A Pirate for the Dead Goddess (Legends of Rahasia Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Aziz is still in chains. Bronzed skin. Eyes like red wine, and lips like poppies. Everything about them screams sensuality. Their red vest hangs from a lean frame, a deceptive delicacy that hides the true, murderous strength beneath. Like the sinews of a cat, ready to tear its prey into jagged bits.

I enter first. Farzaneh watches me, ensuring I'm not too downhearted to move.

"Lift your head up high." She whispers. "Do not show you are afraid."

As if they hear her, Aziz runs their tongue along their teeth, as if savoring the scent of food.

"Darlings," Aziz croons, beckoning with a long, red-painted fingernail.

Kane lies in the bed behind them. A withered, obsidian-skinned shell with silver hair as a crumpled death shroud. I falter. Is this the majestic Blind God? This helpless, dying creature.

"Heal him." I demand, careful to keep my voice low and unwavering.

"Or what, darling?" Aziz's eyes flash. "Seventeen years I've been imprisoned by Ode. And now she wants me to save her husband." Laughter, like a lyre's strings being cut, one by one. "And for what? I just wanted to make the world a more beautiful place in that First Divine War."

"Yeah," Farzaneh snorts behind me. "By killing everyone you considered ugly or weak, alongside your brother, Cato."

Aziz doesn't stop laughing. They're howling now, tilted near on their side. "What's wrong with that?"

Kane's breath rattles in, bouncing against a hollow ribcage. "Shut up, Aziz."

Aziz stops and glares back. "I'm just biding my time until you die, old fart."

I can't stand it. I can't. This bickering. The gods thinking they're better than us.

My crew leaving me.

My ship gone.

My dice...

I'm nothing

Therefore, I have nothing to lose by charging at Aziz until I can punch their face.

"Yes!" It's too late. Aziz screeches and pulls me close. Farzaneh shrieks and tries to tug me away.

But it's too late.

Aziz opens their mind to me, and then shows me the nightmares inside.

***

A sea of floating faces in the water. All once beautiful. Petrified in terror. Or passion. Or hate. All their faces screwed up in confusion or panic.

"So beautiful." Aziz walks along the water while I struggle just to swim to keep my head above it. "But their emotions made them ugly. Their humanity made them weak. That's why we hate humans. But Kane keeps giving them chances, no matter how many times they screw it up."

"And you think you're so beautiful when you slaughter them? They're people. PEOPLE." I choke, drawing in fetid water as I swim and swim. My arms burning. Legs ache.

Aziz chuckles. "Darling, they slaughter each other. They'll continue doing so. They'd be beautiful little dolls if I had them my way. But Kane gave them freedom. Allowed them to kill and stain their hands bloody. Allowed them to leap and break their own necks."

Aziz plucks a floating face from the water. A woman with limp curls that were once glossy. Lips once red that now rotted. "She drank herself to death. Betrayed by her lover. I could have made her a perfect doll, a little dancer. But no. Kane insists that's slavery. I'd argue I'm more humane than the humans. I just want to make them as beautiful as possible without a worry in their pretty, little heads."

"We all have choices." I ignore the slimy faces drifting past me. Coils of limp hair and skin sliding against my own flesh. "There's beauty in having choices. To live as something other than your pretty toys!"

"And you, Captain?" Aziz claps their hands, and I find myself standing on the water. Completely dry and dressed in my usual fish-scale coat. My dice are back. My blade at the ready. "What choice will you make?"

I rush forwards again. Aziz laughs, prepares for the cold kiss of my blade as I sever their neck. "Humans are all the—"

They never get to finish that sentence.

Because I hold them in my arms. Cradling then. Consoling them with arms wrapped tight. Their shoulders heave.

When I pull away, I'm holding a beautiful young child. Long raven locks. Wide eyes in confusion. Tears cracking that glass, honeyed doll face.

The child splinters to glass, falling apart.
***

Back in the real world, I'm hugging Aziz. They're shivering in my arms.

"I never knew..." Aziz whimpers. "What this felt like. To be. To just be..."

"Shh..." I cradle them as they shake so hard their teeth chatter. In shock from affection. Acceptance. "I've been there too."

Kane glances over, silent. Smiling.

Farzaneh, on the other hand, just shakes her head in disbelief. "What the shit just happened?"

***
Hey Pirates,

Hugs save lives.

(So I'll send a virtual one).

-Sophia