Many readers, after finishing Windfall, want to know more about Ameen.
They are drawn to his character and curious about where his story will go. As one of the three main point of view characters, this is to be expected. He has a devastating backstory. His life began on a colonized island. He remembers nothing of his own mother. His father took him aboard a merchant ship when he was a child and was thereafter killed in a storm. When Liana meets Ameen at the end of Seabird, he is looking for a new family, of sorts, and finds one in her and the crew she subsequently builds. In the first chapter of Windfall, their romantic relationship begins.
While Ameen possesses all the ingredients to be a lovable tragic love interest… well, therein lies the problem with his character.
Narcissists are extremely likable people.
One might be thinking, “But Liana is such a strong main character. But Ameen is so supportive of her swashbuckling endeavors. But—”
No. Ameen Almasi is what one could call a Ross Gellar.
Anyone familiar with the popular show Friends knows that Ross is the “nice guy.” He simps for Rachel, a bubbly, vibrant and confident character with deep connections and an undoubtedly kind heart. He pines for her from afar, for years, idealizing her. He finally gets the girl (after quite a bit of begging and chasing). He cheats and her and then blames her for the “misunderstanding.” The line “we were on a break” is still familiar, twenty-five years later. It devalues the significance of their relationship as romantic partners and therefore makes it “okay” for that one-night stand to happen. Once it’s clear to Ross that Rachel isn’t ready to forgive him, he discards her.
Covert narcissists come in such form. While their counterparts (overt narcissists) have the same goal and similar patterns of behaviors to achieve it. They chase social status in the easiest way possible. Ross finally gets the most popular girl from school, his sister’s best friend, the woman of his dreams. Then, he destroys her.
But this blog isn’t about a TV show from the 90’s. It’s about my pirate book.
Like Rachel, Captain Liana Foley is well-loved. She takes care of her people. She is fiercely protective and would lay down everything for someone she loves. She loves Ameen very much. He makes her his home and stability. She is exactly what he’s looking for.
When they meet, Liana is very young, still a teenager. She gets a hare-brained idea that she wants to buy a ship and build a pirate crew but needs a little help.
He sighed. “As I’m sure you know, your brother is a man of plentiful ideas.”
“Right.”
“But…”
“But very little action?” I surmised.
His smile returned. “Exactly.”
“So, he offered you a job? Some scheme to make quick money, no doubt. That sounds like him. He’s ambitious, but, Divine, he always goes about things in such a roundabout way. Nothing is ever direct with him.”
“Not like you,” Ameen said. “You seem very direct.”
“I am.”
“I like Ivan,” he said. “But I don’t think I could ever work for him.”
“I don’t blame you.” I tapped my chin, teetering on the edge of indecision.
He sensed it. “What?”
“It’s just… I have some ideas of my own, actually.”
“You can tell me.” When I hesitated, he said, “Go on. What good are ideas without action, after all?”
I pressed my lips together. My gaze settled on his handsome face and my stomach did a nervous somersault. After a deep breath, I said, “What are your thoughts on piracy?”
He latches on. While Liana’s brother, Ivan, didn’t suit Ameen’s needs, she is not only young and vulnerable, but she dreams bigger. It’s a wave that he can catch. He does, by praising and idealizing her.
Their relationship lasts for nearly a decade, during which he becomes her quartermaster, nearly equal in power to the captain on a pirate ship. He reaps the benefits, holding power and sway over captain and crew, until Ameen is thrown a curveball. It is revealed that Liana Foley is the lost princess Ilyana Romenel. Narcissists don’t like to be caught off guard. How does he tip the balance back? He devalues her. After an argument during which she reveals her true identity, she is left devastated.
Ameen had left the scent of spiced lather in his wake. There was no telling when he would be back. She wasn’t sure if she was ready for him to return quite yet anyway. But she found the wait more agonizing than the band of pain around her head. Rain pounded against the window, and she wondered if he was caught in the downpour. Thoughts washed in and out of her head. She drifted like weightless flotsam in the open sea.
Chapters later, there is a turning point that a few readers catch his true, abusive nature.
She marched back to the manor. Inside, she found Ameen packing. The sight was like a punch to the gut, leaving her just as winded. He didn’t look up, even upon her entrance. “Are you going somewhere?”
