So I Married a Sorcerer (The Embraced #2)(11)

Ye made the right choice, she assured herself. Her sisters would be safe. Surely the pirates would not harm her. She was a princess, after all.

But no matter how much she reassured herself, her heart still pounded with fear. And with a small but steadily growing spark of anger. For even though she’d chosen to leave her sisters, what choice had she really had? The pirate Rupert had orchestrated these events so she would be forced to submit to this fate. How dare he!

And what had happened to the fate of the Telling Stones? Was it still going to come to pass? Would she still go to Tourin and meet the tall and handsome stranger?

A sudden movement caught her eye and she blinked, not wanting to believe what she’d seen. But the splash in the water was undeniable. The dog, Brody, had jumped overboard!

Sister Fallyn settled on the bench beside her and whispered a prayer to the goddesses, Luna and Lessa.

“Wait,” Brigitta told the crewmen as they untied the ropes and pushed off. Desperately, she scanned the surface of the water, but she couldn’t see Brody anywhere. The sea was calm, eerily still like a sheet of glass, and she wondered if the pirate Rupert was causing it.

“What is it, my lady?” a crewman asked as they slowly floated away from the Eberoni ship.

“Never mind.” She continued to search the water as the two crewmen rowed toward the pirate flagship. Where was Brody? Hadn’t she seen him jump into the sea? It had happened so fast, perhaps she had imagined it.

She glanced at the Eberoni ship and her sisters. They were waving and giving her encouraging smiles, but she could see the pain in their faces and sense the fear in their hearts. Goddesses help her, she was feeling it, too.

Would she ever see them again? What would happen to her and Sister Fallyn? As a tear rolled down her cheek, she angrily brushed it away.

How dare the horrid pirate Rupert separate her from her sisters and force a fate on her she didn’t want! Just so he could increase his coffers of gold? The man was worse than a sorcerer. He was a criminal, driven by greed.

He would regret kidnapping her, she’d make sure of that. For he would soon discover that she was not a willing captive.





Chapter Three

So two women were coming. They hadn’t dared send the princess alone. From his position high in the crow’s nest, Rupert watched the two women through his spyglass. The older blonde was making the sign of the moons while she prayed. She was probably a nun.

The younger one was scanning the water as if she was searching for something. Had she taken the vows of a nun, too? If she had, she wouldn’t be allowed to keep them for long. Most probably, Gunther was planning to marry her off in order to gain a powerful ally. Whatever Gunther’s reason was for suddenly wanting his sister back, one thing was clear: The bastard would use her to his advantage.

You could protect her. Rupert pushed aside that thought. He wasn’t absconding with the girl to help her. His purpose, the sole purpose for everything he did, was revenge.

Using the power of wind, he eased his ship closer to the Eberoni vessel, so the dinghy would not have far to travel. As the rowboat came along the starboard side, his crewmen tossed over two long ropes so the rowers could tie the dinghy off at bow and stern.

While his crewmen lowered a rope ladder, Stefan leaned over the railing and greeted the women in the Eberoni language. “Welcome aboard the Golden Star. I am Captain Landers.”

A lie, but then most pirates avoided using their real names. Rupert included. He tucked his spyglass under his belt and waited for Brigitta to come into view.

And waited.

The longer he waited, the more tense he became. For one emotion after another was bombarding his senses. Nervousness? No, stronger than that. Dread. Part of him dreaded seeing her again. After all, the first time they’d met had proven to be the worst day of his life, a day that had condemned him to nineteen years of grief, heartache, rage, and an endless supply of nightmares.

At the same time, he was also eager, eager for the revenge that was now one step closer. His failure to kill Garold still rubbed at him. A Norveshki dragon had beaten him to the task. He’d also failed to kill Garold’s legitimate heir, for the bastard, Gunther, had conveniently done away with his younger half brother. But Gunther was still left, and Rupert was determined to kill him. The House of Grian would be utterly and completely destroyed for all time.

The fact that Brigitta was also a member of the House of Grian was … unfortunate. It made another part of him, a tiny part, feel guilty. For he fully realized he was using her as a pawn. Just like Gunther would do. Dammit. How could he sink as low as that bastard?

Frustration buzzed around him like an annoying insect, but he swatted it away. He’d come too far, suffered too much to back off now.

As he chased away the guilt and frustration, another emotion bubbled up to fill the vacuum. Curiosity. What would she be like? If she’d been raised in a convent, would she be nothing like the wretched men in her family? What if she was totally innocent, as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside?

His heart thumped, quickening its pace and pissing him off. What the hell did it matter if she was beautiful? She was the enemy, spawn of the rat Garold who had stolen the throne of Tourin through deception and murder. She would be his prisoner, dammit, and her brother would have to pay handsomely if he wanted her back.

Where the hell was she? Were the women refusing to board? Shit. By now the Tourinian naval ships might be trying to tack their way back.