Lost Heir Read online

  Lost Heir

  Saved by Pirates Standalone

  G. Bailey

  Contents

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  Description

  Note from the author

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Epilogue

  Note From The Author.

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  Description of Escape The Sea

  Excerpt from Escape The Sea…

  Lost Heir © 2020 G. Bailey

  All right reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For more information, contact:

  [email protected]

  or

  www.gbaileyauthor.com

  Edits by Polished Perfection

  Cover design by Jennifer Munswami

  Created with Vellum

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  For those who find their heart beating that much faster in the sea.

  Description

  Not all gods belong to the sea...

  Everleigh of Calais thought her heart belonged to the throne she was given, but the gods have other ideas.

  After the war of Calais, the last thing her people wanted was for their queen to be killed and sent to the deep sea of souls. But in the sea, Everly might find her home in the shape of a sarcastic, and slightly insane, god with stunning eyes and a kind soul.

  In the year Everly has been missing, a new queen has risen in the sea and wants the crown that is not hers, while back on land, Everly’s best friend is struggling to hold the seven islands together.

  The sea wants her heart,

  the mermaid king believes her heart is his,

  and her protector on land will fight the very waves of the sea to bring Everly back.

  Two crowns. Two worlds. But only one queen.

  18+ RH romance based in the Saved by Pirates world. Reading the Saved by Pirates series first is recommended.

  Note from the author

  It has been a while since I published a book in this world, and in this brief page, I want to recap the world for you.

  On the seven islands of Calais, changed ones were born and killed. These were children born with magic, and the king feared them all, so he had them killed before they could challenge him for his throne. A changed one named Cassandra was born on the island of Onaya and hidden thanks to her father having power. Her tutor’s daughter Everleigh was her best friend, who she called Everly. One night something went wrong, and Cassandra had to escape the island with the help of Everleigh and her mother.

  Cassandra eventually found herself on a pirate ship, and in her story, it ends with Cassandra conquering the king and freeing the land with Everly’s help. In their search for a way to bring down the king, Everly promised to marry the mermaid king as part of a deal.

  Much was lost in the war, but Everly was found to be a royal heir to the throne.

  This is where Everly’s story begins as Queen Everleigh of Calais who is engaged to the mermaid, King Damien of Merida…

  Prologue

  King Damien of the Mermaids

  Clutching my crystal glass tighter in my hand, I watch the reflection as the man I haven’t seen in years walks into my palace. He looks like a pirate with his torn black hat, leather clothes and jacket that falls to his knees. Nothing about his appearance fits in with the true power of the man in my palace. “I did not invite you here, imposter.”

  “Gods do not need an invite,” he drawls before coming to my side. I crush my crystal glass into tiny pieces, watching them fall to the glass floor, cracking the perfection it once was. The only perfection I’ve ever seen was in the blue eyes of my future queen as she made it clear no man on sea or land could ever control her.

  She is a true queen, and yet she evades me by dying and making it impossible for her to ever know what it would be like at my side, on the throne.

  We never had a chance. Gods and the sea be damned, I would have loved her endlessly.

  “What do you want?” I snap. “I am a king. I have millions of mermaids and the entire sea to look after.”

  Leaning closer, he almost laughs before he whispers, “I have something of yours, and funny enough, she is also mine. Not like the pretender you are letting take her place.”

  I tightly grab his stupid white shirt that makes him look almost normal, not like the half god pretender he really is. “What could you possibly have that I might want?”

  “Queen Everleigh of Calais, and we need to make a deal.”

  Chapter 1

  The God of Souls

  Watching the endless waters where the souls of the dead come to burn is tiresome. I lean against my ship, listening to the only noise here, the screaming the souls make when they face their debts to the Sea God. When they have to face what truly evil lives they all lived. The good don’t stay here for long. They face their lives in this water and then pass on in peace, ready for another life or whatever faces them in the great beyond.

  A place I will never, ever get to see because I wanted this. I chose to be a god of souls so I could make my father, the Sea God, proud—but it came with a price. I can never save a soul without giving up my powers. I can never love or care or find friendship with anyone here.

  I can’t leave.

  I’m trapped.

  It was a bad move when all I had ever dreamed of lies in the everyday life. I want what each of the souls here was so effortlessly given.

  A family. A connection to someone else.

  What is worse is the visions of the life I could have had. With a woman with long bright hair like the sun and eyes so bright blue that the sea would be jealous.

  Visions don’t help the lonely nights. I suspect they never will do.

