Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“Your captain and quartermaster took something that did not belong to them. It’s a mistake they won’t make a second time.” Lizzie tosses the heart and catches it idly. “I have need of this ship and this crew to reclaim something that was also taken from me. Cooperate, and whatever riches we find along the way will be yours. At the end of our search, you can elect your own captain and sail off to do whatever the fuck you want. The best part is that you’ll be alive to do it. Deny me and . . .” She tosses the heart again. “Well, I don’t have to tell you what will happen.”
The crew exchanges looks. At some point, this will become a problem. When they have time to think and let their anger grow instead of being overridden by fear. But in this moment, no one protests.
Lizzie smiles slowly. “I thought you might see things my way. Pick your new quartermaster. We sail at high tide.”
Things happen quickly after that. There’s some arguing before the crew puts forth Alix as the new quartermaster. They’re a bird person, their feathers a dozen shades of black, and they seem reasonable enough. It’s about the best we can ask for.
We’re shown to the captain’s cabin as someone provides a few mops and buckets of seawater to clean up the mess on the deck. The moment I step through the door, the sensation of the missing piece of me becomes almost overwhelming. Lizzie says something, but my ears are clogged to anything but the call of my pelt. I rush through the captain’s cabin, digging through chest after chest before finding one tucked in the corner. And there it is, neatly folded on the top.
My pelt.
I reach for it with shaking hands but stop just short of touching it. This hasn’t been an easy journey, but at the same time . . . it’s been too easy. I expected for weeks and weeks to pass as the search stretched out and became frustrating and hopeless.
“It’s there, Maeve. Take it.” Lizzie sounds carefully distant, the fervor in her voice having died down now that we no longer have an audience. The blood is gone from her skin even though I’m nearly certain that she didn’t stop to wash it off. That’s a strange little mystery for another day.
I take a deep breath and pick up my skin. It’s as warm as my own body, and the urge to wrap it around myself is nearly overwhelming. But not here. Not like this. “I need—”
Lizzie is there in an instant, wrapping an arm around my waist and guiding me through the door and out onto the deck. The sailors watch us with fear in their eyes and no little amount of curiosity. Now that the time has come, I’m almost afraid to wrap the skin around myself. What if it’s no longer part of me? What if it rejects me? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
“You won’t know until you try.” I hadn’t realized that I’d been speaking aloud, but Lizzie’s voice is very soft and careful. As kind as I’ve ever heard her.
Later, perhaps, I’ll be grateful for how carefully she’s handled me in this situation. Right now I can only imagine what happens next. Before I can think of all the ways this could possibly go wrong, I wrap my skin around myself.
And I am whole once more.
chapter 16
Lizzie
I’ve seen shifters change their shape plenty of times. It tends to be gruesome business, bones breaking and skin splitting as their bodies go from one version of themselves to the other. It’s not like that at all with Maeve. She drapes the pelt—a fur with a gray dappled pattern—around her body, and it’s as if my eyes go blurry for a moment. One second, the woman whom I’m starting to have incredibly complicated feelings for is standing in front of me. The next, a massive leopard seal crouches in front of me.
I’m hardly a zoologist, but even I’m aware of the various types of seals and where they come from. But when I think of seals, I think of the cute little brown-furred ones with doe eyes. Prey. The kind of animal that falls victim to superior predators like orcas. Now that is an animal I can get behind; they even play with their prey.
Maeve isn’t that kind of seal at all.
She’s massive, for one. She has to be upward of a thousand pounds and easily fifteen feet from nose to tail. She blinks at me, and though the rest of her is unrecognizable, those inky eyes remain the same. We stare at each other in charged silence as I try to understand what the fuck my heart is doing right now.