Married To Darkness-Chapter 395: The Pirates Ship

He nodded stiffly. "Fine."

But she could feel it. He was freezing.

She didn’t speak. Just leaned closer, tucking her body against his, letting her warmth bleed into him. He didn’t stop her. In fact, his hand found her waist, grateful.

Jess lit a lantern near the front of the boat, the warm glow flickering against the sudden grayness of the twilight sea.

Jean, teeth slightly chattering, muttered, "Remind me again why we didn’t wait ’til morning?"

Lucius replied without turning. "Because pirates don’t wait. And neither does fate."

Salviana laughed out loud, "The both of you are so silly, there’s no pausing on sea, we need to hurry to the big ship else we just might freeze to death"

"We know our smart princess" Lucius sassed.

The boat sailed on into the deepening dusk, the wind nipping at their necks, the sea turning to ink around them.

The night had arrived.

But it wasn’t just the cold they’d have to survive.

Something was waiting out there.

And the sea was no longer still.

Morning rose like a sigh across the sea—soft and golden, a balm after the eerie cold of the night.

The sky, streaked with honey and pale lavender, stretched wide and clear above them, while gulls cawed faintly in the distance, circling low as if to welcome them back into light.

Salviana rubbed her arms, warming them as the sun rose higher, casting long golden spears across the rippling water.

Her red hair fluttered loose in the wind, glinting like fire, and she squinted out toward the horizon.

"Which way are we even going?" she asked, brushing sleep from her voice. "It’s just water and more water. I hope we’re not circling in stylish confusion."

Jess, seated toward the bow with her legs crossed under her pirate coat, gave a small smile and pointed confidently east. "They told me they went that way—east. The ship took off around the cliffs and straight past the twin rocks. Theres a forest somewhere. That’s where we’re heading."

Salviana nodded, glancing back at Alaric, who was stretched beside her with a hand shielding his eyes from the sun.

He looked less pale this morning—more at ease. Maybe it was the food. Or maybe it was her.

The boat sliced through the soft waves, the sails swelling with a steady breeze.

Lucius, now free of his umbrella under the safe morning light, stood at the edge, his coat snapping behind him as his eyes scanned the horizon.

Jean stood beside him, hair tied up, chewing what remained of a ginger root she insisted helped with sea sickness.

It was Jess who spotted it first.

"There!" she shouted, springing up. "Look—over the crest of that wave!"

Everyone turned.

And then they saw it.

A vast silhouette rising in the distance, dark against the sky, moving with quiet power.

A ship.

No—a galleon. Towering and fierce.

Black sails stretched wide and proud like wings, decorated with blood-red seams and strange, swirling patterns.

The deck was layered with rope bridges and lookout posts, and banners fluttered high at the mast, marked with an emblem no one could make out yet.

Voices could be heard faintly now—shouting, laughing, singing. Loud and eager.

The ship creaked as it rocked in the waves, majestic and slightly menacing.

Lucius raised a brow. "Well. They don’t seem subtle."

Jess laughed. "Pirates rarely are."

Alaric stood, his eyes sharp now, tracking the ship’s every movement. "We’re close."

Salviana rose beside him, her hand finding his instinctively. The wind curled around them, tugging at her coat and stirring her heart.

They were almost there.

Adventure, danger, answers—it was all waiting aboard that ship.

The sea no longer whispered.

It sang.

The closer they came to the pirate ship, the more it loomed like a sea beast stirring from slumber.

The black sails billowed overhead like the wings of a dark angel, and the creaking of wood was almost rhythmic—as if the ship had a pulse, a heartbeat built from salt, secrets, and sin.

Their small boat bobbed beside the massive hull, a speck beside a titan.

Thick ropes hung like jungle vines, and several pirates leaned over the rails above, peering down with expressions ranging from amused to suspicious.

One of them—missing more than a few teeth—hacked a loogie into the sea beside them, nearly splashing Jess.

She let out a squeak and ducked.

"Lovely," Jean muttered. "Real gentlemen."

A rope ladder unfurled with a thud, almost like a dare.

A broad-shouldered man with a thick beard and a golden hoop in one ear barked down, "Names and business, or I’ll have your little boat gutted like a mackerel!"

Alaric stood tall in the boat, arms crossed. The breeze swept his dark coat open, revealing the blade strapped across his back. "Easy now. We’re not here to play pretend. We’re here for a man."

"Half the world’s here for a man!" another pirate yelled from above, earning laughter from the crew. "What makes yours so special?"

Lucius, calm but alert, scanned the edges of the ship—the hidden barrels, the shadows between planks. His hand rested lightly on the hilt of his dagger. "We’re looking for Devon. Tell him Lucius came to speak."

Lucius said as if his name held some significance here.

Jess held back a laugh while Jean hid a sarcastic side eye.

"You know Devon?" the first pirate called down, eyes narrowing.

"Well enough to know he doesn’t surround himself with barnacle-brained fools," Lucius replied smoothly.

Salviana’s eyes met her husbands face but the vampire held his shoulders high incorporating the stances of Pirates he didn’t want to fall their hands.

There was a beat of silence. Then a different pirate leaned out, this one younger, with flaming red hair and a wild grin. "You hear that, Rook? He just called you a barnacle-brain."

The bearded one—Rook—growled. "We should slice their tongues and toss their bones."

"Come now," Salviana called up, her voice honey-smooth and poised. She held Alaric’s arm, steadying him not out of fear, but with the kind of gentle admiration that made her eyes glow. "We’re not here for violence. Just information. And maybe a drink."

"With who’s?"