by G. Bailey
“A grand party, full of dancing and celebration is to be had! Enjoy!” Master Pirate says, pulling a blonde woman to his side who grins up at him. We lost a lot of people in the war, thousands from both the king’s army and our own. The changed ones saved a lot of people using their powers, and everyone is looking at them in a different light. The first thing Everly did was to make a law stating that changed ones are free, and any changed one that needs a home has one in her mountains.
“Thank you for everything, but I believe I heard you will be leaving us soon,” Master Light says quietly from my side. I didn’t notice him move next to me, as I was lost in my own thoughts and happiness. My pirates reacted worse than I thought when I told them about the baby. They all got mad about me fighting the king and riding a dragon while pregnant. But once Chaz looked me over and told them that me and the baby were fine, they soon all became as delighted as I am. And then, they became the overprotective pirates that they are today.
“This is not my home, not my baby’s, nor my husbands’,” I say gently, not meaning any offense, but I know where my home is. This the last day in the mountains for me.
“Then safe travels, Cassandra. Know you are always welcome in the mountains as a master. The people will never forget the changed one from Onaya that changed everything,” Master Light says, placing his hand on my shoulder for a second before he walks away into the crowd. I walk through the middle, stopping a few times to speak to some people before moving to leave the room. My pirates are waiting at the door, standing in a line almost, and each one of them looks relaxed, happy.
“Time for us to leave. Have you told her yet?” Hunter asks as I get to him first, and he wraps his arms around me.
“She already knows,” Everly’s voice comes from behind me before I can answer Hunter’s question. I turn to see her standing watching me, with open arms.
“Say goodbye, little bird,” Hunter whispers behind me, and I run to Everly, hugging her tight, even though my large bump gets in the way.
“Go and enjoy your life with your pirates. Just please come back sometime. I want to meet this little one, and I will miss you,” Everly says, placing her hand on my bump. It’s harder than I thought it would be to leave her here, but I know this is her story and not mine. Everly is one of the strongest people I know, and she doesn’t need me. My story was always to get her here, and to set my people free. Now it’s time for me to enjoy what I fought for.
“Nothing could keep me away,” I promise her, and she nods, wiping her tears away.
“Be safe,” she whispers, and I hug her once more, whispering, so only she can hear.
“I am so proud of you, my lovely sister, and the true queen you were always meant to be.” I pull away before she can reply and walk over to my pirates, knowing we are finally free.
Epilogue
Cassandra
“Riah! Get down from there, you could fall!” I shout at my daughter, as she swings like a monkey on the ropes hanging off the sail. She is always climbing something, that girl.
“I will get her,” I hear Jacob say behind me with an amused tone. I smile as he pulls himself up, grabbing our daughter who laughs and jumps on his back. He climbs back down, putting the naughty little five-year-old on the deck. She grins up at me, her dark-blue eyes proclaiming innocence like I didn’t just find her climbing again. She looks so much like me in some ways, with her brown hair in braids, and her changed one mark on her forehead. Riah's is a crown, and I was shocked when she was born with it.
“Dinner is ready, and you know your dads will be mad if you are late to dinner again,” I tell her, and she huffs, rolling her little eyes at me. I try not to laugh as she picks up her little pirate hat, putting it on, and stomping off.
“Stubborn, brave, and fearless. Who does our daughter remind me of?” Jacob asks, and I laugh, shrugging.
“No idea,” I say, wrapping my arms around him. I watch the water sway in the distance, the calm peacefulness of the sea, and the sight of Vivo flying around Onaya which we have just left.
“This is everything I could have ever dreamed of,” I say quietly, and Jacob kisses my forehead as my bond flares to life with happiness and joy.
“Everything was worth the fight, for the life we now have.”
Thank you so much for reading Save the Sea! I hope you enjoyed the last book in the Saved by Pirates series! Please keep reading for a excerpt from Heir. Which is the mermaid spin off and Everly is the main character.
A big thank you to Meagan, Michelle, Taylor, Olivia, Amanda, my Arc Team and everyone that has made this book possible.
If you have a little time, a review would mean the world to me.
Heir Spin off
Chapter one of the Saved by Pirates spin off-
Heir (Mermaid’s and God’s series)
“Queen–” Tyrion starts to say as he bows at me in the hall. I trail my eyes over his built body in his new red shirt, the tight black trousers, and his messy brown hair. It’s curly, with little curls falling into his brown eyes when he looks up at me. He is so handsome, and I know I’m not the only one that notices. It just seems like I’m the only one he doesn’t care about noticing in return.
“You don’t have to call me that Ty, it’s Everly,” I smile at him, but he keeps his expression cold and emotionless. He's been like this from the moment I told him about the promise I made to the mermaid king. The price I paid months ago to save my friend and to save Calais. To marry him, a complete stranger. Yet, he doesn’t care about that, apparently. My best friend won’t even look me in the eye.
