Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ANASTASIA
“I’m not sure why I’m the one who has to be chained.” I kicked my leg, rattling the shackles that surrounded my ankle.
Jack stood across from me saying nothing.
He just stared as I paced around the cell.
As far as I could tell, this place was inescapable.
It was a simple round design with only one way in or out.
Two guards were stationed just outside the door.
I could see their shadows through the one slit in the door.
I strolled, following the concentric circles on the floor.
“So, dealing with witches now?” I scoffed. “After you’ve been cursed to this existence?” He didn’t meet my eye, so I continued talking to him. “You know when we first met, I was already a captain, and you were searching for a crew who would even give you a shot. A jinxed man is a lonely one.”
“That be true, Captain,” Jack murmured in his old pirate voice, dragging me into the memories of a past life.
“Then why all this? Why would you work with Phillis and drag me into it?” The chains rattled once more as I turned to walk in the other direction. When he said nothing, I smirked at him. “Out with it or I’ll have the tongue from your mouth and you’ll keep your silence forever.”
He chuckled at the familiar pirate tone I used on him. “I’m only trying to bring you peace, Ana.”
“Peace? By getting me locked up? Not so peaceful, is it?”
He shook his head. “He kept bringing you back to life again and again, only to watch you die each time. I’ve watched you die, and it broke me.”
“So you decided to end it? What if I wanted to live, Jack?” I paused my pacing and faced him. “What if I wanted to come back?”
“I’ve wept over your body more times than I can count.” His voice turned hard. “You’ve died in unimaginable ways.”
I threw my arms up. “I remember every single one of them.”
“So why wouldn’t you want it to end?” He lowered his voice. “I wanted it to end.”
“You wanted me dead?” My brow furrowed. “But why?”
“Not you.” He shook his head. “Me. I wanted to die.”
“Oh, Jack.” I took a step closer to him. “I’m so sorry. But just because—”
“I tried to die.” He pushed away from the wall and took a step closer to me. “Over and over again I have tried. But do you know what happens?”
I lowered my voice as I shook my head. “No, what?”
“I take a normal human amount of time to heal. A broken neck took a few years. I was trapped within my own body. Poisoning just burned my esophagus and lungs. Bled myself dry once but I was better in days. There is not one thing that can be done to end this agony.”
“We are not the same, Jack.” I took another step toward him. “I never wanted to die. I wanted to live, so I chose life. I chose to come back.”
“What?” His eyebrows shot up. “I thought he was denying you a peaceful afterlife, a time for your soul to rest.”
I shook my head. “I love him, Jack. And he loves me.”
“I thought you were his obsession, or a plaything. You’re so full of life, Ana. Who wouldn’t want to be next to you? Even after so many deaths, you’re still so . . . vivid. Your spirit shines.”
I smirked up at him. “So does yours. It’s why I was drawn to you in the first place.”
“I’m so sorry, Ana. If I had known.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have . . .”
“How did this happen, Jack? How did you get involved with Phillis?” I motioned to the cell around us. “And all of this?”
He let go of a heavy sigh. “I started working for her great grandfather . . . First on their freighters.”
A smile played on my lips. “Always with the sea.”
“She calls to me.” He gazed up at the ceiling, a wistful smile on his lips.
“It was the first adventure I’d had in some time.
But I stayed for too long, didn’t make myself age the right way.
Someone caught on and I’ve been doing jobs for them ever since.
But, Ana, they’ve been obsessed with Thanatos for centuries.
They’ve been following him forever, always trying to figure out a way to stop him, and then you popped up.
At first I tried to keep it a secret, but they found the wanted posters and all these historical things about you and me. They have a file on you.”
“Me? Why a file on me?”
He shook his head. “They found the connection between you and Thanatos. You are his one and only weakness.”
My heart sank at the thought of being used against him. “You have to know death can’t be stopped.”
“Unless you’re us.” He gave a humorless chuckle.
“Jack, you have to let me out.” My words came out in a hurry.
He pressed his lips into a hard line. “But what about you?”
“Look, Hades has vowed to let me rest the next time I die.” I hated saying those words out loud. I didn’t want to rest. I wanted to find a solution to our problem. “I love him, Jack. Well and truly, I love him.”
He pressed his lips together and gave me a light nod. He bent down low and popped open the shackles around my ankle, then marched over to the door and banged on it twice. “I want out.”
