The Selkie's Curse: A Sapphic Pirate Fantasy, page 1
The Selkie's Curse
A Sapphic Pirate Fantasy
Vivien Nash
Copyright © 2026 Vivien Nash
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
Book Cover by Getcovers.
Content Note
This book contains subject material that may be disturbing or upsetting, including: graphic descriptions of violence, sexual content, character deaths, drowning, xenophobia, body dysmorphia.
Reader discretion is advised.
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Content Note
1. Stubborn Shadow
2. Land Ho!
3. The Gullet
4. Snubbed
5. Old Acquaintances
6. Unmoored
7. Rum and Revelations
8. The Captain’s Reckoning
9. Stories in the Night
10. Coral and Sand
11. The Deep End
12. Breathless
13. The Weight of a Promise
14. The Graveyard
15. The Crowded Deck
16. Treading Water
17. Of Scars and Secrets
18. When Wind Meets Sea
19. Like the Old Times
20. Truths and Lies
21. Something Gained and Something Lost
22. The Desolate Sea
23. A Place in the World
24. This is Goodbye
25. The Calm Before the Storm
26. The Storm
27. Dirty Rags and Little Talks
28. Tales by the Fire
29. The Cork Toss
30. Between Fear and Trust
31. A Lead
32. To The Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea
33. Hello, Lover
34. The Reckoning
Epilogue
To be continued…
Acknowledgments
Note From the Author
1. Stubborn Shadow
Sable
The Gullet’s mouth opened around Sable in an expanse of glistening stone, and a gust of damp, chill air washed over her face, sharp as teeth. Sable breathed it all in as her boots struck the buried dock, but she did not linger. Too much noise, too many eyes. She and Kittredge ducked away from the ship’s ramp, fleeing the spraying water at their backs until they reached a quieter alcove among a lump of abandoned, rotting rope and empty crates. There against the cavern wall, glowing fungi clung to the rock, spattering Kittredge’s blonde hair with a dim amaranthine hue. This near the gallery’s mouth, with Aelion and Nivros shining brightly outside, they did not need the light of the fungi to see by, but Sable still tilted her face towards them. They were beautiful.
She would not get to see beautiful things for much longer.
The Heart of the Abyss had been happy enough to let them come here, even facilitated it, Sable was sure, because bumping into a pirate ship willing to take them for a ride? That didn’t just happen. And yet it did. The Blackhooks, Kittredge’s old crew, had been all too happy to lend them passage for a handful of coins. Kittredge had been sour the entire way here, especially when the crew failed to remember anything about her. The Heart hadn’t. Sable couldn’t put her finger on it, but its malevolent presence in her mind had seemed dimmer, somehow. It must’ve deemed the Gullet inoffensive. But once–
Once?
“Nice try,” she muttered under breath. “I know you’re in my head. I’m not telling you shit.”
“Huh?”
Sable threw Kittredge a sidelong look. She’d already given her an earful about how foolish it had been to abandon the safety of the Moonshadow’s crew, had tried to convince the eager rig monkey to turn back, had warned her this was not a trip she planned on coming back from. But Kittredge would not hear of it.
She covets me. You should kill her before she steals me from you.
Sable scoffed, though the voice resounding in her head felt like ants crawling under her skin. Alien. Wrong. But of all the Heart’s attempts to bring about ruin, this one was the most ridiculous yet.
Concern crossed Kittredge’s features.
Sable supposed talking to herself was not a reassuring look on her. “You should go visit Rowe,” she said, her words wrapped around a sigh. “I need to check a few shops, and book us passage on another ship. You have a few bells until we’re ready to leave again.”
It was the rig monkey’s turn to scoff, and, as if she didn’t have a care in the world, she leaned back against a stone boulder, taking out her juggling balls. The soothing familiarity of their soft, rhythmic thuds as they hit Kittredge’s palms was nearly drowned out by the cargo chains rattling, the harsh shouts of pirates at work, the constant boom and hiss of waves echoing against the walls. Kit’s eyes were squarely on the balls as she asked, “Sable?”
Sable scuffed her boot against damp stone, adding to the cacophony. Anything to drown out her thoughts and the Heart’s presence in her head. “Hmm?”
“How about we stop pretending I’m stupid enough to believe that?”
Even as she felt like cursing, Sable’s lips quirked in a wry smile. “I do need to check one shop, and book passage on another ship.”
“And you’ll be out of here within one bell with the first ship sailing out, regardless of where it’s going.” Kittredge met her gaze evenly, challenging her to deny the obvious.
Sable did not. Her nail scratched at the metal part of her machete’s handle, focusing on how the movement vibrated up her thumb. She wished she could fish out the small whetstone from her pocket and sit down to sharpen her blade. The long, repetitive motions always worked in keeping her focused, keeping her mind blank. But this was not the time nor the place.
