Chapter 42
Hook
Hook stared past the blade an inch from his face at the captain looming over him. The boat rocked, but not enough to unsteady the sure-footed man.
“Say hello ta’ Marianna for me.”
Hook bared his teeth. “How dare you speak her name!”
Blackbeard cocked his head to the side, his sword arm never wavering. “I loved her first.”
“You killed her!” He hadn’t swung the sword, but it was Blackbeard’s fault his mother died. Every ounce of his body vibrated with rage. He couldn’t fail now, not before he avenged her.
Blackbeard stiffened. What little emotion he had fled his features. “Farewell, son.”
“Stop!” came a sweet, familiar female voice.
Tink. Tingles raced across his skin. Wonderful, reckless woman. A flush of adrenaline swept through his body.
Blackbeard turned toward the voice. “Who tha—”
Hook yanked the sword to the side with his hook and rolled. In one quick move, he kicked out his leg and connected with the older man’s shin.
Blackbeard stumbled forward in a grunt of pain. The tip of his sword stuck into the deck.
With renewed strength, Hook leaped to his feet. The pain burning in his shoulder, his wrists, his legs—all of it fled in a surge of hope. His own sword might be gone, but he had another weapon always at his side. Literally. The croc had seen to that.
But first... He twisted to look over one shoulder. Tink perched on the railing, wet but alive. His chest swelled. “Stay there, love.”
“We have to get out of here!” she called, but he’d already turned back to his opponent.
Not before he finished this. For good.
Blackbeard yanked at the hilt of his blade, but the decking held it firm. Members of his crew raced up. One tossed him a blade, but he waved them back. “Tha’ ship, man!”
Flames had caught and licked at some of the boards. The ship canted as a boom split the air, and they returned fire on the Jolly Roger. Hold strong.
No sooner had the blasts echoed than more fired in the distance.
“A second ship!” one of the crew called.
Hook stiffened as Blackbeard looked past him out to sea. Cressida? But as long as they were friendly, it didn’t matter. “Your fight is with me, croc.”
He adjusted his grip on the borrowed sword with a grunt. “Ya should have run, boy.”
Never. “Let’s end this.” His hook would be enough. It had to be.
“With pleasure,” Blackbeard smirked.
They circled each other in the flaming wreck of the ship, stepping over ropes and debris. Tink tried to join him—he waved her off. Blackbeard did the same to two of his crew who refused to leave. This was their fight and theirs alone.
Every breath centered his focus on the other man. His father. The battle faded away. He caught the moment the old croc shifted his weight and turned the blade ever so slightly in his hand. Blackbeard lunged in a furious swipe.
Hook ducked, feeling the breeze of the blade as he slid close and slashed with his hook. It caught on Blackbeard’s jacket—dug deep. A roar bellowed overhead. Hook yanked it free, jarring his arm, but it was worth the pain. Red painted the tip and splattered onto the deck.
“Incoming!”
A cannonball zoomed just past them and crashed into the mainsail mast. Fuck. His arms flew to cover his face as wood cracked and splintered. Debris buffeted him.
“James!” Tink screeched, but pain didn’t lace her voice—panic did. Along with worry for him.
He glanced up to see Blackbeard advancing. Close—too close. He jumped back, but too slowly. The blade slid across his side. Fire bloomed, and he roared in pain. He needed space, time to think.
A deep, cracking groan sounded behind him.
“She’s coming down!”
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the main mast breaking free and tumbling his way.
Hook lunged as the huge beam crashed right where he’d been standing. The entire ship cracked and canted. No time. Can’t—
Dainty arms slid under his, hauling him up.
“We. Have to,” Tink groaned. “Go!”
He gritted his teeth, pushing to his feet with her help. He hurt everywhere. And his side—not a deep wound, but it burned worse than fire coral. “Not yet. I have to—”
“Live!” She grabbed his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her. “You have to live!” Tears formed and fell. “With me. Don’t leave me. Not again.”
His heart nearly cracked in two. Bloody hell. She was everything, and he’d let her stay here, on this burning wreck about to sink into the depths, because of his hate, his anger. He’d almost lost her to the sea once. Not again. “Okay.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, love.”
With one last look over his shoulder, he caught sight of Blackbeard.
He struggled on the deck with his leg pinned below the mast. Groans and bellowed curses slipped out into the night.
The old pirate didn’t spare a glance for Hook, not as he tried to move the massive beam without success.
