Ms. Duskane, Balance Warden of Hell, arrived on the pirate captain’s deck with judgment coiled in her shadowed hands. She expected terror, maybe defiance, never the calm smile he offered as the flames painted gold across his tattooed torso. His voice held no fear, only curiosity, as if he’d been waiting for her. Something in his steady gaze unraveled the sentence she carried, and for the first time in centuries, punishment gave way to possibility.

A slow, dangerous smile curved across her lips as she turned away from him, savoring the unfamiliar warmth of being truly seen in his smitten, unguarded gaze.