It turned out Sirius hadn’t been lying when he’d said he was good at holding his breath. It wasn’t the only thing he was good at either.

Amanda lay spent and breathless on the sand while Sirius gave a few final thrusts above her.

Tilting her head to one side, she could see the lobster slowly making its way back down the beach.

“Lunch is escaping.”

He paused just momentarily to follow her eye line down the beach.

“Ah,” he remarked, before returning to what he was doing. “I. Can. Get. Another.”

She drew her eyes away from their quickly disappearing lunch to watch him as he moved. One of his hands was cupping her thigh, the other was buried in the sand. He had his eyes closed, and she wondered what he was thinking about. His abs were shiny with seawater and sweat. She reached out and ever so gently caressed his belly with her fingers. She watched his stomach flutter in response and a small gasp slipped from his lips. Her feet were hooked around his back and she pulled him in harder with every thrust, until he fell forward and his head hung so close to her that she could have licked his face by simply raising her head a millimetre or two. It was tempting. He smelt of salt.

Then he opened his eyes and she forgot all her thoughts. She wanted to stay like that forever. She was pretty sure there was sand in places she didn’t want to think about but right now none of that mattered.

Far too soon he rolled off to the side, collapsing in the sand beside her. She stole a glance off down the beach again to see how far lunch had gone. It was almost at the water’s edge. Sirius must have done the same because a moment later he was on his feet, sprinting off down toward it. He managed to grab it right as it went over the edge.

“Nice catch,” she remarked as he trotted back up the beach. She wasn’t sure how he still had so much energy but she certainly wasn’t going to complain about it.

He threw the lobster down beside her and then looked back down at the water. “We’re still gonna need a couple more.”

“More? What?” But before Amanda could ask how many lobsters they needed, he’d already run to the edge of the lagoon and disappeared back under the water. Amanda felt breathless just watching him. Hell, she was still breathless, and he’d been the one doing all the work this time.

As she pulled her shirt back on she wondered if there was any more lost treasure down there. She made an attempt to de-sand herself but quickly gave up and tugged on the rest of her clothes. She walked to the water’s edge and peered over. Then, knowing he would probably be a couple minutes again, she trudged back up the beach to sit and wait on the sand near his clothes.

She considered checking the rest of his infusements but something else caught her eye. She’d never held a real sword before and usually his one hung by his side in a black scabbard, mostly concealed by his long cloak. Now it lay in the sun, much more eye-catching despite its simplicity. The handle was wrapped in black leather. Two thin strips of rounded silver metal formed the guard, arching outward from hilt to pommel. The pommel itself was small, almost non-existent. The blade was broad and curved slightly, no doubt to make it better at cutting ropes.

Amanda reached out a hand to lift the sword so she could study it further, and because she wanted to see what it felt like to hold one. But as she tucked her hand gently around the handle and tried to lift it she found it wouldn’t budge. It was heavy, far more so than she had expected it to be. She tried with a second hand but still she could not lift it, not even when she dug her toes into the sand and pulled with all her might. Even then she managed to budge it only an inch.

Finally she sat back down in the sand panting heavily.

After a moment’s thought she reached out and poked his sword with her magic. Much like with the ring she thought she could sense something but she couldn’t identify it. Was it magically weighted?

Sirius returned from his swim a moment later, this time with two lobsters in his hand.

Amanda frowned. “Three lobsters? I think one would have been more than enough.”

“Maybe for you,” he replied. “But I’ll eat at least two.”

She raised her eyebrows up and ran her gaze over him again. Well, he was a big man.

He sat down beside her and held the lobsters up. “Do you think you’ll be able to cook them?”

She caught teasing in his tone. She grinned. “Is that a challenge?”

He cracked half a smile and his green eyes sparkled and as they did when he was being playful. “Maybe.”

She reached for the third lobster and held it up in front of her. “Easy,” she replied. A moment later she handed it to him.

He frowned, swapped her for one of the other ones and then turned that one over in his hands. “It’s cooked?” he asked. No doubt he noticed that it felt slightly warm but the lack of flames obviously confused him.

“Sure, try it.”

He cracked open a part of the shell and pulled out some of the meat. After a taste test he nodded and then handed it to her. “I didn’t notice any fire.”

“That’s cause I flash cooked it from the inside,” she replied, taking some pleasure in finally being able to be open about her magic.

But still he was frowning. “Flash cooked… how hot..?”

“Very very hot. I can do dragon fire hot remember? Instant roast if needed.”

Her smile fell away as she realised how serious he still looked.