The sound of a key sliding into the door and being turned gave a metallic echo. The guard swung the door open. It groaned and banged into the wall outside the cell. I tiptoed to the wall and pressed myself against it. Jack strolled out, “I was getting sick of it in there, you know?”
“I can only imagine,” the guard’s gruff voice came from just outside the door.
I peeked just enough to see them, but Jack sprang into action.
He grabbed the guard in front of him, shoving his knee right into his abdomen.
Then he threw him into the cell with me.
I stepped up and threw my fist across the side of his face.
When he reached for his gun, I kicked his knee out and he staggered forward, dropping to his knees.
I dove for his gun, yanking it from his hand and pointing it at him.
When he tried to get it back, I threw my arm out, smacking him across the side of his head with the butt of the gun.
He flopped over to the side and turned toward the door just as Jack sauntered back into the doorway and leaned against the frame. “Ah, the good old days.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s move.”
“Aye then, captain.” He turned and hurried down the hallway outside my cell.
Everything was unfamiliar here because the stupid witch just dragged me into that cell, so I had no choice but to navigate this place with Jack as my guide.
The hallway was long and narrow, made with thick stone like an old castle.
When we reached the end of the hall, there was a narrow stairway leading straight up.
Jack paused at the foot of the stairs. “There’s two more at the top.”
I nodded. “Ready.”
We soundlessly hurried up the stairs, making our footsteps quiet until we got to the top.
Jack hurried into the hall and grabbed the first one he saw, shoving him back.
I turned to the guard on my right, but he was faster than the other.
He charged at me and wrapped his hand around my arm, knocking the gun to the floor.
He turned and shoved me to the side, throwing me into the wall.
Pain exploded through my shoulder and hip.
He shoved my face into the wall and got close to my ear. “Where you going, bitch?”
I threw my hips back, twisted from his grip, and shoved him into the wall.
I took a step back and let him charge at me.
I wrapped my hands in his shirt and let his momentum force me back.
I rolled to my back, dragging him down with me.
I shoved my leg into his stomach and used the momentum to push him over my head and right toward those steep narrow stairs I’d just come up.
The man tripped headfirst down the stairs.
His face smacked into the stone steps and he continued tumbling down the stairs like a pinball.
When he came to a heaping stop at the foot of the stairs, he lay there unmoving.
I turned my attention to Jack who was trapped in a headlock by the other guard.
I sprang to my feet and ran at the two of them.
With all the force I could muster, I crashed into them, knocking them to the ground.
The guard lost his grip on Jack as he staggered back.
Jack twisted around and leapt on top of him, straddling his chest. He threw his fist at the guard’s face repeatedly until the man lay there completely unconscious.
I crawled to my feet and yanked at his shirt. “Jack, he’s out. Come on.”
His chest heaved as he rose to his feet and took my hand. “Let’s go.”
We ran headlong down another long hallway toward a door.
The smell of fresh air lingered in the hallway.
Jack threw his body at the door and it swung wide open.
We ran out into the night, hurrying down a narrow path.
I had no idea where we were or where we were going.
But the air was cool and crisp and the sky was dark.
Not even the moon dared to show down on us.
Jack lowered his voice to a whisper. “Just up ahead.”
The pathway opened into a wide clearing and I hurried my steps.
Just ahead was a dense forest we could get lost in.
Bright floodlights flashed on, blinding me completely.
I skidded to a halt, bumping into Jack’s back.
When my eyes adjusted, I sucked in a sharp breath.
We were surrounded by soldiers all dressed in black, each one holding a semiautomatic weapon.
Jack pulled me behind him but there was no protecting me from this. Everywhere I looked there was a gun trained on us.
A slow clap broke the silence, and I turned toward the noise. Phillis stepped out from the shadows into the light with a wide grin on her face. “Oh, isn’t this precious?”
“Let her go, Phillis.” Jack lifted his chin.
“You thought you’d make it out of my compound so easily?” She narrowed her eyes at Jack. “I always knew you’d go soft, no matter what my grandfather and father said. This was a test, Jack, and you failed.”
He grabbed my arm tighter. “Just stay behind me, Ana.”
“Oh, you can’t save her from this.” The smile fell from her face as she gazed at me. “No one can.”
“Immortality isn’t worth all this,” I snapped at Phillis.
She scoffed. “I’ll be the judge of that for myself.”
“You’re going to regret this,” Jack growled.
“No, I don’t think I will.” She turned to the soldier next to her. “Take them both back to the cell and chain them up. Death will be coming soon, and I’d like to be ready.”