Being eaten by a siren queen is at least an interesting way to die.
And Declan has little hope of avoiding it while locked in this brig.
His captor is ruthless. His guilt is relentless.
Everyone he needs is back on his ship, hopefully chasing after himâŚwithout tempting death themselves.
But if they donât make it in time, heâll have to face the queen.
And his demons.
An heir stole his heart. Now that heartâand the remorse it harborsâmay get him killed.
Or worse.
_____________
Black Sails meets Throne of Glass in this second book of the Aisling Sea trilogy. This story ups the stakes with new dangers and more swoon-worthy romance sure to create fans of insta-love. This is a forbidden love story with multiple POV, a bit of steam, and a cliffhanger ending.
Being eaten by a siren queen is at least an interesting way to die.
And Declan has little hope of avoiding it while locked in this brig.
His captor is ruthless. His guilt is relentless.
Everyone he needs is back on his ship, hopefully chasing after himâŚwithout tempting death themselves.
But if they donât make it in time, heâll have to face the queen.
And his demons.
An heir stole his heart. Now that heartâand the remorse it harborsâmay get him killed.
Or worse.
_____________
Black Sails meets Throne of Glass in this second book of the Aisling Sea trilogy. This story ups the stakes with new dangers and more swoon-worthy romance sure to create fans of insta-love. This is a forbidden love story with multiple POV, a bit of steam, and a cliffhanger ending.
It never got easier. Even after seven years of avoiding this, Declan McCallaghâs stomach still clenched in protest, his feet shifting on the pine needles that covered the dirt path. They hadnât told him who. They never did, only providing a time he needed to be here, ready.
The location wasnât marked by anything more than a large boulder off to the side of the road, whose black soil was divided into two wheel ruts with a strip of grass between them trying desperately to survive. To the infrequent traveler, it was an inconsequential rock, not unlike the ones that could be found along the coasts of Cregah. But to Declan it meant doom.
Not for him, thankfully, but for the poor soul who had crossed the council.
Whether he was the only pirate who struggled with this arrangement between the council and the lesser pirates, he didnât know. Heâd never asked anyone and never would, not when his reputation hung by a quickly fraying thread and all his hard-won prestige was at risk of being dissolved by the pirate lords, who continued targeting him one after the other.
Declan forced himself to remain still, steeling his expression as the rumble of carriage wheels hit his ears, still faint but growing louder. They were coming fast. Faster than usual.
Urgency wasnât typically part of this gig, as most of those found guilty and sentenced to exile came along willingly, either unaware of their true fate or accepting their martyrdom for their rebel cause.
But this one... this one was different.
The pounding of hooves against the hard-packed soil reverberated in his head even before he could see them.
He drew in a deep breath, his fingers itching to hold the familiar steel of the dagger concealed at his waist. Silly how they expected him to dispatch their exiles while forbidding use of weapons.
He ignored the urge to reach for his blade and crossed his arms over his chest instead, leaning against the rock. The door flew open as the carriage skidded to a stop directly in front of him. Standing, he prepared to grab the exile, but he stopped and waited, watching as a mess of red hair filled the doorway of the carriage. The womanâs back was to him, her hands gripping the edges of the opening, and she was screaming with desperation as her captors tried to push her out.
Declan might have found the display humorous if he hadnât known what the woman faced, what she fought and screamed to avoid. Pity and remorse brewed within him, gripping him tightly around the throat.
Youâre a damned pirate! Get it together!
With a clearing of his throat, as if he were about to speak, he dislodged the invading emotions and stepped forward, wrapping his arm around her waist as the women inside the carriage worked to get her fingers loose from the carriage.
She continued fighting, kicking and flailing, screaming and writhing, as Declan carried her away toward the boulder. Heâd need to hold on to this one. More so than the others heâd dealt with.
âGood luck with this one!â one of the women called. The door hadnât even latched shut before the driver sent the horse off with a flick of the reins.
