Page 17 of The Nymph Prince

“Looks like one of them fish men to me, Cap’n,” one said before flashing a yellow-toothed grin. “Don’t those go for a pretty shilling?”

If he thought he was going to touch my nymph, he had another thing coming to him.

“Aye,” the man in the middle agreed and gave us a chilling smile.

“Cap’n, we can’t kill ‘em. Remember the sea demon’s curse?” The third man made some weird motion with his hands, as if removing some hex for saying the words aloud.

“Ain’t nothin’ but a myth,” the captain said as he walked closer.

Lorcan hissed, and his teeth sharpened. His nails that were already a bit pointed grew longer, like claws.

As the three men raised their pistols, my heart dropped into my stomach. I wasn’t in an ideal situation to be attacked. Not only was I naked, but also weaponless.

My powers!

My unpredictable powers that never seem to work when I need them to.

I focused on the men, trying to bring forth my magic. I felt it in my fingertips first, a tingling warmth that traveled up my arms. My heart beat faster with the excitement. It was working! I concentrated on their foul faces, trying to make them drop their pistols. One second passed, then two. And nothing.

The tingling stopped, and I released a frustrated breath.

Once again, I wondered what the point was of having powers if I couldn’t use them.

Back in Bone Bay when I’d used them for the first time, it’d been unexpected. Kellan had been seconds away from having a bullet in his skull. I remembered screaming and then some kind of energy had blasted from me. All of the men were thrown, and when they’d tried running away, I had frozen them in place and made them slit their own throats.

The inability to call forth my magic put me in a panic. I had a dagger in the cave, but it was too far. They’d fire at us in the time it took to swim to shore. As I ran through our options, only a couple of seconds passed. It felt like forever, though.

The captain aimed his pistol at us.

There was an opening in the cove that led to the open sea, however, I wasn’t sure we’d have enough time for Lorcan to dive under and escape before the men trapped us. Lorcan looked at the opening and seemed to come to the same conclusion as his shoulders slumped.

Something changed in him, then. Calm washed over him and he focused on the pirates.

“Leave,” he said in a silky voice.

The third man, the one who’d been against the idea of harming Lorcan in the first place, turned and started walking away.

“Oui!” the captain barked at him. “Get yer scurvy hide back over ‘ere. He’s trickin’ us!” He glared at Lorcan. “Open yer mouth again, fish, and I’ll make ya eat a bullet.”

Lorcan hesitated. His green eyes focused on me, and I saw his fear.

“Get yer arses out of the water,” the captain growled.

Lorcan grabbed me and pulled me under.

Water went up my nose and I’d accidentally sucked in a breath right when I’d gone under. The spot in front of me wrinkled as I heard echoes of gunfire from the surface. The clear water was exquisite from below. Colorful fish swam by before scattering when more bullets hit the water like heavy rain.

Lorcan, with his arms wrapped around me from behind, swam toward the opening. His tail swished hard, shooting us forward at such a speed I felt dizzy. More bullets hit the top of the water. I could usually hold my breath for a while, but since I’d unintentionally swallowed water when we first dove under, I had no breathtohold.

My lungs burned, and that burn traveled down my chest and into my upper thighs.

Lorcan pushed us forward again with the power of his tail, and the gunfire pelting the water decreased in frequency.

When we finally surfaced, I wheezed and sucked air into my lungs.

He’d taken us to another part of the land, near a mountain jutting from the water and away from people. The blue sky greeted me, and I looked at a lone cloud drifting above us. Tremors wracked my body, both from the lack of oxygen and relief that we’d escaped.

“That was too close,” I said in a raspy tone, still trying to catch my breath. I placed my hand on the shore and let the warm sand go between my fingers. “I feel as if death has it out for me.”