Pirates of Aletharia, page 20
“There’s nothing ridiculous about my Code,” Maria said. “What’s ridiculous, thief, is that you asked a favor from me and are now surprised that it came at a cost.” She laughed, her smile predatory as a shark’s. “I’m a pirate, love. What did you expect?”
Judith’s warning suddenly rang loudly in Emilia’s head: “Oh, you poor thing. The captain’ll take more than you ever intended to pay.”
“I gave you so many chances to walk away,” Maria said, her eyes dark. “I even offered to get you work with Adda, but that wasn’t good enough for you. You trusted a pirate, Em. That’s what’s ridiculous.”
Emilia looked away, humiliation churning in her stomach. She knew Maria was right, and that made her gloating that much harder to stomach.
“You can only dangle your naïveté in front of me so many times before I’ll bite,” Maria whispered.
Emilia shuddered. The last thing her overwhelmed brain needed, at the moment, was to think of Maria’s bite—in any sense of the word. The heat of frustration turned to one of lust far too easily.
On the bright side, the anger Emilia felt over her own attraction cleared her mind enough to respond.
“I wasn’t naïve,” Emilia said.
“No?” Maria said with a cruel smile. “When you came to me, asking for help, you said you didn’t want to be a pirate. You didn’t want to work for me. So, I played around with you a little bit, and by the time I was done, you were thanking me for hiring you.”
Emilia frowned, her blood cooling in her veins.
Maria laughed. “You said you didn’t want to be a pirate,” she said, tapping her finger against the Code that lay between them, “and now, what are you?”
Emilia didn’t answer. She couldn’t.
Maria grinned and whispered, “A fucking pirate.”
In that moment, Emilia had never hated anyone more than she hated Captain Maria Welles. In another moment, she’d, of course, remember that she hated Catherine far more, but for this moment, at least, she let all of that hatred funnel toward the pirate captain who’d just confessed to tricking her.
Whatever reluctance Emilia had felt toward killing Maria was gone now.
Maria leaned back in her chair. “What’s the matter, love? Have I hurt your pride?” She lowered her voice to a growl, “Like you hurt mine, when you asked me to carry you across the sea like a fucking ferry boat?”
Emilia glowered at the captain, red-hot fury searing through her. “I wasn’t naïve,” she said, once again.
“How did I play you so easily, then?” Maria asked.
“Because I let you,” Emilia said. Pain and bitterness bled into her words. “I was naïve once. I trusted someone who was supposed to love me. I trusted someone who wasn’t supposed to betray me. That was naïve, and I paid for that mistake. I paid dearly.” She leaned forward, anger burning through every vein. “But you? I never trusted you. I knew the risk and chose to do it, anyway. I made a deal with you—not because I trusted you, but because, well… at least I know what you are.”
Maria settled back in her chair, a smile turning up at the corners of her lips. If Emilia didn’t know better, she might’ve thought the captain looked…impressed.
“Then, lie in the bed you made, thief,” Maria said.
“You know I’ll leave either way,” Emilia warned.
Maria looked away, drumming her fingers against the hilt of her sword. “We’ll see,” she murmured.
Emilia narrowed her eyes, not satisfied with that answer. “You’re not going to stop me from leaving.”
When Maria’s dark gaze shifted back toward her, any hint of amusement had vanished. “For fuck’s sake, Em,” she muttered. “I’m not going to tie you up and keep you against your will. If you desert, you desert. Just don’t think you can come crawling back to me afterward. If you leave, you’re dead to me.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Emilia snarled. “I’d never crawl back to anyone—let alone you.”
“Finish eating, and get back to work,” Maria said.
“Fine,” Emilia said. She stood and turned to leave.
“Fine, what?” Maria called after her.
Emilia spun toward her. “Oh, I did say that wrong, didn’t I?” She placed her hands on the table and leaned forward. “What I meant to say was: ‘Fuck you, Captain.’”
Maria tilted her head back and laughed, apparently enjoying Emilia’s outburst. “Come on and try, then.”
Emilia fell silent, instantly flushing at the invitation.
Maria’s smile was smug. “Don’t forget your apple.”
CHAPTER 10
Picking Fights
“Whoa! Let’s take it easy on the potato, all right?” Judith rounded the table and took Emilia’s knife.
“What are you doing?” Emilia said with a frown.
“Confiscating this,” Judith said. She held up Emilia’s knife for emphasis. “For the sake of all of those poor potatoes you’ve been slaughtering.”
“You asked me to slice them,” Emilia reminded her.
“Em,” Judith said, eyeing what was left of Emilia’s most recent potato. “You’ve done a bit more than slice them.” She looked up at Emilia, flashing a wry smile. “Whatever they did to you—I’m sure they’re sorry.”
Emilia glanced down at the potatoes and realized, with chagrin, that she had sliced them too thin. “I got a little carried away,” she admitted, wincing. “Can you still use it?”
“Of course,” Judith assured her. She leaned her hip against the table. “Want to talk about what’s got you feeling so murderous today?” She offered Emilia a kind smile, sympathy shining in those bright blue eyes of hers. “Or should I say…whom?”
