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“Bah, what do you think the skeleton crew been doin’ with her?”

“Conner,” Cruz says to him, trying not smile. “They’re skeletons. They have no cocks!”

“But I sure do,” he hoots.

Figures that’s where his mind would go. We only left port last week and yet he’s thinking with his cock already. Granted, I have been too but only because I’ve got a delectable creature caged in my room.

Which reminds me.

I leave the deck and head down the stairs to my quarters where I find Skip running across the room and hiding under the table, while the princess is looking sheepish in her cage.

“The cat bothering you?” I ask.

“Just making friends,” she says. “You may not believe this, but it’s getting rather boring being in here.”

“I can put you back with your husband if you want some excitement.”

Her eyes narrow icily. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Actually, I’m a very daring fellow,” I tell her. I stride over to my wardrobe and start taking off my clothes.

“Do you mind?” she asks, covering her eyes.

“I do not mind. But I can turn around if it pleases you.”

“Please do.”

“Interesting, I could have sworn you enjoyed the sight of me shirtless the other day.” I smirk at her, shaking my head, then step out of my breeches and shirt, placing them on the back of a chair, and into a set of darker clothes that dry fast, perfect for being stealthy while swimming. I need the least amount of restriction and accessories as possible, just a dagger and a cutlass and that’s it. A flintlock wouldn’t fire if it were wet.

I turn around once I’m dressed and as I’m buttoning up my shirt she peers at me through her fingers. “Can I ask, if the crew is already cursed and dead, how you’re going to go about defeating them?” she says.

“Slice their heads off. Dismember them. It won’t kill them but if they don’t get ahold of their bones, they can’t be put back together.”

“Fascinating,” she says under her breath, though she sounds sincere. “But they’ll see you coming, won’t they?”

“Not if me and a few mates sneak on their ship first. We’re getting dropped off at shore, then theNightwindwill sail around the island to pick us up. Meanwhile we’ll have dismembered the captain. Take out the captain, you take out the crew.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she says idly.

“You stay here, luv,” I tell her. “It will all be over in no time.”

I leave her, locking the door to my chambers behind me. It’s only when I’m on the ship’s boat and being lowered to the water, along with my crew of Cruz, Matisse, Lothar, Remi, Horse, and the page, John, that I remember I left my keys to the princess’s cage behind in my other trousers. I shake it out of my head. She can’t get out of the cage and no one else can get into my chambers. She’s safe.

I turn my focus to our plan and our surroundings. A heavy fog has settled over the water and islands, coating it with an eerie mist. We silently row the boat to shore in the dark cover of night, taking in the reverence of the area. Nan Madol is a city of half-submerged ruins by the water’s edge. Columns of basalt rocks rise up along built canals, giving the abandoned site the name “Venice of the Pacific.”

I have been to Venice and the nickname is a stretch, but even so it’s an impressive place with the residents, who were the elite members of the tribes, living here until a hundred years ago. In that time since the city was abandoned, the vegetation has taken over, vines stretching over the ruins, the sand and water swallowing the rest.

Our boat glides soundlessly along the stone walls of the canals built up on the coral reefs and rising up through the mist. If it were daytime and the sun were shining you would see down through the clear blue water to where old stones had sunk to the bottom, but in the fog and under a moonless sky it looks like we are slicing through ink. Above, statues peer down at us, big gaping eyes giving silent judgment. It’s the type of place you don’t even want to breathe for fear of pissing off some god that you don’t believe in.

Eventually, we reach the shore and we quickly step off while John turns the boat around and starts rowing it back to theNightwind, the ship looking ghostly as it sits there in the mist, barely visible.

I take the lead and Cruz brings up the back and I lead my crew through the thick jungle, past the ruins. It’s even darker in here, the fog reaching through the trees like fingers, and I have to use my cutlass as a machete to slice through all the overgrowth. Strange creatures make growling noises in the pitch, and beady eyes watch us from the treetops. Every now and then I swear I hear a girl crying but I know it’s just a trick. After all, this place was completely normal until Nerissa decided to take over. Now it pulses with her witchcraft.

“Captain, I’m pretty sure there’s something following us,” Remi says, his voice shaking. Remi is the youngest of the full-fledged Brethren and isn’t used to being pulled away from his post at the cannons.

“It’s just me,” Cruz says. “And…something else. But the more you talk about it, the more it will follow us. Let’s keep moving with our mouths shut.”

Remi whimpers and his lover, Horse, utters some comforting words to him, and we continue on, our breathing heavy and quick, the sound of my machete echoing through the darkness over and over again.