“I’ll sleep with the crew tonight. I need… time to myself.”
“Ameen, what the hell—why are you doing this?”
“I couldn’t stomach what I saw from you today,” he said shortly, throwing a shirt in his bag. Another punch.
Ameen pushes Liana away out of frustration, in a moment where he can’t see any other method of containing her. The empathic Liana blames herself and he feeds off the blame, taking it as an excuse to discard her.
I hope to achieve something important with Ameen’s character. I’ve witnessed victimization both in my personal life and in my short career as a victim advocate. I could keep the curtain drawn and wait for the audience’s shock when Ameen betrays Liana. But as an author, I want to keep my intentions clear, with little room for interpretation. Ameen is an antagonist. Windfall is only the beginning of what will be the driving adversarial relationship of a series that is lovers to enemies.
Captain Liana Foley knows a thing or two about fights. She fights the King’s Navy. She fights to balance power in oppressive Vioria. She fights for respect as a female, bisexual, pirate captain. But she’s losing her biggest fight: to escape her secret past as a lost Princess.
With a mysterious letter and a stranger threatening to expose her, Liana is blackmailed into attending a royal ball and protecting her counterpart, sheltered Princess Rhian. The pretenses are suspicious enough, but Liana takes the risk in hopes to finally unveil the magic plot that killed her parents and forced her into hiding.
When Liana encounters Rhian’s own lightning-wielding powers, the ball erupts in violence. The sheltered princess falls into the care of Liana—and her band of pirates. On the run, the only safe haven for the Windfall crew to hide is the most-dangerous place of all: under the thumb of Liana’s narcissistic, abusive brother-in-law.
In order to protect her crew, her family, and naïve Rhian, Liana must demand sacrifices from herself and the people she loves. Her choices will make powerful enemies; good thing Liana Foley knows a thing or two about fighting those.
Shawna is giving away a $20 Barnes & Noble gift card with this tour:
Chapter 1
To Go on the Account
6th of Lengnath, 1715
The Capital of Caerwyn
A shadow crept around a stone archway, unseen by a passing pair of guards on patrol. The woman who cast it pulled down her hood and peered about. Her thick, unkempt black hair fell over her shoulders. A long cloak covered her curves, but she had flung it back to rest a hand on her hip, revealing a sword in its sheath. Her fingers, ruddy and coarse with use, pinched her bottom lip. She strained her ears to hear over the soft slaps of water in the harbor, the creaking of the ships’ hulls as they swayed, and the occasional caw of laughter from the nearby row of pubs.
Just as she began to wring her hands under the cloak, another duo approached. They weren’t dressed in soldiers’ uniforms, but sailors’ garb. She took a step forward and allowed her silhouette to be revealed. “There you are. What took you so long?”
“I’m sorry, Captain,” her quartermaster, Ameen Almasi, said, stopping at her side and turning on his heel to face his companion. “Our young friend was… distracted.”
The youth in question tucked his chin and smiled guiltily at his captain.
“Damn it, Squiddy,” she scolded. “Learn to keep up.”
Her expression softened to amusement as he scowled. His real name was Sava, but she’d settled on calling him “Squiddy.” Not much would be able to change her mind.
Ameen chuckled, deep and quiet. Sava looked much like a young Ameen—slight, lanky, and youthfully energetic. Ameen towered over him. He held his posture, straight and sure, lean with muscle gained by nautical labor. The boy still had some way to go before he would be able to carry himself so confidently. Tonight, he would have a chance to prove himself. She beckoned them to follow her.
The Capital of Caerwyn rose before them in layers, on a crest overlooking the sea. The docks formed its base, spanning out south, east, and west like the fingers of an outstretched hand. The rest of the city stacked upon the palm; rows upon rows of buildings, each one smaller than the width of the one below it. The Royal Palace stood at the zenith of this view, like a crooked mountain range, sporting banners of blue and silver. The ocean-side of the palace stretched out like the hand’s thumb, wide and thick.
“Liana,” Ameen breathed her name rather than her title. His voice plucked her from the high towers of the palace and steadily anchored her back to the alley behind the harbormaster’s office.
She looked about the alley to make sure they hadn’t been noticed creeping about. “This is it?” Sava’s voice cracked.