With the realization that Judith knew, already, what was bothering her, Emilia’s frustration came spilling out much too easily. “How can you stand her?”
Judith lifted both eyebrows. She set the knife aside and crossed her arms. “That’s a loaded question.”
Whatever discomfort the heat caused was only intensified by the anger burning in Emilia’s veins. It was enough to suffocate her. “Is it because you grew up in Nefala together? Was she different back then?”
“Of course she was different then,” Judith said. “We were all different then.” She shrugged. “But if you’re assuming I’m only loyal to her now because of who she was then, you’re wrong. She’s a good captain.”
“She’s selfish and manipulative,” Emilia argued.
Judith laughed softly at that. “She’s a pirate.”
Emilia looked away, the frustration churning in her stomach. “She gloated about it. It’s bad enough that she tricked me. She didn’t have to gloat about it.”
Judith nodded. “She humiliated you.”
“No,” Emilia sighed, “it wasn’t—” She stopped and glanced at Judith. She didn’t know why it was so easy to talk to the ship cook. She didn’t know why she felt like they were friends already. But in that brief moment, she’d almost blurted out the truth.
The truth was…no, Maria wasn’t the person who’d humiliated her. It was Catherine who’d done that.
Maria had simply pricked the wound.
Judith dropped her arms to her sides. “Look,” she said with a sympathetic smile, “why don’t you go up and take a walk around the deck? You’ll feel better.”
“I’m fine,” Emilia said.
“Em,” Judith said. She placed a hand on Emilia’s arm. “You look like you’re about to pass out. It’s hot. Get you some fresh air, and then, come back down.”
Emilia shook her head. “You heard her this morning,” she sighed. “I have to prove I’m useful.”
“You are,” Judith said. She waved a hand at the potatoes. “You’ve already sliced three times as many as I need. You’ve been plenty useful. Take a break.”
Emilia’s brows furrowed. “I sliced too many?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Judith reassured her. “I’ll use them for the evening meal. You’ve been perfect.”
Emilia smiled hesitantly at that. “Are you sure?”
“I am,” Judith assured her. “You’re angry. You’re overheated. You’re boiling on the inside and the outside, and that’s not pleasant for anyone.” She picked up an empty tankard. “Get some fresh air, and I’ll have you some rum waiting, when you get back.”
Emilia nodded reluctantly. “Thank you, Judith.”
Judith nodded. “I only ask one thing,” she said, holding up a finger. “Avoid the captain, if you can.”
Emilia frowned. “Because I’m not supposed to be up there?” she assumed.
“No,” Judith said. “Because I’m afraid you’ll try to do to her what you did to my potatoes.”
Emilia glanced at her bowl of potatoes and nodded. After what Maria had said to her earlier, slicing her into small pieces would make Emilia feel better.
Judith laughed. “I see that contemplative look, and let me just go ahead and tell you: it’s not worth it.”
An amused smile curved at the corners of Emilia’s lips. “I think it would be cathartic, actually.”
“She’d fucking kill you, Em,” Judith said. She placed her hands on Emilia’s arms. “Promise me you’re not going to get yourself killed.”
Emilia smiled, warmed by the concern. “I promise.”
Judith patted her arm. “Perfect. Get out of here.”
Judith was right about one thing.
It was much cooler above deck.
The sun still burned Emilia’s fair skin, and the tropical heat still took her breath sometimes.
But the cool, salt-scented breeze made all the difference.
They didn’t have that in the galley.
Emilia didn’t walk far, before she caught sight of Maria—on the quarterdeck with Fulke.
Maria might’ve been tall next to most other people, but she looked like a child next to him.
Well…not a child, really.
No child would have such a lethal form.
Fulke must’ve been teasing her the way he had Judith—because after one particular hand gesture, Maria chucked an empty rum bottle in his direction.
Emilia could nearly hear their laughter over the deafening snapping of the sails.
Emilia turned away with a scoff. Of course Maria was still enjoying her day—as if she hadn’t just sent Emilia into a murderous rage.
What had she expected?
Remorse?
Decency?
From Captain Maria Welles?
On second thought, perhaps some part of Emilia was still naïve.
Thanks to her blind rage, Emilia managed to walk straight into a large hulk of a man for the second time that day.
Unfortunately, the gentle giant was on the quarterdeck with Maria, which meant this particular, large, burly sailor was…the other one.
“You again,” Buchan sneered.
Emilia avoided eye-contact with the bad-tempered pirate. “Unfortunately, yes.”
Despite the light tan he’d already had, the sun had still reddened his skin a bit since their last collision.
And it certainly hadn’t softened his mood any.
“I think you owe me an apology,” the sailor demanded.
“Yeah, I—”
And honestly, she was just about to apologize to the asshole, before he opened his big mouth.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you, lady.”
Emilia froze.
Honestly, she didn’t like to make eye-contact much at all. It disrupted her thoughts and made her uneasy.
Perhaps that’s why she loved her dragons so much.
They understood. Humans never had.
But she certainly wasn’t about to make eye-contact with someone who spoke to her like that.
Considering what she wanted to do was slice him up like she had Judith’s potatoes, Emilia thought she was showing a lot of restraint, when she said, “I think I’ll just be going now.”
