A Pirate's Dream (24 page)

Peter, for all his bluster, took not a step toward her.

She grinned. “What is the matter, little boy? Are you afraid of a mere slip of a woman?”

The moment he reached for his sword, she flung her blade at him, catching him in the right sleeve so violently that the momentum dragged him to the ground, pinning him as the dirk sank into the earth.

Snarling, vicious in her fury, she straddled his scrawny smelly body.

“Kidnapping? Again.” She spat. “For the Gods’ sake, get some new material. I am a pirate. I am the Sea King’s future consort. Come against me again,” she hissed, slapping his cheek so forcefully that it bloomed a terrible scarlet and brought tears immediately to his eyes, “and you shall not live to see your next birthday. You are nothing but a spineless, cowardly boy. Grow up, Peter Pan.”

A shimmering trail of fairy light zipped in front of her. Tinkerbell’s large blue eyes stared at Nimue, and her tiny jaw trembled.

Clutching her fingers together, she pleaded. “Please don’t, Nimue. Leave my boy alone. I vow to the Gods that I should never allow him to trespass against you or yours again.”

Nimue wanted to smack the fairy. She wanted to pound her fist through her small face, but Nimue knew that come morning, she would regret her actions.

She hated the boy and the fairy that’d coddled him and raised a monster more vile than even the sea hag herself. Though she ached for what this boy had stolen from her father, she was not a killer.

Soaked to the bone, and with hair hanging in her eyes, she knew she must look like a wild woman, but none of that mattered. She wanted off this rock and back into the arms of her mate.

She glowered when the unmistakable whiff of urine reached her nose. Yanking her dirk out of the ground, she wiped the blade off on her skirt. “You can have them. None of them are worthy of my time. But know this, Pan, should I ever see you trespassing upon the waters again, I will make my mate drown you. And believe me when I say, he would do anything to please me.”

Bobbing her head furiously, Tinkerbell tugged on Peter’s limp hand. The boy had passed out from fright. After dusting him with fairy powder, Tinkerbell sailed away with him toward their hidden isle in the clouds.

Scoffing with disgust, Nimue turned, wondering how in the hell she was going to get back to Seren. She came up short because bobbing in the now-placid waters was her lover. And his metallic bronze eyes glimmered with so much love that she staggered.

Rushing up to meet her, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I came up here to save you, Nimue.”

Laughing, but only because none of this was particularly funny, she collapsed into his arms as the adrenaline that’d spiked through her suddenly evaporated. “I think he peed on me a little, beluga.”

Kissing the crown of her head, he boomed with laughter, but his hands were gentle and tender as they explored her for any wounds.

“I’m fine, whale, just a little salty and vexed, but otherwise unharmed.”

“I would tear worlds asunder and kill thousands to keep you safe, my Nimue.” He shuddered, closing his eyes.

Feeling the depths of his misery as her own, she nuzzled her face against the side of his neck and inhaled him. “I am sorry to make you worry, Sircco. I saw the mirror, and I didn’t think. Lucky for you, I am not an easy woman to bring down. Pirates are made of much sterner stuff than that.”

“And so you know, I would drown him a thousand times, if it meant seeing you smile.” Feathering his lips against hers, she waited for his touch to turn more potent, more arousing, and just as she was sure that it would, a shriek exploded through the deep.

“
Mine
!”

Nimue shivered, staring into his eyes.

“The sea hag.” She clutched at his neck. “Sircco, I broke your pact. I—”

“She will not have you.” Wrapping his arms around her, he turned, ready to defend her when the waters surrounding them began to swirl.

Winding tighter and tighter, funneling up into a tower, that suddenly took form into one of a Goddess made from the waters of the deep. Blue hair hung in thick waves over her breasts. Kelp and algae threaded through it. Crustaceans of every sort skittered up and down her lean, cascading body that glimmered with the light of the rainbow and depths of the sea.

There was a frightfulness to her face. The eyes, jaw, cheeks, and brows were undeniably feminine, and yet there was an alien quality to it that felt dichotomously natural and unnatural all at once. The figure was both beautiful and deadly, and Nimue could not look away. She knew immediately who this water nymph was.

