“My changed one, the one I chose to win. The only one who can win,” a voice whispers into my ear as I try to open my eyes and can’t. I try to move my body, but it feels like something is weighing me down. I feel like I’m underwater, but instead of the weightless feeling, I feel like I’m being smothered.

“Don’t move, don’t fight him yet. It isn’t time, my changed one, but know I’m here. I’m watching you,” the voice whispers. Then it feels like a wave of water pushes into me and everything seems to float away with me.

“Cassandra, wake up, now,” a voice urgently whispers to me, her voice getting louder every time she repeats the sentence. I blink my eyes open and feel a bitter cold wood floor against my cheek. The freezing room is all I can feel for a while, as well as the endless darkness of the room. There’s nothing to see, other than the wood floor, and nothing to hear but the sound of water slamming against the side of a ship in the distance. The floor is slightly damp, and I shiver as I lift my head up. It’s so cold that when I lick my dry lips, I feel like my tongue could stick to them. I lift my hand, moving away my wet hair sticking to the side of my face. I reach a hand up, feeling the lump and the cut on the side of my head and the dried blood stuck to the side of my face.

“Who’s there?” I ask into the darkness. The room is so dark that I can’t see anything, only smell the dampness and hear water splashing in the distance. I know I’m on a ship, but it can’t be my ship. I can’t be with my pirates because they wouldn’t leave me in here. I sit back, crossing my legs as I think about everything that happened. I can remember the guard who took me. I remember trying to save Livvy and failing. Instead, we were both taken. I feel down my outfit, knowing it’s the same clothes as the day I was taken, and I feel my necklace around my neck. I hold it tight, remembering Chaz and the moment he gave it to me. The memory gives me a little strength, just enough to take a deep breath and try not to panic. I know where I’m going, who I am being taken to. It’s funny how I spent my whole life running from the King, worrying that one day he would find out about me and kill me. I’ve survived eighteen years in a life I shouldn’t have had. I should be happy, but all I feel is regret. Regret that I didn’t tell each one of my pirates how I truly feel about them. Regret that I didn’t get a chance to really live my life with them. I was free with them, with my pirates, when I was so lost before. But now, I feel more than lost; I feel hopeless. A memory of Hunter and the protective look he gave me as I was taken flashes into my mind. His dark eyes burned as if the very ship he stood on could sink, but he would only look at me. He didn’t look away once, even when his eyes showed me fear. Fear of losing me, fear I thought I would never see in my dark pirate’s eyes.

“It’s Livvy,” she tells me, and I turn my head in the direction of her voice. Livvy, the girl I rescued who only wanted a normal life. Livvy who is brave, smart, and yet, had given up the moment her parents sold her. I thought I saw some hope in her eyes on the ship, a chance for a real life, but the tone of her voice tells me she has completely given up now. I won’t give up, despite being away from the only life I have ever wanted. A life with my pirates who I could never imagine leaving, and yet here I am, far from them.

“Are we on the guards’ ship?” I ask her. I hear footsteps before a hand touches my shoulder. I grab Livvy’s hand and move closer, only to be stopped by bars and chains wrapped around my right ankle. I reach down and feel the small metal bar around my ankle and the thick chains leading off it, which must be connected to the wall of the ship. The bars between Livvy and me aren’t thick, and they are spaced far enough apart that I might even be able to push myself through them, but I don’t. It’s not worth a beating from the guards if they found me trying to move into another cage. They might think I’m trying to escape and I need to be awake to work out a way to get us out of this mess.

“Yes. I woke up yesterday and I’ve not seen anyone. I have your egg,” she tells me gently, but it doesn’t mask how frightened she is. I can hear it in her voice, the way it cracks at the end of each word, and the shiver I can feel from her hands. I wish I could tell her not to be frightened, that everything will be good in the end, but I’m no liar. I won’t lie to her and I doubt she would believe me anyway. I try to think of something to say, the silence between us stretching out for a while before my stomach grumbles and I realise that I’m really hungry, hungrier than I have ever been.