“Look,” she said, and Kittredge already looked unimpressed. “You should stay here. I bet Rowe has been missing you, and she’ll be all too happy to let you crash until the Moonshadow catches up. You’ve been missing her too. You deserve a break. All that’s happened lately–it’s been a lot.”
To all of that, Kittredge just rolled her eyes. It would’ve been amusing under any other circumstances, aimed at anyone else, but not here, not now, not when Kit’s stubbornness would get her killed.
You could wish her away.
Sable dug her fingernails into her palm and allowed the sting to distract her from snapping at the Heart. She hated it in her head.
“You shouldn’t be doing this alone, Sable,” Kittredge said.
Sable ground her teeth. “That’s what you keep saying, but I can only do this alone.”
Kittredge gave her a searching look. “You still won’t tell me your plan?”
Yes. What is it that you hope to achieve here?
If Sable ground her teeth any harder, she was bound to break a molar. She forced a breath out instead, and her shoulders fell with it. “I told you, I can’t. It listens.”
Kit’s juggling paused, and she caught the four balls in one clean swoop. “How are you keeping it from finding out anyway, if it’s in your head?”
“With more noise than it can sift through,” Sable said, and before any further nosy questions, she made a sharp sound and gestured for Kittredge to follow. If she couldn’t keep her off her back, they might as well get going.
As Kittredge followed, she started juggling again. “Does it always listen? What if it’s not listening now?”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go see Rowe? She’ll be glad of your questions.”
She could hear Kittredge’s grin in her voice as she asked, “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re very stubborn?”
“They wouldn’t dare.”
A softly amused sound to that. Then, “Not even Calla?”
The smile that broke at that was as surprising as it was bittersweet. “She’s too proper.”
Kittredge hummed in thought. “Maybe Riley can loosen her up a bit.”
Sable nearly choked on her own spit, and she turned to look at the pirate.
Kit flashed her a quick grin. It did not look at all embarrassed. “We’re back to pretending I don’t notice things?”
Sable didn’t want to think of what other things Kittredge had noticed. She thought of Riley and Calla instead, and she scoffed. “They’ll have their hands full with each other. I’m not sure which one I’m more concerned about.”
“I knew it.”
Sable twitched a smile, even as a dull ache settled in her chest. She didn’t doubt Riley and Calla were bound to stop circling each other and come together at one point, and she wouldn’t be there to see it–she wouldn’t be there to see Calla melting, and she would never hold Riley again. But they would have each other. The thought of that was enough.
It doesn’t have to be.
“You talk too much,” Sable murmured.
“Someone has to keep you out of your head,” Kittredge piped up. “You’ll go mad with it otherwise.”
Sable had nothing to say to that, so she remained silent as they passed through a throng of pirates on the stone ramp leading
“Hey! Watch it, kid!”
Kit’s juggling balls scattered on the ground with a startled oomph, rolling back down towards the docks. She bent to catch them as the kid who had bumped into her rubbed at his shoulder.
“It’s you who has to watch it,” he grumbled as he shoved past, and something about that voice niggled at the back of Sable’s mind, like a dream she was just on the verge of remembering. Her hand shot out as if of its own accord, snatching his arm before he got out of reach. She made him face her.
“What do you want?” the boy asked, bright green eyes narrowed in a glare.
Sable stared back dumbly, her heart stopping in her throat. She blinked.
It couldn’t be.
But those eyes. The copper-red curls, wild and loose above his head. That small scar on his jaw where Echo once nicked him, when they still used to have a bird on board.
“Wait.” The boy’s eyes widened, his mouth going slack with shock. “Sable!?”
Kittredge’s gaze snapped up from where she was crouched.
“Pip?” they both asked in disbelief.
“Kit!” They didn’t have the time to react before the boy slipped Sable’s hold to fling himself at Kittredge, wrapping his arms around her neck and making her drop all of her juggling balls again. The pirates milling about side-stepped the three of them with annoyed grunts, but Sable barely registered them as Pip flung himself at her next with a high-squeaked, “Sable!”
Sable wrapped her arms around him in a daze, meeting Kittredge’s eyes above his head. She looked just as lost as Sable felt, the question on her face echoing the one looping around in her own mind. Was this real? She’d been so sure… They’d all been so sure… But Pip was warm and solid between her arms and beaming up at her, grin bright as Aelion’s rays. That warmth slithered under her skin, burrowing its way somewhere soft and hidden, followed closely by dread and gut-churning guilt. She hadn’t even mourned him–hadn’t allowed herself to feel his loss, one out of many during her life at sea. But she’d missed the little fucker–and they would have to leave him here.
“How are you alive?” Kittredge asked, blinking at him rapidly. She looked on the verge of pinching herself.
Then she reached out, and Pip yelped, jumping back from Sable and rubbing his arm. “Hey! What was that for?!”
Kittredge laughed, shoving a hand through her hair to keep the blonde strands out of her eyes. “Sorry, I just wanted to check that you weren’t a ghost.”
