Sea Cursed: An Adult Dystopian Paranormal Romance: Sector 13 (The Othala Witch Collection)

by Amy Lee Burgess

  “Sand welcomes the waves to shore.” I collapsed onto the starry-sheeted bed, trembling and filled with a wild sense of purpose coupled with excitement.

  Logan stood at the bottom of the bed, the fairy lights ablaze behind him. I braced myself to see him take off his pants, but he didn’t. He crawled onto the bed and up to me. He stretched out on the mattress, his head on one of the pillows.

  I sat with my back braced against the railing, clutching a pillow to my chest.

  “Lie down with me.” He held out his arms.

  Biting my lip, I let go of the pillow and slid down so I rested with my head on Logan’s shoulder. His arms came around me, creating a more intimate and calming circle than the one we’d drawn with chalk.

  “Look up.” He pointed at the sky, which at some time during the drawing of the circle had darkened to black. Stars pricked the velvet expanse of night, and a full moon beamed down upon us.

  With the waves lapping around us and the stars revolving above us, space seemed vast. The combination of sea and sky pulled me out of myself somehow. When I stared up at the darkness interspersed with stars, I was no longer precisely bound to my body. I could go anywhere. Be anywhere and yet never move at all.

  “Logan,” I said, my chest loosening from the vise-like tightness that had gripped it since we’d cast off from the dock at Galveteen. “It’s limitless. I thought being on a boat would make me claustrophobic, but out here looking up, it’s like we have the sky for our ceiling and the sea for our floor, and there are no walls boxing us in.”

  He brushed a kiss across the top of my head. “I was hoping you’d see it like I do if we drew the circle out here and not down below. I know you don’t like boats, but we aren’t confined to this deck. We can swim and dive, and the ocean is so deep, it’ll be like being suspended in a world of water.”

  My breath hitched. “I don’t swim well. I’ve never dived.”

  “I’ll teach you. Do you trust me?”

  “A sea witch with water? Of course,” I said, although a spasm of fear still wormed down my spine at the thought of all that water around me. And sea creatures.

  “I trust you too, earth witch.” Logan buried his face in my hair, and for a moment I couldn’t catch my breath.

  An eerie keening wail floated across the waves ending in a crescendo of high-pitched squeaks and low, vibrating gurgles. I froze in abject terror. What was out there in the black ocean? What strange monster made that noise? Ravagers?

  “Logan!” I tried to escape from the bed, to run below and hide, but Logan grabbed me. I fought him as that unnerving, ghostly noise surrounded us again. I couldn’t tell from which direction it came. It seemed like it emanated from everywhere and from nowhere at all. The wailing exhalations raised all the hair on the back of my neck.

  “It’s whale song!” Logan held me, my back crushed against his chest. He put his face close to my ear, close enough his beard stubble scraped my cheek. “It’s a whale. Listen. Don’t be afraid. Just open yourself up and listen.”

  Trembling, I closed my eyes, blotting out the stars and sea and the twinkling fairy lights. Logan’s chest rose and fell against my back, and his breath was warm against my ear.

  The uncanny supernatural song filled the air again, but now that I knew it was a whale, not a monster, I heard the beauty. The weird wonder of it. The hair still stood up on the back of my neck, but now it was awe charging it, not fear.

  “Is he singing to his mate?” I asked, pleased at the thought of such a thing.

  “Maybe,” Logan said. “Although there’s also a theory that he’s singing to explore his space. His song bounces off the sea floor and anything nearby. It gives him an idea of what’s around him. Maybe he’s as new to this area as we are. This is his new home for a while, just as it’s ours.”

  I lifted my gaze to the stars gleaming in the pitch-black sky. The pockmarked face of the moon glowed silver, mysterious in a way that tugged at something inside me. Was this home? Could be this be home? Were whales and stars our new companions?

  Logan stared up, too. He slid one hand down to my breast and slowly circled one finger around my nipple. No man had ever touched me there, nor had I ever experienced the exquisite sensation of tightening just below my belly to between my legs.

  I focused on the stars. They winked and whirled as my eyelids fluttered. The whale continued to sing, making me quake inside, yearning to find something I didn’t know I’d ever wanted.

