Gooood morning!
Top of the mornin, top of the mornin, top of the mornin lol
Enjoy, lovelies!
xoxo

Also I left a comment in one of the previous chapters, but after this one y'all are getting two chapters of smut
My equivalent of "here, damn!" lol
But all jokes aside, it's going to be good ;)

Also also I updated the playlist again, and added the song up above. If you'll believe it, this very song was what made me start writing this book lol. I've had this very chapter playing over and over again in my head for months, so give it a listen if you'd like :)
It doesn't really pertain to the story, but the paralleled vibes are immaculate, I promise

Caspian

I wasn't sure what had come over me.

Maybe it was the surge in adrenaline... the high left from the power something had lent me through this fight, as it started to finally leave my veins.

Or perhaps it was that feeling that engulfed my body as soon as I had cut those chains.

The feeling of relief.

Regardless, somehow, my lips had found Alistair's... and as I started to pull away, realizing the insanity of what I had just done, I felt a hand grab hold of the waistband of my soaked and drenched in blood trousers, before it yanked me towards him.

When my lips touched his again, this kiss was far from gentle. Far from what my intentions had been.

Alistair had shoved both our bodies back until I felt the familiar wall I was just leaning against, flush against my backside once more. His one hand remained on my waistband, whilst the other reached for my chin, tilting my head upwards to allow him more access to me.

And I all too happily obliged.

The first moan to escape my lips was his doing. I had tried to be gentle, feeling the open wound on his bottom lip, but Alistair wasn't having any of that. He took my bottom lip in his own, and grazed his teeth along the surface of it, asking for entrance. And when his tongue slipped past those very lips, I felt whatever fight I had left in me, simply slip away.

My arms wrapped themselves around Alistair's neck in a desperate attempt to pull him even closer. To feel more of him that in this moment, he had given me access to.

And when his leg slid between mine, brushing up against something that was quickly growing hard by his touch, and his touch alone, yet another moan slipped past my lips.

I could practically feel Alistair's intentions. In this moment, he and I seemed to forget where we were, and what it was we were doing shortly before all of this. In this moment, all I could think about was him. All I felt was him...

And then my body forcibly reminded me the cost I would need to pay for the power I just borrowed.

I had tried to do so lightly, but it was more of a shove as I pushed Alistair away from me. I didn't need to look into that eye to know it held confusion, but that quickly shifted to worry as my body bent over immediately to force up the remnants of that power. It came in only what I could describe as black goop, spilling past my lips and onto the floorboards below.

Alistair's hands immediately moved to my hair, as he held the white strands that had come loose from my hair tie, back.

I was grateful, for my own hands busied themselves by wrapping around and holding onto my waist. This felt like poison coming up, burning the back of my throat as it went. I didn't remember this part of using that power, yet then again, my memory had been lost the night Azultia burned.

And Lemont refused to put together those pieces for me.

All I knew was that we had made it out. That was all that mattered, according to my advisor.

"What is that?" Alistair asked. He removed a hand from my hair, to help me straighten my body up once I was done.

"I wish I knew myself." I spoke honestly. When my eyes found his again, it faced more concern than I thought possible for Alistair to ever hold. Somehow we had started with I helping him off this ship, but as an arm of his slid under my shoulder, he began to help me the rest of the way out.

I could feel it now. The exhaustion of the fight taking over. I wasn't sure who it was that would kill Gaelick, but I knew I couldn't call upon these weapons again. My body was beyond the realms of spent.

Even the stairs leading up to the main deck felt like work. Alistair and I had to step over the countless bodies I had ripped in half, for I couldn't have let a single pirate make it below deck. I didn't allow a single one to alert their captain, for Cael was right. This opportunity was small and quickly fleeting as soon as my soaked boots touched these floorboards.

"You did all this?" Alistair asked, turning slightly to me as he helped me up these blood stained steps. I found myself nodding, unable to say anything as more of my brutality quickly came into view.

And Alistair soon saw that too.

The sea of dead bodies scattered across the main deck.

The only man still living was Gaelick, and the look on his face showed us that that realization was just now crossing him too.

He stood in the midst of this horror that not even the night could conceal, his mouth agape as he stared down at the cut down bodies of his men. I felt Alistair's hand slowly slip from under my shoulder when he was sure enough that I had found my footing. The look on his face however... well it made my heart practically cease to exist.

"You did well." He spoke with a smile on his lips. There was no amount of blood on me that could cover how flushed my face had gotten.

Seeing my own capabilities... seeing my own destruction... it made even I fear me.

But Alistair didn't. He didn't fear me. Or this.

Instead, he raised his right hand to push a few fallen strands of hair away from my face, before he said a sentence that made me feel like I had been whacked in the head by a piece of plywood.

"I suppose it's time I, myself, finally get serious."

My gaze held his in pure bewilderment and shock.

What exactly had he been doing the last two fucking days?

"Stay here." He ordered, but he didn't add his usual nonchalant flair to this order. He was serious. He had in fact kept to his word, and gotten serious. If only I knew just how serious...

And all I could do was watch as Alistair neared the middle of the main deck. The only clearing available, considering the hundreds of now dead bodies that were piled around us. Had I registered how much of a mess I had made, I would've tried to pile them like his men did after a battle. At the time, all I could think about was this mad pirate, and his crew who needed him.