Fire crept across the deck near him. The pirates who’d lingered to aid him were gone—fled or felled.
He could end this. Right now.
Blackbeard’s sword lay on the deck, having fallen loose from the wood when the mast fell. It would be so easy to pick it up, plunge the wicked blade into Blackbeard’s dark heart once and for all, and fulfill years of dreams and longing.
His shoulders drooped. But it would be a hollow victory, a mercy more than revenge. He took Tink’s hand in his. The simmering coal of hate lodged in his heart dimmed. What he needed was ahead, not behind.
The deck tilted. Tink yelped as she tightened her grip. He stiffened. The Kraken was taking on water. They needed to get clear before she went down.
“Abandon ship!” someone called from beyond the ruined mast.
“Right. Let’s go, love.” He sprinted across the deck with Tink.
“Bloody fuck!” she screamed, leaning over the railing.
He couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face, even amid all the chaos. “Sounding like me, love.”
She pursed her lips and swatted his arm. He hissed in pain.
“Oh!” She jumped and winced. “I’m sorry, I—”
The ship groaned and rocked. “No time. We have to go.” He stepped onto the railing, pulling her with him.
“But—” She clutched at him. “I can’t. My wings. Not both of—”
He pulled her to him. “Don’t let go.”
With a hope and a prayer, he flung them into the sea.
Tink screamed. Water closed over them. Salt seared his wounds and nearly made him lose his breath. Tink slipped in his grip. He wouldn’t lose her. Never again.
Hook already kicked them away from the sinking ship by the time they surfaced. Tink coughed and sputtered but looked no worse for wear, from what little he could see above the water in the dark night anyway.
“Kick your legs. We have to get away.” If the ship sank while they were too close, it would pull them under with the wreckage. A horrible way to die.
Slowly, painfully, Hook swam across the sea with Tink’s help as the ship splintered and came apart.
“The boys…” Tink said, twisting this way and that in his arms. The little boat he’d loaded them into was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m sure they’re safe.” He was far less than sure, but he couldn’t risk negative thoughts. Speaking them, even in one’s mind, often made them true.
Neither spoke as Hook continued to swim into the darkness with her in tow, watching the Kraken sink.
Father. He’d always wondered. Always wanted to meet the man who’d sired him, but now… He slowed his pace, letting them bob in the water. They were far enough away from the wreck, and his strength was already flagging.
“Peter is your brother?” Tink whispered into the silence.
“Aye.” Stars above, the pain in his side was killing him, almost as much as the pain in his chest he pretended didn’t exist.
Tink’s panic had faded, her chest rising and falling in even breaths where she clung to his back with her arms around his neck. “He told you that?”
“No.” He sighed. “Blackbeard did.”
“But how would he know?” He could almost see the pinch of her brows, the way her head no doubt tilted ever so slightly to the side.
Time for the fun part. “He’s our father.”
Tink was silent for a moment before her screech rang through the air. “What?” She flailed, her arms slipping.
“Tink!” He grabbed her arm to help her regain her hold.
“Sorry. Sorry.” Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she nestled close, nearly pushing him under. “I just…wow. I never…”
“Me neither.” Exhaustion tugged at him, willing his eyes closed. His skin had gone cold. He could barely feel his legs.
Hook had gone days with little food and water and lost too much blood. He wouldn’t make it much longer. But he had to try. Had to be strong.
For her.
“Captain! Tink!”
His heart swelled as his eyes snapped open. He’d know that voice anywhere. “We’re here!”
“That way!” Smee’s voice carried across the water.
Clouds parted, and moonlight illuminated the Jolly Roger. Bloody hell, has there ever been a more glorious sight?
A rowboat bobbed their way, his stalwart first mate and best friend at the helm. They really were going to live.
Beyond, the moonlight caught another ship. He squinted into the night. The Siren? He nearly groaned. He’d owe Cressida a fortune.
“Almost there, Captain. Hang on!”
“We’re safe. We made it,” Tink whispered, almost too quietly to make out.
Aye, we did. Against all odds, his love, his crew, his ship, they were safe. He’d give a fortune for that. His good hand. His own life.
As Smee and Barley pulled them into the boat, Hook took one glance in the direction the ship had gone down.
Perhaps Blackbeard lived. But the burning coal that had lodged in his chest all those years didn’t burn quite so badly.
He had everything he needed, everything he loved, and no specter of his past would make him lose sight of that again.