Page 37

“Strange?” Grayson looks at me over his shoulder. “I find her quite beautiful. Do you not?”

Seger snorts. “Beautiful she may be, but that does not cleanse her of the tainted blood running through her veins. She is a Code breaker .”

Grayson’s canines flash. “Oh, come now.” He takes a step toward Seger, who doesn’t stop his men from unsheathing their swords this time. “I’m sure there isn’t a soul amongst us who hasn’t broken The Code at least once.”

Rage quivers Seger’s chin as he unsheathes his own sword and points it straight at me.

“ She has turned her back on our kind! Rowenya Stone is a traitor of the foulest order. She is a stain on this world and I will not allow her to walk freely when so many of us have suffered at her hand.” He spits on the ground in front of my feet and I try not to feel the heat of his words and how they lash at me, stronger than the snap of a whip against my flesh.

I am no stranger to his vitriol. I’ve been fighting against it ever since my father’s death. This fight with Seger will end no differently than all the others before. I am tired of having my name sullied by those who know nothing about me and what I’ve had to overcome.

Moving to stand beside Grayson, I can see the yellow of Seger’s teeth as he snarls at me. The men behind him ready their swords, but I pay them no mind. Seger may be a high pirate lord, but he is no match for the pirates at my back.

“My father spoke of you, Seger. He told me of the adventures you’ve been on together. The fun and debauchery you both reveled in,” I say, choosing my words carefully.

As I move closer to him, Grayson shifts on his feet behind me. To protect the Serpent’s Key in my pocket or to protect me, I cannot be sure.

“It would be a shame for your life to end here.” Expanding my arms, I make a show of looking around the cavern. “Lying beneath so much rock, your soul will never find its way to the heavens.”

With haste, I palm my twin daggers and before he has a chance to raise his sword, I cross them at his neck. His men move to strike me down but he raises a hand in the air. They all pause, uncertainty flashing across their faces.

“You will keep my name out of your mouth, lest you find yourself with your ankles bound as I flay open your skin. Cut by cut, you will bleed and once I throw your worthless body into the Aelynthi Sea, the salt will burn your wounds before the creatures of the ocean come to feed upon your flesh,” I say with a snarl.

I trail one of my daggers across his chest and down his abdomen. His nostrils flare in anger, but I also see the fear in his eyes. “Now, I think an apology is in order.”

The right edge of his lips raise in a toothy snarl. I press the blade against his throat, hard enough that a trail of blood seeps down his neck.

His eyes bulge. “My apologies.” I feel his throat work against my blade as he speaks.

Holding my daggers in place for a moment longer, I let him see the truth in my eyes.

I will do what I must to protect my name.

I have grown tired of the way people look at me when I pass in the streets.

Tired of the insults tossed my way with such ease and carelessness.

Tired of allowing them the power to make me feel lesser than.

Maybe it is the male who stands at my back who has shown me the strength leaning into the shadows of vengeance can evoke. Or maybe it is the years I’ve spent cowering away from who I really am. Regardless, I will no longer allow others to see me as a wounded animal destined for slaughter.

Ekhor Stone was my father. One of the most revered pirate lords to ever sail the Aelynthi Sea. But his secrets have kept me beholden to a life of suffering and debasement for far too long.

Releasing my daggers from Seger’s throat and stomach, I turn around and walk to Grayson’s side, showing Seger that I do not fear turning my back on him.

Grayson’s hair sweeps across my cheek as he lowers his head to whisper in my ear, “I must say, it brings me great pleasure watching you show your teeth.”

I smirk and sheathe my daggers.

Grayson slips his hands into his pockets and addresses the other pirate lords. “We will meet you both in Esoros as soon as we are able. Gather as much information as possible about who the leader may be, but do not strike until I arrive.”

Hawke, who remained quietly observant during my encounter with Seger, nods his head. Seger doesn’t respond as he bores a hole into me with his scrutinizing glare.

“Seger,” Grayson snaps and the spell between us is broken. Seger looks at Grayson and nods once.

“Good. If we are delayed more than two weeks, I will send word,” Grayson says.