“Queen Everleigh, the council has called you to the throne room,” he says, and then turns to walk away. I start to follow him, but I don’t because he walks away too fast, and I can’t run to catch up. I have a stupid damn limp in my leg because a sword did too much damage in the war. I look back at two of my personal guards, both of them silent as always, but they are watching. I swallow my annoyance at Tyrion and walk down the corridor and towards the stairs, limping the whole way. I try to hide it now, but it doesn’t make it easy. Everyone here knows about it, anyway. I finally get to the second to top layer of the mountain, where my rooms, the throne room, and the council room are located. The council does have another room above us, but only changed ones can enter that. Changed ones are people born with a mark on their forehead, marking them as kissed by the sea god and special. The war was because of them, because the old king used to hunt their kind and kill anyone that protected them. Like he tried to do to me for protecting my best friend, Cassandra. I smile as I think of my best friend, knowing she must have had her baby by now, and I can’t wait to get a letter to find out if it’s a boy or a girl.
“Queen Everleigh,” three guards at the door say as I walk into the throne room, and I hear them close the door behind me and my guards. I look over at the two council members in the room, Master Pirate and Master Light. Both of them I have come to trust. I stop when I see the woman standing just behind them. Her bright-blue hair is down, and she actually has clothes on this time, when usually she never wears them. Mermaids don’t from what I’ve seen.
“Kiaw?” I ask, walking over and offering her my hand to shake. She does, and I feel how warm she is, almost burning.
“The king has sent me to collect you. It is time, Queen Everleigh,” she says, and I smile tightly. I walk around them all and go to my throne, sitting down and folding my hands in my lap.
“You can return to your king, and give him a message instead,” I say, and her eyes widen in shock.
“You promised. You must not break your word,” she hisses.
“I am not,” I say simply, and it seems to calm her down a little. “You can tell your king that if he wants his bride, then he must come to collect her himself,” I say, and she shakes her head.
“The king does not leave his city. That is an impossible demand,” she says, her eyes wide and frightened. I want to feel sorry for her, but this is what I’ve planned. I will not leav
e my people so soon after the war.
“Then it will be impossible for him to collect on my promise. Now leave and safe travels,” I say, nodding my head at my two guards, who escort Kiaw out. When the door shuts, I wait for the council members to say anything.
“I do not believe that was wise, your highness,” Master Pirate says, his words sarcastic and annoying.
“That was my choice. I do not want to marry a stranger. A king of the mermaids who killed his family for his throne. If I marry him, he will be king of all of Calais.”
“Yes, but you will be queen,” Master Light says and walks up to me, taking my hand in his. “To be queen, you must sacrifice your ideals and your personal wants. The king will come here for you, to collect on your promise. You must return to his world, and come back as the queen of both land and sea.”
“Is the queen of land not enough?” I ask, and he nods, turning my hand over. His finger traces a line in the middle of palm.
“They say our life stories can be told in our hands, in the lines we have. They say the god of souls looks at your hand before he decides whether to take your soul or not.”
“Who is the god of souls?” I ask, only ever having heard of the Sea God.
“Someone you could do to learn about, Queen Everleigh,” he chuckles and lets go of my hand. I watch as he walks out of the room with Master Pirate, before I stand up and look towards the two guards left with me.
“I’m ready to go to my rooms,” I say, but neither of them move, they keep their heads down, looking at the floor. I slowly walk over to the one on the left. My heart pounds in my chest when I see the blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth. I touch his shoulder, and he falls to the floor with a smash. I back away, turning and rushing towards the door, just as I feel a pain rip through my chest. I look down, seeing the black arrow sticking out of my chest where my heart is, and blood dripping down my red dress. I fall to the floor, gasping for air, but only tasting blood in my mouth as my vision goes blurry.
“Death to the throne, and death to the queen,” a man’s voice says, as a blurry figure steps over me, and everything fades away before I can see his face.
-
Everleigh
I sit up, gasping for air and tasting nothing but water in my mouth, feeling nothing other than the darkness around me, and too scared to open my eyes to know what death is. Irun my hands over myself, but not feeling anything other than my chest. No hole where the arrow was. I’m dead, so how can I be thinking anything?
“I saved you, ainma mate,” a dark, seductive voice says, and I finally open my eyes. I look around at the black pirate ship I’m on, and it rests in a dark water. There are no stars and no moon, nothing to let me know where we are. The ship is falling to pieces, with blue fire lights hanging around and making it possible to see where I am. It’s also wet, soaking wet everywhere, and almost looks like it might sink into the sea. I finally look in front of me, at the man who spoke. He is tall, with black hair under his black hat, and odd clothes. They are loose rags almost, and they make it possible to see bits of his toned chest and muscular arms. He holds a hand out, which I look at but don’t take. I scoot away as I look up to his golden eyes that seem to glow.
