer so I can hear him over the waves. “Why don’t you go below deck? Smee will keep you company.”
His sister glares at him, standing a couple of feet away from us. “Why do I have to babysit?” She turns to me, flashing me a forced smile. “No offense, just this is my favorite part.”
“None taken…” I should probably see this, anyway. I should know what’ll happen if they find out about me.
Luckily, he doesn’t push me to leave, just leans against the rail of the deck and watches the island shrink as we sail farther out to sea. It’s not until the Western Isles are nothing but a sliver on the horizon that the pirates haul the witch from the hole. They drag her by the iron cuffs that suppress her magic and the woman bucks, fighting harder than before. Her bones start to snap and pierce through her flesh as the men drag her toward the railing.
What’s left of the woman’s red hair swishes in the wind as they secure a long pole to the shackles on her wrists and attach some sort of reel to it. One of the men cranks it once and the pole telescopes, growing longer with every twist.
“Smee, get her out of here.” Sebastian grips my shoulders and slides me toward his sister. I start to protest, but he shoots me a knowing look. “Trust me, Scars. Go downstairs.”
Straightening my shoulders, I watch, refusing to leave. I need to know… I have to know.
The crewmen drop a section of the railing around the deck and attach the plank, then make quick work of lining the witch’s heels up with it. Slowly, they turn the handle of the real, making the witch step back. Little by little, she inches toward the edge, toward death. One more turn and—crack. The woman plummets into the unforgiving sea.
They don’t miss a beat, as if they didn’t just condemn someone to a true death. She’ll never be reborn. Her spirit will never cross over because it died long ago. For a breath, there’s silence, nothing but the jingle of chains as they take the unhinged shakes off the pole. They must’ve been rigged to release when she fell.
A scream tears through the air and I rush toward the rail. Misjudging my momentum, my stomach folds over it and a steady hand grips my shirt to pull me back before I can go over.
“Careful, love. I’m in no rush to get rid of you,” Sebastian says, letting me go once my feet are on the ground.
I spot the witch floating on the surface of the water, tossing with the waves like a buoy. Her shouts are drowned out with every wave that dips her head below the water.
She’s alive… and she’s floating…
I’d assumed it was just a term they used for walking someone off the plank and condemning them to the deep. I thought by floating they meant treading water, but she’s… floating like a leaf in a puddle, hovering at the surface of the water as if she’s full of air.
Her arms flail, desperate to keep herself balanced, and I spot a large shadow in the ocean’s depths, growing bigger by the second. It’s moving right toward her. I open my mouth, but the question I planned to ask dies on my tongue as a blue-scaled, reptilian head emerges from the sea. The roar of water shatters the silence as its jaw gapes wide enough to reveal row upon row of dagger-like teeth. The witch’s sightless eyes stretch wide as she mumbles something incoherent and scrambles to get out of its mouth.
She’s too late.
The beast surges upwards, launching her over twenty feet in the air. She lets out a bloodcurdling scream, but the sound is abruptly silenced as its jaw snaps closed. Blood explodes into the air like dust, and it disappears.
I lean against Sebastian to stay upright, my knuckles bleaching as my fists clench. Bile climbs the length of my throat at the thought of drowning in that thing’s gullet, or my flesh and bone crunching between its teeth.
Sebastian continues to stroke his hand up and down my back. “I told you that you didn’t want to see this. It’s not my intention for you to think I’m a monster, but you saw what she did to those people. I might not have been able to stop it, but I can give those poor souls she killed justice.”
I flinch away from his touch, nausea roiling through me. He frowns, eyes glinting with something dangerous. I get what he’s saying and honestly, I believe that woman deserved to die. What unsettles me is the fact that will be my fate… Will he hear me out when the time comes? Will he listen when I say I was wrongly marked, or will he condemn me on sight? I honestly can’t say which way he’ll lean, but what I do know is keeping my mark hidden for as long as possible is the only way forward.
“I’m fine. I promise,” I say, dropping my gaze. The last thing I need is him thinking I care about that soulless creature.