And with that, we all depart.

Grayson shuts the door to our shared room after giving Collin our dinner order. He peels off his long coat and sets it over the back of the chair in the corner. I watch as he rolls up the sleeves of his tunic, his thick forearms on full display.

“That was good work. Not many people would stand up to Seger Synth and live to tell the tale.”

I huff a breath. “I have no intention of telling anyone about it.”

“No, I suspect you don’t.” He moves to sit on the end of the bed. Then he starts taking off his boots and socks like undressing in front of me is an ordinary task that he does all the time. “Still, I am glad you stood up for yourself.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I narrow my gaze on him. “And what about those who cannot stand up for themselves?”

He stills in the middle of unlacing his left boot and turns to face me. “If you wish to say something, Rowenya, just say it.”

Sighing loudly, I toss my hands in the air. “How could you do that to Tommy? Put his past on display for those scoundrels who care about nothing other than forwarding their own motives. You should have seen his face, Grayson. The moment you spoke of The Pit, he?—”

“Tommy is stronger than you give him credit for,” he interrupts, then goes back to unlacing his boot.

I stand there, with my arms crossed over my chest as I watch him set the boot on the floor next to his other one.

“Having strength doesn’t mean the people around you should be allowed to exploit your pain.”

Grayson rises from the bed and walks toward me until his toes nearly touch mine.

Tilting my head back to look at him, I don’t back down.

“He’s just a boy who wants to make his captain proud and you saw that in him, didn’t you?

That he would be willing to do anything if it meant gaining your approval. ”

His sharp gaze narrows. “It amazes me that after all I have shared with you, after the grace I have given your dishonesty, that you still choose to perceive me as the villain in your story. Tell me”—he reaches for the pearl nestled against a lock of my hair—“would it make you feel worse or better about your attraction for me if I told you everything you want to hear?” His lips tilt up in a smirk and my godsforsaken body leans closer to him.

But I won’t let him win this round.

“This isn’t a game, Grayson. This is Tommy’s life.”

Something like regret storms across his face and he drops my mother’s pearl from his fingertips. The gem clinks against another one of my silver cuffs.

“Tommy and I spoke before we traveled to the caverns about the information he would provide to Seger and Hawke. It was a conversation I did not take lightly, given the hell I pulled him from before he joined my crew. I offered to provide the information myself on his behalf, but Tommy felt the other captains may not take my word for it without the witness himself to share it. We are in a precarious situation with Seger and Hawke knowing we have other matters to tend to before we can meet them back in Esoros. Tommy knew this and offered to help pacify them in whatever way he could.”

“So, it was his idea? To share those parts of his story?”

Grayson’s lips are a tight line. He nods once.

I run my hands over my face, suddenly feeling tired. “I hate that he felt he had to do that. I hate that he had to think—even for a few moments—about the evil that was done to him.”

Grayson slides his hands down my arms until my hands rest in his.

I can’t think about what it means when he touches me like this.

How everything I once thought about him seems to disappear the moment my skin brushes against his.

I hope to the heavens that all I have learned about him these past few days is true.

That the male I once loathed was merely a mask shown to the world—and that the male right in front of me is who he really is.

“We all experience a time when we must face what has been done to us. When we must look at the evil of this world and bare our teeth at it. If we let it mock us—if we let fear and evil become victorious—then we lose everything that we are.” He brushes a strand of hair behind my ear and I feel myself leaning into his touch.

“Today, Tommy faced his fears and every day moving forward, he will be all the better for it.”

Before he pulls away, I reach up and clasp my hand over his, holding it to my cheek. I don’t want this moment to end. Not yet.

His eyes are a haunted sea and I feel them threatening to pull me under.

The stroke of his thumb against my cheek is a gentle lullaby that sings to my tattered heart.

What would it be like to watch him stitch me back together?

To let him take the weight of my burdens off my weary shoulders.

Some part of me realizes that with every passing glance, every wayward touch, Grayson has marked himself upon me in a way that even I could not see.

I press his palm harder against my cheek, not wanting a single fragment of separation.

“Rowenya . . .” He whispers my name like a heavenly prayer that even the old gods can hear in their far away slumber.