“All Mother.” Sircco bowed deeply, dragging Nimue down with him.

When she smiled, rainbows appeared. “My son,” she said, and her voice was like the swell of a wave crashing upon the shore. Then her clear liquid eyes turned on Nimue, and she dipped her head.

“Daughter of the Sea, none shall ever own you again, for you have been judged worthy. The hag shall be a problem no more.”

Nimue gasped when Calypso dragged a cold hand down her face. Her touch was both hot and cool at once. And the power that rolled through her was immense, frighteningly so.

“May the seas ever bless you and fill you with wonder. May you know love all the days of your lives, and may you never be parted again.”

Sircco trembled when Calypso bent to kiss his brow.

And all Nimue could do was smile, because she’d never thought there could be a creature more frightening than Hook, but Calypso was devastatingly so.

Neither of them spoke after that, even after Calypso returned to the depths from which she’d come, when the rainbows had vanished from the skies, or when the sun had set behind the horizon.

They simply clung to one another, neither of them talking, but knowing in their souls that only together could they ever truly be whole.

Father had once told Nimue that her destiny was written not in the stars, but in the waters. That was why he’d called her Nimue—lady of the lake.

And now, she was well and truly the lady of the endless seas.

Chapter 18:
Epilogue
Stygia dipped her head, her heart racing as she awaited her king’s verdict. She’d never felt more small or insignificant in her life than she did now.

The throne room, so rarely used, was full to the brim with mermaids and their legger mates awaiting the outcome of her verdict.

Beside her treaded Ariana, whose snow-white hair hung long and low over her face.

Once, she’d wished to rule this land. She wished to be the one sitting beside Sircco, as Nimue now was. She wished to be the one holding the ring and scepter. But instead, he’d chosen a legger, and Stygia knew she was ruined.

She’d treated the human poorly. A human’s capacity to bear grudges was legendary, not to mention the temperament of a pirate, even more blood thirsty and vengeful than their counterparts.

Crimson banners undulated in the gentle swells of the currents. The color of blood, the color of Sircco’s soon-to-be bride. She shivered.

“Stygia, daughter of the deep,” the Sea King’s voice boomed through the cavernous chambers of the hall, “verdict has been reached. Are you ready to hear it?”

She’d never poisoned the cakes. Oh, she’d wanted to. She had very nearly done it, then she’d thought of Sircco and how manic he’d been after the loss of Talia. The devastation he’d felt, and the near loss the kingdom had suffered from the great depths of his sadness.

That thought alone had stayed her hand. She’d brought the cakes to Cook as a true peace offering, in the hopes that at some point, she could speak with Sircco and tell him of her dealings with the witches and the terrible bind she’d found herself in, But before Stygia had ever even had the chance, Nimue had vanished and guards had appeared at Stygia’s door. Only to have the guards find the evidence of the poison sitting upon her counter, and though she’d not used it, the intention had been clear enough.

Holding her head high, she whispered slowly, “Aye, my king.”

Gripping the royal trident and wearing his elemental form, he’d never looked more formidable. She trembled at the thought of so much power and shook with the fear that laced her bones.

Sirenade and Sircco were unlike any other within the realm. They were gods among the folk, and never had that been more evident than now.

How could the legger stand to look upon him thusly? How did she not quake with fright as Stygia did?

“Then you shall hear it from the mouth of my future consort.”

Nimue smiled serenely back at him, then her features composed into a marble-like regalness. It was with a heavy heart that Stygia finally realized she’d never stood a chance against her.

“Stygia, you have tried to hurt me. On more than one occasion.”

She shook, lashes fluttering against her cheeks as she waited to be ousted from the only home she’d ever known.

“But in the end, you choose not to carry out that evil deed. And so, therefore, I have no choice, but... to pardon you.”

Gasping, she blinked, staring at the future consort with disbelieving eyes. “I am pardoned?”

Dipping her head, causing the black swirls of her hair to flow gracefully about her slim shoulders, the pirate smiled. “Aye, mermaid. You are free to go. And while you are no longer accepted back within the walls of this palace, Seren waters will always remain open to you. As to the witch’s lien, Sircco has already paid the debts. You are free.”

