Mistress of the Damned

I stared at him, baffled. “Why aren’t you more upset? Why are you not outraged?”

“What’s the point, Flipp? What exactly can I do about it? If I broke out of here, what do you think would happen? I can’t escape the boat. I would be killed instantly. For better or worse, this is my fate, and after weeks of thinking about it, I have come to accept it.”

He was right. He would be killed. There was nothing that I could do to stop what was going to happen to him and that was why my whole body was filled with rage. I started to shake. The only thing that I could do was somehow convince Azil to not sell him, to let him go. The chances of that weren’t great, but I had to at least try.

I got up to go.

“Flipp, wait. Whatever you are thinking of doing, don’t. I’m okay with dying. Do not risk your life for me.”

I ignored him as I left the room. I made my way up to the deck to find Azil. He was standing in the middle of the deck giving orders to the midnight crew. I had no idea he stayed up that late.

“Azil!”

He turned to me with surprise. “Darling Flipp, what are you doing up at this hour?”

“I know what you are doing to the Hirpy. I heard everything and it’s wrong. It’s barbaric. You’re a better man than this, you don’t have to do this terrible thing.”

He blinked and took a look around at his men, who were now coming closer to make sure there wasn’t any trouble.

“Flipp, this is a business arrangement. This is what we do, and I’m not about to change my plans just because you are having a temper tantrum.”

“Excuse me?”

“This is the way of the world. We buy and sell creatures. You never seemed to have a problem with it when they were selling humans—your own kind—every night at the House of Lace. Or was that because they weren’t your bedmate.”

There was laughter around me and my face went a deep crimson. I wanted to kill him then, I wanted to kill them all.

“I’m not going to let you kill him.”

“That’s not your choice, Flipp. At this stage, I’m starting to lose interest in you as well. I allowed you to come on this ship because you were a dead woman walking. But, at this point, you have been nothing but trouble. Disappointing, to say the least. I took you shopping yesterday and treated you like one of us, and this is how you repay me? By barking at me like I don’t own this ship.”

Sirens started to approach me and I held my hands out. “Back off.”

One of them laughed. “What are you going to do?”

My lip curled, my eyes went red, and the rage built up once again as I launched fire at them. It knocked two of them down and their clothes were on fire. They were screaming, and trying to put the fire out. They were alive, but they would have severe scarring. I pointed my hands at some other Sirens, and they instinctively backed away.

Azil looked shocked, and I enjoyed the fact that I was able to wipe the smile off his face for once. I had never wanted to use my powers against the Sirens. They were helping me, but things had changed drastically, and I wasn’t sure I could even trust them.

“Whoa, Flipp, settle down. That’s enough.”

“I’m done being settled.”

“I’m not going to let you kill my men and destroy my ship over some slave. Stand down, Flipp, or I’ll kill you with my bare hands and I won’t lose a night’s sleep over it.”

I looked around me and saw that despite me setting two men on fire, the Sirens were standing their ground, ready to fight me if I threatened Azil. I had failed. I had failed my last attempt at saving Jesye.

I fell to my knees, and started crying. I was defeated, and all was lost for Jesye.

“Azil.”

I looked up to see Azil’s eyes leave me, and look at Xagon, who was now approaching the commotion. “What’s going on here?”

“You’re witnessing the fall of the Queen,” he said with a laugh.

Xagon looked down at me, concern written on his face. There were tears rolling down my face, and I begged him with my eyes to do something. His brow furrowed. He looked over at the men with singed clothing and admonished me with a glare.

“Flipp, what are you doing?”