  Logan moved so he could unbutton my bodice to reveal my bra beneath. I was glad Regina had given me such pretty underthings, and for the first time when I thought of her, I could smile, even as grief squeezed my throat for a moment.

  The whale song ended, drifting off into silence.

  Logan lowered his head over my breasts. He fondled one and took the nipple of the other gently between his teeth. The fabric of my bra chafed my skin. I wanted it gone, but I didn’t want him to stop what he was doing.

  The gorgeous relief that flooded through me when he popped the front latch of my bra made me gasp. He lifted his gaze to mine and gave me a wicked smile that hinted at so many unknown – at least to me – pleasures. He licked a long, deliberate circle around my nipple as I shivered in anticipation. When he sucked my nipple into his mouth, I let out a low groan wanting something I couldn’t articulate.

  Slowly, he slid the hem of my dress up over my hips, exposing me. A cooling sea breeze floated over my heated skin. When I had started to perspire?

  Logan moved one hand between my legs, which shocked me, especially when my back arched, driving me into his hand. My body knew something my mind didn’t quite grasp.

  He rubbed between my legs, his thumb finding a sweet spot that made me cry out. Hooking one finger beneath the waistband of my panties, he slowly drew them down, never moving his thumb or letting up on the thrilling pressure against that one spot. He slid one finger gently inside me, and I bucked beneath his hand, a kaleidoscope of colors bursting behind my eyes as something electrifyingly huge built inside me.

  I almost screamed when he lowered his head between my thighs and closed his mouth over my slit. No one had ever prepared me for this weightless feeling of freefall combined with an aching want for something just out of reach.

  I grabbed fistfuls of the sheets, digging my heels into the mattress as I arched into his mouth. He licked me at first, making me gasp, but when he sucked, and kept sucking as he pressed his thumb hard into that sweet spot, I cried out, and I couldn’t stop keening as something burst inside me, like a river crashing through a dam, and all the water poured through my body, drowning me in endless, exhilarating pleasure.

  When he sat up, his mouth and cheeks smeared with wetness, his eyes alive and blazing, I was once again filled with an aching, inexplicable need.

  “Logan!” I complained.

  “Take off your clothes.” He moved to sit on the edge of the bed so he could peel off his pants and drop them to the floor, careful to keep them within the circle.

  I struggled with my dress, yanking it over my head, desperate to be free of it. Laughing, Logan pulled it up and off. I shrugged my bra straps off my shoulders while he peeled my panties over my knees and down to my ankles. I almost kicked him in the face trying to help him get them over my feet, and he laughed again. I didn’t want to laugh – I was terrified that desperate ache would fade away, and I’d never feel that arousing, sensational release again. I wanted Logan to crawl between my legs again and lick me until I screamed.

  Instead, once we were both naked, he took a moment to run his gaze over my nude body. Far from wanting to cover myself, I deliberately spread my legs, making him suck in his breath.

  “Do you have any idea how fucking gorgeous you are?” He straddled my body, pressing his enormous erection against my belly. I’d never seen a man’s cock, and I couldn’t see Logan’s now, but I could feel it. Fear ignited in the pit of my stomach, almost as potent as the lust swirling through me. He was so big. How badly would he h
urt me when he was inside me?

  My expression must have betrayed me because Logan’s sensual smile faded as concern filled his eyes.

  “Dem, it’s okay. We can stop.” His gentle tone nearly made me burst into tears.

  I shook my head. “No, we can’t. The spell. We only have three days.”

  “So we start tomorrow.” He brushed some hair out of my eyes. “Or the day after. Whenever you’re ready.”

  I took a strangled breath. “We are drifting closer to the mainland every day. We’re already behind schedule because of me, aren’t we? Don’t lie.”

  He nodded grimly. “But we still have time. I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

  “But I want to,” I said, and boldly reached out to stroke his hair, which was getting almost too long to be called a buzz cut any longer. His hair was both soft and spiky beneath my fingers.

  Logan turned his head to kiss my wrist, making my pulse leap beneath his lips. He stared at me, his blue eyes huge and unblinking.

