The witch didn’t even open her eyes or break from her chant.
But Henry spoke. “Step away from her, Maria.”
The woman turned her crazed face toward Henry and it washed over with devilish delight. Her hips swayed, and she danced toward my pirate.
“Pet,” she cooed, and my stomach rolled, “So, you live, do you?”
Maria motioned for Eric to stay with the witch and he brought his sword to Martha’s throat. Then I watched as her hands smoothed over Henry’s shoulders and pure rage filled my body. I nearly jumped after her, but the witch’s magic held me in place, told me not to budge. It killed me to watch, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. If she hurt him, I would end her life.
My lineage be damned.
Bile rose in my throat as Maria’s lips brushed Henry’s ear and I heard her say, “My pet, why did you leave me? You don’t love me anymore?”
“You haven’t the faintest idea what love is,” Henry replied through clenched teeth. It hurt him to have her hands on his body, I could see the pain in his tortured face. “You’re a poison upon this Earth.”
Her expression turned into a mock frown. “Aww, now you don’t mean that, do ya, Pet?” she continued to smooth his shoulders, his face, while her head cocked from side to side, examining him like a vulture. “I spent years cursing your name, but freedom tastes so good.” Her face tipped up toward the sky and I saw her eyes roll back like a junkie breathing in the scent of their beloved drug. “I can forgive you for abandoning me.” I watched her pull a small dagger from her side and lightly drag it across the skin of his neck. He flinched as blood drew from the wound and she stared at it with crazed delight. “Oh, how I miss the way you bleed.”
“Get your hands off him!” I yelled, no longer able to remain silent. Henry was mine, and mine alone.
Her head of black curls snapped to attention and whipped around to find me standing in my corner. Her eyes, more black and devilish than Henry’s ever were, burned into me.
“And what do we have here?”
“Henry is mine,” I told her.
With her sword lifted waist high, Maria Lindsay Cobham took careful steps toward me, her big brown boots crunching the forest floor beneath her. The tip of her sword pricked the shoulder of my coat and lightly dragged down to its bottom hem.
“That,” she spoke angrily, “is my jacket.” Suddenly, the pointy tip flew up to my throat. “I should cut it from your body.”
“Maria!” Henry bellowed from over her shoulder, and I watched the woman’s mouth twist into a sick grin. She was just trying to get a reaction from him. And it was working.
Maria moved like a snake and came to stand behind me, her sword raised and placed across my throat as her free hand reached around and rested on my stomach. “Stop the ritual right now or I’ll gut her like a rotten fish.”
“Henry don’t,” I pleaded.
His body shook with anger as he fought to not break the triangle. The Gaelic witch still muttered her chants, despite being held at knifepoint by Maria’s husband, and the fire blazed before us as wisps of green and red light danced through the circle like colorful spirits.
“I’m not worth it. They need to be stopped. Think of the lives you can save.”
He cringed. “Yours is the only one that matters to me.” He looked to Eric, who still held a sword to the witch’s neck, and then back to us. “What do you expect me to do, Dianna?”
“Nothing, Captain,” a voice spoke from the trees. Its sound filled me with hope and I risked searching for it. Finn, Gus, and Charlie emerged from the woods, pistols pointed at The Cobhams. “Stay right where ye are.”
Finn and Charlie came toward me while Gus unarmed Eric. But Henry still appeared shaken. “Do not shoot to kill, they must be kept alive,” he ordered. Yes, they couldn’t die, or I would disintegrate into time.
“Aye, Captain,” Finn answered. “We caught sight of the two devils and followed them through the forest. Good thing, too.” But the second his back turned, Maria released me and grabbed a hold of young Charlie.
“No!” I screamed and broke the triangle to lunge toward them. But Maria began to back away with Charlie held tightly in her grasp.
“Come near me and you’ll be down one man,” she spat. “Drop your pistols.”
“No,” Charlie shouted, “Don’t do it.”
