“There is a storm building,” Orion warned, pulling back on Sea Fire’s reins.

“I can feel the change in the currents, and the temperature is dropping,” Jenny replied.

They had been traveling for several hours, nearly one hundred feet below the surface. Orion wished now he had followed his plan to return to the Isle of the Sea Serpent instead of traveling to the Isle of the Elementals. He would have if he had not felt the drastic change in the currents coming from the west. It had reminded him of the Pirate King’s message.

The Elementals had always been a pain in Orion’s backside. The King and Queen—hell, the Elemental people in general—had always been a strange lot. King Ruger had always been a little envious of Orion’s ability to control water better than he could. Oh, they could make it rain and dance, but not much else.

Ruger had always complained that the Goddess gave the Elementals a mere taste of the powers of each kingdom without having it all. When Orion had asked how they related to the pirates, Queen Adrina had retorted that she had stolen Ruger’s heart in a game of chance. It turned out Ruger had made a bet with Adrina that he could make it across one of the most forbidden areas on the Isle of the Monsters before she could. Adrina had saved Ruger’s life and captured his heart—and Nali had promptly thrown both of them off the isle for upsetting the thunderbirds’ nesting grounds.

“We will need to move deeper,” Kapian said, coming up near them.

Orion cursed and glanced down. He could feel a dark turbulence ascending from beneath them. They were trapped. He pulled the trident free.

“What is it?” Jenny asked.

“I don’t know,” Orion said in a tight voice.

Out of the darkness, hundreds of dark shadows rose. Orion loudly cursed. Sea monkeys! The small but agile creatures came in two varieties—annoying and destructive. The only one who appeared to have any type of rapport with the damn things was Nali. The creatures normally stayed within the warm, shallow waters of one of the Isle of the Monsters’ outer chain of islands.

“Look!” Kapian said, glancing up when a dark shadow passed overhead.

Orion’s gaze briefly moved from the sea monkeys to the shape of several ships passing overhead. If that wasn’t enough, a flash of lightning followed by the rolling sound of thunder reverberated through the water. Sea Fire twisted around, kicking and snapping at the sea monkeys as they swarmed around them. The water churned from the thrashing bodies, blocking his view of everyone and startling the sea dragons.

“Orion! Help!” Jenny cried out.

“Jenny!” Orion called.

“Orion, they have Jenny,” Kapian shouted.

* * *

“Man the sails,” Ashure Waves shouted above the roaring winds and rolling thunder.

“There is a gale forming, Cap’n,” his first officer, Taupe LaBuff, said.

Ashure laughed. “Tell me something I don’t already know,” he shouted.

LaBuff was about to respond, probably with a depressing or negative comment, when the sound of horns began blowing. The smile on Ashure’s face turned from one of excitement to one of grim determination. A second horn sounded. Ashure could already see the reason for the alarms—sea monkeys.

“Man your stations,” LaBluff yelled. “All hands on deck! We are under attack!”

“Try not to kill the damn things!” Ashure yelled.

“But, Cap’n,” LaBluff started to protest before he clamped his lips together and nodded. Turning, he repeated the order. “Drive them back into the sea!”

As much as Ashure would love to kill the damn things, he knew it would have to be a last resort. Nali, the Empress of the Isle of the Monsters, had an affinity with the annoying pests. Reaching for the new gun at his side, he gripped the helm of the Sea Wasp and turned it into the building waves.

The first of the sea monkeys made the mistake of climbing aboard from the bow of the ship. Ashure directed the ship into the wave. The bow dipped, cutting through the swell and washing the greedy bastards overboard. Their numerous legs were great for swimming, but unless they were able to latch onto something, they were clumsy on the polished decks.

“Ashure, behind you,” LaBluff warned.

Ashure turned and aimed. He fired the pistol, and a high voltage of electricity hit the sea monkey in the chest. The creature shrieked in surprise and jumped overboard.

“I told you this was a good deal,” Ashure chuckled to LaBluff.

His second in command grunted and continued trying to knock off the sea monkeys climbing up the side of the ship. There were far too many. The damn things smelled the treasure he had and wanted it.

“What has stirred them up?” LaBluff asked in exasperation when more took their place.

“I don’t know. They are not usually so far from home,” Ashure replied with a shrug.

A loud scream drew Ashure’s attention. His gaze followed a struggle between two sea monkeys. The woman’s fiery hair caught and held his attention. Motioning for LaBluff to take the wheel, Ashure stepped closer to the upper railing and watched as two crew members struck the offending sea monkeys who promptly released the woman.

She landed feet first on the deck, scrambled back from the railing and behind his men. Her back was pressed against the main mast, and she held onto the rigging with a white-knuckled grip. Lifting a hand to his tie, Ashure adjusted it and ran his tongue over his teeth, trying to remember what he had eaten for lunch and wishing he had brushed his teeth. After all, it wasn’t every day that sea monkeys actually gave a treasure instead of stealing it.