“You didn’t have to pinch me.” Pip scowled.
Kit grinned. “Sorry.”
Instead of answering Kittredge’s question, Pip craned his neck to peer behind Sable, then did the same to Kittredge, and then he studied the docked ships below, his face crumpling in confusion. “Where’s everyone else? Calla? Eryx?”
Shit. That.
Kittredge’s eyes flicked to Sable’s, and an understanding passed between them with the warm exhale of the Gullet’s breath. She wrapped her arm around Pip’s shoulders and pulled him along as they cleared the passage for the other pirates and kept walking deeper inside the cavern’s bowels. “Right. About that… Sable?” She looked helplessly at Sable.
Right. Despite years of trying, Kittredge still couldn’t lie to save her life.
Sable cleared her throat. “We’re on a mission,” she said carefully.
Pip’s eyes widened, and his visible excitement made Sable’s heart twist painfully in her chest. “A mission?” he asked, hushed.
“A secret mission.” He pouted at that, and after a quick assessment, Sable spun that around. “But you can help.”
She tried not to feel guilty when his face immediately brightened. This was for his own good. If only Kittredge were this gullible. She made a show of pausing for emphasis, but really it was just so that she could think. If she knew Calla–and she did, in spite of everything–she knew the Moonshadow would be on their tracks, so this could be her best opportunity to throw them off the scent and gain the time she needed to do what she had to do. “We need you to stay here, and when the Moonshadow docks, tell the captain we booked passage for Korrava. And that they need to wait here for us. They cannot follow.”
Pip frowned. “The volcano island?”
“Yes.”
“What are you going there for? It’s dangerous.”
Sable gave him a stern look, and he pouted again, kicking at a pebble as they walked. “Right, right. Secret,” he mumbled.
Sable nodded, more to herself than to him. This was a good distraction. If the crew suspected what she was up to, they’d think she planned to destroy the Heart by throwing it inside the island’s active volcano. It was entirely plausible. She had considered it.
At least you are not as foolish as the others who have tried to destroy me.
Sable ignored it. “Can you stay and do that for us?” she asked Pip seriously. “It’s important.”
Just as seriously, Pip nodded, and then kept walking, which pulled both Sable and Kittredge up short.
“Now?” he asked, frowning.
“We’re in a rush,” Kittredge said apologetically. Then she frowned in concern. “Where are you staying, Pip? Are you safe here? We can talk to someone to take you in before we go.”
The look Pip threw them at that was positively offended. He crossed his arms, scowling. “You don’t need to worry about me,” he huffed. “I found work at an inn while waiting for the Moonshadow to dock, and they give me food and board but no drink. All proper-like. I can look after myself!” He straightened his back and puffed out his chest, trying to make himself look tougher.
The wave of tenderness that hit Sable nearly knocked her off her feet, and then she wanted to kick herself, because she nearly wished they could stay. She nearly wished things were different. She couldn’t slip up like this, with the Heart waiting to grant any accidental desire.
You could take him with you.
Sable dug her nails into her biceps until she was sure they would leave bruises, just stopping herself from snapping at it. She didn’t want Pip’s last memory of her to be thinking she’d snapped at him.
There was no way in hell she’d let him anywhere near the Heart. They’d already lingered too long. It had taken notice of him.
“Good,” Sable said, and she coughed away the sudden roughness of her voice. “That’s good, Pip.”
Kittredge shot her an understanding look, then she smiled at Pip, and it was sad. “We’ll catch up with you once this is over, yeah?”
Pip visibly perked up, an easy grin playing on his lips as he forgot all about the tough act. “Yeah!” he said. “And I’ll make sure to tell the captain exactly what you said when I see her! Korrava, volcano, absolutely do not follow.”
He stepped back then, waving at them, and something like grief settled deep inside Sable’s chest. She waved back, staring at the grin on his face, at the brightness in his eyes, at the way the breeze ruffled his unruly curls. She wanted to remember this moment, add it to the things she could hold on to as she lay awake in the deep of night, fighting her own thoughts from straying. Moments like this were what she was fighting for, even if she wouldn’t be here to witness them any longer.
As Pip skittered off, his laughter carried with the wind stirring from the mouth of the cave, sending an unpleasant shiver down her spine. “I have so much to tell you once we’re all back together! You’re not gonna believe me!”
They watched him go, then they turned to each other incredulously. “I honestly didn’t believe Eryx was right about that, but…”
Sable shivered again. “Yeah.”
How did a boy survive the sirens? Sable started walking again, shaking her head at all her unanswered questions, and nearly bumped into Kittredge as the pirate stopped dead in her tracks.
“Shit,” she said.
“What?”
“I lost one.” Kittredge huffed. Sable glanced at her open palm, where three juggling balls rested instead of four. Before she could say anything, Kit waved her off. “I know, I know, there’s no time. Let’s go.”
