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“Siren, you are dead!” shouted Lovel, his shoulder drenched in blood.
He charged at her with outstretched hands. She punched him in the face before he could touch her, then spun him around and slung one of the chains tightly around his neck, strangling him. He gurgled in panic, his legs kicking wildly.
Distracted, Riella hardly registered the heavy footsteps descending the stairs. An immense shadow loomed over her, blocking the candlelight. Terrick still cursed and hollered from outside of the cell.
A large hand clamped down on her shoulder and jerked her backward. Lovel scurried to the corner of the cell, coughing and massaging his throat. Riella was lifted into the air by the mountain of a man who’d arrived in the brig without a word.
He dragged her up, level with his eye-line, crashing her wrists into the wall over her head and holding them there. Her already-useless legs reached new levels of uselessness as they dangled in the air, far off the ground.
To her disbelief, she could not throw him off, no matter how hard she bucked her body. His arms seemed to be threaded with steel, the muscles under his tanned, heavily tattooed skin bulging. She screamed in his face in frustration and tried to bite him.
He reacted by slamming her wrists harder against the wall.
“Stop moving.” His deep, low voice washed over her body, like a wave. “And stop trying to kill my men.”
Emboldened, Terrick jeered at her while edging nearer. “Yeah, it’s bloody rude. I reckon we ought to teach her a lesson. Right, boss?”
Lovel closed in too, a vicious smile spreading across his blood-splattered face. Riella fought against the large man’s grip, to no avail. If he was the boss, that meant he was the captain of this ship. No man became a leader of the Dark Tide Clan without claiming the title through ruthless violence. Her situation had drastically worsened.
Although he looked and smelled cleaner than the others, she suspected that had to do with his rank. His square jaw was stubbled and his dark hair was disheveled by sea spray and wind. Tattoos covered his broad chest, peeking through the material of his shirt, and a heavy gold pendant hung on a chain around his neck. The symbol stamped on the pendant was familiar, but she had bigger concerns than his jewelry. He likely stole it, anyway. The man was a pirate.
“Now, what are we going to do with you?” he muttered as he inspected her.
His green-gray eyes swept over her face and down her body, which was mostly hidden in the baggy borrowed garment.
As the other two men gawped at her, true fear bloomed in Riella’s chest. She was completely at their mercy. Desperately, she tried to conceal this new and unwelcome feeling, but her face betrayed her. Lips trembling and brows knitting together, she squeezed her eyes shut, just for a moment, to collect herself.
Willing herself to be strong, she opened her eyes and jutted her chin. In defiance, she glared directly into the captain’s eyes. She may not have had a tail or been at full strength, but she was still a siren. She would show this brute exactly what that meant.
He frowned thoughtfully, returning her gaze. She sensed that he was distracted by whatever was going through his mind. She decided to make the most of it, and that the situation was dire enough to utilize her siren charm.
Seduction was always a last resort for Riella, because she much preferred the simplicity of fighting. But now, running her tongue across her bottom lip, she gazed deep into his eyes, praying she’d retained the ability to hypnotize and lightly stupefy mortal men.
“Come closer,” she whispered, so that he would not quite hear her over the creaking of the ship and the rush of the waves. “I bid you, come closer.”
Obediently, his eyes slid unfocused. He leaned toward her, even as his hands remained clamped on her wrists. Seizing her chance, she head-butted him as hard as she could, making the bones in his face crack. Blood sprayed across her skin and his grip on her finally loosened. The man grunted, screwing his eyes shut and reaching for her.
But she was too quick. Riella snatched up the sharpest, longest shard of glass from the broken lantern. Then she rose, driving the point of the shard into the man’s chest.
With satisfaction, she felt the glass breach his ribs and plunge directly into his heart.
CHAPTER 4
Riella killed the man. She knew she had. So, why wasn’t he dying?
Her back against the wall, she watched in confusion as he swayed on the spot, grasping at the shard blindly. His eyeballs had turned entirely black and hazy, like storm clouds. Lovel and Terrick backed away.
“Oh, you’re in trouble, girl,” said Terrick with a sneer.
The tall man gritted his teeth.
“Sirens will be the bloody death of me,” he said, closing his fingers around the shard and pulling. “I will end you for that.”
Blood spilled out as he dislodged it, dripping down his linen shirt like liquid rubies. But there was less bleeding than there should’ve been. Right before her eyes, the wound began to close, his body healing itself.
He raised his stormy gaze to her. With a jolt, she realized she was now in more danger than ever. Not only was this man enormous and strong, but apparently he was invincible, too.
Without looking away, he barked an order at his men.
