Free Revenge of the Siren Song (Rogues of Sea and Sky Book 1) by Michelle Stinson Ross

bed.
    By the time she could take the couple of steps to the window, there was nothing or no one to be found.
    “And stay away,” she yelled at the void.
    She walked back to the bed and dropped into it like a sack of grain. She had barely gotten her feet back under the blankets when the tapping began again.
    “If you don’t stay away from that window, I will not be kind enough to give you a quick end!” she called out as she once again made her way from the bed.
    She was irritated enough to want to catch the fool this time, so she crept more stealthily to the sill. She caught sight of a large black crow just before it leapt into flight from the ledge outside her cottage window.
    “Damn that bird to oblivion,” she muttered as she crossed the little room back to her bed.
    As soon as Grace crossed back into the deeper shadows of the room, she heard the rustle of wings and the tapping began again. She realized she would have to figure out what the stupid crow was after before she would get it to go away. Wary of startling it again, Grace turned around slowly and spoke softly.
    “What is it that you think you will gain by all this constant annoyance?” she asked the crow.
    Instead of immediately flapping away, the crow paused in its tapping, cocked its head to one side, and seemed to look at her with its glossy black eye. So long as Grace remained motionless, the staring contest continued. When she took another step closer, the crow flew off.
    “What in the world could that crow want so badly?” she wondered aloud as she approached the window.
    For the first time since the return to the Song’s cove, she peered at the world outside. She noticed several crows roosting in the trees a few yards from her cottage, but did not take in the clear blue sky or the dance of the trees in the breeze. She refused to open herself to any more sensation than was absolutely necessary to get that crow to leave her window alone. She rummaged around the things sitting near the window, looking for something that might be shining in the sunlight and drawing the crow’s attention. When she was satisfied that she’d cleared the clutter, Grace padded back to the bed.
    The melancholy captain tried to tuck herself back into her bed, but as soon as she’d settled in she knew she was too awake to drift off easily again. She remained there with her eyes closed, searching for the deep body relaxation that would lead to sleep, but it would not come. She got back up and milled about the room in a numbed daze until she began to yawn.
    She wandered back toward her bed, but no sooner did she reach for the blanket than the crow began pecking at the glazing again.
    “What is it? What do you think you want so badly?” she growled to herself more than to the crow.
    Again the crow stared her down from the other side of the thick wavy glass. It grew accustomed to her presence and began to peck at the window.
    “You bloody pest of a crow, stop that!”
    The fiendish crow pecked away at the window with even greater resolve.
    Grace lunged at the window and pushed it open with the intent of scaring off the crow. Instead, the crow took advantage of the opening and flew boldly into the interior of Grace’s little cottage. It flapped in wild noisy circles just out of her reach before settling high in the peak of the thatched ceiling.
    Unable to reach the intruder, Grace gave up and sat on the bed. The crow sat there looking at her as if it expected something of her. For the longest time, nothing at all happened. Grace sat on the bed with her face in her hands. She could take on a ship of skilled sailors, but was utterly defeated by a persistent black bird.
    She finally looked up and began to measure up her foe. The crow was a bit larger than average, shiny tiny beads for eyes set above a sharp black beak. The bird was covered in glossy blue-black feathers except for the very edge of its wings. An oddity of nature had caused the feathers at the tips of both wings