Page 14 of Broken Hearted (Cursed Fae #3)

A hand pressed over my mouth, and my eyes flew open at the same time as I gave a muffled shout. The bedroom lamp had been lit, and I was staring into Adrien’s terrified teal eyes.

My heart knocked in my chest as screams and a thump sounded from somewhere above. But it wasn’t until my gaze fell to the green dampener rune on Adrien’s bare chest that I felt a genuine terror of my own.

“Pirates have taken over the ship, and slit half my crew’s throats. They got a rune on me before I could help. Can you use your magic to save the rest of my men? Are you powerful enough?”

Was I powerful enough? He had no idea.

He peeled his fingers away from my mouth, and I growled. “I’ll kill every last pirate I lay eyes on.”

“I was really hoping you would say that,” he said, sounding relieved.

I reached over the edge of the bed and pulled out my faestone dagger. “And you can help,” I told him. “Are you ready for it this time?” I asked, remembering how he’d reacted the last time my faestone dagger had come so close to his heart.

He nodded and brandished his chest.

Another scream and a thump above us. Were those bodies? Oh, stars, we had no time.

I swiped the blade over the rune and leaped out of bed, not caring that I was in only my nightgown. I needed to get up there before another man lost his life.

“Come on,” I hissed at Adrien but when I reached the door, he was still sitting on the bed, staring in shock at his chest.

The rune. It hadn’t come off. It was still glowing brightly. In frustration I rushed over and swiped my knife over it again. And again.

Nothing.

“No. How? ” I asked.

Adrien frowned. “The fae you paid to rune me when I was coming off the tea. Did he see your dagger?”

My heart sank into my gut like a stone.

He … had. That bastard offered to buy it after telling me that’s all I needed to dispel the rune he’d put on Adrien. Did he do this? I’d kill him.

Since he knew about my dagger it made sense that he’d somehow tweaked his rune to be impervious to it. Maybe he had nothing to do with this attack, but I couldn’t think of another reason why my dagger wouldn’t be working this time. And if it was him, that meant that this attack was my fault, at least partially, and that made me sick.

Adrien shook his head. “No matter. Let’s go. It’s up to you to save my men now, Isolde. Please ,” he begged.

He didn’t have to say another word. I handed him my dagger and my satchel with the Shadow Heart in it, and he took them. Then I held my hands about two inches from each other, pulling all of the moisture from the air to me, which was a lot when you were at sea. Frost began to appear at the edges of the windows, and my breath came out in a puff of white mist.

Adrien held my blade before him, and opened the door for me.

I was immediately met with a snarling unseelie fae wearing all black and brandishing a bloody sword before him. Forming a spear of ice, I sent it through his heart before he could even speak. His mouth opened like a gaping fish and then he hit the ground with a thud.

“Thank the stars,” Adrien whispered behind me.

Had he assumed my powers were weak? He’d seen nothing yet.

I rushed down the hallway and up the stairs.

Stars have mercy .

Dead bodies littered the deck of Adrien’s beautiful ship and alongside us—on our starboard side as Adrien had taught me—was another ship, bigger and more heavily gunned than ours.

Beatrice ’s deck was teeming with pirates who appeared to be stabbing anything that moved. But about a dozen of Adrien’s men were still alive and fighting, so I’d have to be careful with my powers to avoid injuring them.

Across the ship I spotted a familiar fae in a bowler hat and three-piece suit, and anger exploded within me. It was, in fact, the man I’d paid to cast the rune. He would die first.

I flung a thick ice shard the size and sharpness of a large sword across the boat with perfect precision, and it sailed right through his chest. His shout of alarm was nothing over the screams on the boat, but my flying ice shard in the middle of the warm summer air had alerted more than a few pirates.

One by one, they turned toward me.

Yes. Come for me and leave Adrien’s men alone.

Half a dozen of them ran in my direction, screaming and holding their stained swords aloft. I pulled the water from the sea and doused them with it, freezing them solid.

They stood like statues on the deck of the boat with swords still held in midair.

I moved deeper into the boat now, hoping to position myself in front of some of Adrien’s men. Scrambling to the port side, I ducked quickly as a pirate came out of nowhere, dropping from some ropes above me. Before he could strike out at me, Adrien came up behind him and dragged my dagger across his neck before spinning and kicking out his foot into another pirate. His foot connected with the pirate’s jaw and shattered it. The sound of broken bone filled the space before the man hit the ground, wailing. I appraised Adrien. Even without his powers he was useful.

Another half dozen men immediately descended on us. I froze who I could, and impaled the rest. I’d never had to move this quickly, or fight this many assailants at once. I was well trained, but this was madness.

I heard a deafening battle cry and when I looked up, over two dozen pirates rushed from the other ship onto ours. My stomach dropped. Too many.

Within moments the pirates were upon us.

I was madder than I’d ever been in my life. My hands shook as I pulled up an ice wall between the two ships, cutting off any more pirates from crossing over.

The pirates in front of us shouted in alarm and drew their swords. Some even had magic. A small ball of fire caught my eye and nervousness ran through me. I’d never met anyone with fire magic: it was the antithesis of my very own power. Dawn came pretty close with her sunlight magic but fire … my magic was no match for it. It didn’t matter. I’d fight to the death if that’s what it took to keep Adrien and the remainder of his men safe.

Drawing on my power, I started to raise my hands, targeting one of the pirates closest to me.

“Look out!” Adrien shouted, and I spun around just as I felt a small prick in my back. Then it was like a heavy blanket had been placed over me, and all of a sudden, my powers were drained from my body.

A dampener rune.

No. I killed him.

I turned, and my gaze went to a tall female fae with burgundy hair and a feral snarl. She held a wand and was wearing a bowler hat of her own. The resemblance between her and the man I killed was uncanny. Perhaps his sister? And clearly the magic ran in the family because now I was in the exact same boat as Adrien. Powerless.

My mother had a dampener rune put on me once as a lesson, so I would know what it felt like. This was exactly how I remembered feeling. Helpless, empty, awful.

“Abandon ship!” Adrien cried out and was met with roars from his men.

One by one Adrien’s men rushed to the edge of the boat and jumped overboard. I gasped but had no time to dwell on the fact that they were all abandoning ship.

I looked up just in time to see a sword coming down right on top of my head. And then Adrien pushed me overboard.

With a scream, I tipped to the side, flailing, and cracked my head on one of the cannons as I fell toward the sea. Pain exploded behind my eyes and the second I hit the frigid water everything went black.