Page 73 of Of Magic and Rum
Anne reacts in kind but freezes with her cutlass halfway from its sheath as if stuck. She pulls and pulls until her emerald eyes flare at me. “The Sirens.”
It’s both an answer to my question and the cause for the fog, their eerie singing tones piercing the air. That same buzz I’d experienced before rattles my brain, but I shake it away. I’d overcome the Sirens’ pull with Anne’s aid and can do it again. Or, if I’mreallylucky, perhaps I’m immune? I’m not banking on this because I never did believe much in dumb luck.
“Didn’t the sea witch threaten you only some thirty seconds ago?”
“Plug your ears,” Anne shouts, still struggling to wield her sword. She curses against the wind and relents, spinning on her heel to face me. “When she said I couldn’t harm them, I didn’t think it meant I wouldn’t even be able to have a weapon inhand.”
Always a fucking loophole.
I hear her, but she sounds distant and echoing, the buzz growing louder in my head,poundingin it. “Annie, I?—”
Snap the hell out of it, Rackham. If you let this witch win, Anne won’t be able to defend herself, let alone any of the crew.
“Jack,” Anne yells, patting her hands on my cheeks repeatedly. “Stay with me.”
Her words pull me back. But when her lips fall on mine, the kiss doesn’t cure me. Anne realizes this, too, when my mouth stills against hers. She slowly steps away, her eyes frantically searching my face, her bottom lip trembling.
“No harm can come to them. My kiss won’t work now because it’d allowyouto harm them because of me.” Anne pushes against my chest, using her elbows, legs, back, and anything she can to force me away from the ship’s edges.
My brain disconnects from my body. No matter how hard I try to tell my legs to stop walking or yell at my arm to raise the cutlass, it’s all ignored for this damnable, unrelenting melody. Every man aboard is meandering in the same direction as I am, their feet shuffling the deck like it’s covered in sticky sludge.
Anne wraps a rope around my ribs, pinning my arms at my sides. As she ties a knot, it refuses to stay tight, repeatedly loosening with each attempt. She roars the word “fuck.” Considering I’ve only heard her curse a handful of times, and most of those times are when I’ve been pounding the daylights out of her—this can’t be good. And I swear I can hear the sea witch’s cackles floating along with the wind. The pistol and cutlass fall from my grasp, rattling and bouncing to the deck.
Anne slides in front of me, pushing my chest, punching it, and slaps me in the face. It smarts like a son of a bitch, but I can’t so much as joke with her about hitting like a girl. She suddenly gasps and snaps her fingers. “She saidIcan’t harm them and had no idea we have another woman in our crew.”
Mary. My intelligent, beautiful Anne is going to get Mary toslaughterthem.
“Jack, try to hold out a little longer for me.Please.” Anne kisses my cheek and squeezes my hand.
Her pleading makes me grimace, and I’m able to stop walking for a few seconds, the guilt of me willingly dragging myself to the grave toleaveher punching at my gut. How can I be so selfish?
Anne sprints across the deck, shoving Red, Glog, and Aranck away from the railing. For fuck’s sake, it’s entrancing Truffles and the imp as well. What kind of maniac lures a defenseless cat to their death? Honestly. This realization should make me far more furious than I can feel. No. The only thought as I edge closer and closer is to step into their warm embrace. To let the soothing song make it painless as they consume me.
Several human hands grip the railing, snow-like skin and knuckles turning red as if trying to pull themselves from the water. As if—they’re drowning. My steps quicken, and my fingers reach for the first hand I see gripping over the railing. A woman’s head appears from the fog, hair as dark as midnight, eyes a muted red. Her crimson lips part, the melody fluttering from her throat, lulling me toward her. I’ve never been this close to them before. I want to think they’re beautiful but can’t seem tosayit.
The Siren’s hand curls around the back of my neck. Given how warm the song makes me feel, it’s far colder than I imagined, but I’m still letting her pull me toward the water. A sword slashes the air in front of me, narrowly missing thetip of my nose, and slices through the woman’s arms. She lets out such a bone-chilling shriek, so at odds with the song she’d been singing, it makes me blink, temporarily jolting me back to reality.
“Not today, Captain,” Mary says, patting my cheek and shoving me backward. She barrels across the deck, slicing, slashing, and leaving a bloody Siren massacre in her wake.
Anne rushes back, the world diving into slow motion as she pierces me with that frantic jade gaze. She’s worried and panicked, and somehow, the Siren music starts fading to a dull buzz. My heart concentrates instead on the sound of the waves crashing against the hull, the fish leaping from the water, and seagulls squawking above as they circle, looking for food. The alarm in Anne’s expression when she spots me peering straight at her softens, and it coils a tightness in my chest.
Mary continues to fend them off, dark blue blood spattering her clothes and cheeks, but she doesn’t relent. Each man begins to gradually come to their senses as the Sirens retreat into the depths, cradling their wounds and leaving inky trails behind them. Anne’s lips mouth my name, but I still can’t hear her. Only the sea echoes in my ears. And like the backdraft from an explosion, everything comes bursting in at once—the Sirens’ fading screams, the chatter from the confused crew, and Anne repeatedly shouting my name from only a few paces away.
Wincing from her loudness, I close my eyes and slip a hand over her mouth. “Yes, Annie?”
“Thank the Seas,” she breathes and leaps against my chest.
I catch her and peck kisses across her cheeks and nose to reassure her I’m back to my old self.
“You were right,” Anne whispers, her slender fingers twirling my hair.
My hands are cupping her ass, and I tap a finger against one cheek. “You’ll need to be more specific, as I’m right on quite a few things.”
I receive a well-deserved swat on my collarbone, and she rests her head there. “I should’ve bargained with her more. Instead, I put you and every man on board in danger.”
Nodding, I carry her with her legs wrapped around my waist and sit on a barrel. “Are any of us dead?”
Anne quickly surveys the crew, letting out a breath when all are accounted for, and then relaxes on my lap. “No.”
