“FIRE!” Blackbeard screamed and spit left his mouth.
An explosion went off beneath us, shaking the ship and rocking us side to side. My ears rang with a high-pitched squeal from the deafening boom. White smoke and orange flames shot into the sky.
Blackbeard raised his sword in the air. “FIRE!”
There was a crack and then another explosion as Blackbeard’s men fired their cannons, one after another. Smoke and ash filled the air. The ship rocked. Wooden shards exploded all around us. Flames rose up to the clouds. I couldn’t tell if the other ship had taken a hit at all, but I found myself both hoping it had yet hoping it hadn’t.
Never had I ever imagined a day I’d feel grateful for the fae’s arrival.
Even if it was him.
Men in golden armor leapt through the chaos and landed on the deck with Blackbeard’s men. The Seelie Knights had found me. Riah found me. But I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to be taken. I pulled myself back to my feet and threw my arm out behind me. My magic rushed out of my palm.
And then I felt it, the sharp sting of the tunnel’s energy. I clenched my teeth and imagined my magic wrapping around it. I felt a tug in my gut and then pulled. While they were busy fighting here I was going to be there. I just had to get the tunnel to me before Riah found me.
Seelie Knights were everywhere. Their golden armor sparkling in the sunshine through the smoke and flames. Cannons fired one after another. Men screamed as they were tossed in the air. I saw the shimmer of metal and then heard it slice through the air. Blood spilled on the deck. But I wasn’t watching the fight. I was looking for him. I turned to look above me —
And then I felt his hot, electric energy against my back like the sun was shining right on me. I felt the prickle of his gaze slide down my spine. My pulse quickened. I clenched my teeth and breathed through my nose….and spun.
His gold gaze found mine in an instant.
He stood twenty feet away across the ship, a stoic statue among the carnage. The ship exploded around him yet he was unphased, untouched. His eyes sparkled and my heart did that stupid little traitorous flutter. He stomped toward me, walking in a straight line like the world wasn’t shattering around us. Wood particles and shards of glass flew past him. Flames shot up. Yet his steps never faltered.
I cursed and pulled with my magic. The tunnel was moving closer but not fast enough. Come on, come on, come on. I kept my eyes on Riah, watching his every step until he stood three feet in front of me. Hold yourself together. He doesn’t deserve your rage. He betrayed you.
He put his hands behind his back and his eyes blazed with fire. “Talk to me.”
I snapped. I stepped forward and screamed, “I will make wind chimes out of your teeth.”
He arched one eyebrow. “I take that as a compliment.”
“I must have said it wrong,” I growled through clenched teeth.
How dare he stand there like nothing happened. Like he hadn’t betrayed me, like he hadn’t reeled me in and fed me to the lions. How dare he flirt with me after what he did. Rage boiled in my veins, turning every muscle in my body to fire. I exhaled through my nose, half expecting smoke to come out.
The tunnel was so close. I felt its magic tingle against my back.
Riah held his hands up like he was surrendering, like it wasn’t too late for that. “Just talk to me. Let me explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain!”
He flinched and his jaw flexed.
“You betrayed me.”
He winced.
“You pretended to care about me,” I snarled and he cringed, but I wasn’t done. He’d hurt me too much. He didn’t deserve a second of my time, he was only getting it because I was stalling. “Then handed me over to the very man who cursed me. The man who made my life misery for three hundred and twenty-seven years.”
He grimaced and his face looked pale. “I don’t want to fight you. I just need to talk to you.”
“I don’t want to talk.” I felt the pulsing electricity of the Seelie tunnel at my back. I fired my magic straight into it without taking my eyes off of Riah. “You had your chance. You chose to betray me instead.”
“That’s not — you don’t understand—”
“Oh, I understand perfectly.” OPEN! “You’ve been lying to me since the day we met.”
I pushed off my feet and leapt backward. Just as my head passed through the wall and into that damn tunnel, a memory I had no interest in seeing slammed into my mind…
Chapter Four
Saffie
December 5th 1691
“Olli?” I whispered as loud as I could without drawing the attention of my sleeping neighbors. “Olli, where are you?”
It was well after midnight. If my mother or uncle knew I was out of the house, they would be furious with me. These were dangerous times in Salem. Tension was at an all-time high. The feuding had become volatile and physical. There was something coming, I could feel it in the air around us. It was building like a rising tide, ready to drown us in its rage.
As I walked between two houses, I crouched down and looked between the wooden slats of my neighbor’s fence, but Olli was nowhere in sight. With a curse, I stood and hurried down the alley. My feet crunched in the snow with every step. Everyone’s windows were closed but these wooden walls were thin and sound traveled too well. And with the full moon reflecting off the blanket of white snow it almost looked like mid-day. Just one peak out their window and my red hair would be impossible to miss.
Wind ripped up the alley and the chill felt like pin pricks against my skin. I hissed and wrapped my arms around my waist to try and stay warm. I’d somehow forgotten my waistcoat in my panic to find him. But with this storm rolling in I knew he would not survive the night outside, I already felt my fingers and toes losing feeling. I’d been out here too long.
I hurried down the alley, then rounded the front corner of Bridget Bishop’s house. There was a chance Olli was in with her horses or stealing her apples. Bridget was a friend of mine. She would not mind me looking. I moved between two trees toward her gate when a large man stepped out in front of me. I choked on a scream and leapt back.
“Please, I won’t hurt you,” he said, though his voice was not quite as deep as I expected it to be for the width of his shoulders. “I am sorry.”
He stepped out from the shadow of the tree and my breath left me in a rush. Though he towered over me, he was no man at all, but a boy who couldn’t have been more than my own sixteen years of age. His long golden hair swayed around his shoulders in the bitter breeze. He took another step forward and the moonlight glistened in his bright golden eyes. His high cheekbones cast a shadow over his sharp jawline.
My chest tightened and butterflies danced in my stomach. He was more beautiful than a sunset on a summer day.
Breathe, Saffie.
He smiled and my heart fluttered. “Hello, good evening. I apologize, I did not mean to startle you.”
I licked my lips and smoothed my hair, though I didn’t know why I was so flustered. “I did not expect to see another person out this late.”
He cocked his head to the side but his golden eyes were kind and warm. “Why are you out this late, if you don’t mind me asking? Out by yourself.”