Page 75 of A Pirate's Pleasure
“No!” Lief called out. “You fight him tooth and nail. Do you hear me? You don’t lose yourself again, like you were starting to the last time. You remember that you’re Captain Zephyr Chase, and you act like it.”
Another silent step, my movements careful and unhurried. “A deal,” Lucretius said, his voice full of scorn. “I don’t need a deal to make you do what I want. You’ll do it or you’ll die.”
One more step. “Oh, it’s like that, is it? No more endearments. No more words of supposed love. I guess it’s good that you’re showing your true colors at last, showing yourself for the murderer you really are.” If I’d been hoping that my words might make him let go of Lief and turn his anger on me, it wasn’t to be. All they did was make him tighten his grip, Lief’s eyes bulging and an inhuman sound escaping his throat.
I was close enough to touch Lucretius now, and that’s exactly what I did, pressing the palm of my hand to his back. “Last warning,” I said.
Lucretius laughed. “Do your worst. You’ve tried to kill me twice before, yet I’m still here. I’m not scared of your magic. It’s little more than a tickle to me.”
“We’ll see,” I said. I let my magic flow, but rather than directing it outwards, I directed it inwards. Not lightning, but ice. It formed in Lucretius’ chest, the harpy’s back muscles stiffening as he felt something not quite right.
“Stop,” he said. “Whatever you’re doing, stop.”
“Too late for that,” I said, and instead of stopping, I increased the power. Lucretius’ skin turned blue first. And then his breathing became labored as the ice reached his lungs. When Lief dropped from his grasp, Lucretius didn’t even seem to be aware of it, all his focus having switched to staying alive. He attempted to move away from my hand, but his movements were too slow, too sluggish, his blood thick with crystals of ice.
A sound tore from his throat. I had an inkling he was trying to say stop again, but that his vocal cords no longer allowed for it. Good. I didn’t want him saying anything ever again. He’d already said more than enough. All those sugared endearments that meant nothing. All those threats hidden beneath honeyed words. I’d been forced to listen to them for weeks, had almost gotten to the point where it seemed normal. None of that mattered compared to the fact that he’d been going to kill Lief, though. No one touched Lief and lived to tell the tale. No one. Not even a murderous harpy.
Another noise from Lucretius, this one barely audible. It was a desperate sound that acknowledged he’d bitten off more than he could chew. I was dimly aware of Lief picking himself up from where he’d fallen, where Lucretius had dropped him so unceremoniously. Those blue eyes of his found mine, seeming to have fathomless depths. If he asked me to stop, would I? Probably.
The old Zephyr Chase might have been stupid enough to say no to Lief. But the older, more mature one had learned from his mistakes. Therefore, if he asked me to show mercy, to not murder someone in front of the cluster of people who’d stopped running for their lives, and had gathered around to watch this strange event taking place, I would.
Seconds passed, Lief’s expression giving nothing away. Stark red finger marks stood out on his pale neck, a fresh wave of fury rising within me, and then Lief nodded. And that was all I needed to unleash one last bout of icy power to a body that could no longer move, that could no longer speak, but where a heart still beat slowly within its chest.
Cracks formed on the icy skin, on his arms, on his chest, on his wings. Small ones, but then they joined and grew bigger. They radiated outwards, and I still didn’t stop.
Silence had fallen over the square. Everyone seeming to hold their breath and barely anyone even fidgeting. And then a flap of wings broke the silence as a bird took off and flew away, followed by another, and then another. Whatever thrall Lucretius had held over them had apparently been lost with the decline of his physical state. I stopped the flow of power and took my hand off Lucretius, rounding the ice statue I’d made of him to see his face.
His expression was almost serene, the process having happened so fast that there’d been no time for pain to take root. Another crack opened up, this one running right across his left cheek to end at his jawline. Smaller ones ran off from it, like tiny spider webs chasing each other across the surface. It reminded me of the window on Lucretius’ island, the one that had given us so much trouble.
I lifted my hand, the movement feeling huge and exaggerated compared to the stillness of the watching crowd. One tap of my index finger to Lucretius’ forehead and he shattered, tiny shards of ice exploding in every direction. Ignoring the loud gasp that went up, I focused all of my attention on Lief. “No blood,” I said.
He laughed, the sound raw in his damaged throat. “Much appreciated.” Stepping over what was left of the harpy, I took Lief into my arms, the two of us squeezing each other tightly as we reveled in an embrace we’d never thought to have again. “What now?” Lief whispered against my neck.
I lifted my head to survey the square, ice crunching beneath my boots as I shifted. It was a mess. Fallen bodies, chunks of masonry, and splinters of wood telling the story of the wanton destruction that Lucretius had wrought for no other reason than someone had dared to take a stand against him, and he could.
There were injured people too, that had either been lucky in their brush with Lucretius or who hadn’t been so lucky and had been trampled in the rush to flee. What few soldiers were left were tending to the injured. It would be easy to disappear. All Lief and I had to do was keep walking. Who would stop us? Reeves? I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the soldier since he’d released me from the manacles.
“Where’s Whitby?” Lief asked, the question bringing my grand plans to beat a hasty retreat to a sudden grinding halt. “He was by my side one minute and then the next he was nowhere to be seen.”
Shit! How could I have forgotten about my friend and quartermaster? I couldn’t walk away without knowing what had happened to him. Even if it meant finding myself at the end of a rope again. I might be a pirate, but I had more honor than that. “I don’t know,” I said. “We’ll find him, though.”
Needing the contact, I threaded my fingers with Lief’s and made to tug him away. “Wait,” he said, digging his heels in. A malicious smile spread across his face as he searched out and stomped on every piece of ice he could find. I joined in, the action cathartic.
“I don’t trust all the bits not to join back together,” Lief said, as he squeezed my hand where our fingers were still entwined.
“He’s dead.”
Lief ground his heel down on another piece of ice, the pieces thankfully unrecognizable as which part of Lucretius’ body they’d once been. “We said that last time when he was supposed to have drowned. How did he survive that?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I guess now we’ll never know.”
With all the ice reduced to microscopic fragments, we stood for a few seconds and watched them melt in the sun. Yeah, Lucretius wasn’t coming back. “In a roundabout way, he saved my life,” I pointed out.
Lief laughed, but it was a laugh filled with scorn. “Only good thing he ever did.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. We picked our way through the square, no one interested enough in us to stop us. It was Lief who spotted the familiar figure first, the way he was looking over his shoulder, only bringing more attention to himself. Not Whitby, but Baravor. Having freed himself from both the noose and the remains of the gallows, my fellow prisoner was apparently planning on sneaking away. I went to go after him, but Lief held me back. “Let him go. He served his purpose in getting my name cleared.”
I frowned. “He killed your friend.”