Page 60 of Pirate Witch

Instead of pinning me with one of her curious stares, as I expect, Nilsa turns on the boy.

“So what?”

“So, it’s his duty to take the seat on the council and lead us.”

Nilsa’s already shaking her head. “No. Your family tried to kill and control him. At this point, his only duty is to himself. Why should it matter if the Castleman family loses their seat?”

Cooper opens and closes his mouth, completely aghast at the question. “It’s our legacy.”

“Is it?” Nilsa presses more gently now. “That doesn’t seem like something you’d care about. Whose words are those, Cooper? Yours, or your father’s?”

Cirio, apparently satisfied the boy is no longer at risk of dying by my hand, nods along. “Besides, you’re not weak, lad. You’ve not come into your power yet. You’re barely, what? Sixteen?”

“Eighteen.”

The pirate king waves it off. “Still, not an immortal. Val’s powers grew exponentially when he reached that milestone,” Cirio points out. “I’d say you’ve got some growing room left in you.”

“Why don’t you go and find Elsie and make sure she’s packed everything she needs,” Nilsa suggests. “I know she seemed a bit overwhelmed when I left her at the Palace.”

Cooper flushes, then draws himself up straighter. “Yeah, I’ll go… go do that.”

Only when he’s turned and left, do the mage circles on my arms finally dissipate.

“Goddess, I forgot how impulsive mage teenagers are,” Cirio teases, elbowing me. “I can’t see the family resemblance, though.”

“My hair was that colour once,” I grumble. “Thank fuck it turned white when I bonded theDeadwood.” And my days on deck, with my skin exposed to the elements, have left me with a tan that I doubt Freckles over there will ever achieve.

Both of them gape at me. “Why did you never mention this?” Cirio chortles. “I could’ve had so much fun with—”

“That’sexactlywhy I didn’t.” I turn to my mate, to find her with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “I swear to the Goddess, witch, if you mess with my hair again, I’m going to spank your ass.”

Her cheeks turn an adorable shade of pink and her pupils widen until I can barely see the ring of blue around them. My already hard cock throbs.

The little witchlikesthat idea.

“Did you come here for a reason? Or was it just to protect the kid?” I ask, shattering the moment.

Nilsa rolls her eyes and I curse myself for wiping the aroused expression from her face. “I was coming to tell you that the crew is gathering on the beach for a last goodbye before we leave Mirna. Elsie and Reva organised it, and I thought you’d want to come. But since you’re obviously busy—”

“I’m coming,” I say, perhaps a bit too hastily, because Cirio snorts.

“We’ll both be there. Once he’s sorted this manifest and we know these lazy braggarts are actually loading the right cargo,” my oldest friend corrects. “You should invite the Princess. She could do with a little more joy in her life.”

Nilsa’s frown is smoothed away so fast I’m not sure it ever fully formed. “Of course.”

ChapterTwenty

NILSA

The bonfire blazes high into the night, popping and crackling with sparks that reach up in a futile attempt to kiss the stars. Our rag-tag group sits in a ring on the sand, drinking and laughing and trying our hardest to forget about the battles waiting for us on the horizon.

Rysen and I slipped away as soon as the sun started to set, and now his bite mark decorates my throat. Every time my hair shifts to cover it, he moves the offending lock away, purposefully displaying his claim to the only remaining vampire present.

Not that Pierce is interested, but if it makes him feel better, then who am I to judge?

Val and Cirio appeared a little while after that, and now they’re engaged in an ‘enlivening debate’—Cirio’s words, not mine—about who is to blame for the destruction of his cove, whichsomeone—ahem, Klaus—finally told him about. The pirate king was pissed for all of five seconds before he decided to take it out on the twins.

Now he’s arguing they should be made to pay to repair the pirate city. That’s pissing Val off because apparently, some pirate code says that because they’re part ofhiscrew, that meanshehas to pay for damages.