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The sails were dropped, and the masts were turned. The tide had risen, and gradually, the galleon began its slow progress over the incoming waves as it headed out to sea, the moonlight the only illumination, the stars their only company.

“Drop anchor.” I would never beg, let alone a stranger. But the plea escaped my lips because whatever happened to her happened to me, inexplicably. “Heed my warning before it’s too late.”

The galleon continued to inch farther out to sea, leaving the safety of the shore and moving to open water—and she ignored me. “Lighten the ship. Drop our supplies. We need to reach the Southern Isles at breakneck speed.” So, she believed me, but only slightly, not enough to stay on my shores.

No one questioned her command. It was clear they all revered her, even though a woman on a ship was said to be bad luck. “Aye, Captain Rothschild.”

But I couldn’t be impressed for long, not when I knew the battle that awaited her at sea.

The Barbarians were ruthless anarchists.

Men who didn’t live by a code. Men who believed women were inferior, whose only purpose was to birth sons and cook.

Lily would defy them—and they would break her spirit. “Speed will not save you?—”

“ Be gone .”

I watched her command that ship like a seasoned captain.

Navigate the heavy galleon like it was the size of a sloop.

Watched her tell her men to fire at the enemy ships while evading hits of their own.

I watched her fight a man nearly three times her size and kill him with a ruthlessness I’d never seen a woman show before.

Watched her try to save her crew when they were already dead.

I’d never seen a woman like her.

I’d encountered powerful men in life and in death, but I’d never encountered anyone like her before. The blood of kings screamed in her veins. Not a single tear was shed even when all seemed hopeless. Grown men would have begged and pleaded at the sight of those monsters, but she insulted them.

When they took her captive on the ship, I knew I should return to the underworld and forget it happened. I’d already intervened once when I told her not to set sail, and it wasn’t my fault she didn’t listen. She wasn’t my responsibility, regardless of what happened to her.

But fuck, I couldn’t let this happen to her.

I didn’t know why I cared, didn’t know why it mattered. I’d known her for a single day, but that was enough for her to leave her mark on my heart. She scarred me with her presence, and I knew whether I intervened or not, I would never forget her as long as I existed.

If I’d met her as a mortal man, I would have pursued her relentlessly until she was mine.

I couldn’t have her now—but I still wanted her to win.

I appeared in her cell, seeing her sitting on the floor against the wall, a mixture of irritation and hopelessness in her eyes.

Her hair was a tangled mess from the sea wind, and she looked fatigued, but she was somehow still the most breathtaking woman I’d ever seen. “You should have listened to me.”

Her eyes flicked to me with the speed of a fired arrow. “I don’t usually take a demon at their word.” She rubbed her temple with her fingertips like she had a headache, but she didn’t once complain about it.

“I’m not a demon. I’m Wrath, God of the Underworld, King of the Dead—and you will address me as such.”

“Or what?” she challenged with her signature fire I’d already become acquainted with. “My luck can’t get much worse.”

I looked out the bars and listened to the voices up above that she couldn’t hear. I hated seeing the bars, knowing she was trapped behind them. Didn’t like seeing her sitting on the floor when she deserved to sit on a throne. “But it can get better.”

“I won’t sell my soul for freedom. I’d rather die.”

I turned to her when I heard what she said, when I heard her contradict what all my victims had done. What I had done. She was smarter than the rest of us, possessing a moral integrity with an ironclad attachment to her principles. “What he wants to do to you is much worse than death.”

Her eyes immediately flicked away to reject the notion, to pretend the idea had never entered her head—even though it was probably already there. “The answer is still no.”

I’d wanted to take her soul when I first saw her, but now she had the last soul I would ever take.

Even if she offered to pay her father’s debt with an eternity in the underworld, my answer would still be no.

Because she was too good for that. Because she deserved better.

“There’s a small sailboat attached to the rear of their ship. Can you sail it alone?”

Her eyes stayed on the bars for a second before she looked at me again, not understanding the nature of the question. “What?” She seemed bewildered by the situation—that I was going to help her get out of there.

“Can you sail it alone?” I repeated.

“I can sail anything,” I said. “But what does that matter?—”

“Just be ready.”

“Ready for what?”

I broke my oath and intervened with the living—and would pay the consequences later.

I raised a kraken from the seafloor, a pile of bones deep in the abyss, and it rose to the surface and wrapped its tentacles around the ship before it jostled it, sending men flying overboard into the waves.

I ordered him not to sink the ship, not when Lily was still beneath that deck.

Once all but one of the men were dead, I sent the lone survivor below deck to unlock the door, knowing it would be the last thing he did.

Lily looked at me in horror, like she finally understood who she was dealing with. Understood the power I had over this world and the next. She remained against the wall like she would be my next victim, when I’d defied my orders and purpose to save her.

“Go.”

“What is happening?—”

“ Go . You don’t have much time.” The other ships would come back eventually to check on the crew. The gold they had stored underneath was too important to be abandoned. It was more important than their lives.

Lily finally got to her feet and darted out of the cell.

She stepped over the dead on deck and headed to the rear of the ship where the small sailboat was hoisted.

She knew how to use the ropes and the rungs to get it into the water, and she climbed down and sat in the boat, still wearing her armor.

It was dark, but she managed to get the sail up and use the compass to steer the ship in the right direction. She was but a leaf on the surface of the water, a pin drop compared to the other ships, and she should be able to sail by without being detected.

She breathed hard, like the adrenaline was too much for her, but she commandeered the ship like it was second nature. When others would sob at what they had escaped and the enormous task before them, she sailed straight into it without fear, like she knew she was strong enough to survive it.

I appeared across from her on the only other bench in the boat, seeing the drops of water that splashed onto her face, her long hair that was stuck to the side of her neck.

She stared at me as she continued to grip the rudder. She showed no fear now, but something far deeper. The climactic moment had united us in an unspoken bond, and I knew she felt it too.

“It’s a four-day journey from here—assuming all goes well.” She wouldn’t be able to sleep. There were no supplies on the boat, no food or water, so she’d have to survive that long without or hope for rain. Most men would die, but I believed she would make it. “You can do this.”

Then she said something I would never forget, uttered words that no one else would have the nerve to say. Her words formed a permanent echo in my mind, a loop that continued indefinitely. They were beautiful in their confidence, even more beautiful in her vulnerability. “I know I can.”

The words sat on my heart then slowly dissolved into it.

A woman I’d known for just a day suddenly felt like an integral part of me.

I’d been numb for over three hundred years, and now I suddenly felt emotion to such an intense degree that my dead body wasn’t capable of it.

My existence had been unremarkable for centuries, and now, I felt like a new life had begun.

Begun with this woman who had captured my heart the second our paths crossed.

“There is no bravery without fear—and you’re the bravest woman I’ve ever met. ”