"What do you want from me? What do you want me to do?" the Dreamer asked her kindly.
"Please. Don't hurt my friends. Take a few of the ordinary pirates, if you must. But don't hurt my friends. Don't hurt Spade or his family or Ed or the Admiral or -"
Serenica had to stop. She had a nasty lump in her throat. She wanted to say how badly she needed the people she loved. She needed to make it clear that no matter how much her heart or the place below her navel throbbed for the prince, she had two families to take care of, and while she wanted to name her blood relatives as well, she could not find her voice at all.
"I'm not a monster and I will not become one, no matter how much gold I have been given," the Dreamer replied, and he was soft, and good, and he was speaking nice and lovely things to her.
"I will not hurt them. Especially Myorka, who is with child, is she not?"
