The slave ship was directly on Jade’s larboard, neatly in the sights of our heaviest guns. But we were also in the range of theirs. Through the glass, I spied enemy gunners holding wicks soaked in saltpeter, the fuses glowing red hot. Others waited with wadding, shot, and powder, ready to reload once the guns were discharged.

My stomach hardened as I filled my lungs with air and bellowed, “Fire!”

Both ships fired at the same time. Shot from cannonades blackened the sky with smoke and tore through Jade’s forward sails.

“We’re hit!” Reynolds screamed from somewhere behind me. “Damnation, Captain! We lost the fore topsail—”

“Jobah!” My pulse slammed through my veins. “Put her a point more to larboard. Priest, lay a shot across her mizzenmast.”

If the slave ship didn’t strike her colors by the time the smoke cleared, we would load up with chain shot and take out her rigging. The difficulty lay in not injuring the cargo hold or the enslaved men shackled within it. Had the ship been empty, we would have sunk her an hour ago.

“May I make a suggestion?” The velvety steel voice caressed up my spine.

I turned and stared up into glimmering blue eyes. “By all means, Lord Cutler.”

“Maneuver into a windward position and hold the weather gage. If you approach aggressively with the wind, you’ll blind them with smoke as you take out the rigging.”

He quickly explained the advantages and risks of a tactic he’d used in his battles against the Spanish.

My mind reeled at the sheer perfection of it. “You have an exalted natural mental ability, my lord.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Pass along the details of the maneuver to Jobah, if you please. And remind me to properly thank you later. With my mouth. While on my knees.”

“Gladly.” His gaze smoldered, dipping to the sharp rise of my breasts in the corset.

We pivoted, parting ways to prepare the crew for our attack.

The fight passed swiftly and flawlessly. The slave ship was caught in the thick billowing draft of smoke, her canvas afire, and her gunners far too blinded to thwart Jade’s approach.

By the time I hoisted our red flag with the intention to board, my crew was already flinging grappling hooks and storming onto the enemy ship. I threw myself into the throng, flanked by Priest and Ashley with our cutlasses raised.

The slave traders resisted with swords, coming at us in a clash of steel. The deck shuddered beneath the stomp of boots, and the scent of battle encompassed me. Gunpowder, blood, sweat, death. It infused me with a sense of purpose.

With every stab of my cutlass, I lay my heart naked. With every vile life that I took, I felt replete.

I was a pirate captain, a rebel queen of the sea, fighting against the conformities of society and the oppressive laws of man.