Page 37 of Of Magic and Rum
Drawing a breath, I give the captain a firm nod. “I promise.”
It’s the last thing I get to say to him before the Sirens’ melody consumes him.
Feet dangle from the crow’s nest, and I gasp. How could we have forgotten about Squid? “Mary, Squid is still up there,” I shout.
Mary shoves her foot to Ragnar’s chest, pinning him to the mast. “He’ll be fine. He can’t hear a thing,” she says, pointing to her ear.
It explains so much. He prefers being alone because he can’t hear conversations and prefers the ability toseein all directions from up high.
Jack growls and loosens the ropes again, his nostrils flaring, cheeks puffing as he stretches his arms. I grab on one end, pulling it taut, but he shrugs out of it before I have a chance to retie the knot. He’s free and storming for the railing, shoving me aside like a discarded flour sack before I can stand.
The fog lifts one Siren to Jack’s eye level. Her true form, with blazing red eyes, onyx snake hair, sunken cheeks, and curved claws, is obvious to me. But to Jack, she’ll appear as what he finds most beautiful in a mortal.
I’m at his side, using my divine strength to wedge myself between the Siren and Jack. The Siren is hissing at my back and speaking obscenities in ancient Greek.
“Jack,” I shout, bunching his shirt and shaking him. “You’ve got to resist. They aren’t what you think.”
“It’s so beautiful,” Jack mumbles, his gaze glassy and in another realm. “The music. Can’t you hear it?” He pushes me aside, but I’m back in front of him, shoving and punching his chest.
“Don’t do it. You can’t,” I plead, slapping him in the face, but it does nothing. My slap is a minor inconvenience in his grandplan to leap from the ship to the jagged rocks hidden by the fog below.
“Watch me,” Jack declares, climbing onto the railing.
I’m unsure what motivates me to do what I think of next or why it’ll work, but I do it anyway. Grasping his face, I pull it to mine and kiss him. It’s like kissing someone unconscious at first, but soon, his lips brush mine, and his arm snakes around my lower back.
Jack’s eyelashes brush my cheek, and I pull away, staring at him gazing atmeand no longer focused on the Siren. “That’s the third time our mouths have been fused for all the wrong reasons,” his voice croaks, that arm still firmly wrapped around me, almost possessively. “We’re going to have to rectify that.”
I press my palms over his chest. “Right now, we need to save the crew. And you need to steer this ship away from those rocks.” The same rocks we brush against the moment the words leave my lips, making the ship lurch to a grinding stop.
“Shit,” Jack shouts, turning away.
Testing a hypothesis, I run to Red and plant my lips to his, befuddled when he doesn’t kiss me back and still pulls at his ropes.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jack shouts. “Are youtryingto make me jealous, woman?”
My mouth falls agape. “It worked on you. I thought maybe I—” I throw my hands to my hips and glare at Jack. “Areyou jealous?”
“No,” Jack answers defensively, lacing it with a snarl, and leaps to the wheel, skipping the stairs.
“Is Jack alright?” Mary asks, a wrinkle forming in her brow. She’s still fighting with Ragnar to keep him put.
“Yes, he—” I trace my middle finger over my bottom lip. “—he fought through it somehow.”
“Anne, fend off those bloody Sirens while I get us heading in the opposite direction,” Jack grunts as he furiously turns the wheel. The ship groans and cracks, slowly dislodging from the rocks.
I yank my cutlass from its sheath and stand posed at the railing. That same Siren floats in front of me, her tail whipping through the fog like water, her long fingers wrapping over the ship’s side. There’s no hesitation from me before I bring the blade down at her knuckles, but she moves away in time, cackling.
“Curious as to why a nymph carouses with the likes of humans,” she’s speaking in scattered whispers. “You’ve cost us a meal. And we arestarving.”
“Tough. Shit. These mortals—” I raise the sword. “Are mine.” Jabbing it forward, I catch the Siren by surprise, slicing her shoulder.
She hisses with her black forked tongue, her hair spiking. The ship whirls in the other direction, and the Sirens’ song morphs into shrieks of agony and despair, gradually snapping the crew back to reality. The wind favors us, kicking up and filling the sails, giving us the speed to distance ourselves from the Sirens’ forsaken island quickly. I release a shaky breath, sheathe my cutlass, and undo everyone’s bindings.
Everyone is still alive. Everyone is safe.
As I undo the final knot on the last remaining crew member, I catch Jack’s gaze at the helm for what has to be the umpteenth time since I snuck onboard The Revenge. But unlike any other time,thistime, his eyes blaze with intensity, understanding, and ravenous intrigue.
It’s the second time the red-headed fiery sea nymph has saved my hide since joining our merry band of miscreants. My ego should be far more bruised, but it’s also gotten her mouth on me multiple times, and I havezerocomplaints. The Sirens’ song had muddled my brain like the fog disguised the perilous rocks they lured us toward. A part of me, internally screaming from the back of my brain, remained completely aware ofeverything. As soon as Anne’s lips met mine, I felt them but couldn’t react until suddenly, the haze lifted, the Siren’s influence disappeared, and I held her in my arms.