“Who are you?” I ask.
“The god of souls, who else? Welcome to my ship,” he says, laughing as he walks away.
Coming soon…
Excerpt from Runes of Truth by G. Bailey-
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I ask, trying not to yawn from boredom as I hold my sword at my side, resting on it while I stare at the protector. He isn’t the typical type that comes after me, that’s for sure. Usually Protectors are all posh assholes in shiny suits, but this guy looks like a fake leather store threw up on him.
“You must die, and I will be the one that finally–” He gets interrupted in his boring, predictable speech when my phone starts ringing. I sigh in relief, not wanting to hear that same old speech again. I pull out my phone and see Hali’s name flashing. I answer it and place it on loudspeaker, resting it on the dumpster near me.
“Yeah?” I answer, looking back at the protector as he runs for me, his sword raised.
“Evie, when are you coming home? I’m starving, and you promised me Chinese tonight. The good stuff from Chingwa, not from the crappy one you like,” she says as I hit my sword against the protector’s, and swipe my leg under his, knocking him over. I kick his sword away from him, wondering why they even bothered sending this man after me. He is a worthless fighter.
“Yep, I won’t be long, and I’ll get that damn Chinese for you. Anything else?” I ask as the protector grabs my leg, calling on his fire rune and trying to burn me. I laugh, leaning down, and grabbing his hand off my leg. I jump on him, placing my sword under his neck.
“Evie . . . what are you doing right now?” Hali asks, suspiciously.
“Err, nothing,” I reply, kneeing the protector between his legs as he tries to knock me off him. He whines, before coughing out in pain.
“I don’t believe that, but I want my Chinese, so I’m going to stay quiet. Later,” Hali laughs, and then the sound of beeping lets me know she put the phone down. Good, no fifteen-year-old should have to hear this.
“I could let you go, but only if you will tell me who sent you?” I ask, already knowing his answer before he says it. They always say the same thing.
“Never. I would never betray my people. Protectors never betray their blood, we always protect,” he spits out.
“I’m your people, you idiot,” I try to reason with him, giving him one more chance.
“You are not,” he spits out.
“I’m a protector. I don’t want to do this, but you won’t give up, will you?” I sigh deeply before lifting my sword and shoving it through his heart before he can reply. His mouth widens in shock, and I pull my sword out, standing up.
“Death will find you, and we will never stop hunting you,” he breathes out, just before his soul light leaves his body, floating up into the sky. I remember the first time I had to kill a protector, and I saw the light of his soul leave his body. It scared me, but then I saw it as what it is, beautiful. That even an evil protector, has light in his soul. That no matter how many of my own people I have to kill to survive, there might just be a little bit of light left in my own soul. At least, I can hope there is.
“If only things could be different,” I say, disappointed in yet another one of my kind. I pull out my pen from my pocket and my little notebook I carry everywhere now, ripping out a page. I quickly write the same thing I do every time I have to kill one of them that come after me. I write my rune name, the very thing that causes them to hunt me. The very thing that many people now fear, and yet I have no idea what it says. I leave the note on his stomach and pick my phone up before walking out the alleyway, down the empty street.
“Crappy Chinese, here I come,” I mutter, wishing Hali didn’t love that place. They don’t do the bacon fried rice that I love, or anything with bacon on. The place sucks. I keep my eyes down as I walk down the empty streets of the small Scottish town where I live. The people here don’t come out after dark, too scared of the possible demons around. Little do they know that demons wouldn’t be interested in a small town like this. It’s why I chose to live here. The flashing lights of the Chinese place come into view, and I walk across the road, pulling the door open and hearing the ringing of the little bell. The middle-aged Chinese woman looks up, rolls her eyes at me, and looks back down.
“Hello to you, too,” I mutter, but the woman doesn’t reply to me. I grab a Chinese menu off the side, looking through it before looking back at the woman.
“I’m ready to order,” I say, getting her attention.
“Your child called and placed your order already, Evie.”
“She isn’t my child, but more like a pain in my ass. I’ll just wait then,” I grumble, putting the menu back in its place.
“A young girl like you shouldn’t be out on the streets at
night,” the woman says, stopping me from walking away.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m not afraid of demons,”
“No, your kind is never afraid of what they hunt,” she chuckles. The bell rings behind her, and she walks over to get my bag of food before I can reply to her. Not many beings can sense what I am, and I’m quite surprised a human has. She hands the bag over the counter to me.
“How did you know?” I ask.
“My family have always been able to sense things. You should be careful at night, Miss Evie. Demons are not what you should fear.” With those cryptic words, she walks away, leaving me standing in the shop alone and wondering if she is mad, or possibly telling me the truth.
Link to Runes of Truth here.
Links
Here are all my links (I love to be stalked so if you have some free time...)-