I couldn’t take my eyes from his sweet, terrified face. His words told us not to, but his eyes begged to be saved. I wanted nothing more to rip him from her wretched hold, my sweet Charlie. How dare she lay hands on him. I craned my head to catch the men slowly lay their pistols down and then turned back to Maria who sported a dark and twisted grin.
Then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion, even though my body forced itself against the blanket of time around us, I couldn’t move fast enough to save him. I watched as Maria’s silver blade caught the light of the fire and sliced through young Charlie’s neck, blood spewed and fell to the forest floor.
She let his corpse crumble at her feet and flung her blade again, toward me, its thick edge catching my upper shoulder. The force of her thrust and the sudden pain knocked me back and I fell to the ground where I heard the crushing sound of hard plastic breaking. My eyes widened in horror when I realized what the sound was.
The snow globe. My ticket home.
I accidentally cashed it in and I felt the threads of time beginning to pull me into oblivion.
“No!” I screamed again as I reached out for Henry.
But it was too late. The last image I took with me was that of my beloved, eyes bulging, his mouth gaped from screaming as he clawed his way toward me, and the hands of everyone around covered his body, pulling him away.
And then there was darkness.
Continue Henry and Dianna’s epic adventure in book two of the Dark Tides series, The Pirate Queen. Get yours wherever books are sold, or keep reading for an exclusive look at the first chapter in book two, The Pirate Queen to find out where Dianna’s adventure takes her next!
Dark Tides – Book Two - The Pirate Queen – Chapter One
You get used to waking up to the rolling of the sea. It lulls you to sleep at night and softly coaxes you awake each morning. I used to hate it. But after a while, sleeping on land in a big, comfy bed, it’s like being held in place by the world, unable to move. Everything’s too still. The best is sleeping up on deck in the dead of Summer, blanketed by the heavy August humidity but cooled by the twilight chill that creeps in. Sleeping up there is the wise when you share a ship with twelve burly pirates.
A moan escaped my body as I rolled over, my hair tousling in the morning wind. But a sudden pain in my shoulder forced me to roll back. Did I fall asleep next to Finn? Did the giant Scotsman crush my shoulder in the dead of night? I attempted to turn over once more, but the pain was too much, I could barely move. But, something else was off. Everything felt… wrong. There was no gentle heaving of the ship. The wind didn’t carry with it the misty drops of seawater. I felt anchored. Steady. The same as when I’m on land. Then I remembered, the visions rushing back to me like a movie stuck on fast forward.
“Henry!”
I bolted upright, panic and adrenaline suddenly alive in my veins, pushing the blood throughout my body with a hard rush. A quick look around told me that I was alone, but also dumped on the side of a lumpy hill. More memories flashed through my mind; the Celtic witch chanting, the glowing bottle, a raging fire, then Henry’s desperate face as I…
I craned my neck to search again, trying to find some resemblance of my where I was… or when I was. My eyes collected the information as if it were picking crumbs off the floor; rocky hillside, the ocean in the distance, the strange metallic smell in the air. More images flashed across my vision; Maria’s sword, the snow globe. My head shot upwards and I found the looming stone structure far above me.
Signal Hill.
I was nestled on a nook in the side of the steep cliff that descended from Signal Hill, at least fi
fty feet from the road above. I had to get up there but, as I lifted the flap of my red pirate’s coat, I discovered that the whole left side of my torso was soaked in blood and my arm hung from it like a sack of meat and bones I’d slung over my shoulder. But I had to get off the hill. I had to find help and get back to Henry.
If he was still alive.
No. I shook those thoughts from my brain. He was still alive, he had to be. I had to believe that, hold on to it with certainty. I forced my body to move. My good arm grabbed a rock nestled in the hillside above my head and hauled myself up. My limbs shook as I held my grip and straightened my legs, every ounce of my energy coming to the surface and burning up faster than I could summon it. Finally, in an upright position, my body relaxed against the grassy hillside, completely spent from the couple of feet I’d moved. My eyes slowly scanned upward until they reached the top where I could vaguely see the stone railing that lined the road to the Signal Hill tower. It felt like light years away.
