Page 70 of Pirate Witch

Rysen’s expression doesn’t change, but his eyes turn stormy and he starts fiddling with the golden ring on his finger. “I lost my nest a long time ago.” He sighs and takes Nos’s place at my side, tugging me into his body. “This ring was my mother’s. It’s probably the last remaining thing with her crest on it.”

I snuggle into my huge vampire, examining the delicate wreath of flowers and thorns that decorate the flat face of the ring. “It’s beautiful.”

“I used to play with it as a child.”

He takes it off, balances it on its side, and twists, sending it spinning with practised ease. Then, when it’s about to topple, he scoops it back up and replaces it on his finger.

“My mother was the queen of a nest much like Sade’s. It was strong, had a huge influence over the town she resided in, and she had a mate. But she couldn’t have an heir.”

I frown. “She had you.”

“Males cannot hold a nest together,” he disagrees. “Only a queen can. I was loved and cared for, but I could never lead. Male children of queens are always enforcers. We’re built strong to protect the other vampires in the nest. Female offspring of queens are the only vampires capable of becoming queens themselves. Unfortunately, no matter how many times my mother tried, none of her other children made it into the world alive.”

He drags a hand down his cheek and rubs at his jaw. “That is where Latifah came in. A nest without an heir is unstable, and big nests often foster young queens to give them space to grow away from their birth nests. It allows the young queen time to try and find their mate and the nest benefits from the balancing presence of multiple queens. Latifah was proud, beautiful and calculating, but those are traditionally good traits for a queen. Strong traits.”

“What did she do?”

Rysen puts his chin on top of my head, his whole body surrounding mine. “A queen needs a mate to start a nest of her own. Someone who will sate her during her fertile time and give her enforcers of her own. Latifah didn’t want to wait for fate to gift her a male. She didn’t think she needed to.” I can hear the glower in his voice, and I wonder if that’s why he’s tucked my face into his chest, so I can’t see the anger in his expression. “She murdered my mother and father in their sleep. Slipped poison into the cups of the enforcers. By the time the moon rose, everyone loyal to the old queen was dead.”

“But not you?”

“I was barely immortal. Only good as a plaything. She set up her own miniature blood pits and forced me into them. When I didn’t die, I became her champion. She’s responsible for my bloodlust. It was amusing for her to watch me butcher my old friends for a drop of blood. Of course, I didn’t keep her interest for long. She liked to loan me out to the larger pits, so I could bring back medals and glory to the cesspit she called her nest… That was how I escaped. They were sloppy with the locks during my transfer between Cawshome and Mirna. I slaughtered them all on the docks and made my way back to my mother’s palace.”

He sighs and drops a kiss into my hair.

“A mate bond is a key part of a functioning, stable nest. Without a partner to support them, ruling queens are easily susceptible to blood lust. Latifah’s hubris doomed her. She’d drunk all of her nest and most of the town to death to sate her thirst. In the end, it was me against her. Bloodlust against bloodlust.”

“You won,” I guess.

“I slaughtered anyone who remained in the town,” he corrects. “I killed her, but I lost myself in the process. I regained just enough sanity to raze the cursed place to the ground. Kier was answering the bounty someone put on my head for that when we met.”

“I’m sorry you went through all of that because of one entitled bitch,” I whisper. “I’d go back in time and kill her for you if I could.”

“I know you would. Just like I’d go back in time and save your family from drowning if I could, to spare you the pain.”

But we can’t.

“We’re all a little broken on this ship, aren’t we?” I mumble.

“No more than anyone else,” Rysen replies, then clears his throat. “No one has a perfect life, though many like to pretend that they do.” He pulls away. “In my experience, the people pretending the hardest are often more broken than the ones with their scars on display for the world to see.”

ChapterTwenty-Four

NILSA

The familiar figure waiting on the docks makes me blink as Cas rows us across Hardhearth Bay.

Danika isn’t the type of Mother Lunar to confine herself to her temple, as Glenna once did. Still, seeing my old friend waiting on the docks, wearing silver robes and surrounded by her harem, is a shock.

Seeing her alone, with only the four warriors for protection, makes me more than a little concerned.

When she bends down to help me up from the boat, my jaw almost drops. Then she pulls me into a bone-breaking hug, and it does.

All the homesickness I’ve been suppressing for too long comes crashing down on me with that hug. Thank the Goddess she’s not standing on ceremony, even though she’s within her right to as a High Priestess.

“I missed your ass,” she whispers, her voice rough with her own feelings. “What took you so long?”

“Oh, the usual,” I retort, eyes burning as I blink back the emotion choking me. “Psychopathic humans, grumpy siren empresses, and a couple of ungrateful pirates.”