But she didn’t know how wrong things were until a moment later when William and Belle swung about.
“Cameron! Avast! Them ain’t Thorn and Mara!”
“They be shifters!” Belle warned. “Duck, lass!”
Before Cameron could move they seized her and swept her overboard.
16
“Duel … it’s not what you’re thinking.”
He arched a brow at Mara’s whispered, guilt-ridden words. “Then you’re not intending to hand me over to your sister as soon as we reach the gate?”
She cringed as she realized that he did indeed have an exact handle on her original plan. Pity, that, for her, anyway. “It was the plan.… But things have changed.”
“I’m sure of that.” Sarcasm dripped from his tone.
A sarcasm Mara didn’t understand given all that had transpired this day. “Meaning what?”
No sooner had she asked the question than she understood exactly where his thoughts had gone.
And why.
Her jaw went slack. “You can’t honestly think that I’d have seduced you for that! Can you?”
“To make me more pliable for your wiles and an easier fool to manipulate? Aye. It’s the exact kind of treachery Vine specialized in. So why not you? As her sister, it makes complete sense.”
“How dare you!” She raked a furious grimace over him as she felt an urge to do him bodily harm. Pushing herself up, she wrapped the sheet around her body to glare down at him. “And if you truly thought that and slept with me anyway … you’re … you’re despicable!” It took everything she had not to reach out and slap him for such an insult.
Relief filled his eyes as he reached for her and pulled her back to the bunk. “Don’t be angry at me, Mara. ’Tis glad I am that you’re not that treacherous. But can you blame me for being a mite suspicious after learning you’d made such a pact with her behind me back when you know how she did me?”
When he put it that way …
She still wanted to punch him on her basest level.
However …
“Don’t you dare be reasonable in this, Dón-Dueli. Not when I want to be mad at you for that insult you just dealt.”
He snorted at her agitated tone. “Well, far be it from me to deprive you of anything, love. If you want to beat me arse, I’ll even get naked for it.…” He lifted his bare leg out from beneath the covers to wiggle his toes at her. “Oh, wait, I already am.” The teasing finally returned to his eyes.
Yet even so, the hurt beneath those words wrung her heart and she hated that she’d caused him even an instant of pain or doubt, because she knew how much treachery had been served so coldly to him in his lifetime.
It was the last thing she’d ever do to him now. As he said, it was her sister’s specialty.
Never hers. And she hated herself for ever having conspired with her sister to do him harm. Surely, there was a special corner of Annwn reserved for her punishment.
“I won’t betray you, Duel. I swear it.”
He cupped her cheek in his warm palm. “Then I shall put forth all my meager faith in you.”
But she saw the shadow of doubt that remained in his eyes and it made her ache all the more. Not because he felt it, but because she knew that she honestly deserved it. That she had earned his mistrust.
I swear I will make you believe in me.
She had no idea how, but she’d find some way to erase that doubt. Come the devil or the sea, she would prove it to him. Beyond any reason. Du would know that she was sincere, and that in her he had at least one person in his life that he’d never again have to fear betrayal from.
Suddenly, they heard a loud clamor, on the top deck outside.
“I thought everyone was below for the storm?”
Duel scowled. “As did I. I told them not to risk it.” Getting up, he quickly dressed and went to see what the noise was about.
She dressed and followed suit, only to find the crew scrambling to retrieve Kalder from the raging sea, where he must have fallen overboard. Yet how strange. It wasn’t like him to ever lose his footing for anything.
Even in a storm.
He only did that whenever he was trying for the attention of a maid—and usually then, only on land. A ploy Devyl and the others had oft chided him over. But surely, Kalder wouldn’t have tried that in this storm.…
Especially not with the women onboard. He’d respectfully kept his distance from them all, since they lived in such close proximity. And, in spite of Kat’s and Simon’s rather untraditional marriage, it was forbidden by Thorn for them to fraternize. A rule Devyl had just broken with Mara, but he’d deal with that later.
Mara hesitated on deck as she took in the frenetic madness.
Rushing past the shouting crew trying to pull Kalder from the sea, Duel didn’t hesitate to dive in after him and be swallowed by the black, crashing waves that sought to drown them both. She ran to the side, wanting to yell and curse him for his reckless stupidity that never failed to frustrate her. Terrified of the way the giant surf surged and ebbed like mountains, Mara choked on a scream and watched with her heart in her throat until she finally saw Duel break the surface to bob and float above the dangerous mess.
Against all odds, he quickly made his way to Kalder and somehow, in spite of the furious waves, he helped the Myrcian back to the ship. She used her powers to lengthen the wood and scoop them both out, taking extra care to cradle Duel.
Coughing and wheezing, Kalder crawled up her planks to lie on deck while Belle swept her jacket off to lay it over him. Mara carefully placed Duel at her feet and checked on his condition, but he’d have none of her coddling.
With an irritated grimace at her fretting over him that was softened by a peeking dimple in his cheek, he rose and squeezed her hand gently in his, then pressed past her to examine Kalder.
“What happened?” Duel demanded, kneeling beside the merman.
“Bastard shifters took our Miss Jack.” Bart added his jacket to Kalder’s shivering body so that he could use it to blot the water off his skin and hair. “We were trying to stop them from fleeing when lackwit Kalder jumped in after them in an effort to save her. Sadly, didn’t work.”
Duel cursed. “Anyone else go over?”
William shook his head. “They be the only two, Captain. Miss Jack and Shite for Brains. But we did lose a couple below earlier to the takarum.”
Ignoring the epithets he agreed with, Devyl met Mara’s fretful gaze and bit back what he really wanted to say. Instead, he let out a long, tired sigh. Damn it all. He hated to lose any member of this crew. For anything.
Things were getting bad.
Worse?
He was getting desperate.
Devyl ground his teeth. “You know, when I become the sole voice of reason in any given affair, we’re in a sad, sorry state, mates.”
William laughed, until he met Devyl’s sinister grimace. That quelled his mirth. “What are your orders, Captain?”
He glanced over his shoulder to where Belle and Janice stood, both soaked as much as Kalder.
And that gave him an idea.…