“Help!” I screamed. “Anyone!” But my attempts were futile. The landmark had been cleared of sightseers. I wanted to cry but it would have been a waste of what little energy I had. No one was going to help, I had to get off the hill myself.
“Come on, brain,” I told myself, “work.” I couldn’t pull myself up the hill, that was made pretty clear after my weak attempt. Then, I noticed the evidence of wear marks in the grass in the short distance. My eyes followed the overgrown footpath as it made its way along the side of the hill and, eventually, led to the road above. Relief flooded my body. I could slowly follow the trail, step by step, without having to expel what little energy I possessed. It would take longer, but at least I could be certain I’d reach the top.
Bit by bit, I pushed my feet along the wear line in the grass, slowly inclining as I went. My weak and damaged body demanded to stop and take breaks every few feet, which I gladly obliged, knowing I was making progress. Eventually, as the sun entered a high point in the mid-morning sky, I reached the rocky road that led the way to the tower and grabbed hold of the stone railing, its rough surface scrapped the palm of my hand as my defeated body pushed its weight down. I was fainting, collapsing from the use of energy I didn’t have. But a voice rang out from nearby and I craned my neck to see a man running toward me, assuring that I’d be okay, and allowing me to let go. The last thing I remembered was my heavy body hitting the hard ground below me, but it was okay. I’d made it.
***
You always see those scenes in movies or on TV when someone is experiencing a traumatic event and they’re being rushed to the hospital. Everything happens in short, vivid clips of faces, flashes of light, and voices telling them they’re going to be okay. But you never stop to think that it’s like that in real life.
It is. But worse.
My mind sank under the surface of my consciousness, only coming up for air now and then. It was a way to deal with pain. The excruciating pain that came with the vivid clips of faces, flashes of light, and everyone telling me it’s going to be okay. I remembered the ambulance arriving at Signal Hill and hands, so many hands, coming from every which way, grabbing and pawing at my body to remove my blood-caked clothing. Every movement, every tug and pinch sent volts of pain and forced agonized moans from my body, but it all stemmed from my shoulder. I screamed at some poor paramedic as she accidentally ripped my jacket further and grabbed her by the throat. They restrained me after that.
The drive to the hospital was an endless pattern of questions followed by poking and prodding. I felt a hand grasp my face as its fingers lifted my eyelids and shone a light inside. “Miss, do you know your name?”
“C-Cobham,” I squeaked out, “Dianna Cob–ow!” I’d thought for a moment that they caught fire to my shoulder wound and I realized that the other paramedic had just begun cleaning it.
“Dianna,” the other woman spoke, “I need to know what happened. How did you get this wound?” she asked. More poking and prodding. “Where did you come from? How did you get to Signal Hill? Who did this to you?” The questions never ended, and my head spun with all the answers I couldn’t speak in this reality. They’d think I was insane, and the last thing I needed was to end up at the Waterford.
“Could an animal have done this?” the male paramedic asked her.
She leaned over my body and examined the gash across my shoulder. “No, I mean, maybe?” she replied, “But what kind of animal? Nothing like that around here.”
She wasn’t wrong. Maria Cobham was an animal from another time.
Before we reached the hospital, I fell unconscious, whether from the pain or exhaustion or meds they’d given me, I had no idea. But my mind fluttered awake in short spurts. Being moved to a stretcher. Blackness. Doctors rushing me down a hallway as the blinding lights passed overhead in a nauseating pattern. Blackness. Being moved to a flatbed and more questions I could never answer. Blackness.
When I finally awoke again, it felt like it had been unusually long since I’d last been alert and my brain lagged with a strange fogginess. Pain meds. I vaguely recalled the similar feeling when I’d had my appendix removed a few years ago. The annoying beeping sound nearby throbbed in my brain and the sunlight filling the room hurt my eyes.
“H-hello?” I choked out. Like a drunk person, I tried to move and shifted enough to find a call button next to my bed and rang for a nurse. It only took a few seconds for someone to show up.
“Well, good morning,” the woman greeted as she went straight to the machines and IV bags stationed next to me, checking them over and glancing down at the chart in her hands. “You’re the talk of the town, Miss Cobham.”
