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I give his shoulder a hard squeeze. “I need you to watch her. You don’t need to do anything but stand in this doorway and watch her. Don’t even think about getting close to her. Do you understand me, boy?”

He nods, shoulders going back. “Yes. Yes, sir.”

I glance back at Maren. “You be a good girl,” I warn her. “Good girls get rewards.”

Then I slap John on the back and head out of the room to find out what happened to my dear Sedge.

CHAPTER17

Ramsay

“What doyou mean Sedge is missing?” I yell as I step onto the upper deck.

Thane comes storming toward me, hands behind his back. “He was last seen up top. He said he wanted to help Drakos, knowing he was still injured.”

“The damn sweet fool,” I curse. “Did anyone see him taken? Killed?”

I look around at the crew who shake their heads. The entire deck is a mess of bones, most of them crawling about. I see a twitching hand near my boot and I stomp on it, shattering the fingers.

A frustrated noise sounds in my chest and I go to the rail and look behind me at our wake, the sky and sea black as onyx, the fog sitting in the distance like a blanket. The moment we got what we wanted and the mermaid was brought on board, we pushed off from theNorfinnand began to sail away. Not all of the skeleton crew were defeated, and I never even saw the captain, but since we stole something of theirs we had to make quick work of escaping, otherwise the battle would drag on for days, as it often does when you’re battling the undead.

Could the cursed crew have taken Sedge? Retribution for stealing their mermaid, as useless as she was? I try my best not to think of it. Sedge is part of my crew, but he isn’t part of the Brethren. The curse that befalls them would befall him if he became a part of theirs. We could lose him forever.

“Fuck,” I growl, my hands gripping the rail. This is my fault. I was so damn distracted by Maren that I didn’t even do a head count to make sure everyone was here before we sailed away. I blindly assumed that Sedge would have stayed in the galley as he always does, just as Henry and Lucas are ordered to stay away during battles, the three of them the most vulnerable on the ship. Pages John and Bart are also vulnerable, but they at least know how to fight.

At the thought of John, I make a silent prayer to whoever the hell is listening up there or down below for him to keep his wits about him. The last thing this ship needs right now is a monster like Maren on the loose. I doubt she could do much damage to the Brethren, but the Brethren could do a lot of damage to her and they wouldn’t hesitate. I don’t want to lose her.

And I don’t want to lose Sedge either. He belongs to me just as she does, and I have made an oath to protect him the same way I have to protect her.

“Belay! Turn the ship around!” I bellow.

“What?” Thane snaps.

I twist around to face my brother. “We’re going back to the skeleton crew. If Sedge is with them, we’re taking him back.”

“But if he’s with them he’s part of the crew,” Thane argues, his golden eyes flashing. “And there will be no hope for him if he’s cursed.”

“We don’t leave any of our crew behind, you know that, it’s part of our creed.”

“But he’ll be as good as dead and you’ll be leading us all back into battle! What about the crew you have now?”

“Quartermaster, you think the rest of us are a bunch of pussies?” Cruz barks out in a laugh. He looks at the rest of the crew. “We are here to fight!” He punctuates that by raising his cutlass in the air. “Are we not?”

Sam grumbles at that, a pussy in her own right, while everyone else erupts into cheers.

I give my brother a triumphant look. “We’re turning around, Quartermaster. We’re getting our Sedge back. Dear god, of all of us to take, he’s as vulnerable as your own son and no doubt we would do the same for him.”

Thane breathes hard through his nose, his lips pressed together in a firm line. Then he nods. “Aye. Captain.”

“Bosun, bring us round! Back the way we came!” I holler.

“Aye, sir,” Crazy Eyes says, and Cruz runs up to the aft deck to help him turn the wheel. Meanwhile Thane starts barking orders for the rest of the crew to adjust the sails. As the boat turns, the hull creaking as she goes, the wind appears now from behind, pushing into the flapping sails.

Thank you, Venla, I think. Her greatest gift to me was Hilla. After that, it was this wind.

I go to the forecastle, grabbing a spyglass along the way. Though it’s night, I’ll be able to spot when we get close, as long as the fog clears some.

I lean against the railing and look past the bowsprit to the ink-black horizon. Their ghost ship won’t have any lights, which makes things trickier, but the islands around the Reef City are still inhabited by natives. The fires from their camps will be the first things to appear.