  Expecting the same day as every day before it, I take off my pirate hat and place it on the wheel of my ship just as a bright light blasts into my eyes. I rush to the edge of my ship as a soul like no other falls from the above, and I can only see her long blonde hair. She falls into the sea like a light falling into darkness.

  And only I’m here to catch her.

  My heart beats fast, like it has never done before, as I watch the soul float down into the sea ever so softly. Gracing the world with her beauty, her pure soul. The screams of the souls seem to all stop as I search the new soul, and what I find brings me to my knees.

  My soulmate just fell into my sea.

  And I’m going to save her.

  Chapter 2

  Everleigh

  “
Queen Everleigh–” Tyrion starts to say as he bows at me in the hall, and I stumble to a stop. The guards around me all look my way, as does every single person in the room as they watch me make a mess out of simply walking. My stumbling alone makes him stop talking and drops the room into silence as they wait for my word. By the sea, I’m not fit to be a queen any more than a fish has a place on land. I trail my eyes over his built body in his new deep red shirt and tight black trousers, and his messy brown hair never seems to stay in place, but I love that about him. It’s curly with little tresses getting into his blue eyes when he looks up at me, his emotions hidden behind the glossy eyes. He is so handsome, and I know I’m not the only one that notices around here. The very thought of anyone touching Ty makes me want to snap, but that can’t happen in public. Collected and proper. The rules were set against me from the second I accepted my birthright and took my throne. No more choosing my future; instead, it is chosen for me, and my love life will follow in the same suit.

  Pulling my mind back to Ty, he is still looking at me so carelessly, not a flicker of the man I knew before I took the throne. It just seems like I’m the only one he doesn’t care about noticing him and never has since we met, if I’m being honest with myself. I owe Tyrion my life, more than once, but our friendship? I always felt that was something so natural between us that we even found each other in the pits of a dungeon.

  “You don’t have to call me that, Ty, it’s Everly or Ev,” I say, smiling at him, but he keeps his expression cold and emotionless like he has from the moment I told him about the promise I made to the mermaid king, a promise I still know I would not take back. The price I paid months ago to save my friend and to save Calais and the hundreds of thousands of people I look after now. I’m the queen of the seven islands of Calais, and due to a long war, I had to make a deal to win my crown, and I wish Ty could understand it. My deal was to the mermaid king, a mermaid I’ve only met once, and even then I didn’t like him or how he demanded my heart.

  To marry a complete stranger seems like a death sentence.

  Tyrion says he doesn’t care about my promise, but I know that’s a lie. I hope it’s a lie. My best friend here won’t even look me in the eye now, and gods I miss him as much, if not more, than I miss my best friend Cassandra.

  “Queen Everleigh, the council have called you to the throne room,” he says and then turns to walk away without even a smile. I go to follow him, but I don’t get far because he walks away too fast and I can’t run to catch up even if I tried to. I have a stupid damn limp in my leg because a sword did too much damage in the war, and no healing herbs seem to remotely help.

  I look back at two of my personal guards, both of them as silent as always, but they are watching for danger at all times I’m outside my personal areas. I swallow my annoyance at Tyrion and walk down the corridor and towards the stairs, limping the whole way and keeping my head high. I try to hide it now, but the pain doesn’t make it easy to, and everyone here knows anyway. I went from a girl who could fight to a queen who can just limp with a sword. It doesn’t help that the dresses I’m forced to wear for appearance only weigh me down more and make it harder to move.

  I finally get to the second to top layer of the mountain, where my rooms, the throne room and the council room are. The council members do have another room above us, but only changed ones can enter that due to their magic. Changed ones are people born with a mark on their forehead, marking them as kissed by the Sea God and special. The war was because of them, because the old king used to hunt their kind and kill anyone who protected them. Like he tried to do to me for protecting my best friend, Cassandra. I smile as I think of my best friend, knowing she must have had her baby by now, and I can’t wait to get a letter to know if it’s a boy or a girl.

  I think it’s a girl, and she will be everything our future needs.

  “Queen Everleigh,” three guards at the door say as I walk into the throne room, and I hear them close the door behind me and my guards. I look over at the two council members in the room, Master Pirate and Master Light. Both of them I have come to trust to an extent. I stop when I see the woman stood just behind them. Her bright blue hair is down, and she actually has clothes on this time, when usually she never wears them to deliver messages here. Mermaids don’t wear clothes from what little I’ve seen, or if they do, it’s only because they have been told to.

