Forbidden Love at Sea

The storm claws at my ship, but it pales next to the tempest raging within me. A fortune awaits in Havana, where lords, bloated on rum and silk, promised gold enough to drown in. All I must do is deliver my captive alive. I caught it. BloodBeard never fails.

Yet, here I stand, undone. My thoughts and feelings twist in a macabre dance.

Whiskey no longer burns; it tastes like ash on my tongue. Eyes the color of storm-tossed seas haunt me, whether I’m drinking or wide awake. A haunting melody coils through my mind, sweet yet treacherous, robbing me of sleep when the rum should send me tumbling into oblivion. I should be reveling in my prize. Instead, I pace like a hound on a tether.

Bootsteps thud outside my cabin, hurried and agitated. My crew is hungry for coin, sharper than they appear. If they sense the turmoil brewing within, they’d slit me from stem to stern and claim the prize for themselves. I’ve seen them commit worse.

I fling open my cabin door. Rain lashes my face like a thousand knives. The deck bucks beneath me, and for a moment, I stagger, disoriented, before clawing my way to the quarterdeck. 

“Batten down the hatches!” “Heave to!” “Reduce sail!” My roar slices through the gale, a battle cry against the wind. My men scatter, half fearful of the sea, half afraid of me. That fear keeps their eyes away from the fissures in my façade.

The quartermaster stumbles to my side, pale and quaking. “Keep your eyes on the waves, you dog!” I snarl, shoving him aside before he can peer through the cracks in my mask. Beneath the storm’s howling and the flapping canvases, the rattle of chains echoes from below deck. The sound twists in my gut, worse than cannon fire. 

For gold, I’d face the Royal Navy to the last man, the Kraken to the last tentacle, even the devil himself to the final flame. But this prize… this prize burns hotter than all the treasure I’ve ever chased.

“I’ve felt the sting of the lash and the chill of the gallows,” I rasp to the wind. “But nothing chills me like the thought of losing you.”

My bounty. My curse. My beloved.

Not a chest of coins, nor jewels, nor pearls.

A mermaid, and she’s mine. A tale that transcends time itself.