Declan pulled her close against him, ignoring how her hair threatened to suffocate him as it pressed against his face. He needed to get her to calm down or heâd have to find some way to knock her unconscious. He probably should, especially since she was so feisty, but something within him pushed him to avoid that.
Still, time was against him here. Even under the cover of these tall trees, he could see the sun nearing its highest point. Gavin and Tommy would be arriving at the pub in a matter of hours. He needed to get this over with.
Holding her tight, he tried to coax her to quiet down, whispering against her hair for her to relax. A laugh echoed in his head at the absurdity of his request. Would he have relaxed in her position? Would he have gone without this same fight?
He waited for her body to tire itself out, for her growls to die down. When he felt she had finally given up, he loosened his hold on her. But before he could move her to face him, her foot came down hard on his, her elbow landing in his gut at the same time.
That was unexpected.
But he was no amateur, and he regained his hold of her waist, snarling as he did.
âHey!â he barked at her. âStop it. Now. Fighting will do you no good here.â
But she continued to buck against his hold, her feet scrambling for purchase against the black soil. This was not going at all as planned. Perhaps another tactic would work.
âLetâs stop. Talk. Relax a bit. This doesnât have to go badly.â
His words must have surprised herâas intendedâbecause she froze and turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. Her glare pierced him, her eyes searching for any deception in his words.
âOf course it has to go badly,â she spat at him. âI know what you do for them.â
âAye,â he replied, allowing the remorse heâd shoved aside earlier to return. âDoesnât mean I like it. Doesnât mean it has to hurt.â
âSo you want to talk?â she asked and started to pull away from him.
Though he eased his hold, he kept his guard up, ready to grab her if she tried anything again.
He dipped his chin. âAye. Letâs talk.â
When he was sure she wasnât going to dart offânot that he wouldnât be able to catch her if she didâhe lowered his arms and took a step back. She turned fully to him now, her arms crossing defiantly across her chest. Despite her curves, this girl was no woman. She couldnât have been more than twenty years old, if that. The smooth alabaster planes of her face, framed by deep red waves of hair, showed little weathering. She didnât get outside much.Â
She scowled at him but didnât make to move away. Standing there with her arms still crossed, she eyed him. Seconds went by and then minutes, as they faced off in silence.
Declan searched the blues of her eyes, wondering what this girlâa girl so youngâcould have possibly done to be marked for exile by the council.
What do you care?
Giving his head a shake, as if it could whisk away the scolding words, he started to say something. But she spoke first.
âWell? You wanted to talk? What about?â
He had originally planned to ask her who she was and what she had done. But something churned in his gut, warned him about getting too involved. His mind whirred with an ominous feeling that he should complete this job, pay this fee to the council, and forget about it as quickly as possible.
But could he do that? Eight names repeated in his head, and with each one, a face appeared, some scared and begging for mercy, others at peace with their fate.
Taking a life wasnât against his moral code. He did so when he needed to, doing away with his own rivals or defending his crew, but being hired to dispatch those who posed no threat to him and had done him no wrong gnawed at him.
No, he didnât care. He couldnât. Wouldnât. But then he couldnât quiet that part of him that insisted everyone had a right to be remembered. Even if only by their executioner.
Shifting his feet, he forced himself to relax a bit, hoping it might put her more at ease with him. The thought caused him to laugh internally, though he was careful to keep it from escaping. As if she could or should be at ease with the man tasked withâ
He cut off the thought with a question. âWhatâs your name?â
The girlâs brow shot up in surprise, but she blinked it away quickly before answering. âLani. You?â
âDeclan.â
âAnd youâre a pirate.â
He answered with a nod.
âHired to take care of me.â
âThatâs one way to put it,â he said. âAnd you? What landed you in such aâŚpredicament?â
She didnât respond immediately but instead swallowed hard. Her eyes glazed over. Tears began to form, but she blinked them away before they could spill over. She took a deep breath, her whole torso shifting as she filled her lungs, and lifted her face to the treetops. When she looked back at him, there was no longer any trace of the temper that had been there a moment ago, her blue eyes now frozen over.