  “Dem, I know I’m not the one you would have chosen for your first time, but please understand what this means to me – that I can be here with you. Make love to you. I’m sorry you thought that kiss meant nothing. It didn’t. It meant so much it actually confused me,” he confessed, his lashes sweeping his cheeks when he lowered his head.

  I continued to stroke his hair, wishing he’d look up at me. His words meant everything. I wanted him to know I believed him, but to do that I’d have to expose myself. He’d left himself open just now, but he was so courageous. He’d stood up to the Lord Regent, and always knew what he wanted and what to do. I was an awkward, indecisive mess compared to him. But still, I had to speak. I owed him that much. I owed myself that, too.

  “Logan. I’m scared, but I want to.” I gulped and took a big breath. “And not just because of the spell. Because of you.”

  “Really?” His face lit.

  “That kiss confused me too,” I whispered. “I think the best thing about being marked by Othala is that I got to meet you.” Tears choked me, and I squeezed my eyes shut to keep them from pouring down my face. “But then I wonder if you’d even have looked at me if you didn’t have to.”

  “Oh, earth witch.” Logan dragged me up so he could crush me into a hard embrace. I clung to him, the scent of cinnamon and the sea filling my senses. “Don’t you know what you do to me? How can you not know?”

  “I just don’t,” I said, then he was kissing me again, his lips punishing and almost cruel. He fisted his hands in my long hair and yanked so my head went back, baring my throat. He moved his mouth along my jaw, down to my neck. I moved my hand so my fingers spread possessively across the side of his neck as my thumb gently brushed his jaw.

  He half-bent me over one arm, and ran his other hand up my thigh until he cupped my ass. The press of his cock against my lower belly no longer frightened me. It excited me, made me wild. I wanted him so much it ached.

  He lowered me to the bed, and once again straddled me. I arched into him as he claimed my mouth with his once again.

  “Logan,” I murmured, cradling his face between my palms as he kissed me.

  I gasped when he slid one hand between my thighs and stroked me until I was frantic with need.

  “Dem!” He groaned as he thrust into me – one swift thrust that buried him deep within me. A moment of pressure and resistance, then a fleeting burst of pain that was gone almost before I registered it.

  “Dem?” He breathed into my ear.

  “Don’t stop.” I groaned, not knowing exactly what to do, only that whatever he was doing must continue. I clutched at his shoulders, digging my nails into his bare skin as he thrust into me again and again – gently at first, but harder and harder as he strained against me.

  I wrapped my legs around his waist wanting to open myself up to him as fully as I could.

  We went faster then, the mattress creaking beneath us. I held onto Logan, convinced if I didn’t, we’d both fall off the bed and break the circle.

  He kissed me until I couldn’t breathe. I took his bottom lip between my teeth and pulled, wringing a moan from between his clenched teeth. I kissed his chin and his throat, nipping at his flesh as we rocked together.

  He reached again between my legs and found that sweet spot, pressing on it with his thumb even as he plunged into me with his cock.

  This time the dam didn’t just burst – it shattered – taking me along with it. I cried out in ecstasy, drowning in magnificent waves of pleasure that went on and on reducing me to a shivering, mindless creature of passion. I was drenched in a sensual rain of satisfaction.

  Logan stiffened against me, then shuddered as he came. He buried his sweaty face in my neck, and I held him not ever wanting to move or let go.

  The talisman he wore turned icy cold on my skin, but the freezing shock only boosted my pleasure and my unwillingness to let him go.

  “Dem,” he said hoarsely, his voice muffled against my throat. “Oh, Dem.”

  “I know,” I whispered, stroking his hair.

  Far out to sea, the whale began his supernatural song once again, a haunting, heart-wrenching melody that the squeezed my throat tight. Yes, I thought. We’re home. We’re all home. What we’ve done here tonight can never be undone. No matter what happens, where we end up, this moment is forever.

  Chapter 16

  Sunshine streaming the through porthole woke me the next morning. I stretched out in the bed, at first confused by the unaccountable tenderness between my legs. Then the sex magic ritual flooded back to me, and I remembered everything with such clarity, that despite the soreness, I wanted to feel Logan inside me again.

