Morgan Rice - An Oath of Brothers

Angel reached up and began splashing at the water, trying to swim, to pull them away from the boat.

The men laughed behind her, clearly amused by her efforts.

Suddenly a heavy rope-net came flying down through the air, landing on her and Thor so heavily it hurt; she tried to shake it off, but it was useless: she felt her and Thor hopelessly entangled in the net, and soon hoisted up out of the water and into the air.

She wriggled and screamed, trying to break free as she was lifted ever higher, her arms sticking out of the large holes in the net.

“Thorgrin!” she yelled shoving him. “Wake up! Please!”

But he did not respond.

As they neared the deck, Angel spun in the net and saw dozens of pirates standing close to the edge, looking down at her. A particularly fierce-looking one, unshaven, with rotting teeth, stringy hair, and a necklace of real shrunken heads, stared down her, smiling, licking his lips.

“Bring her up,” he said. “I’m going to have some fun with this one.”

She was lifted higher and higher, like some fish caught for the day, and the laughter of the cutthroats filled the air as she was raised to eye level, dripping wet, over the deck.

“Let me go!” she yelled, kicking and writhing.

“And why would you want that, little sister?” one of them asked in his raspy voice. “Would you rather be at the mercy of the sharks? Or wouldn’t you rather be up here and alive here with us?”

She spat, right through the net, onto their face:

“I would rather be dead a thousand times than be with you on your ship. At least the sharks I can trust.”

The other cutthroats mocked the leader as he wiped the spit off his face, hooting and hollering at him.

“Looks like it took a little girl to put you in your place.”

The leader’s laughter quickly turned to rage.

“Don’t worry,” he snarled at her, “when we’re done with you, maybe I’ll throw you to the fish after all. At least what’s left of you.”

She sneered back at him, deciding to bluff.

“My friends will find me,” she snapped. “I have very powerful friends on my ship. They are all alive, and coming for me right now.”

The cutthroats laughed uproariously.

“Are they?” they asked. “Then we shall be quivering in our boots.”

“Thorgrin!” she yelled again, elbowing him in the ribs again and again. “Wake up! I beg you! Wherever you are, wake up!”

She elbowed Thor again and again, but he just hung there, limp-necked, not responding. Maybe he really was dead, she thought.

“Looks like your friend is dead,” the captain said, as he pulled them in close, pulling her right at eye level, and reached out and grabbed her though the net, yanking her close. He stared at her through the net, but a few inches away, his awful breath in her face.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ve got a cure for dead meat.”

Angel looked down and watched him draw a dagger from his waist, the longest dagger she had ever seen, and watched him reach up and aim for her. She screamed and braced herself, assuming he was going to stab her.

Instead, though, she heard the sound of cutting rope and she realized what they were doing: they were cutting away the portion of the net that held Thorgrin.

Angel reacted. She wrapped her legs around Thor quick and squeezed as tight as she could, using all of her strength to hang onto the net and keep him from plunging. She strained and struggled, holding on for dear life, as Thor swung beneath her, unconscious, dangling over the ocean, held only by her legs. She knew that if he fell, in his state, he would surely drown.

“Let him go!” the cutthroat yelled. “If you don’t, you’ll go right down to the sea with him—then you’ll both be dead!”

“Never!” she yelled defiantly.

Angel hung on for dear life, while the cutthroats poked and prodded her with sticks, trying to make her let go. Still she hung on, every muscle in her body shaking, determined to never let Thorgrin go.

“Thorgrin!” she yelled. “Please! I beg you. Wake up! I need you!”

Suddenly, another cutthroat stepped forward, took a long club, wound back, swung it wide, and cracked her on the legs.

Angel cried out, the pain feeling as if it would smash her in half. Involuntarily, she loosened her grip and let go of Thor.

Angel’s heart broke as she watched him plummet down through the air, into the ocean. There he went, the only person who had ever cared for her in her life, who had risked his life for her, who had been good to his word and had held onto her no matter what. And she had let him go. She hadn’t reciprocated his loyalty—and loyalty mattered more to her than her life.

Angel made a sudden decision. She could not let Thor go. No matter what.

As the cutthroats began to pull the net over the deck, Angel suddenly let go and leapt away from the ship.

She dove down, headfirst, aiming right for the icy waters below, aiming for Thor’s body, which she could already see sinking beneath the waves.

From up here, she was able to look out and see the entire ocean, and she glanced out and looked for any sign of the others, Thor’s brothers, floating somewhere out there, maybe clinging to debris.

But there was none. They were all dead. All of Thor’s legion brothers. All dead.

Now, it was only she and Thor.

As she dove down for the frigid waters, she knew the ocean would kill them both. But that meant nothing to her.

Having a chance to save Thorgrin’s life was all that mattered. And she would take it—no matter what the cost.

Listento THE SORCERER’S RING series in audio book format!

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A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1)

A MARCH OF KINGS (Book #2)

A FATE OF DRAGONS (Book #3)

A CRY OF HONOR (Book #4)

A VOW OF GLORY (Book #5)

A CHARGE OF VALOR (Book #6)

A RITE OF SWORDS (Book #7)

A GRANT OF ARMS (Book #8)

A SKY OF SPELLS (Book #9)

A SEA OF SHIELDS (Book #10)

A REIGN OF STEEL (Book #11)

A LAND OF FIRE (Book #12)

A RULE OF QUEENS (Book #13)

AN OATH OF BROTHERS (Book #14)

ARENA ONE: SLAVERSUNNERS (Book #1)

ARENA TWO (Book #2)

TURNED (Book #1)

LOVED (Book #2)

BETRAYED (Book #3)

DESTINED (Book #4)

DESIRED (Book #5)

BETROTHED (Book #6)

VOWED (Book #7)

FOUND (Book #8)

RESURRECTED (Book #9)

CRAVED (Book #10)

FATED (Book #11)

Morgan Rice is the #1 bestselling author of THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, a young adult series comprising eleven books (and counting); the #1 bestselling series THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic thriller comprising two books (and counting); and the #1 bestselling epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING, comprising fourteen books (and counting).

Morgan’s books are available in audio and print editions, and translations of the books are available in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, Turkish, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak (with more languages forthcoming).