Sircco thumped the staff of his trident to the floor, causing the land beneath to quake.

“And thus it is.” He spoke the words, and she sucked in a deep breath, crying heavy tears as she gazed upon the faces of family and friends she’d dishonored by her own petty jealousies.

“I do not deserve your kindness, but I thank you all the same, Nimue, daughter of Hook.”

She didn’t know how long it would take or if they would ever truly forgive her, but she would work ceaselessly to prove to them she would never come against the lady of the lake again.

Turning her head, Nimue stared at Ariana.

“Ariana, look at me.”

The girl continued to tremble, but she parted the veil of her hair and peeked through.

“I forgive you of all crimes. They used you, my friend, and not the other way around. I was told of your bravery yesterday in confronting my mate. You did all that you could to save me, and for that, I shall remain ever in your debt. You are a friend always, not only to me, but to this court.”

Beaming, the mermaid, who’d looked on the verge of tears, laughed wildly. “I am glad, my Nimue. For I like you very much, and I loathe those rotten leggers.”

Stygia had no doubt that should Ariana ever come across Peter and his band of Lost Boys again, she would kill them.

Sweet the mermaid might be, but she could be as deadly as a sea snake.

Again, Sircco tapped his trident to the ground, and again the waters rolled.

“And thus it is. And now, all are welcome”—he glanced at Stygia—“to come and watch me make this barracuda my own.”

Cheers erupted from the crowd, and even Stygia managed a faint smile.

*

N
imue turned on her seat, studying her glowing reflection in the vanity as her mother fussed with her hair.

“You look so beautiful, my brave little girl.”

“Mother. I am far from a little girl.”

Trisha’s eyes twinkled, and she leaned over her daughter’s shoulders, whispering conspiratorially, “Just between us girls, and just so you know, your dad’s rather enamored of his soon-to-be son-in-law. I think if he could, he’d have married the sea. This is second best.” She laughed.

Nimue chuckled, grabbing her mother’s hand. “He’s never loved anything or anyone the way he loves you, Mother, not even his beloved sea can hold a candle to the flame he feels for you.”

Brushing her knuckles across Nimue’s cheeks, Trisha’s eyes filled with tears.

“I am so proud of you. And you should know that we were rooting for you two the whole time. I knew the day Danika told me who your mate would be that it was destined. It was why we hid you from the waters, Nim.”

“I always craved it, and it always hurt that you denied it to me for so long.”

“If I did, my love, it was only so that I could keep you with me for as long as I could. I knew the moment you saw him that it would be like it was for your father and I. I knew I would...” She sniffed as tears rolled down her beautiful doll’s face. “Lose you.”

Wearing tears of her own, Nimue shook her head. Sircco had surprised her this morning, opening her door to a great treasure he’d found. She’d cried happy tears to see both her parents and run straightaway into their arms.

They’d held on to each other, catching up on what’d happened to each of them during their time apart.

It’d been with great delight that she’d discovered Danika and her parents as well as her soon-to-be sister-in-law, Sirenade, had been in on the orchestration of Nimue’s meeting Sircco all along.

Sircco, rather than being upset by it, had taken it in stride, remarking that he could not have chosen finer if it’d been up to him. Although, when Nimue had mentioned Calypso’s involvement in the matter, all of them had wondered at that, as well.

Danika had worn a mysterious grin, and Nimue was fairly certain the fairy knew something, but if she did, she’d never speak of it.

“Mother. You will never lose me. Ever. I love you too much to ever let you go.”

Nimue stood and hugged her mother tightly, causing her gown of white to fall in a gentle cascade down to her ankles. But pirate that she was, she’d told the seamstress to make sure the slits at the sides ran all the way up to her waist. She was a legger in this land, and her king loved her for it.

It was high time the folk got used to seeing legs, too, because she planned to show them off without impunity in the future.

There was a knock at the door, then Sirenade poked her head inside the door. The gentle strains of the wedding march floated through the halls.

“It is time, King Consort.” Then her bronze eyes alighted on Nimue’s gown, and she whispered, “He will die.”

Laughing with delight, Nimue nodded. “That is the plan, sister.”