“Yeah, I suppose. I guess I didn’t think of what that meant before. Dragon fire hot… so you could melt steel if you wanted to?” He gave her a questioning look.

She nodded. “I could.” She watched him carefully, worried about his reaction. Would he be scared of her now?

Still frowning he glanced around. “Then could you turn sand into glass?”

“What?” she asked, surprised at the direction of his question.

He met her gaze, a slight uncertainty there. “Sand, I read if you heat it hot enough then it…?” He trailed off, obviously unsure if what he was saying was correct.

But once she’d recovered from the surprise of his question, Amanda understood what he was asking. A grin returned to her face. “Yes, I know what you mean.” She reached down and scooped up a handful of sand. Concentrating, she pushed her fire into it, hot and quick, hotter than any normal firestarter could do. So hot, she couldn’t quite direct all of the heat outward. It warmed her hands and she dropped the resulting creation back into the sand below rather than let it burn her palms. It cooled fast however and a minute later she picked it back up and handed it to him.

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After studying it for a while he remarked, “It’s kind of ugly.”

She laughed, having not expected that observation. “Well, I’m not an artist.”

“No, I mean, I thought it would look more glass-like.”

“Well, the sand’s not pure silica. Also for proper glass-making I think you need to cool it slowly. I’m not quite so good at that yet.”

“It’s still impressive,” he replied, turning the dirty-coloured fulgurite over in his hands several more times.

She gave half a smile, mostly just relieved that he wasn’t scared of her. She finished cooking the remaining lobsters, figuring it was kinder to do it faster rather than letting them slowly dry out.

For a minute or two they sat in silence just eating. She watched him start on his second lobster with as much enthusiasm as he had the first and she asked, “Can you really eat two whole lobsters?”

“I can eat three,” he replied.

She narrowed her eyes and brought her own half-eaten lobster closer to her body.

He chuckled. “But I can easily get another if I’m hungry enough after these two. Didn’t want to waste one if I wasn’t.”

“My mum always said you’re not supposed to go swimming after eating.”

He laughed again. “That’s an old wives tale. Trust me, I’ve spent a lot of time in and around the water.”

“Did you know they were in there? The lobsters?” She nodded down toward the lagoon and the hidden cave.

He shook his head. Then he put his hands up to his head like he was imitating antlers or something. “I saw their feelers sticking out.”

She laughed at his imitation.

He paused in his eating to just look at her then.

Her heart skipped a beat but her mind latched onto a question that had been nagging at her. “How come your sword is so heavy?”

She noticed the surprise in his expression, followed by a smile.

“It’s enchanted. Doesn’t affect me, being a strongarm, but it means if I drop it in battle no one else can pick it up and use it. It also means I can hit much harder.”

“And slower?” Amanda asked surprised that she was vaguely recalling a story her physics teacher had told her about baseball and heavier bats.

Sirius frowned for a moment. Then recognition crossed his face. He shook his head. “For some reason the strength doesn’t translate well to speed. I can’t swing a normal sword faster and a heavier sword doesn’t make me swing slower. Using my powers just makes it feel lighter.”

“But then wouldn’t a lighter sword also feel even lighter and then you could swing faster?” Amanda wasn’t sure she was right. Something didn’t make sense to her, but then she hadn’t really been paying that much attention in that physics lesson.

Sirius frowned again then shrugged. “It doesn’t work that way.”

Amanda nodded, taking his word for it. Magic didn’t always make sense although she had found that a better understanding of chemistry had helped her with her own magic. It had changed the way she thought about things, which had changed how her magic felt to use, and that had somehow granted her more subtle control.

“So you were checking out my sword?”

Amanda narrowed her eyes. There was that cheeky tone again, suggestive even. She glanced his way. Yeah, there was that slight twitch of his mouth, so subtle, and that sparkle in his eye. She licked her lips, then smiled slyly at him and replied, “So what if I was?”

His smiled widened for a moment and then it fell away. More serious he suddenly asked, “You haven’t used a sword before have you?”

She gave a short laugh and shook her head. “Why would I need to know how to use a sword? I’m not an aristocrat.”

“It’s useful if you end up in a fight. Guns aren’t great in crowded close range combat.”

“Do you fight binders often? Cause if not then I’ve got my magic.”

He looked serious. “We don’t use magic to fight. There are rules.”

“There are rules in a fight?”

“There are always rules in a fight.”

She frowned. “You just said you use a weighted sword so you can hit harder.”

“That’s different. Less obvious.”

“So you cheat?”

