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He bats at my arms with flimsy pressure and tries to stand again.
“Keep your arse on my floor,” I say.
“Why don’t youmake me?” he snaps. “You’ve already broken your promise today. What’s once more?”
My mouth drops open. “Is that what this is about?”
He still won’t look at me.
“Would you really have preferred that I let you drown?”
“I gave you my conditions for joining your crew. Under no circumstances were you to use your abilities on me.”
“You were going to die!”
He snaps his neck in my direction, his eyes finding mine instantly. “Then you should have let me. I practically killed myself trying toobeyyou. I can barely lift my arms, and forget about my legs. I feel as though I’ve been swimming for years nonstop. Not because I was fighting for my life, but because I was trying to heed the order of a siren.”
“You’re being a prick. I did nothing wrong.”
He mumbles something under his breath. I almost don’t call him out on it, but if he’s going to insult me, he better have the balls to do it to my face.
“What was that?” I ask.
“You were just like him.”
My mind blanks. Him? “Who?”
“Jeskor,” he breathes so faintly I almost miss it. His eyes take on a faraway look, reflecting on some former time. Some demon of his past, I realize.
I know all too well what it is like being raised by a pirate. But I don’t know fully what life was like for Riden growing up. What did his father do to him?
“What happened?” I ask.
His eyes narrow on me again. “I want to be alone.”
“Fine,” I snap. I throw the large feather blanket from my bed on top of his head. Maybe he’s too weak to adjust it and he’ll suffocate, but that’s probably too much to hope for.
I leave before I can fantasize more about strangling him.
How dare he scare me to death and then try to guilt me for it! I should dump his arse back into the sea.
“Kearan, go below and tell Mandsy she should stay with Riden if Roslyn checks out all right. Then get some rest. I’ll take the helm for a while.”
He opens his mouth.
“If you’re about to argue with me, I suggest you don’t.”
Something about my tone makes him go through the hatch without another moment’s hesitation.
***
Two hours pass. The hazy light of dawn finally peeks over the horizon, casting a little light for us to see by. Kearan is taking another turn at the helm while I rest my arms from the battle with the sea. The ship constantly has to be turned into the waves to keep it from capsizing. It’s as if the storm is a manifestation of my father’s wrath.
A brutal gust of wind strikes the ship, and acrackslices the air. I assume it’s more thunder until I feel the ship start to tip. I can do nothing but watch as the mainmast snaps just below the second sail. It falls against the side of the ship, slicing through the railing and putting a hole through the deck. It’sheld together by mere fragments of wood and a few lines of rope.
I run for the trapdoor, open it, and scream, “Niridia, get the crew up here! Now! Before the tension drags us under!”
There’s a blur of movement as the crew spills onto the deck, carrying knives and axes. They slice the ropes and hack at the wood weighing us down. Radita directs them so the task can be done in the most efficient way possible.