Time stills as Grayson brings his other hand to cup my face, moving closer until the only thing I can see is him.

The way he devastates me . . . Oh gods , my heart soars across the stars, an utterly free thing that no one can capture, except him.

But do I want him to? Can I trust that Grayson won’t shatter it?

Some small voice in the back of my mind screams yes .

“Say it again,” I breathe and I love the way the edges of his lips tilt up in a gentle smile. There’s nothing left of the masks he wears for everyone outside of this room. It’s just him in his beautifully dark glory.

His thumb traces the bottom of my lip, igniting a stream of fiery heat that races down my entire body. “Rowenya.” My eyes flutter at the sound of his voice saying my name. It’s a luscious song that drapes over my skin like fine silk.

His hand moves down my neck and my pulse jumps under the brush of his fingertips before he roams over my shoulder and down my back. Then he pulls me closer, my body flush against the hard planes of his. In one fell swoop, he curves his palm beneath my bottom and lifts me up.

My sex rubs against the fabric of my pants and I fight the urge to moan as I wrap my legs around his waist and he pushes my back against the wall. There is no escaping him now and there is not a single part of me that wishes to.

“My Little Pearl,” he whispers, voice a rasp.

“You shine so bright tonight, rivaling the beauty of the moon herself. And here, I have you, with nowhere else to be.” He clicks his tongue at me as his eyes—those devastatingly beautiful eyes—roam every inch of my face.

“The terrible things I wish to do to you are endless,” he growls and I can feel the sound radiating from his chest to mine. “Such deliciously terrible things.”

He skirts his teeth along my jaw, nipping as he goes, and I have to fight back a whimper as I bury my hands in his hair, loving how soft his black strands feel against my skin.

“I think now is the time for more doing and less talking,” I mutter and I feel him smile against my throat before he presses his lips over my fluttering pulse.

If he weren’t holding me up, I would be a puddle on the floor at his feet as he continues his trail of kisses along my neck.

Curling my fingers against his scalp, I adjust my legs around his waist so that I’m closer to him.

The fabric of my pants rubs against my aching sex and I can’t help myself as I start grinding my hips into him.

He pulls back with a feral smirk, but I don’t stop moving. My body has burned for this moment for far too long and now there is no controlling the fire I have become.

“So greedy,” he purrs, nipping at my jawline, but it’s not enough. Not as the inferno inside of me burns away. Soon I will be nothing but ash if I don’t quell the heat threatening to swallow me whole.

“Kiss me.” I can’t deny the begging sound of my voice.

Grayson pauses, his lips a hairsbreadth from my skin. When he pulls back to look at me, a swell of emotions swarms my chest like a wave crashing onto shore and I can hardly breathe.

Something shifts as he tenderly sweeps a strand of hair from my face.

“Once we cross this line, there is no going back. The moment my lips find yours, you will truly be mine. No more games. No more lies and half-truths. There will be no place on this earth where I cannot find you, Rowenya. No place where you can hide away from me once we do this. Do you understand?”

I swallow. Letting the gravity of his words find their mark through the haze of the lust that still pulses through my body.

What is he saying? That a simple kiss would mark me as his forever? Surely that can’t be true. He’s a pirate. Known to share his bed with countless women all across the realm. I mean nothing to him. What’s happening between us . . .

A quiet voice in the back of my mind nudges forward. Questioning what it might be like to give myself to him. To truly be his.

“And what of you?” I ask. My fingers find the back of his neck and I don’t miss the way his jaw clenches as I stroke his sensitive skin. “Does this mean that you are mine?”

A violent storm surges in the ocean of his eyes. The flecks of starlight twinkle out as though the sea herself has reached up and claimed them.

His forehead drops against mine and he closes his eyes. On a deep inhale he says, “You would claim a villain, with a wretched heart and a blighted past? My world is shrouded in shadows, and is not meant to house such precious things.”

I tuck my finger under his chin and lift his face until our eyes meet. “Then let us dance in the shadows together.”

Grayson stares at me for a wavering moment.

Then his lips crash against mine.