An agonized moan crept out of my throat. “What? Why? Where am I?”
“You’re in St. Clare’s Mercy in St. John’s, girl,” she told me and began checking my shoulder dressing. “You were found near Signal Hill, collapsed on the ground and covered in blood. You’ve got the strangest wounds. Do you remember what happened?”
I tore my gaze away from her and stared out the window, blinding sunlight be damned. “Someone attacked me with a knife,” I told her, hoping it would be enough to satisfy the police.
“Jesus. Must have been some knife. You’re lucky they found you when they did. You lost a lot of blood,” she informed me. “I’ll go grab the doctor now and you can chat with him.”
“No, I’m fine, really, just tell me where my things are, and I’ll get out of here,” I pleaded.
I could see the pity she felt as she cocked her head to one side and pursed her lips. “Oh, honey, you won’t be getting out of here anytime soon. You just had major surgery to fix that shoulder of yours.” She let the words settle on my ears. “You’ll be here for a few days for observation. Is there anyone I can call for you?”
Yes, but he lives three-hundred-years in the past. “No, thanks,” I told her but then remembered. “Wait, yes. My aunt. She lives in Rocky Harbour. Mary Sheppard. I... I don’t know her number off-hand and I don’t have my cell phone.”
The nurse patted my hand and smiled. “No worries, Dianna. I’m sure it won’t be hard to find her number. Rocky Harbour ain’t that big.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll go grab the doctor for you now, and I’m sure the police will be in to visit you and get your statement.”
She left me, and the silence of the room magnified against the annoying beeps of machines that surrounded me. A quick assessment told me that my one arm was useless. The surgery left it numb and they’d wrapped it heavily before setting it up in a high-tech sling of some sort. IV needles tugged at the insertion points in both my arms, a gross and uncomfortable sensation. I tried to relax as I turned my gaze to the big, bright window next to me, letting the sunlight burn my eyes and numb my brain.
Being here, in this… time, it didn’t feel real. More like a super vivid and painful dream. I wanted nothing more than to wake up and find Henry in bed next to me. My gorgeous, rugged, sweet pirate king. I felt a tear escape the corner of my eye as I t
hought of what may have gone down after I disappeared. Did they win? Did Eric and Maria kill the men I loved? My family?
“Good morning, Miss Cobham,” a male voice spoke as it entered the room. I turned my head to find a doctor, a short and balding man with a wide smile. “It nice to see you awake and responsive.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure I agree,” I replied and winced when I tried to move my arm.
“Best not to move it for a few days, let the flesh heal before practicing any mobility,” he told me and rested his bottom on the edge of my bed. He pulled out a chart and began to examine the papers. “So, the surgery went well. You should have a full recovery and most, if not all, use of your shoulder will return with lots of rest and self-care.” He paused and searched my face for a reaction. I could barely muster up a half-smile. “Dianna, aside from your shoulder, you were badly injured, dirty, and very confused when they brought you in. Can you tell me what happened? Where you were?”
My mind raced as it scrambled for reasonable answers that would pass as sane. “I… I’d been out for a walk one evening and someone attacked me with a knife.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “And why were you dressed in strange clothing?”
I shrugged and winced from the pain. “I have an obsession with old-world stuff?”
The doctor hummed and hawed at my weak answers. “We thought, perhaps, you’d been under the influence of narcotics, but the tests came back negative which was good, giving your condition.”
“My condition?”
He grinned and flipped to a new page on the chart. “Yes, dear, it was almost too early to tell, but you’re pregnant. Hardly two weeks.”
Emotions boiled in my stomach and began to rise, forcing their way up to my throat where a silent cry escaped my lips. I could feel the blood pooling in my face as tears ran from my eyes. No, how could it be? Not only did I lose the love of my life, but I was stuck in a different time, far away from him, and pregnant with his child. A child I could never give answers to when they asked about Daddy. A child I would have to raise on my own. A child that Henry would never get the chance to see, or touch, or kiss.
The Devil's Heart Page 16
