Rubbing my left forearm, I glare at them from my position on the deck. I’m so focused on the couple, I don’t hear the footsteps coming from behind me.
A throat clears, “Arm bothering you, Captain?”
I curse, turning around.
Jean Luc, the ship’s cook, is holding up his hands in supplication. He continues, gesturing to my arm. “I can bring you some cream.”
“There’s nothing for it,” I reply gruffly. “Just the old wound acting up again. If I hadn’t already killed the bastards who did this to me, I’d take pleasure in killing them all over again.”
He nods, eyeing the limb as though he can see through the fabric of my shirt. “Can’t even tell it’s a fake.”
“That’s why they call it a lifelike prosthetic, man,” I say, my voice dropping into a lower register. “When you pay as much as I did, it had better look and workexactlylike a regular limb.”
The Fae scientist who had engineered my prosthetic had assured me my left hand would be identical in every way to the limb I had lost. No one would ever know it was a fake unless they saw me without it. It blends in seamlessly with my skin. The prosthetic has artificial muscles and bones, and moving it requires nothing more than a thought.
Jean Luc raises his hands in the air, backing up. “Gotcha,” he says. “I’ll just go below deck then, Captain. Leave you to your... guests.”
I nod. A sense of satisfaction fills me as I turn and place my hands on the metal railing. I watch grimly as my “guests” finally get ready to depart my ship.
My lips tilt up as the sailor—I won’t call him a captain, for he barely deserves the title after his piss-poor performance a few days ago—and his wife climb into an awaiting wooden rowboat we brought from their ship. It looks out of place against the metal ofThe Black Rose, but no matter. It will be gone in moments.
We’ve given the couple enough supplies to make it back to shore, where they can find a FaePhone and call for assistance.
Or whatever.
It’s not my problem.
Humming as I find myself in a rare good mood, I walk down to my office. All the sailors step out of the way, dipping their heads in reverence.
As they should.
I’m the captain.
My good mood lasts until my FaePhone rings the moment I step into my private space. Can’t a man have some gods-damned peace and quiet for once? Groaning, I yank the phone off the solar charger and put it to my ear.
“Yes,” I say as I slump down into my leather seat.
A tinny, female voice is on the other end.“Your presence is required in Aqualis. Come immediately.”
I run my hand through my hair. “By whose orders?”
“The King’s.”
The call abruptly ends before I can answer and I’m left spewing curses. I slam the FaePhone down, and wince. This is top-of-the-line Fae technology. There are far too many that can’t afford such nice shit. I pour myself a finger of the most expensive alcohol in my possession and throw it back. It burns as it goes down.
Then, and only then, do I leave my office to give my crew the new directions. We have to change course. The Ice Mer King has summoned me.
Maybe it won’t be awful?
* * *
“I wantyou to kill my daughter.”
I blink once, then twice, wondering if somehow my ears have gotten clogged during my journey into the underwater city. The enchantment the Ice Mer put over me is supposed to protect my “frail” human body and give me the ability to go about their city, but something must have gone wrong. There’s no way he said what I think he said.
Is there?
“Sir?” I’m swimming in place with my back straight. The water chills me to the bone and this gods-damned tail is a complete nuisance. I hate the way the Mer magic makes me feel, as though my body isn’t my own. The tail and gills they gave me feel sowrong.