The Pirate's Wish by Cassandra Rose Clarke Page A

I stomped through the soft seagrass in front of the house and rapped my fist against the door.
    “Where are we?” Naji asked.
    “You got a headache?”
    “No.”
    “Then you know I ain’t in danger. Stop asking questions.”
    He frowned and I thought his eyes looked kinda wounded, but he didn’t say nothing.
    The door swung open, and Old Ceria, my old sea magic teacher, stuck her head out, squinting in the sunlight. She looked at me and then she looked at Naji.
    “What happened to his face?” she asked. “Looks like what happens when you let Lady Starshine in charge of the roast at the dry season festival. Charred on the outside, bloody on the inside.”
    Naji turned to stone, his eyes burning with anger. Before the kiss, I might’ve warned him.
    “He got hurt a long time ago,” I said. “Ceria, we need to borrow some clothes, if it’s not too much trouble.”
    “You mean take some clothes .” But she held the door wider and let me and Naji step inside. It was dark in there, with heavy curtains pulled over the windows. Dried-out seaweed hung from the rafters, and all manner of sea creatures lay out on the cabinet – or the shells of ’em did, anyway. The smell was the same, too, stale and salty.
    Old Ceria was a seawitch, like Mama, and Mama would always bring me to see her when I was a little girl, to try and extract magic out of me. Ceria lived on Bone Island cause she couldn’t abide Empire rule, but she didn’t have no love for the Confederation neither – for pirates in general. She barely tolerated Mama, truth be told, but she was willing to put aside differences far as magic was concerned.
    I hadn’t seen Ceria in years, but she looked the same as she did when I was younger, as dried out as her seaweed and her dead crabs.
    “He the reason you ran off from the Hariri clan?” Ceria asked me, jutting her head toward Naji.
    Shit. I didn’t think she would’ve heard.
    She gave me a narrow, sharp-toothed smile.
    I didn’t answer her, didn’t even move my head to shake it yes or no. I could feel Naji staring at me, staring at her.
    “Oh, don’t worry,” she said, grinning wider. “You think I care about Confederation politics? Just asking cause it ain’t never wise to give your heart to a blood magician.”
    I went hot at that.
    Old Ceria chuckled and even though she was an old woman and I knew that meant she deserved my respect, I kinda wanted to hit her.
    “You two wait here,” she said. “I take it you want the clothes for him? You’re looking awful dapper in that Empire cloak.” A little curl of her lip when she said Empire .
    She disappeared into the back of the house. Naji and me stood in silence, and I listened to the waves rolling in to the beach behind us. Naji was still fuming over Ceria’s comment about his face – I could see it in the way he kept balling up the rotted fabric of his shirt in one hand.
    I tried to work up the nerve to apologize to him.
    Naji said, “Captain Namir yi Nadir will cover his face.”
    “Marjani won’t like that.”
    “Marjani can dress up as a man if she wants a captain so badly. I’m covering my face.”
    Old Ceria came into the room, a tattered brocade coat tossed over one arm, some trousers and shirts tossed over another.
    “I should be getting you a scarf, then,” she said.
    Naji sneered at her and she threw the clothes at him.
    “Ain’t scared of you, blood magician. Got nothing but seawater in these veins.” She nodded at me. “You best watch out, girl.”
    “He won’t hurt me,” I said.
    “Seems to me he already has.”
    Naji stalked outside with his new captain’s clothes, but I stayed in the house for a minute or two longer, staring at her, thinking back to those horrible afternoons as a kid, digging up sand on the beach for her spells.
    “How’d you know?” I asked.
    “I’m a witch, darling,” she said. “I saw you coming two weeks back. I know his story too, the curse and all. The kiss.” She winked at me.
    I