âI fell in love.â Her jaw tightened before she added, âAnd I trusted the wrong person.â
âClassic blunder, that,â Declan said. âThe trusting part, that is. Though I donât know why love would warrant such a sentence from the council. Did you fall for one of the lords? Or perhaps had an affairââ
Lani lifted an arm, keeping the other tucked tight across her ribs, and examined her nails, as one might do when bored. And then, ever so slowly, she turned her palm toward him, exposing the delicate white of her forearm where an unmistakable design lay in stark contrast, its twists of smoky shadows creeping out from beneath her sleeve down to her wrist.
Declanâs gut twisted. âAh, I see. And I take it you didnât fall for one of the lords you were to be matched with?â
Once more crossing her arms in front of her, she gave him a small shake of her head.
âWell, this is certainly a first for me.â
Her chin snapped up, her eyes burning with surprise.
âNot my firstâŚwell, you know,â Declan said, chiding himself for being such a bumbling idiot, âbut it is my first time with an heir to the council.â
Lani pursed her lips. âAnd what did you do to deserve such an honor?â
âWrong time, wrong place,â he said, lifting his hands to the side in a shrug. âAnd no money.â
Her eyes went wide for a moment before she uttered a quiet âInteresting.â
âSo the heirs donât know then,â he said, not quite sure why he bothered going down this path in the conversation, but then again, any information was worth having. One never knew when one might need leverage of some kind.
âNo.â The word was barely more than a whisper.
âBut you knew.â
Dipping her chin, she said, âI had my suspicions. And I guess I was right, as we are nowhere near the docks and a ship to take me away.â
âAye.â Declan gestured with a nod to the nearly invisible path that twisted through the trees beyond the boulder, noticeable only to those who knew it existed. âThat trail doesnât lead to any ship, but it is a different sort of freedom perhaps.â
Lani looked over her shoulder briefly, and when she turned back to him, tears lined her bottom lashes. He waited for her to break down, but then this girl didnât seem the type to shy away from, well, anything. She lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, and lowered her arms until her hands were clasped together before her waist. âWell, letâs get it over with then. You probably have other things you need to be doing.â
Declan led the way through the trees, and they spent the entire twenty-minute walk in somber silence, with only the crunching of pine needles underfoot. Until the sound of the Aisling Seaâusually a comfort to himâjoined in, faint at first and growing louder as they neared their destination.
Her sharp inhale broke the silenceâand echoed in Declanâs chestâas they stepped into a clearing in the trees.Â
The sight never got easier to behold.
Not ten feet ahead of them, the ground simply disappeared. Stretching fifty feet to their left and right, it was no more than twenty-five feet across at its widest point, which lay directly in front of them. The trees didnât venture near the edge, as if the drop made them as uncomfortable as it did Declan. Lush grass filled the space between the pit and the forest, and the clearing might have been pleasant if it had existed anywhere else.
Lani approached the cave on careful toes, testing the ground to see if it gave way before putting her full weight into each step. Declan could have told her there was no point in doing that. The ground here might as well have been stone. When heâd come to the pit all those years ago for his first exile, heâd wondered how such unforgiving soil could support this forest, but every visit since then simply left his stomach dropping into a pit of its own.
âHow deep is it?â Lani asked, her words barely audible over the seaâs waves below and the breeze that had begun to pass through the trees above. The world seemed to be bidding her farewell.
âI donât know, myself, butââ He stopped short.
âWhat? What were you going to say?â Lani had turned to look over her shoulder at him, her blue eyes boring into his, forcing him to look away.
What harm was there in telling her the truth?Â
It would terrify her unnecessarily, he thought.Â
But there was nothing about this situation that would warrant anything less.
