Page 123 of Pirate Witch

“Cassie, this is the middle of a—”

“Oh, shut up.” Cassie’s voice is strained, and her white eyes are rimmed with dark circles. But it doesn’t stop her from crushing Klaus in a huge hug. “I’m here because you’re walking into a trap.”

ChapterForty-One

NILSA

“What do you mean?” I demand.

At the same time, Nos and Cas finally catch up with the ship, leaping onto the deck in an explosion of water that coats us all, cutting through the smoke with the saline scent of sea water. Cas heads straight for me, drawing me into his arms with a kiss to my temple.

Outwardly, he’s completely calm. It’s only because our bodies are entangled in one another that I notice he’s shaking.

Nos, on the other hand, looks absolutely frantic. “We’re walking into a—”

“Theyknow.” Cassie rolls her eyes. “I got here first.”

My shifter mate coughs, his cheeks turning an adorable shade of red. “Cassie, thank the Goddess. The vision at the gates?”

“Yes, obviously.” The siren catches his meaning easily as the rest of us look between the two seers, confused. “Did you see the cave and the—”

“Naturally, I was just coming to…” He ducks, just in time for a cannon ball to fly across the space where his head was seconds ago, before standing once more. “Did you want to explain?”

“Well, someone fucking has to,” Val grouches, running a hand through his hair. “The rest of us can’t see the future or pluck it out of your heads.”

Both seers ignore him. Cassie sweeps her hair to the side and releases her brother.

“I’m the most experienced at dodging the triggers, so it makes sense.”

She turns away from Nos to face Val. “You’re heading for the main gates.”

“Obviously,” the captain growls. “The scouts reported the passage that leads up into the castle has been collapsed. It’s the only way in that’s not booby-trapped to fuck by mage glyphs.”

“It’s also where most of the Queen’s immortal guard is—” Nos paces across the deck like a caged beast, his skin rippling with scales.

“Too much!” Cassie warns. “Don’t speak in absolutes.”

The shifter looks suitably chastised for a moment before he continues. “If you knew an assassin was hunting you, and would inevitably discover you weren’t on the battlefield, what would you do?”

My head whips up. “She’s going to hole up in the palace until she figures out who will win.”

“Then she’s going to run.” Val curses enough to turn the air blue.

“And the second she sees us at the gates, she’ll do the same,” Ry continues. “If she sees a ship deliberately leaving the battle for the shore, she’ll be gone by the time we get there.”

“Coward,” Kier mutters.

“She’s not a warrior,” I reply. “It makes sense. Her strengths are poison and trickery and malice.” Closer to my own skill set than I care to admit.

“So we can’t go through the front gate.” Rysen glares at the sandstone palace, glimmering atop the cliff. “The walls are covered in sigils that will roast us alive if we try to scale them.”

“Which is why you need us,” Rossiter, who’s been silent until now, says. “We can get you inside.”

“How?” Val demands.

“They melt rock,” I whisper. “I’ve seen it.”

“We can create a new tunnel into the bowels of the palace. But we need to move fast andstealthily,” Monroe says. “They’re going to notice this ship.”