A Ship of Bones & Teeth

by Karina Halle

Better to risk drowning and swim to shore than to spend a minute with whatever the men on this ship have in mind for me. And that includes my husband.

Both the lady and the prince look terrified, but the lady has a toughness about her that the prince doesn’t possess, something I appreciate.

“Princess?” I ask, and the woman stirs, her eyes widening, as if she’s suddenly aware that she’s floating in the ocean. “I’ve come to rescue you, milady,” I tell her, flashing her a grin and spitting out sea water. I expect her to scream for help or try to swim away. Instead, the princess punches me right in the face.

There are rumors about a mermaid kept in a glass tank on board the skeleton crew’s ghost ship.

Naturally it wasn’t just her attitude that warmed me to her, but how damn desirable she looked in that wet gown. With her long black hair, wild and free from the hair pinnings, full tits and gleaming blue eyes, she looked like she belonged to the darkness, like a goddess of some forgotten religion.

“You’re awfully quiet this morning. Could barely get you to shut up last night.” At that Aerik turns to look at her, giving her a cold look. “Yes, that is an issue with her.”

In a blink of an eye I have the princess pulled tight against my side and with my other hand I remove my dagger from my holster and push the prince back. I pin him against the bars, tip of the blade pressed up against his chin. “I told you I’d remove your head,” I tell him roughly, leaning in close so he can see the wildness in my eyes.

“Princess, may I introduce you to Conner Benedict, our bosun, though you may wish to call him Crazy Eyes.” Crazy Eyes look at her and widens his eyes so that the whites take over, leaning into his moniker. “Pleasure to meet you, Princess.” She swallows. “How do you do,” she says unsurely, a greeting rather than a question.

“I’ve never seen so many books,” she says breathlessly as she looks around. “I doubt that. Surely the king and queen have libraries upon libraries in their palaces.” She gives me a wry look. “Those books don’t count. They’re unreadable.” She slowly walks around, trailing her fingers over the cloth and leather spines. “These are real books. Ones that tell stories, not just someone’s boring lineage.”

“I don’t give a damn what you do here,” I seethe, finding courage from deep down. “But if you don’t let me go so I can swim to land, I’ll end you.” The corner of his mouth quirks up and if I didn’t want to drive the sword right through the middle of him, I’d think he was almost handsome. He throws his arms wide, displaying the wide breadth of his chest. “Then end me, darling. I’m not going to fight you.”

She just scowls at me, her features contorting into something fearsome and for a moment I almost see her as someone else. No, not someone else. Something else. Unhuman.

“Curious creature, aren’t you? So much rage for such a small woman.”

“If you don’t wish to use the bucket, I can always escort you to the privy. Perhaps you’ve had enough of humility for now.” I turn to leave my chambers when I hear a scraping sound and as I turn around to see what it is, I’m met with a bucket full of water right to my face, drenching me. I close my eyes and let it cascade over me, spitting some out. Then I wipe my sopping hair off my face and give the princess a pointed look. She’s holding the empty bucket in her hands, eyes wild, chest heaving with breath. “Perhaps I needed a freshening up too,” I tell her, spitting out another bit of water. “I thank you for that.”

“I’ll stay outside the door and keep you on a leash. Just in case you decide to go out the window. Just remember we are very far from land and I’ve seen you in the water. You’re not very good at swimming.” He has no idea how much that last sentence irks me.

Well, Princess, perhaps we can be considered even now.” I give him an incredulous look. “You going to let me brand you on your rear, then?” He gives me a salacious grin. “If that’s what tickles your fancy.”

“Look here, lass. There’s a lot that you won’t believe while you’re on this ship, the least of which are witches and skeletons. But they aren’t even the most fantastical things you’ll hear of. There’s one thing that they have that this crew wants more than anything else.” “And what’s that?” I ask. “A mermaid.”

“Teach you how to wield a sword in combat? Why, so you can stab me at the first chance you get?” “I don’t think stabbing you will do any good,” she mutters. “You’re right. I find being stabbed to be highly annoying.”

Your rage will free you, my sister said. Ramsay said something similar to me, too. And now, now I’m letting it go free.

“From this moment forth, I will never have to listen to you again,” I grind out, my voice sounding less human, more monster. More Syren. His mouth opens to say something but I cut him off. Forever.

snarl and close my hand around his heart and pull it back out of his chest and through the bars. While he’s still looking at me, while he’s still alive for just a few more seconds, I take his still beating heart and shove part of it in my mouth, biting down with needle sharp teeth as ravenous, monstrous hunger takes over. I make sure it’s the last thing he sees.

“You are a stunning abyss of a creature,” I tell her. “One that I could spend eons swimming in and never get to the bottom of.”

“Darling, your body would bring any man to their knees where they would be in the right position to worship you. It’s a body carved by god yet meant for sin, and it would become anyone’s salvation.” “Then why aren’t you on your knees?” she asks, her lids growing heavy again. God Almighty, she is the moon and I am the tides. I feel my resolve begin to slip away as her eyes pull me in. “Because I don’t trust you not to knee me in the face,”

Those are the words I’d been waiting to hear, the words that send me over the edge, even though I know I won’t obey them. But to hear her need for me, her want for me, overriding her hate for me, there’s nothing more wicked than that.

“Would you have wanted my cock inside you while you hung from chains?”

Well duh

When Ramsay finally admitted what he was, that he wasn’t your average human being, that he wasn’t even human at all and was instead a monster like me, I suddenly knew what I was up against.

“Are you envious of what I can do?” she says, swimming down now and circling around me. Now she’s no longer Edonia but a great white shark, a ferocious-looking beast with her red eyes. “Do I remind you of your friend?”

Do NOT bring Nill into this

I know it’s you, Nill says. I have been waiting for you all this time. I’m crying now, tears disappearing into the sea. “I’m so sorry,” I sob, so many emotions running through me. “I’m sorry that I never came back for you. I couldn’t.”