âI, wellâŚâ He paused to rub the back of his hand across his brow. âI imagine itâs rather deep. Over a thousand feet at least.â
She turned back to the black void that lay inches from her toes. âAnd how could you guess that?â
âBased on the length of their screams.â He winced as he watched her arms begin to tremble. So many times he had imagined what the fall would feel likeâthe air rushing past you, not being able to see what awaited you until youâŚ
When she spoke again, there was no hint of the fear that still coursed visibly through her body, and in any other moment he might have marveled at the control and poise she exhibited. âYou said it didnât have to hurt. How? I canât imagine being thrown onto solid rockâor whatever awaits down thereâfrom this height would be painless. So, how?â
âThere are ways to killâŚââhe nearly added you, but stopped himself againââthat are quick and relatively painless, as far as I am aware. I have, after all, never experienced them myself.â
She gave him another glance over her shoulder. âBut youâve done it often enough to assume.âÂ
âAye. After the first exile I was tasked with, after hearing those screams as they fell, it affected me more than I expected. Haunted me. More than I care to admit. A pirate shouldnât have a problem with it, but there I was, facing nightmares after throwing them over that edge. So after that, I offered each a choice.â
âWho would choose to be alive for that fall?â she asked as she turned fully away from the drop-off to look at him.
âYouâd be surprised. Some welcome the chance to feel the wind upon their faces one last time. Perhaps they want to be reminded that they once lived, that there are things of beauty in this worldâeven if just in the feel of air on their skin.â
âYouâre rather poetic for a pirate. You donât meet too many of those.â
And you wonât get the chance to meet another.Â
He kept that thought to himself and let the silence stretch out between them. He could have offered a witty remark, a word to tear down the lords and their fleets, but the darkness behind her seemed to widen, gaping like a yawning mouth, reminding him time was quickly fading.
Taking a cautious step toward her, Declan opened his mouth to speak, but Lani cut him off.
âIs it time for me to make my choice?â Although she appeared calm, her words quivered, betraying the fear she was trying so hard to contain.
âAye. Only delaying the inevitable, and I do have other things I need to do today.âÂ
Thatâs an understatement. Why are you being nice to her? Just push her in and get it over with.
It was what any other pirate would have done.Â
âWhy are you being so nice to me?â Her question echoed his own thoughts.
âWould you rather I be mean? In addition to the whole killing you thing?â He narrowed his eyes, taking another step toward her until there was no more than a foot between them. Close enough that he could reach out and shove and be done with it.
But he didnât.
âStill. Why? Youâre a pirate.â
He couldnât stop from pulling his mouth into a smirk. âHow could I forget?â
âI suppose it makes sense though,â she said, lifting a shoulder before relaxing more than she ought to given the situation. When he didnât respond, she continued. âNo need to worry about your reputation with me. Not like Iâm going to have the chance to ruin your good name. Still, Iâd think itâd be easier to do this, be less traumatizing for you, if you gave yourself over to the pirate within. I mean, at this point Iâm starting to wonder if youâre a real pirate at all.â
He gritted his teeth as her words struck a nerve. She was right. He wasnât acting much like a pirate here.
She inched toward him, looking calmer than she had any right to be. âI wouldnât be surprised if you simply stepped aside and let me go.â
Declan grabbed her then, and the force caused her to stumble back, though he kept her from going over the edge. âDonât let my politeness fool you, Lani.â He hardened his gaze, searching her eyes for any of the fear that should have been swimming there. âI might have more manners than the other pirates, but I am still a pirate. Now, make your choice. And quickly. Because if you donât, I will make it for you.â
Lani stared back at him with confidence, testing him, searching for the cracks in his hard exterior. But she would find none. Heâd wasted enough time here already. His plan had been to get her to calm down, and heâd done that.
When she still hadnât moved or spoken, he tightened his fingers around her arms and stepped forward again, edging her heels past the edge of the drop until she stood on only her toes with her body leaning slightly over the darkness. She grabbed his jacket, the desperation for survival kicking in, fear rushing into her eyes. Her head gave tiny shakes as she begged him to be different from the rest, to not do what was required of him.
He could say he was sorry, but it would do him no good to reveal that part of him out. He shoved it back, securing it once again.
âChoose.â
âDonât,â she whispered, her terror increasing as he let her body angle away from him more.