  “Kiaw?” I ask, walking over and offering her my hand to shake. She does, and I feel how warm she is, almost burning to the touch. I wonder if my future husband runs this hot.

  “The king has sent me to collect you. It is time, Queen Everleigh,” she says, and I smile tightly. I walk around them all and go to my throne, sitting down and folding my hands in my lap, straightening my back.

  “You can return to your king, and give him a message instead,” I say, and her eyes widen in shock.

  “You promised. You must not break your word,” she hisses.

  “I am not,” I say simply, and it seems to calm her down a little. “You can tell your king that if he wants his bride, then he must come to collect her himself.” She shakes her head almost frantically, and I know she doesn’t want to take back this message one bit.

  “The king does not leave his city to come near humans. Your request is impossible,” she says, her eyes wide and frightened. I want to feel sorry for her, but this is what I’ve planned. I will not leave my people so soon after the war, and marrying a mermaid king involves leaving my throne to do that.

  “Then it will be impossible for him to collect on my promise. Now leave and safe travels,” I say, nodding my head at my two guards, who escort Kiaw out. When the door shuts behind them, I wait for the council members to say what is no doubt on their minds as I play with the lace on my dress to avoid this.

  “I do not believe that was wise, your highness,” Master Pirate says, his words sarcastic and annoying. “We cannot win a war against the seas. No royal ever has done in the past, and our armies are non-existent due to the war we have just had to get you on the throne!”

  Biting my tongue harshly, I swallow the words I want to say for something a little less harsh. “That was my choice. I do not want to marry a stranger. A king of the mermaids. If I marry him, he will be king of all of Calais. and he only cares for the throne, not its people. I was told he killed his older brothers for the throne, and I don’t have to remind everyone in this room what Calais is like with an evil king ruling it!”

  “Yes, but you will be queen at his side,” Master Light softly says and walks up to me, taking my hand in his and placing it on his chest in an almost loving way. It makes me think of my mother, and when I think of her, all I can remember is the last moments of her life where she died in a way she shouldn’t have. “To be queen, you must sacrifice your ideals and your personal wants. The king will come here for you, and you must return to his world and come back as the queen of both land and sea.”

  “Is the queen of land not enough?” I ask, and he nods, turning my hand over. His finger traces a line in the middle of my palm.

  “They say our life stories can be told in our hands, in the lines we have given to us by the very gods. They say the god of souls looks at your hand before he decides whether to take your soul or not,” he murmurs. “To fight our destiny is to only hurt ourselves.”

  “Who is the god of souls?” I ask, as I’ve only ever heard of the Sea God, like everyone else.

  “Someone you could do to learn about, Queen Everleigh,” he chuckles and lets go of my hand. I watch as he walks out the room with Master Pirate before standing up and looking towards the two guards left with me.

  “I’m ready to go to my rooms,” I say, but neither of them moves; they keep their heads down, looking at the floor. I walk over to the one on the left, my heart beating in my chest as I see the blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth. I touch his shoulder, and he falls to the floor with an empty thud, and my heart smacks away in my chest. I back away, turning and rushing towa
rds the door, just as I feel a pain rip through my chest, shocking me to my core. I look down, seeing a black arrow sticking out of my chest where my heart is, blood dripping down my red dress. I fall to the floor, gasping for air and only tasting blood in my mouth as my vision goes blurry.

  “Death to the throne, death to the queen.” A man’s voice shouts in joy as a blurry figure steps over me, and everything fades away before I can see his face.

  Chapter 3

  Everleigh

  I sit up in a rush, gasping for air and tasting nothing but water in my mouth, feeling nothing other than the darkness around me. I’m too scared to open my eyes to know what death really is like or if it is as frightening as I’ve always heard. My eyes sting with tears when I know I will never see Cassandra again and that my people will not have a queen now this is all over.

  I was a queen for less than a year.

  And Calais will suffer because of my weakness. I have to hope my cousins, Ryland and Hunter, take over the throne they didn’t want and that the people actually respect them. I feel around my bare chest, not feeling anything out of the normal. No hole where the arrow was. Running my hands over my body, I feel that I’m in a silky, maybe torn dress, or at least it is strange. I feel my dress in my hands, knowing it is not the same dress I died in, and I wonder if this is what death feels like. It feels cold, but my heart still bangs in my chest, and fear still haunts me. Am I imagining this? My skin is cold but still warm as I move my hands to my arm. Holding onto my wrist, I feel my heartbeat under my thumb, and I wonder how that is even possible.