He shook his head. “It’s like that game we played, Bluff, you’re allowed to cheat, you’re just not allowed to get caught. Everyone cheats. No obvious magic. I mean you can, but then it gives others the right to as well. We have rules so damage to ships and crew are minimised.”

“Then why not sit down and just play a game of chess or something to decide victories? Why fight at all?”

“Oh, it has happened. The truth is most clashes are resolved with talking. You imagine pirates boarding a ship and slaughtering their way to ownership but usually the pirate’s bounty, or bribe, is decided by a conversation between two captains over a cup of tea, or rum, or sometimes a one on one battle. A captain can demand to fight another captain, can require it even, to first drawn blood is generally how it’s done. Just one cut and you lose. Spares a life though. If a pirate captain refuses one on one combat the general rule is that he leaves with nothing. He can suggest a crewman fight instead, that each captain nominate someone but the captain whose ship he’s boarded has the right to refuse.”

“Why would the captain whose ship was boarded agree to a battle between nominees if he knew he could beat the other captain in single combat himself?”

“Because their crew might be stronger as a whole and if things can’t be resolved with single duels then they might decide to take the whole ship by force instead of leaving with nothing. A fight between two evenly matched crewman carries less risk and loss overall.”

“Except, whoever loses could still decide to turn around and fight with everything they have.”

“They could, but out there”—he nodded toward the calm sea before them—“It’s not just one battle. If you don’t play by the rules and people find out, then you become a target. People band together and nobody wins against those numbers, or if they think you will then they wait until you dock at port, maybe bribe a crewman or two, and then they stab you in your sleep or they serve you up poisoned ale.”

“But you still negotiate as if someone might play their whole hand?”

Sirius nodded. “Nobody wants to be the first example. It’s a judgment call. Often pirates take a payment, a portion of the cargo or outright cash. A captain knows what can be replaced and what is worth fighting for. Some cargo sails for a cheaper price without insurance. That is, in the event that a ship gets boarded by pirates, that cargo is the first to go with no expected replacement by the client. They gamble on a ship not being hit by pirates. Others will pay extra upon arrival or will have clauses which specify how many lives they’re willing to reimburse to keep it safe.”

“You’d give up lives for cargo?”

“No, you just make sure that’s the last cargo given to a pirate. Pirates never take everything assuming they’re playing by the rules. That said, if someone’s not playing by the rules, it’s better to fight early than late.” He sighed. “And sometimes you might be faced with a choice. A full battle harms both sides, even the winner, everybody loses something. So maybe you both agree to let a crewman fight one on one or five vs five in exchange for a smaller portion of the cargo being spared if you lose. Even if it’s a fight to first blood, there’s still a risk of death. You gotta weigh those odds against what the cargo is worth. Other times, losing a crewman doesn’t mean they die, it means they switch crews and join the pirate ship. It still counts as a life lost as far as shipping agreements are concerned. Usually if the enemy suggest a fight between multiple crewman, it’s because they’re looking to increase their numbers and they want to see how well each man fights.”

“Surely if you were powerful enough and just took a whole ship by force all in one go, and left no survivors then who’s going to know that you cheated?”

“Your crew is. You can’t sail a big ship alone and you can’t keep the men from talking when they’re getting drunk at port. Even a couple words to impress a dock wrench will end up in someone else’s ear.”

“A dock wench?”

Sirius groaned and waved a hand. “A certain type of woman who hangs around the docks looking to bed a sailor.”

“A prostitute?”

He shook his head. “Not always. And not always woman to be fair." He paused and then he spoke as if reciting something. "There’s no secrets at sea, but if you give me a dime, I’ll tell you all mine.” He flashed her a smile.

She returned it then she replied, “What if you mind wiped them all?”

He raised his eyebrows. “A whole crew? I think someone would notice. They have mind readers at some ports to check the cargo too, make sure you’re paying the right taxes. You’d have to be pretty darn skilled at which point it begs the question, what the fuck are you doing shipping cargo? There’s safer careers that pay better for someone with that kind of power.”

“Maybe they love the ocean,” Amanda teased.

Sirius snorted. “Then they’d do something else and buy a boat to sail in their free time. Ain’t nobody doing this job for fun.”

“What would you do then? If money wasn’t an objective? If you could just do anything?”

Sirius was silent then as he stared out at the sea. After awhile he replied, “I don’t know. I never thought about it. Does reading books count? And fishing? I like fishing. And watching the fish, and swimming.” He looked around at the beach. “And this.” He gestured to their surroundings. Then he turned to her. “What would you do?”