Page 74 of A Pirate's Pleasure
“I…” My throat was raw. It felt like someone had taken sandpaper to the inside. I blamed that for the lack of words, rather than the shock of Lucretius returning from the dead.
Lucretius patted my chest. “I know, sweetheart. Too many emotions for you to process right now. When we get home, we can have a proper talk.”
“Home?” I asked.
“Back to the island. Back to it being just you and me. The way we like it.” He curled his talons in my shirt and I knew what happened next. How could I not when I’d lived it before? He’d fly me away from here. And this time, there would be no escaping. It was likely I’d never see the light of day outside of the cell in his basement. He might commend himself for being forgiving, but I hadn’t just tried to kill him once, I’d tried it twice, and the last time I’d come extremely close to succeeding.
His wings flared out behind him, and I turned my head away from the great rush of wind they produced. My body lifted easily from the ground as he took off, like I was no weight at all. Resigned to my fate, I closed my eyes. Perhaps I could find some way of killing myself before he did. My last fuck you to him could be denying him the pleasure of taking my last breath.
And then I was crashing back to the ground, pain shooting through me at the impact. Why had he let me go? The answer lay in the blade of a sword protruding from Lucretius’ chest, a soldier having plunged it into his back with enough force that it had gone in one side and come out the other.
Lucretius dropped his chin to stare at it, his expression that of someone struggling to comprehend what it was he was seeing. He reached behind him, pulling the sword out easily, without so much as a wince. It was reminiscent of when Lief had stabbed him. Very little in the way of physical effects, but just as it had then, it infuriated him, a look of absolute loathing settling on his face. When the scream came, it was just as painful as I remembered it, and I scuttled backwards to put some distance between myself and the excruciating noise.
Something soft met my back, stopping me from going any farther. A glance over my shoulder identified the cause. Baravor. Lucretius sending the gallows crashing to the ground hadn’t just brought my execution to a premature end, but his, too. He had his hands clamped over his ears, the noose still around his neck. “What is that?” he shouted with his face twisted in pain.
“A harpy,” I shouted back. “One that’s really pissed off.”
The scream stopped as suddenly as it had started. And then it wasn’t Lucretius screaming, but those who hadn’t been sensible enough to flee the square when they’d had the chance, and they were about to pay the price for standing and marveling at the strange sight.
Lucretius batted them out of the way like they were nothing, proving just what an effective killing-machine he could be. He didn’t need weapons. Just brute strength, talons, and teeth. If nobody stopped him, it was going to be a massacre.
The soldiers seemed to think the same, forming themselves into a wall between him and the innocent crowd. It was to little avail, though, none of their weapons any match for an enraged harpy. Especially when they’d lost the element of surprise.
I struggled to my feet. Where was Lief? But in the ensuing madness that had taken over the village square, it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Everywhere was chaos. Bodies. Blood. Screams. Lucretius didn’t care who he killed. Left unchecked, he’d kill everyone.
A soldier caught my eye. One who hadn’t gotten himself involved in the fracas, but was instead busy shouting orders to the remaining soldiers. Reeve. I grabbed his arm, and he turned, barely seeming to recognize me in the stress and panic of the moment. I held my arms out in front of me, rattling the chain between the manacles. “Unlock it.”
He laughed, but it was tinged with hysteria. “So I can take on a pirate and a monster? I don’t think so.”
“He’ll win,” I said. “He’ll kill everyone, including you. There is no right side of the law in this instance. There’s just us versus him.”
Reeve blinked, my words seeming to get through to him. “Can you beat him?”
“That’s the plan. Either that or die trying, and then look on the bright side, you won’t need to hang me again.”
A pause. One that felt like forever, and then Reeve reached into his pocket and withdrew a key. “Hurry,” I said as he fitted it into the lock. I winced as in my peripheral vision Lucretius backhanded a soldier with such force that he became airborne, crashing to the ground to lie still in a puddle of blood seconds later.
A glimpse of black in the crowd. Lief? Or had he already gotten out of here? I hoped so. But knowing him, he’d be more likely to head toward danger rather than away from it. Whitby should have had the good sense to drag him away, though, especially when, of all the people in Elderborough, Lief was the one who Lucretius had a grudge against. Reeve turned the key, and the manacles sprang open. Sparks of magic immediately leapt from my fingers, my state of agitation enough to produce them without conscious thought.
Spinning away from Reeve, I headed toward Lucretius, just in time to see him plunge his hand into a soldier’s chest and squeeze his heart until the man dropped like a stone. The air stank of blood and death, and the backdrop of constant wails from those who weren’t dead, but close to it, made for an eerie atmosphere.
Lucretius took to the sky, the harpy scanning the escaping crowd like he was looking for something. I saw it at the same time he did, the familiar head of chestnut brown hair snagging both of our attention, but in very different ways. In the chaos, Lief’s hood had slipped down, making him easily recognizable. No, no, no, no, no. I took off running, but Lucretius was faster, landing right in front of Lief and leaving him with no option but to skid to a halt. “There you are,” he said, a malicious smile spreading across his face. “I’ve been looking for you.”
I pushed people out of the way in a bid to get there faster, but panic made people less cooperative, not more. Some of them even screamed when I made contact, like I was the harpy. Or perhaps they believed we were in league with each other, given that it was my execution Lucretius had stopped from happening. If only they knew that I’d been no more pleased to see him than they were, that I’d take death over being back in his clutches.
I lost sight of Lief and Lucretius as I concentrated on fighting my way through the throng of people heading in the opposite direction. And then there they were, the area around them clear, everyone else having backed away. My blood ran cold as I came to a stop six or seven meters away from Lucretius’ back.
Lucretius had his fingers wrapped around Lief’s throat, Lief’s feet not touching the ground as the harpy held him high above his head, his eyes sparkling with a mixture of malicious intent and glee. “I’m going to enjoy this,” Lucretius said. “The birds told me what you did, how you came onto my island and took what belonged to me.”
In typical Lief style, even seconds away from imminent death, he refused to be cowed, his expression one of defiance. “He belonged to me first,” he said, his voice hoarse from the grip of Lucretius’ fingers, but no less clear for it. “Only, unlike you, I didn’t have to chain him to my side to keep him. He wanted to be there. When you kill me, remember that. Remember that he gave me love, that I didn’t need to take it.”
Lucretius let out a roar which sounded a long way from human.
“Stop!” I called out. “Let him go. He has nothing to do with you and me.”
Lucretius responded without turning. “He took you away from me. He has everything to do with you and me. Once he’s gone, you won’t have any reason to want to be anywhere else.”
“I won’t stop loving him,” I said. “Not even if he’s dead.” My gaze met Lief’s and despite his predicament and the enormous amount of pain he must have been in, he managed a smile. “I’ll never stop loving him.” I took a step forward, the process of getting closer needing to be a cautious one. “I’ll do you a deal, though. You let him go and I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll go with you. I’ll live in that mausoleum of a house with you.”