Chapter 40

Chapter 4:

Rosanna’s P.O.V:

“Come on! Come on, ladies!” I yelled down at my crew as they loaded in several heavy barrels. “Faster people! There’s a storm coming and I don’t want my ass getting wet in this bloody storm. Get all the supplies you need and hop the fuck on!”

If the sky had been this freaking red at night, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but at nine in the morning? Nope. That was clear sign of trouble. We needed to pack up here so we could get back to base and settle in before the storm hits. Any other day, I would’ve preferred to fight the tides head on, but soggy bread isn’t as fun to have at the dinner table.

“Oh, come on!” Carig, one of my senior crew members complained. “We get to load heavy ass barrels of supplies while the newbie gets to sit back and relax? Why can’t she be down here loading barrels with us?”

I raised an eyebrow. “She’s been out of your sight for what?-two minutes and you’re acting like a whipped pussy in desperate need of attention.”

Roars and hoots sounded from the crew members while Carig grumbled some pretty colorful words under his breath and carried on stocking the barrels into the lower deck. The supplies would last us for two whole months before we had to sail back out for more supplies. Winter was almost here so it’s a bad time for business. I guess we’ll just have to catch a few ships that cross our routes and tax them heavily.

We were almost done stocking when I spotted the familiar dark hair on the port accompanied by my favorite little human. “Hey, Goldilocks!” I called out as soon as they stepped into the ship. “Wanna try and guess again?”

The child’s face lit up like a light bulb on Christmas and he separated from his charge to run up the wooden stairs and came to stand beside me. “Siren!” He said, bouncing on his feet, making his golden curls bounce with him.

I threw my head back and laughed. “You think I’m pretty enough to be a Siren? You even know what it is?”

The child frowned. “No…But you are pretty.” He gave me a toothy smile. “Well…not as pretty as my mom, but you’re pretty.”

I patted the top of his head before ruffling his pretty hair. The kid’s gonna be a real looker when he grows up. “No one’s as pretty as our mum’s, Goldilocks. Even I think my mom was the prettiest.”

“I would’ve joined the conversation but I don’t really remember how my mother looked like, so…” she shrugged as she came up to stand beside her son.

“Mom! What’s a Siren?” The kid asked her directly.

Kristin raised both her eyebrows at her son. “And where did you learn that term?”

“Uncle Carig said that’s what Aunty Rosanna was,” came the big eyed reply. “He said that she sings to catch people in her net and then she eats them. He said that she even has a pool filled with skeleton in her room.”

“That pesky ba-“

“Language, Rosanna.” Kristin shook her head, her dark red highlights catching the light amid the black strands.

I grinned. “Guess I still ain’t used to having a kid around.”

“But you have kids back at the shelter!” The kid accused, looking up at me with pretty blue eyes.

“Yes, there are. Sailor kids.” I told him; pretty sure he didn’t know what that meant. The kids back at the Shelter could outcuss any adult any time of the day. But now that we had an innocent little maggot, who’s mother kept on insisting that he be kept this innocent, everyone had been ordered to be as tight lipped as they could imagine. However, it’s not always possible to keep a bunch of hooligans under control and as a result, the kid has learned a lot of colorful words that keeps on getting him into trouble with his mum all the time.

“When are we getting back to the Shelter, Aunt Rosanna?” He asked.

“Soon,” I looked down at my crew members as I spoke. “As soon as the boys get all the barrels loaded, we’re all set to go.” I looked back at the kid. “You wanna go supervise them downstairs?”

The child did not need any more encouragement. With a gleeful ‘yes’, he ran downstairs to join the men at the lower deck and immediately, one of the men picked him up and sat him down on their shoulders so he could ‘supervise’ the others. He’s been a big hit ever since he arrived with his mum a year ago and everyone had pretty much accepted them as part of the family.

I looked at Kristin as she came to stand next to me and found her twiddling with that pendant of hers again. It was a simple necklace with a thin gold chain and a red ruby pendant, nothing special, yet I’ve never seen Kristin without it. And she had a habit of toying with it whenever she got nervous.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her. “You seem a bit nervous these past few days.”

Kristin gave me a side glance before she looked back out at the sea. “I’ve been having this feeling recently…like something bad is coming…something that’ll change everything.”

I frowned. “Look, I don’t usually believe in these premonition shit, but you sound serious. Is it something we should be worried about?”

But she shook her head. “I don’t even know what these feelings are, to be honest. I wish I could explain it better to you but, this just feels like…”

“A storm is coming.” I finished for her as I looked up at the darkening sky. “Yeah, it’s not just you. I can feel something too.”

Kristin stayed quiet for a long time before she spoke again. “I’m sorry. I’ve caused you guys a lot of trouble and I just might be the reason for more.”

“Are you kidding me?” I gave her a skeptical look. “You and your son saved our lives. If you hadn’t warned us about the pirate rebellion, we would all be dead by now! And you’ve been a valuable asset to us, Kristin; never think yourself any less than that. Whatever comes our way, we’re in this together.”

It was true. If Kristin hadn’t heard whispers on deck about an attack on us from a new band of pirates who wanted to throw me out of my ocean throne, we wouldn’t be alive. Those bastards had state of the art ammunition and support from some stupid locals who thought giving us taxes for sea travel was a hindrance. Well too damn bad, the mortal rule no longer applied and now the land and sea had different owners.

Kristin gave a small smile. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Let’s just hope that whatever came our way next, we survived this as a team.