âNow. Or I will.â
He counted five seconds before he tensed his muscles, preparing to push her and be done with it, readying himself for the inevitable screams, knowing he wouldnât forget them soon enough.
âNO! Iâll choose.â Her words stopped him in mid-motion, and he raised his brows at her, a silent request for her answer. âNot like this. I donât want to know Iâm falling. I donât want the air or whatever it is the others seek. Just end it. Quickly. Please.â
Declan pulled her a few inches away from the edge, and without another word, he released one hand, keeping her firmly held with the other as he reached for his blade. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, one last breath before the end came.
He didnât look away as he lifted his dagger. He looked her over one last time, this girl who had done nothing more than fall in love with the wrong person and dare to dream of a life she could never have. Pulling in a breath, the air ripe with the scent of the sea and the pine trees, he drove his blade in just behind her collarbone and pulled it out in one clean motion.
She gave a gasp, and as her eyes flashed open, he watched the light in them go out. With the dagger still in hand, her blood smeared across its smooth surface, he closed her eyes with the edge of his hand before letting her lifeless body fall away into the darkness.
He backed away from the edge, forcing coldness into his features, as if there was anyone here to witness his reaction. Wiping her blood from his dagger with the sash around his waist, he turned, not to go back to the road but to pass around the massive hole. Eventually he would go backâback to Morshan, back to the pub, back to his men and his shipâbut if he was going to focus on the next task, he needed to clear his head.
And he knew just how to do that.
This is book two in the Aisling Sea trilogy. When I realized I was about to read and review this novel with no prior knowledge of the first book in the series, I backtracked and started at the beginning with book one, On These Black Sands. I am so glad I did, as this would have been a difficult read to jump right into.
The author has created a fantastic and barbaric world where pirates abound, and mythical creatures exist. Yet even in this world, people are still people: some lie, betray, cheat, abuse, and murder. Others are kind, generous, loyal, and trustworthy. Most lie somewhere in between.
Declan is one of those characters that seems to be in the middle ground. As the youngest pirate captain on the Aisling Sea, he has garnered a reputation for ruthlessness. He has done the bidding of the Council, including killing for them on demand. Yet in his depths, he is neither a thief nor a murderer. He is a man of great compassion, loyalty, and honor who has done what he must to survive. He now finds himself in the brig of another pirate's ship, headed toward his certain death at the hands of the siren queen. Things could be better for him.
Aoife, a runaway Council heir and the love of Declan's life, is racing to catch up with Declan in an attempt to save him. She's on Declan's ship with his crew and three powerful fae sisters whom they helped escape the ruthless hands of the Council.
Tommy's eyes shone with a haunting mix of determination, fear, worry, and anger. "We fight, Aoife. You fight. Until someone wins, you fight."
I once heard an author describe how the second book in a trilogy was the hardest to write, and the least enjoyable to read. She claimed that the first book gives the reader the feeling of the story, its characters, and its conflicts. The final book has all the fun stuff- the big action, the big moments, and the big resolution. The middle book has to tie all these things together. That's how this book feels. It starts slowly, as the stages are set. The cast of characters, while richly developed and diverse, is also large. Key players are now spread across the map in different locations. Each chapter finds us with a different character's point of view in another location. It's a bit muddy and nearly mindboggling at first.
But a few chapters in, the story catches its stride and takes off at a gallop. The goals become clear, the action more intense, and the hope palpable. Suddenly, it's easy to remember why you're invested in the success of these characters.
There is much to love about this novel and series. While several characters struggle with the ability to trust, others show them the strength and beauty in doing just that. There is passion, loyalty, courage, and honor to be found here, along with those who would seek to destroy others for the sake of power.
I was happy to see that the author created a map of her world, and also provided readers with a pronunciation guide. Most readers will find these quite helpful. For best enjoyment, I recommend starting with book one rather than picking it up in the middle of the story. For fans of action, fantasy, myths, and even heraldry, this is a well-written and engrossing tale.