“I’m starving. We must have been sleeping for a while to feel as weak as I do,” I comment, just as the room shakes and I fly across to the wall. The chains pull on my foot as I slam into the wall of the ship and I scream out from the pain in my ankle, the cold metal cutting into my skin. I quickly scramble back, getting closer to the middle of the cage again, and the pressure of the chain disappears. The sound of harsh water hitting the side of the ship is louder for a second and the wood in the ship groans. I jump when something loud smacks the side of the ship and I pray it’s not a rock. I don’t want to be chained down here if this ship sinks in the Storm Sea.

“Yes,” is all Livvy says into the darkness as the ship settles again. I glance down at my hands and, even though I can’t see them, I can feel how wet they are. I remember the water falling out of my hands after what happened with Ryland. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I know the water came from me. They say the changed ones have powers. Is this my power?

“My pirates will come after us,” I whisper, only my words sound more like a hope than a promise. It’s all I have, the hope, the promise that they will follow me. That they care enough to.

“After you. They will save you and I know they only took me on board because they love you. It’s always been about you and I’m nothing to them,” she says, a sob following her words.

“That’s not -,” I try to comfort her, but she stops me.

“Don’t. I’m not a child. I know how they feel about you and that I am nothing,” she interrupts me with her harsh words. I pull myself up to my feet and walk towards her voice, stopping when I hit the metal bars of the cage we are in. Livvy’s hand snakes out from the bars and wraps around mine.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, Livvy. I saved you once, remember?” I whisper, holding onto her hand tighter. “You said then that I couldn’t save you and I proved you wrong. Please trust in me one more time. Don’t give up hope,” I plead.

“We are going to the King, to his court where it’s rumoured that nightmares come true,” she says, and I know she is right. Everything my father told me about his court, about the King, doesn’t put him in a good light. The very fact he hunts my kind and has them killed as babies, makes me frightened of him, but I’m not going to let that fear control me. If I’m going to be killed, I’m going to fight to the very end and never show him the fear I know he will want. I don’t want to confirm her fears; there is no point.

“Where’s the egg?” I ask Livvy. She grabs my hand, placing it on the warm dragon egg shell.

“It’s cracking, it has been for…I don’t know how long, but since I woke up. I think it had been thrown around this cage until I woke up as I wasn’t holding it,” Livvy tells me, and I feel what she does, a shake of the egg and a cracking noise. I hold my hand still, wishing with every part of me that Livvy and the dragon egg weren’t here. They are both too young, too weak to survive what will come next, and what's even worse, I don’t know how to protect them. The king will use Livvy against me, or worse, just kill her as she is nothing to him. I don’t know what he will do with my dragon, but I imagine a dragon is useful to a king.

“If you get a chance to run, if I get you one, run and don’t look back. Do you understand me, Livvy?” I ask her, trying to think of a plan. When we get out of here and on the deck, I might be able to make a distraction. Find a way to get out of this. If not for me, for them. My dragon cannot be born into a world of nightmares, and Livvy doesn’t deserve to die there.

“Yes,” she whispers, and I rest my head against the cold bars as I think back to my pirates and hope they are on their way. I repeat their names over and over in my mind, along with how I feel about each one of them. The feelings are the same, a feeling that makes my heart pound faster in my chest and a warmth fill me, even in this cold place.

Dante. Ryland. Hunter. Jacob. Chaz. Zack.

Every single one of them. I can’t deny how I feel for them or what I would do to save them. I lift my hand to my forehead, feeling my mark and wondering what happened with Ryland. Will sharing a mark make him safe or put him in more danger? I close my eyes, thinking of Ryland, and I feel something, a little spark of warmth. It’s a bond I can’t explain, but I feel connected to him. I can feel he’s alive, but not where he is. We are bonded in some way now, and I don’t know what way. I hate that I don’t know enough, that everyone in this world seems to know more than I do. I sit back, a frustrated sigh leaving my lips, and try to think of something else. I try to think of my pirates. Part of me wants them to come after me, to save me, but a bigger part of me hopes they never do. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to them. If I save myself, then they won’t need to come. I could find them.

I could never stay away from my pirates, even if I tried.