But when she tried to step past the guy, he grabbed her arm.
“Did you not hear me, bitch?”
Emilia turned to glare at him. “Get your hand off of me.”
Buchan narrowed those cold, grey eyes of his. “Or what?”
Some nearby hammering stopped, and within a few moments, a somewhat familiar face had entered Emilia’s vision.
The man with sandy-blonde hair—Jonas, Maria had called him—approached them cautiously.
With a hammer still in his hand, the carpenter glanced back and forth between them.
With a wary smile, he said, “You making enemies already, Em?”
“Apparently,” Emilia snarled.
Jonas leaned toward Buchan. “Look, I think the captain might be a bit…fond of her new surgeon, so…”
“Oh, is that it?” Buchan said to Emilia. “Is that why she humiliated me earlier? Because you’re fucking her?”
“What?” Emilia said. “No, I’m not—”
“I should’ve known,” Buchan scoffed. “She’s always so protective of her whores.”
Jonas glanced toward the quarterdeck, where Maria was probably still having a carefree time with Fulke. “Buchan, it’s not worth it,” he hazarded. “Just let the girl go.”
“She owes me an apology,” Buchan said.
Jonas cast a hopeful look in Emilia’s direction.
But Emilia snarled at the belligerent sailor, “You’re not getting anything from me.”
After everything Emilia had been through recently, she didn’t have enough dignity left to sacrifice any for someone who spoke to her like this.
Spotting the quartermaster a few feet away, Jonas waved him down.
“Are you sure you want to pick a fight with me, little girl?” Buchan sneered.
Emilia stepped closer. “Are you sure you want to pick one with me?”
The tall, muscular mountain of a man laughed, as if she’d lost her mind.
But he had no idea what she was capable of.
The rage boiling between them must’ve been tangible—because Zain approached them just as cautiously as Jonas had.
“Is everything all right?” the quartermaster said.
When neither of them answered, Jonas said, “Get the captain.”
With a sigh, Zain left to do just that.
Apparently, those were the magic words—because Buchan finally released her arm.
“You better sleep with one eye open, little girl,” he said.
Not at all intimidated by the threat, Emilia rolled her eyes and turned to leave.
She only made it a total of one step, though, before she heard him mutter something to Jonas.
“She does have a nice ass, though. Maybe, before I kill her, I’ll—”
The last ounce of patience that Emilia had managed to preserve snapped.
She didn’t even wait for him to finish that before she turned and punched him.
Despite their size difference, Emilia still managed to hit him hard enough to unsettle his balance for a moment.
But when Buchan reached up to touch his nose and found it clean of blood, he laughed at her.
“Big mistake, little girl,” Buchan said.
Jonas stepped back, clearly not wanting to get caught in the middle of the fight.
Emilia managed to dodge Buchan’s first punch, but the second sent her head spinning and her body sprawling face-first onto the deck.
She pushed herself up onto her hands, waiting for the deck to stop spinning, before she climbed to her feet.
Warm blood spilled down her cheek—the skin split open after only one punch.
She climbed to her feet and ran toward him, but he grabbed her with just one arm and flung her back to the deck.
Her head still rattled from the first punch, she clumsily tried to climb back to her feet.
She only needed to use a bit of magic, and she’d subdue the man easily.
But with Jonas watching her so closely, Emilia knew she couldn’t use her magic.
Buchan punched her before she even made it to her feet, and she hit the deck again.
Pain exploded throughout her entire body, as Buchan delivered a sharp kick to her left side.
On instinct, Emilia curled away from the blow, but Buchan continued to kick without mercy—whether his boot connected with her abdomen, her side, or her back.
Time passed in a blur of pain, as she fought her way back to her hands and knees.
The kicking stopped at some point—though Emilia was too disoriented to say when.
Emilia thought she heard laughter, muffled somewhere beneath the pounding in her head.
She coughed up a mouthful of blood, before lifting herself onto her knees.
The deck spun around her—Buchan’s large form nothing more than a shadow at the edge of her blurred vision.
He was talking to Jonas, laughing and mocking her for going down so easily.
That’s why, despite the pain throbbing in every muscle and vein in Emilia’s body, she refused to stay down.
Emilia slowly, unsteadily, climbed to her feet, bracing herself for another attack.
When the pirate saw that she was on her feet again, he started toward her again.
Emilia didn’t know how much more she could take, but she had no intention of letting someone who treated her like this win.
At some point, a crowd had gathered around them, dashing Emilia’s last hope of using magic against her opponent.
As the large sailor approached her in what felt like slow motion, Emilia straightened her back and prepared for the onslaught of blows that would hit her next.
Buchan was just about to grab her, when someone stepped between them.
Even though her back was to Emilia, even though Emilia could barely see at all, she still recognized those lean muscles and slender, leather-clad hips.
Maria.
“Back the fuck off,” the pirate captain snarled.
Buchan immediately raised both hands in surrender.
Maria held one sword in her hand—while the other hung at her waist, still. The pirate captain pressed the tip of her sword against Buchan’s throat, forcing him back a step. “You better have a good fucking explanation, sailor.”