“Where did she come from?” LaBluff asked in surprise.

“I don’t know, but I’m about to find out,” Ashure stated.

“Be careful, Captain. It might be the work of the Sea Witch,” LaBluff warned.

Ashure ignored his second-in-command. He knew enough about deception to know when it was being used. His gut was telling him this woman had nothing to do with the Sea Witch.

Besides, he decided, if he took heed of every warning LaBluff gave him, he’d be sitting at home knitting for the rest of his days. Who knows? Even that could be dangerous if he were to slip and fall on a knitting needle. Life was about taking chances—about living it to the fullest—and about discovering new and exciting things.

“Hello. Ashure Waves, at your service, my beautiful fire-haired siren,” he introduced himself with a lavish bow while shooting a sea monkey that had climbed over the railing behind him. “And you are…?” he asked with a charming grin.

If anyone had ever asked him what he expected the answer to be, it wouldn’t have been to see stars—lots and lots of stars. In all honesty, he had been so focused on the woman’s unusual eyes that he never saw her fist.

His head snapped back and he stumbled backwards several steps. The pistol he was holding fell to the deck when he released it to grab his poor, offended nose. It didn’t help that the storm clouds suddenly opened up and heavy rain began to fall.

Ashure blinked and gently examined his nose with his fingers. He winced when he felt the swelling. It hurt, but he didn’t think it was broken. He grimaced when he realized that while he’d been examining the stars of the heavens up close and personal, the fiery-haired maiden the sea monkeys had unintentionally dropped on his deck had retrieved his new toy and was aiming it at him.

“I’m Jenny,” she said, waving the gun at him.

“Ah, Jenny from the sea. You may not look like the others of your kind, but I have to say you hit like one. I should have known better than to take a sea monkey’s gift,” Ashure complained.

“Step aside, and I’ll be out of your hair,” Jenny warned, waving the gun again.

Ashure waved his hand at her. “You may want to look behind you first,” he suggested.

The woman released a startled scream when a sea monkey hung down off the mast at face level. She twisted, her finger closing around the trigger, and fell back into his waiting arms when the pistol discharged a stream of electricity. The sea monkey and a good chunk of the mast were thrown back across the deck before disappearing into the rough sea below.

“It has a bit of kick if you aren’t expecting it,” Ashure said, deftly taking the gun out of her hands.

“What the hell was that?” Jenny asked, pulling free of Ashure’s arms.

“The sea monkey or my new toy? I won it off a Cyclops during a game of chance,” Ashure said, shooting another sea monkey.

“I know a Cyclops named Cyan,” Jenny murmured.

“Really? Her mate Boost and I go back a long way. Did they have that crusty Minotaur with them?” Ashure asked.

“Meir?” Jenny said, glancing over her shoulder. “Oh, there’s another one!”

Ashure turned and fired low from the hip. “That’s the one. Never play a game of cards with him. He totally destroyed the pub when he lost,” he warned.

“Oh, okay,” Jenny murmured.

“Jenny!”

“Orion!! These are sea monkeys! Real, live sea monkeys. They are bigger than the ones back home,” Jenny said, weaving her way unsteadily toward Orion and Kapian.

Ashure sighed. Once again, it would appear he was a day too late. First Drago and now Orion. It would seem his luck always took a turn for the worse when it came to finding fascinating women.

“Hello, Orion,” Ashure called.

“Ashure. It would appear you have an infestation issue,” Orion responded with a grin.

“Ha-ha. Don’t kill any of them. Nali will be upset,” Ashure warned.

“I won’t,” Orion responded, lifting the trident and aiming a funnel of water at a line of the creatures crawling over the railing.

The loud crackle of electricity and the sound of thunder shattering the air drew Ashure’s attention to the sky. Raising a hand to his hair, he felt the static electricity building up. That could only mean one thing—thunderbirds.

“We’ve got company,” Ashure shouted.

“I know,” Orion replied, sending another dozen sea monkeys back into the ocean.

Ashure watched as a huge airship with twelve thunderbirds emerged from the dark, heavy clouds. Lightning flashed from the clouds to the birds. It was a marvelously breathtaking, and an absolutely terrifying, phenomenon to behold.

The form of a woman could be seen standing on the railing. When the airship was even with the Sea Wasp, the figure dove off the railing. Ashure’s breath caught at the splendid and very dramatic entrance of Nali, Empress of the Isle of the Monsters. She twirled as she descended, her arms opening, and long wings caught the air. She landed on the polished deck of his ship, one knee slightly bent and a sword in her hand.

Ashure casually tucked his gun inside his coat and gave Nali his most dashing smile. The smile grew strained when she continued to stare at him with unblinking eyes as she straightened. A hint of uncertainty flashed through his eyes, and he mentally replayed how much she could have seen. His chin rose when she lifted the sword until the flat part of it rested against his skin. Her brow creased into a dark frown, and she gave him a puzzled look.

“Who broke your nose?” Nali asked.