I moved around the top of the stairs to lean against the partial wall on its right. It helped me hold my body up, for whatever Alistair was about to do, I surely wasn't going to be able to help with. I still didn't understand how he was able to carry himself now, when I just saw him pop his left shoulder back into its socket moments ago.

This man was... well, I wasn't sure a word existed to describe him.

"Gaelick!" His words carried through this cool night's breeze like it owned it. I felt my entire body shudder at his use of tone. That simple name coming from his lips commanded this captain's attention immediately. "You seem to have found me in a giving mood." This next sentence came in a whisper, but the winds that had started to grow around us, carried it across every deck this ship held. "So allow me to teach you two lessons."

Alistair then did something I had never seen him do before.

First, he took a knee.

And the second that left knee connected with the floorboards of this ship, a sudden gust of wind flew out across us, shaking these very floorboards, and forcing both myself and Gaelick's body back. My left hand was forced to reach over and grab hold of the stair's wooden banister to keep me upright, but Gaelick wasn't so luckily.

He was tossed back onto a pile of his dead men.

"The first being," Alistair continued in that carried whisper, as he moved to do yet another thing I had never seen him do before. His left hand reached up to his face, pushing the leather black patch that covered his left eye, upwards. "I'm going to show you what it truly means to harbor the responsibility as a captain... A decent one, anyways."

He was still a distance too far to make out every feature, especially through this wind that created almost a dust cloud around him. It had started to circle him like a tycoon, but even through the chaos, I didn't miss the burning of it.

The fire of his left eye that glowed crimson red. The color of both his sails, and of blood itself.

"And lastly, Gaelick of Azul," he added, staring this now terrified man down. "I'm going to show you what it means to go down with both your crew, and your ship. If you don't want to die honorably, I'll thrust honor upon you myself."

The hairs on my entire body stood to attention. Whatever man I had grown to know over the moons we spent together- this one... this was who I felt in his proximity. This was who my body felt when I was near him, though my eyes couldn't see it. This wasn't just Alistair and Ol' Bess.

This was The Pirate King, who sailed a ship known as The Destroyer.

And when both his hands laid themselves flat against these floorboards, the sudden gust of wind released threw me straight onto my back. I had to force myself up against this weather to catch what Alistair was to do next, and yet his final words spoken weren't to Gaelick, who by now had been thrust backwards onto his dead men yet again. No...

These words were to this ship. And they were spoken with such gentleness, I thought I may have heard him wrong.

"I release you." He whispered.

When he said those words, I thought I could feel my own heartbeat. But I was mistaken. What I felt now was the ships.

Whatever Alistair had done, had brought this ship to life. Or rather, revealed its heart to the living.

Gaelick by now was still struggling to stand, and another gust of wind, one particularly directed towards him, knocked him down once again.

Alistair had indeed gotten serious.

I could feel each floorboard shifting from underneath me as I myself tried to stand, but the sound of footsteps quickly cut through the chaos of the wind. My eyes slowly rose to meet the man at the center of it all. His deep blue and red eyes staring down at me through the wind that followed him, before he extended his right hand.

"It's time to go, love." He whispered to me. Everything about him, about this, it all rendered me utterly speechless... and yet I found myself raising my right hand until it fit perfectly in his. He pulled me to my feet with such ease, keeping my hand still in his before turning to guide us towards the edge of this ship.

I could see his crew now lined up against the side of Ol' Bess. Even from here, I bore witness to every single pirate that had a smile so wide, it spanned the length of their face. He didn't even have to ask, for a rope was thrown from his ship to this one immediately.

Alistair then finally let go of my hand, but that very hand grabbed hold of my waistband and yanked me towards him. My arms found their way around his shoulders instinctively as his left hand grabbed the rope with ease.

I could already feel it right below my very feet.

Alistair was right. It was time to go. This ship was starting to dismantle itself floorboard by floorboard, nail by nail. The breaking of wood was loud, but the strong wind drowned it out some.

We heard one final desperate cry from Gaelick as it pierced through these strong winds, but Alistair just looked past me to the desperate captain.

"I believe your time has come." He spoke, those words carrying back through the winds with ease. "I suggest you do as those who were once your men did. Die with honor. For all those who touch these waters know of when the winds shift west and the sun soon sets. You should've taken heed to avoid these blood red sails."

And I suppose those were the last words Alistair was willing to give to the man, for he wrapped his arm tight around my waist, pulling us up onto the ledge of this ship, and jumped.

I found myself starting to close my eyes with fear, but the secure hold Alistair had on me kept them open. And the gaze of Alistair's unique eyes never leaving mine, kept mine there. At him. He had a slight smile of his face now as he studied mine. I realized that this was the first that eye had gazed upon me, and I wondered what he saw.

Especially when his smile slowly widened...

The impact of touching the floorboards of Alistair's ship was what finally broke whatever trance he had put me in, and if it wasn't for Alistair's sturdy build, we would've more than likely stumbled to the ground. Instead, I felt my back hit one of his wooden beams, which he managed to soften the blow of by holding me now flush against his body, and using his left arm to absorb most of the impact.

I could feel every bit of him now as that red eye of his burned even brighter. Stronger.

The sound of Cael clearing his throat was what reminded the both of us where exactly we were, but Alistair didn't pull his gaze from mine just yet.

"Go run a bath." He spoke to me and only me, his words making my heart beat all the harder as he laced it with undertones of what was to come. "I'll join you shortly."

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