Chapter 10: Chapter Ten
I grin at the thought of someone else injuring me with a weapon that was hand tailored for myself. As I stand up, she whips it out in self-defense. I'm not worried. That knife won't be the one to kill me, and for whatever reason, she doesn't want to kill me either. No one on this ship does or I'd be dead already.
"Where are the other two with you?" she barks.
"They jumped overboard, just as I'd like to do."
Her brown eyes widen and she glances over the side of the ship. She's trying to figure out why any of us would want to leap to our drowning deaths. She doesn't know we won't die; that we're actually at home in the water.
I seize her moment of distraction and whip my arm out, snatching the wrist wielding the dagger out of midair. She lands a punch across the side of my face with her free hand, but I hardly feel a thing. I grasp onto her other forearm and send my forehead crashing into her nose, shattering the cartilage underneath. She gasps in a daze as blood spills from her nostrils and trickles onto the deck. I twist her around so her back is pressed against my chest and I pry the dagger from her palm. I tightly wrap my arm around her neck so she can't free herself or move. When the metallic shift of a bolt action rifle clicks into firing mode behind us, I flip us both 180 degrees and press the tip of the dagger into her jugular.
"Let her go. Now," the captain demands as she stands between the two masts. Her chest length, strawberry blonde dreadlocks rest on her right shoulder and her white crop top flutters in the wind. She's aiming the loaded rifle at us as we hover in a standoff. Whether it holds lethal ammunition or more tranquilizers, I don't know. There's only one way to find out.
I jab the tip of the blade into the black haired girl's neck a little more and she whimpers. The captain grits her teeth and takes a few steps forward, but I meet her with an equal shuffle backwards closer to the port side.
"I swear to God, I'll kill you," the captain seethes.
My lip curves into a smirk and I scoff. "No, you won't. You're not a good enough shot to hit me without hitting her."
She rolls the rifle in hand, tilting her head to the side. "Maybe killing you is more important than her life." The girl I'm holding goes stiff, but I nod in appreciation. That was a bold move. I didn't take the captain as one to sacrifice the life of her own and I still don't truly believe it. I'm going to call her bluff.
"Maybe," I shrug, "but, realistically I think you value her life. You won't risk killing her."
She places her finger on the trigger, her skin turning white from the pressure. Meanwhile, I stand as calm and still as the eye of a hurricane, patiently waiting to see if the storm will swallow me up whole. At this point, I'm practically begging her to shoot.
As anticipated, she gradually lowers the rifle to a stationary position as her bright, seafoam shaded irises leer at me with anger. The double doors leading to the crew's quarters open and the remaining women less than two dozen in number file out onto the deck. As they emerge, I see something that causes my demeanor to shift instantly.
Three wooden chests identical to the ones unloaded on Freyja sit, chained, locked and stacked against the inner wall. My grip tightens around the handle of the dagger even more and my frenzied glare snaps back to the captain.
"What's in the chests?"
She looks over at the items I'm inquiring about and her lip curves upward slightly. She stays silent as the remainder of the crew looks on, refusing to answer my question. I grind my jaw and drag the very tip of the blade against the girls' neck, drawing a tiny line of blood as she squeaks in pain.
"What's in the fucking chests?" I growl.
"Judging by your reaction, I'd say you already know," she answers. My stomach drops out from underneath me and I slowly shake my head.
They're on the ship…all of them.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone