The Witch's Pirate! (Book 1)

Crystal

I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this. I am going to lose my life. I’m going to lose my life. See, books are safe, books are safe! I chanted in my head, nervously rubbing my hands together, my cheeks felt on fire. I hated, nay, loathed being the center of attention, being forced to watch some of the locals turning to stare at me, murmuring about how mysterious and beautiful I look.

Maybe if I unveil, they will run away? I am pretty ugly. A sudden funny picture appeared in my head, of them scampering away after seeing my ugly face. I mentally giggled. Then I heard the king’s laughter, snapping me back to reality. The fear came back two-fold.

I turned to stare at the king and gulped heavily once again. It had all started when I had entered this God-forsaken castle and met the princess two hours ago. I hated that woman already.

While we walked down the back of the castle, I heard complaints from the other girls. I kept my eyes straight forward, trying not to show any emotion at all. I felt like I should die at least. Tonight... Oh God, I had heard wretched stories about how the king stole young girl’s innocence. I shivered, and my stomach lurched. I was to be his first victim in this. I had never thought my life would change in a matter of hours. I kept quiet until the guardsman grabbed my arm roughly. I bit down a painful groan and turned to face him.

“Don’t know why the king wants you first, thank goodness your tongue will be cut off,” he growled, abruptly shoving me inside of something. I grunted falling hard on my behind, atop stone floor.

“This is your new home. The king will come by after the engagement party, enjoy.”

After all the girls had been placed inside, the guardsman shut the cell with a large pin lock. The other girls huddled together, while I moved toward the far corner, bunching my legs together. I was trying my hardest to keep strong. I knew I could not break. I had read books where the damsel in distress always cried and whined, which was a source of great annoyance to me, so I would not do that. I was better than that. No prince would save me. Heroes didn’t exist at all. My life wasn’t a fairytale, and I was facing one of the harshest realities of growing up. I was no royal. Just the daughter of a poor farmer and his wife.

I didn’t know how long it had been, but suddenly we all heard footsteps coming down the hallway. I lifted my face, and when I did, a woman stood there, looking straight at us.

“Bring them out!” she ordered.

The guardsman nodded, and opened the gates. One by one we all left the cell and stood to face the woman. She was elegant and beautiful. Her eyes were deep hazel, and her long blond hair was braided down her back. Her face looked like those beautiful dolls and was not natural. Her face was accentuated by her narrow nose and high cheekbones. She was wearing a long silver dress. She folded her hands before addressing us.

“Hmm,” she started, eyes searching each one of us.

“Can you help us?” A young woman asked in a pleading voice, as she started to cry. The woman stopped and turned to face her.

“I will permit for all of you to take a bath and eat. Save you all, I cannot, I can’t go against my father’s orders.” Now that caught us by surprise. I didn’t know it, but how could she be the princess?

“Princess Drea?” everyone said at the same time. She nodded, and then her eyes landed on me, my heart started to pound harder.

“Take them to the basement and make the maids attend to them, no one is allowed to lay a finger on these girls, but the woman with the green eyes stays behind.” I was taken aback at her sudden words.

Why me? Do I have a sign, saying pick on me for today? The guard nodded at her orders and bowed.

“Yes, princess.” With that, he released me and started to direct the other girls. As soon they left, the princess walked up and started to inspect me, placing her hand on her chin.

“Hmm, turn around,” she told me. I hesitated.

“I said turn around.” Her words became harsher.

“No. What do you want with me?” I asked her. She became agitated, she took a hold of my chin, forcing me to look at her.

“Don’t you dare speak to me in that tone,”

“Oh, like you can speak to me like that as well, last time I check we are all human. You need manners, spoiled princess or not.” I snapped at her. Oh, that ticked her off, her eyes hardened, and then she slapped me across my right cheek, snapping my head to the side with the force. I hissed in pain.

“Know your place, I am the princess of the lands, and you are an ugly peasant girl,” she spat, exhaled slowly, and her expression changed into a calmer visage.

“You will do, then. I want you to pretend to be me. I have to leave for the next three months. Keep your face covered and do not speak. If you are discovered, then you are on your own. My father will hang you if he finds out you are an imposter, but if you pull this off, I can guarantee your freedom.” She sounded honest and serious. I stared at her.

“I don’t I believe you,” I replied back, something in her look was dark, and I didn’t like it.

“Then don’t. You have no choice in the matter unless you want me to ask my father to take you now, it is no issue for me,” she shrugged without a care. My eyes narrowed at her words.

Does she even have a heart? I have no other choice. There is no way I will be going to his bed tonight. I’d rather die. With that thought swirling through my brain, I lowered my head in shame.

“Whatever you ask of me, princess.”

So now I stand next to my enemy, sweating badly. The ballroom was huge and elegant. The stone floor was polished finely and the room decorated with no expense spared. I had always thought my first ball would be a pleasant event, not that my only thought would be surviving it.

Never will I enter a ballroom ever again.

I could feel my cheek still burning from the princess’s slap earlier. What had I gotten myself into?

While everyone danced, I stood there feeling scrutinized but not by the civilians. It was like an unknown force was spying on me, sending prickles up the back of my neck. I shivered, not liking this at all. Was it not already enough that the king could catch me any moment? I tilted my head, in the direction I felt I was being watched from, but no one was looking. The closest person I could see was a young man wearing a dark suit who stood staring squarely at the dancing people, the opposite direction of my public prison. I frowned, lowering my head.

I’m being too paranoid.

“Now, now,” I heard King Drake finally speak as he stood from his royal chair, and clinked on his goblet with his ring. Everyone halted, even the musicians stopped playing.

“Thank you all for coming to my beautiful daughter’s engagement party. Come here my daughter,” he waved at me. I breathed in and out, trying to relax my heart that was beating frantically against my ribs. The whole ballroom began to clap as I slowly made my way over to him.

“The prince shall arrive at any moment, but I wanted to congratulate my daughter in advance.”

He turned to face me and stretched his arms out to grasp my veil.

Oh no, God, please help. I prayed. It seemed that God had heard my prayer, a gunshot echoed through the ballroom, causing everyone around to yell in panic. I didn’t know if I should breathe a sigh of relief or panic.

What is going on today! It has been nothing but utter madness from start to finish. I didn’t move an inch. All I could do was stare at the king with wide eyes.

“PIRATES!” someone yelled, snapping me out of my panic. The king and I turned to see the band of pirates surrounding the ball goers brandishing their swords at them. Everyone gathered around with fear.

“What the bloody hell is going on here?” King Drake screamed, I took the moment of distraction to take a step back, only to hear a dark laughter echoing on my right.

I turned to see a tall man wearing a pirate hat, his leg resting on top of the chair. He tilted his hat up before he spoke.

“Mate, before you announce your lovely daughter’s engagement, you must have the guest of honor to show up. Don’t ya think?” the man spoke with a deep accent.

“Who the hell are you?” King Drake snapped at the pirate.

“Who the hell I am? Aye, my king, I did come straight out of hell, to drag you back with me. If you value your soul, then hand me your precious daughter.”

He lowered his leg down swiftly and began to walk in my direction, reaching up to me. I felt frozen.

“Excuse me? Don’t you want gold? You haven’t answered my question.” The king placed his dirty hands on my shoulders. The pirate snapped his fingers, his eyes rolling to the ceiling.

“Gold? Oi forgot that small detail, thank you, my king for reminding me. You heard the king,” he shouted to his crewmates, and everyone shouts.

“AYE CAPTAIN!” I swallowed hard, when I saw the guardsman rushing onto the scene.

“Our king!” they all shouted.

“Don’t stand there you gits! Get rid of them.” I couldn’t avert my eyes away from the pirate. I was not sure who was worse him or the king.

Then I heard a war cry, the guardsmen, and the pirates had begun to fight. All the ball guests dropped down to the ground in panic as the guards and the pirates’ swords clashed.

I moved away from the king’s grasp, running toward my left, only to reach a dead-end.

“Stupid wall,” I grunted, hearing a low chuckle behind me.

“You can’t get away from me that easily, princess,” his voice rang deep. I turned around and plastered myself against the wall, heaving hard.

His dark piercing eyes bored into me, causing my heart to tremble, his tall appearance made me feel smaller than normal. I barely reached his shoulders.

“You’re coming with me.” His voice was deep and mesmerizing his accent a deep purr in his throat. I gulped heavily, taking a step back and shaking my head in protest.

He has the wrong person. He has the wrong person! My mind kept screaming in fear. I lifted my eyes upwards, daring a glance at him through my veil. The first thing that caught my attention were his eyes. I had never seen such deep silver eyes in my life. I had the strange feeling that he could see straight into my soul, and I didn’t like it at all. It was like he was invading my privacy, delving into my deepest thoughts.

“Save the princess!” someone’s voice bellowed in the background, under all the ruckus of the fight.

He moved closer to me, pressing the tip of his sword against the top of my elegant white dress before ripping it in two with a yank. My eyes widened in pure shock

“Now that’s more like it, hate royal dresses, too much of a mess,” he said in a monotone. Fear thrummed through my veins as he once again moved closer to me.

“Who... What do you want from me?” my voice cracked, the strange man lowered his stance tilting his head to the side as his silver eyes turned darker. A smirk had blossomed across his sun-tanned face before he answered.

“What do I want from you? Nothing, my dear witch, but you just became my hostage and sure as hell, I will make your father pay.”

My heart stopped at his words.

My body betrayed me, again, I couldn’t move, I felt frozen. He moved and wrapped his large arm around my waist, and hoisted me close to his chest, causing me to gasp in surprise.

“Little witch, please be a good princess, and be kidnapped in a decent matter,” he then hoisted me up as though I didn’t weigh anything and placed me on his shoulder.

“Put me down, you bloody pirate,” I shouted, wiggling hard. He just laughed.

“I wouldn’t move too much if I were you, you’re making me feel things I shouldn’t, but I don’t mind, doubt you do,” he teased, causing my eyes widen.

Then he turned to face the king. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I could hear everything.

“You have a week, meet me at the Old Moon Island of Blood if you want your pure, innocent daughter back.”

“Don’t you dare kill her,” the king screamed at him. My eyes widened in pure shock when I felt his hand on my behind as he spanked it.

“Oi, you vile man!” I screamed, hitting his broad back. He just laughed, but I could feel his silver eyes turning dark.

“There’s far worse than death when a woman gets kidnapped by a pirate. You should know that since you do the same. So I don’t guarantee she will return to you pure as before.”

No. No. My heart and brain shouted.

“Pirate, you have the wrong person I’m not the princess,” I shouted, as I kept hitting his back, but nothing. He just started walking off, avoiding some of the king’s guardsmen, that tried to attack him.

“Stop lying. It’s bad manners to lie didn’t your father teach you that? Wait, never mind, and I told you, witch, be a good little girl and be quiet.” I lifted my gaze to see everyone fighting, while the king did the same, unable to come to me.

“I’m not lying, really, I’m not a princess, you’re kidnapping the wrong person,” I cried out, but my pleas fell on deaf ears, all I could think was that I was being kidnapped by a bloody pirate.