Screams filled the air as Arabella fought against her bindings. Damien hung limp beside her; the steady rise and fall of his chest was the only thing that alerted Arabella that he was still alive.
“Damien, wake up!” She hissed as she continued to fight for freedom. Damien groaned before he started to struggle to open his eyes.
“Bella?” He questioned as he looked over at his sister, unable to properly focus on anything.
“I need your knife!” Arabella growled as she pulled at the enchanted ropes that held her and her brother by their wrists to the stone ceiling. Damien looked from his sister’s face to the ropes that held her in place, slowly coming to grips with the situation they were in. Suddenly his eyes widened. He looked around wildly as Arabella waited for him to remember her demand. Impatience drove her to remind him.
“Damien! Your knife!”
“It’s in my boot. I can’t reach it!” Damien replied as he attempted to bend down to reach into his boot. Arabella cursed. The enchanted ropes kept her from using her abilities and for all intents and purposes, kept her drained of physical strength.
“Can you lift yourself up?” She asked as she glanced at her younger brother.
“I can try,” Damien answered. Arabella watched Damien take a couple of breathes before he gripped the ropes that bound his hands and used his shoulders to pull himself further off of the ground. A few minutes of harsh breathing and labored grunts were all it took for Damien to somehow pull himself upside down and bend his knees so his hand could reach into his boot.
“Ah-ha!” Damien exclaimed quietly as he retrieved his hidden blade and let his body hang as it did before. Damien started sawing at the ropes that bound his wrists together and then he fell to the ground with a quiet thud. He grinned triumphantly at his suspended sister. Arabella frowned.
“Bravo, brother. Now how do you propose to get me down?'
***
Kaden and two of his men jumped into the water seconds before white hot flames enveloped the group. Kaden could hear their screams under the water. He looked over at Pike and his shadow, Connor Walker. Half of their group was nothing but charred bones and ash. Kaden grimaced when he and the others broke the surface of the water and the smell hit them. Burnt hair and flesh permeated the air as smoke simmered from the blackened corpses. Kaden felt his heart break as he thought of the two bodies that had been lying on the wood. Not only were three of his best men gone, but also Damien Cartridge and worse even, Arabella.
Arabella. Dead.
The thought would’ve sent Kaden to his knees if he had been on dry land. But instead he was treading water while Pike and Walker eyed the docks and skies for whatever had decimated their compatriots.
“Cap’n.” Pike’s voice brought Kaden back from his crippling thoughts. Kaden turned his head to the two men.
“What do we do?” Pike asked as Kaden looked around. The fog still filled the air. Whatever attacked them was silent and the heat from the flames had all but vanished. He thought back to Arabella’s words in his head. She had said to run and sail away.
“We get back to Calypso and we sail fast and far from here,” Kaden ordered as the other two men nodded and the three of them started to swim back to the dock.
“Where are we going?” Voices echoed through the fog and Kaden was quick to draw his sword once he was back on his feet. Pike and Walker were quick to follow his lead once they were out of the water. The three men waited.
“Directions would be nice!”
“I will stab you with your own knife if you do not shut your face, brother!”
“But I…”
“Quiet. We have company,” Kaden tensed as he looked around, hoping for some sign as to where the voices were coming from. Suddenly the hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he felt the muzzle of a pistol pressed against his forehead.
“Move and I shoot.” The voice was distorted but the cadence was one he would recognize in his heart even if his brain said otherwise.
“Bella.” Her name slipped from between his lips in a sigh of relief. The gun lowered itself and Kaden lowered his weapon. Pike and Walker shared a look before the two followed their captain and two figures stepped out of the fog.
Arabella and Damien were surprised to find Kaden and two other crewmembers standing in the middle of the dock where they had heard sinister and distorted words.
“I told you to run!” Arabella growled as she holstered her pistol. Kaden scoffed as he slid his sword back into its sheath.
“Kaden Lockes doesn’t run.”
“Kaden Lockes is a fool.” Arabella responded as she looked over at Kaden’s companions.
“Weren’t there others? I sensed them.” Arabella’s question reminded Kaden why they just been swimming in the ocean and why the smell of burnt hair and flesh clung to the insides of their nostrils.
“Something…attacked us,” Kaden replied as he stepped closer to Arabella. Damien frowned.
“Something ambushed us after we came across a couple of men firing at us.” Damien explained as Arabella looked up at Kaden’s face. His eyes met hers and she felt something pulse between them again. Relief flowed over from Kaden’s heart and trickled in Arabella. While it was strange and disconcerting, it was welcomed. Bits and pieces of emotions were far better than no emotions in her opinion.
“I thought you were dead,” Kaden remarked quietly to Arabella as she rolled her eyes.
“I cannot die. I thought I explained that to you,” she replied easily. Kaden shook his head.
“I cannot explain why I thought it. I just…did.” Arabella frowned at Kaden’s words.
“You said something attacked you. What was it?”
“You are beginning to annoy me.” A strange new voice stopped the group dead in their tracks as they turned to watch the fog recede. Damien and Kaden moved to stand in front of Arabella as Pike and Walker stood in front of their captain. Each man had his weapon drawn and pointed at the stranger who sneered at them.
“How quaint. Human weapons.”
“Who are you?” Kaden demanded in a menacing growl. Arabella frowned before her eyes widened. Suddenly with a flick of her wrists, Kaden and the others were thrown into the sea and she faced down the stranger on her own.
“Oh, ho. She did not say you had magic…”
“How did she earn a leviathan’s loyalty?” Arabella hissed as she and the stranger circled one another. He chuckled.
“That witch earns nothing. She simply takes,” he replied bitterly. Arabella frowned.
“She stole your heart.” It wasn’t a question but the man nodded anyways.
“Why did you send your friends away?”
“Because I knew what you were planning. They have nothing to do with her.” Arabella answered as she prepared herself for the fight she knew was coming. She could feel Kaden’s anger even from the distance she sent them. Hopefully, if they knew what was good for them, they’d head to the ship and sail as far as away as possible. The strange man smirked before his smirk fell and his lips tilted down into a frown.
“Clever girl. You’ve masked them from my fog.” He growled, annoyed she had decided to outsmart him.
“Like I said, they have nothing to do with this.”
***
“Bella!” Damien sputtered since he was the first to break the surface. When he couldn’t see his sister or the dock because the fog, panic settled into his gut before he turned to look for Kaden and the others. Kaden came up for air next to him and the other two (Pike and Walker, if he remembered their names right) came up a few feet away.
“I am going to kill that woman myself,” Kaden growled as he started to swim in the direction he thought the dock was. Damien quickly and easily followed after him, almost matching him stroke for stroke. Pike and Walker followed.
“How far did that devil woman throw us?” Pike questioned after the group swam for several minutes.
“Don’t call her that,” Damien growled instantly. Kaden frowned as he turned to reprimand his crew before his back pressed against something hard.
“Oi boy! What are ya doing down there?” Kaden’s eyes widened when he heard Jarrus’s voice from above and he tilted his head to find the old man leaning over the railing.
“Just throw us a rope, old man!” Kaden shouted. He glanced over at Damien.
“We’re going after that welp you call a sister,” he growled as Damien stared at him before nodding.