Chapter 386:

Daphne

What a shit show.

Cannons blast. The night explodes into fire and smoke and screaming. It’s loud as hell—the kind of loud that rattles your teeth and shakes your bones and leaves your ears ringing for hours afterward.

The Bunny stalks through the darkness like the predator it is. You can’t see it;black hull, black sails, no lanterns, no lights, nothing to mark its presence on the water. The enemy ships don’t see it coming.

Until we’re suddenly there.

My crew leaps onto the first two ships like shadows given form. Cutlasses flash. Pistols crack. Men scream and fall and bleed into the sea.

The third ship doesn’t get boarded.

We slam straight into it.

The impact is glorious—wood splintering, men flying, the ship tilting, sinking. My sweet baby The Bunny barely shudders. Anti-shock upgrades. Best purchase I ever made.

The other ship? Not so much.

I watch from the deck as pirates scramble onto my ship. Unfortunate, really. Despite most of my crew being on the other vessels, the ones remaining are no pushovers. Freddie alone could kill half these bastards before breakfast.

I lean against the railing. Look up at the sky.

The moon is peeking through the clouds, silver and still and beautiful. So close yet so far away.

I raise my hand toward it, as if I could pluck it from the sky, hold it in my palm, carry its light with me through the dark.

Bang.

A cannonball splashes into the water nearby. Spray coats my coat. I sigh.

I can’t enjoy my moon gazing when an absolutely atrocious smell ruins my time.

I frown. Wrinkle my nose. Turn.

A man is standing on my deck.

He’s disgusting. His beard is in knots, matted with dried blood and old food and things I don’t want to identify. His clothes are rags, stained and greasy and wet. His skin is gray. His eyes are yellow.

"T’ke me to ye cap’n!" he shouts.

His breath hits me like a physical force.

Nuclear weapon. That’s the only way to describe it. The smell is so bad I taste it. So bad my eyes water. So bad I genuinely consider jumping overboard just to escape it.

I don’t.

Before he can say another word, I draw my pistol.

Bang.

He drops.

Blood pools on my deck. Stains the wood. Seeps into the cracks.

I stare at the body.

Then at my gun.

Then at the moon.

What a shit show.

***

Nancy

I flinch at every cannon shot. Every scream. Every crash of wood against wood.

I’m in the cabin, the one I share with Marina. I’m on the floor. Behind the bed. In the corner. Curled into a ball, my arms wrapped around my knees, my forehead pressed to the wood.

I can only sit here like this because I know I’ll be a liability on deck. I can’t fight. Can’t shoot. Can’t do anything but navigate and hide.

So I hide.

I sit here and wait.

But I don’t get to do that.

A sound blasts—louder than the others, closer than the others. The ship shudders. Wood splinters. I flinch, cover my head, press myself deeper into the corner.

When I look up, there’s a hole in the wall.

A metal ball,a cannonball—is embedded in the floor. Barely an arm’s length away.

Had it moved slightly to the left...

I would have lost my life.

My heart races. My hands tremble. My breath comes in short, sharp gasps.

I don’t get to calm down.

Because crawling through the hole—through the splintered wood and the smoke and the darkness is a pirate.

His face is scarred. His eyes are wild. His mouth is open, revealing blackened teeth.

"My what h’ve we h’re—"

I don’t let him finish.

I stand.

I don’t think. Just move. I walk to the hole and I push.

He falls.

Screams.

Disappears into the dark water below.

I don’t stay to watch, I run.

Out of the cabin, through the corridor, up the stairs, onto the deck.

And I stop.

The night is bright.

The brightest night I’ve ever seen on this ship.

A vessel is burning—splitting in two, sinking into the sea. Its flames dance across the water, casting the scene in orange and red and horror. Everywhere I look, there’s fighting. Stabbing. Running. Men falling. Men screaming. Men dying.

Marina is at the center of it—her red hair wild, her cutlass bloody, her eyes blazing. She stabs. Shouts. Fights.

Gunshots crack. Swords clash. Cannons boom.

Horrible.

I rip the outer layer of my dress. The fabric tears with a satisfying rip. I wrap it around my hand—the tiny dagger I carry is in my other hand, the one I use for cutting ropes and opening crates and never for fighting.

I run to the railing.

I jump.

The water is cold,shockingly cold, breath-stealingly cold. It fills my nose, my mouth, my lungs. I cough. Gasp. Kick.

I surface.

The ship is behind me. The fire is behind me. The screams are behind me.

Ahead, there’s only water. Dark. Cold. Safe.

I’m not going to lose my life like this.

Not on this ship.

Not in this battle.

Not today.

***

Caspian

"We’re going down!"

"We’re sinking!"

The words reach me through the chaos—barely audible over the cannons, the screams, the crack of wood splitting. I stand frozen, disbelieving.

This can’t be happening.

We prepared. We planned. We had the Devil’s warning, the Devil’s ships, the Devil’s protection.

"Abandon ship!" Marina’s voice cuts through the noise.

Abandon ship.

I stand there.

The world is oddly silent. As if all sound has been drained from it—the cannons, the screams, the crackling of flames. I hear nothing but my own heart beating in my ears.

I watch one of my guards get stabbed.

The blade slides into his stomach, smooth as silk. His eyes go wide. His mouth opens. He falls over the railing, into the dark water, gone.

My feet are wet.

A painful sensation pulls me back cold, sharp, real. I look down.

There’s a sword in my abdomen.

The pirate holding it smiles. His face is lit by the distant flames, all shadows and angles and evil.

"Night, pretty prince," he says.

He shoves me.

I fall.

The railing passes over my head. The ship rises above me. The sky spins. The stars spin. The world spins.

I hear Smith scream my name.

"Your Highness!"

His voice cracks. Breaks. Shatters.

"I’m sorry," I say.

I don’t know if he hears me.

The water is cold.

So cold.

It fills my ears, my nose, my mouth. It presses against my wound, stealing my breath, stealing my warmth.

I sink.

The fire above grows dimmer. The screams grow fainter. The world grows darker.

This is how I die.

Drowned. At sea.

Just like Xavier.

The water closes over my head.

And everything goes black.