Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Freezing

Xyra's knuckles gripped the side of their sloop with impressive strength, her knuckles were stark white and it was a miracle that the wood did not crack under the pressure of her hands.

It had been four suns since they had returned from their small vacation and she should have realized the peace and calm of those past suns had been too good to be true. She should have known, with Cooker acting far too erratic, that something was amiss. Theo was also uncharacteristically calm, so, Xyra had just chalked it up to something being in the air. She had taken it too easy in the time leading up to their departure, she had let her guard down.

Between the partying at night, the constant haze of being drugged because of the pain from her leg, and her mental and emotional limbo with Navi, she was a bit preoccupied. Xyra should have been focused, should have been alert, should have seen it fucking coming from a thousand yards away. What else had she missed? What else had slipped under view? She was Theo's goddamned first mate, her first and last line of defense and Xyra had royally fucked it up.

Xyra watched as her captain, and the person she had pledged her life to, sailed off into the horizon. What made things worse than just having to send Theo off, Xyra was sending her off with someone who had failed to keep her safe, failed to do the right thing, and failed to rise to her duties. The Scorned Woman was slowly disappearing into the setting sun, having cleared the reef and taking off under the cover of soon-to-be darkness and Theo's safety was no longer in her hands.

The unnamed sloop would take off in the morning and Xyra would be stuck on board with her thoughts until then; unable to do anything to distract herself. She stayed on the deck of the ship until the sun had fallen out of the sky and the Scorned Woman was no longer visible to her eye. She was the only one on the ship, most everyone else had stayed down on the docks to wave off their flagship. A select few, Morgana most notably, had abandoned the farewell party a few minutes into the Scorned Woman sailing off and went to drown their sadness in alcohol.

Xyra pulled herself away from staring at the empty and vast darkness of the ocean and walked to her new quarters on the ship. The captain's quarter. As if the news she had received wasn't enough to make her want to drown herself, there was the fact that she was now considered a captain. Xyra, not Theo, would be the one looked at to make decisions. The fate of some 20 odd women on her ship was Xyra's responsibility now. This was always something she dreaded, she was not meant to be a captain, she did not want to be one.

But this is what needed to happen, this was what Theo had requested of Xyra. Whatever Theo wanted was Xyra's duty to comply with. Her stomach flipped as she thought of Theo. Xyra sat down on the new bed, a bit small and very unfamiliar to her. She wanted to lay down and just go through breathing exercises but the sheets belonged to the previous tenant and she wasn't going to lay in another pirate's filth. Xyra put her face in her hands and leaned her elbows on her knees. Her fingers found their way into her hair and she pulled a bit before letting out a frustrated grunt.

Fucking Cooker.

Fucking liar.

Fucking asshole.

Fuck!

Xyra had had a sour taste in her mouth and a lump in her throat ever since the night before, a constant reminder of the information she had just been made privy to. The night before, the crew had been just about to hit the town for their last evening together when Xyra and Navi had gotten a little sidetracked. Navi had gone shopping with Xyra and was helping her with the bags when Xyra asked her to come into the room to help her put things away. It was an elaborate ruse to get Navi into her room so that she could bring up the possibility of sleeping together. Which went over splendidly.