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“Then why did your skin pale like you’d seen a ghost?”

“Perhaps all your tales are spooking me.”

The lady is lying. I’ve been around her enough now to know that nothing seems to spook her. That’s fine. She can save her secrets. I’ll uncover them sooner than later.

“So what is your plan then?” she asks, straightening up in her seat and taking on an air of false dignity, eyes focused on her plate.

“We spotted their ship yesterday for a brief moment. They are being pulled back to the islands.” She frowns in confusion and I go on. “Nerissa keeps them on a leash, letting them cast off only when she feels generous. Eventually she will pull them back to the islands, like a magic rope. Their ship moves as fast as theNightwindwhen she’s controlling it and the crew are at her mercy. It truly is a ghost ship.”

“But if we’re going to the islands, where this sea witch is who curses humans, isn’t she going to do the same to us?”

I shake my head. “No. She won’t. She can’t touch us.”

“Why not?”

I run my tongue over my teeth. “Magic.”

“From the last time you killed a mermaid and drank her blood?”

“From my wife, if you must know.”

“She gave you magic.”

“Once upon a time. She even wrote me a book of magic. Some might say we wrote it together. But it was made for me and my crew. She knew how truly dangerous these seas were.” I pause, sucking back on my lip for a moment. “She knew how spiteful her sister was.”

“Sister?”

“Half sister. Edonia is Venla’s half sister. And oh did she hate that her blood got together with the likes of me.”

“So…” she trails off, her lips downturned.

“So killing Hilla was her revenge, I suppose,” I say. “Edonia took my girl. And she took my book. The one that Venla made for me.”

The princess’s mouth opens for moment, then shuts. She presses her lips together for a second before saying, “I’m sorry.”

I don’t want her pity, though I can feel her empathy. It rises out from her like a warm embrace. It’s a nice feeling.

“Yes. Well. Suffice to say, I want my revenge now too. On Edonia. And with only scraps of magic left behind from the book, we need mermaid’s blood to truly defeat the sea witch and survive the Kraken. You understand now, don’t you?”

“I do,” she says solemnly.

“And while we have had luck in the past with hunting mermaids, we haven’t seen any for a very long time. It’s like the species is becoming sparse. I’m not sure why that is, they don’t have any predators.”

“Except the sea witch.”

“Aye.”

“And you.”

“Aye. And us, but not for a very long time. Hence why we are going after the skeleton crew. If they have a mermaid on board, it will be easy pickings for us.”

Her gaze darkens. “How do you know the mermaid is still alive?”

“I don’t. But only fresh blood will do. Doesn’t work if they’re dead.”

“So you’re going to attack the skeleton crew and steal their mermaid and bring her aboard theNightwind.”

“Precisely.”