“Yes. Do you remember what you have to do?”
He nodded. Even in the dark, she could see him shake. Placing a firm hold on his arm, she looked into his face. His eyebrow twitched.
Liana breathed in deeply, nodding to invite him to mimic her. “You can do this.”
“I’m ready,” he said as he twisted a lockpick between his fingers.
The building had suffered some damage since the last storm season and was under renovation, therefore it had an outer shell of scaffolding that looked sturdy enough to climb. Ameen knelt to give Sava a lift, and he was off, scaling the walls as easily as strolling the streets. They watched as he reached the third story, settled himself on a beam, and picked open the window. He scrambled through it and disappeared.
Liana saw Ameen lift his hand to his chest, where a Circle of the Divine hung on a chain under his linen shirt.
“He’ll be alright,” she assured him.
His eyes grazed over her face, then downward. “You weren’t supposed to bring that.”
She followed his line of sight to the cutlass at her side. “It’s for protection, if we’re caught.”
“If we are caught, we agreed you would distract them while Sava and I get away. Soldiers won’t harm an unarmed Caerwyn woman.” He looked straight back at her expectantly with an extended hand, wagging his fingers. After a meaningful silence, she begrudgingly loosened her belt. He was right, after all. It was the reason she was wearing her Mass dress.
“Insubordination is what I call that, Almasi,” she spat. Her tone could cut as deeply as the blade she handed over. But Ameen knew her well enough not to be offended. He grinned, obviously pleased with himself. His amber eyes lit up as he caught her looking for a moment too long. Liana began to pace, her shoulder purposefully knocking against his side as a final jab. She didn’t need to look back to know he was still smiling.
The lighthearted energy between them evaporated as they heard a whistling call in the distance—a warning. Sava’s head emerged from the window. Liana waved for him to come down. In return, he made an exaggerated shrugging gesture and went back in.
“That stupid little—” She rushed to the base of the scaffold and gathered her skirts. “Lift me up, I’m going to get him.”
“You’re in a dress.”
“And whose brilliant idea was that?!”
Deep voices and the light of a lantern cut through the darkness. Despite the cool breeze, she began to sweat. She could hear the patrolmen at the front of the building now. They must have taken a shorter route than usual.
An object landed at Liana’s feet with a flutter and thud. She snatched up the book and flipped it open. The ledger was unreadable in the pale moonlight, but she knew it was exactly what they had come for. “Blimey, Squiddy! You’ve done it.”
“Who’s back there?” came a gruff voice from the front, cutting their victory short. The sound of the ledger’s landing had alerted the patrol.
Liana whirled around and shoved the ledger into Ameen’s hands. She unfastened her cloak and threw that at him as well. “Wait for him but go as quickly as you can.”
He tucked it under his arm with her sword. “Be careful, Captain.”
As she lifted her skirts and sprinted off, Sava was already halfway to the ground.
But, by the Divine, this dress!
She hadn’t gone to Mass in years and had outgrown the gown. Ameen had insisted on this particular one—the rest she owned were plain, albeit comfortable. She’d been a fool to think she could have climbed after Sava. Between the binding bodice around her torso and carrying the weight of the layers of the skirt, she was out of breath within seconds. Still, it made her distress all the more convincing as she collided into the chest of the soldier before her.
The man grunted in surprise and took a step back to steady himself. She clung to his dark blue long-skirted coat. His jaw unhinged.
“It’s a woman!” his friend declared.
“Thank the Divine you’re here!” she gasped out. “Th-these men had me cornered and robbed me!”
She gave a doe-eyed shrug, feigning helplessness. The soldier settled his hands on her shoulders. It made her feel uncomfortably small. The other one, a fair young man, threw himself in the direction she had come.
“It’s alright, ye’re safe now,” the soldier who stayed with her said, beginning to stroke her upper back. He had a slight Northern accent, and his features were darker than the other soldier. She arched away.
The fair soldier returned at a slower pace this time. “Whoever attacked you, miss, they’ve gone now. Likely pirates who’ve come to port for the season.”
“Thank you.” She spoke as demurely as her pride would allow. “I’ll be on my way, now.”
“Shall we escort you home—?”
“No!” She realized too late she had interrupted him. “No… Thank you.”
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