  He slept beside me, curled on his side, his back to me. The mark of Othala shone silver against the tanned skin of his hand above the covers. I looked at my own mark. I’d been in the habit of avoiding looking at it because it reminded me of everything I’d lost. Now when I stared at it, all I saw was Logan and the ability to save everyone I loved.

  Hunger pangs gnawed at my gut, so I carefully folded back the covers and crept out of bed, trying not to wake Logan. Last night we’d broken the circle when he’d carried me past the chalk line and down to our cabin where he’d held me in his arms until I’d fallen asleep. What would he say to me when he woke? Would things be unaccountably strange between us or had sex brought us closer?

  As I dressed in colorful shorts and a tank top I found in one of the drawers beneath the bed, I thought of the things I’d done with him in bed and my cheeks heated. I’d been afraid I wouldn’t know what to do, but Logan had patiently shown me and some of it had happened without any conscious thought all. Why had I ever been afraid?

  The boat gently listed to port, part of the circle spell Logan had cast. I wanted coffee and toast or eggs. Something substantial. I hadn’t eaten any dinner save for three strawberries I’d shared with Logan.

  As I reached for the coffee canister, a strange, insistent beeping erupted from above. The wheelhouse? I listened for a moment. The beeping continued, and now the beeps were shorter and faster. Frowning, I mounted the ladder and climbed up to the wheelhouse.

  On the panel behind the wheel, a red button flashed over and over in time with the beeping. I looked through the glass window. Another boat! I gasped and took an involuntary step backward. We were headed right for this boat, and it was not moving out of our way.

  I took hold of the wheel and tried to twist it, but it wouldn’t let me. Enchanted by Logan no doubt. What the hell was I supposed to do?

  “Logan!” I shouted. “Logan, wake up! Hurry!”

  I raced out on deck and onto the bow, waving my arms around. Why wasn’t this boat moving out of the way? It was a fishing vessel, bigger than the Sea Cursed, built for staying out for a week at a time. A ship that needed many people to man it, and surely, there had to be someone posted on deck to keep watch.

  “Hey!” The wind off the ocean tore my scream to shreds. “Look out! Someone s
ee us!”

  The waves pushed us sideways, enough so I could see the name of the fishing vessel. Orca.

  “Oh, Othala. No!” I froze, paralyzed by terror. We were so close now I could see movement on deck. Ravagers!

  Logan!” I shrieked. “Logan! Ravagers!”

  Dark blobs floated on the waves. No. They were swimming. For the Sea Cursed.

  “Drown!” I screamed at them. “Drown, you bastards!”

  I summoned a fireball and lobbed it at the nearest monster. It shrieked when it caught fire, but dunked beneath the waves in a hissing cloud of steam only to surface, burned and gory, but still alive.

  Meanwhile, two more had reached the side of the Sea Cursed and were using their claws to drag themselves up the side of the boat. I was afraid to fireball them for fear I’d catch the Sea Cursed on fire as well.

  Where was Logan? I screamed his name again, then turned back to the Orca. It was so close now I didn’t see how we’d manage not to collide, even if Logan had right now been in the wheelhouse manning the wheel, which he wasn’t.

  “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do!” I took fistfuls of my hair and pulled, hoping the pain would galvanize me into action or miraculously send me an idea of how to handle this situation.

  Ravagers piled off the Orca from all sides, and if I didn’t do something, they’d all be in the water, and I could do nothing to them there.

  I threw fireballs at the ravagers still on deck. Several caught fire, screaming as they burned, but when they jumped overboard, the sea put out the fire.

  Focus on the ship, Demetria. I could almost hear my mother’s voice in my head. Of course! The Orca herself. She was made of wood, and wood was from the earth. I was an earth witch.

  Summoning my power, concentrating on the psychic link I opened between me and the wood of the ship, I begged the Orca to catch fire and crumble, sink beneath the waves and take the ravagers down too. Hold them. Hit them. Don’t let them escape.

  A terrible rumbling noise filled the air. Fire crackled. A wall of heat so immense it burned to breathe washed over me.