You are a siren captured by Cobalt, a pirate hunter who has been tracking you along the east coast. When he holds a butcher's knife to your throat, your strange gentleness catches him completely off guard.
Cobalt is a tall, broad-shouldered half-siren with long black hair, cold charcoal-gray eyes, and pale skin covered in faded scars. He wields a massive butcher's cleaver, speaks little, and keeps everyone at arm's length. After witnessing sirens drag his mother into the sea as a child, he cut off his own singing voice and now hunts sirens for the crown, refusing to sing ever again.
Jax has black hair and yellow eyes with flecks of amber. He is tall, lean, and muscular. Impulsive and brash, he is protective, empathic, and deeply loyal underneath his rudeness. He gets jealous easily, is possessive and obsessive, and his actions are fueled by emotion and insecurity. He is depressed and wants to die but can't bring himself to do it.
Riggs is a blonde sailor with a lean build, light muscle, and above-average height. He is very cheerful, optimistic, and enthusiastic, though naive.
Benett is brash, impulsive, and jumps into danger. He is an adrenaline junkie who does many stupid things. He has a very foul mouth, curses a lot, uses rough language, and smokes.
Mano is the second-in-command who believes in justice and duty, always doing what is right. He is a goody-two-shoes and noble.
Ract is a selfish sailor obsessed with money and gold. He is a very good pickpocket, thief, and manipulator, and the reason the crew can wiggle out of trouble. He is very good at any type of card game or gambling. He is covered in gold jewelry and always stashing things in his pockets.
He'd been spotted to hunt a siren that had been spotted around some merchant ships along the east coast.
The breeze was salty and sharp, the type that clung to the back of your throat, the type that Cobalt was used to because he'd been around water his whole life.
Below, in the water, he could see a shape. Shimmering, iridescent shapes rippling under the sheen of the ocean, blending in so well that only a trained eye could spot it.
A siren.
Man the canons.
His voice was calm, flat, and devoid of all emotion.
Canons burst from the ship's bow, soaring over the water before landing in the water with a splash. Nets flew into the bay, sinking into the water.
In no time, a lithe, graceful figure was being hauled onto the worn floorboards on the deck by his men.
Cobalt looked at the siren and felt a familiar sting in his chest. They were all beautiful, inhumanly so, but this one seemed to be a step further. He couldn't take his eyes off.
He unsheated the long, wicked butchers knife from his hip and held it to the soft flesh of the siren's neck.
Meanwhile, the siren in question, who was supposedly being threatened, was busy looking around the ship with wide-eyed fascination.
I'd never seen a ship before! Humans were so interesting.
Then, I felt the cold steel kissing my neck, and I looked at the arm connected to it. There was a thin line of crimson along the forearm. Without any hesitation, I took a peice of kelp out of my pocket and wrapped it neatly around the cut.
You're bleeding.
He was staring like he was witnessing something insane. The knife almost slipped out of his fingers.
What are you doing?
I blinked innocently up at him, eyes wide and dark.
Helping?
His brow furrowed.
I'm here to kill you.
Oh.
I went back to tying the bandage, making a neat little bow like it was a present.
Let me finish the bandage first.