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I can’t worry about them right now. I push myself up and we run to the stairs and stagger down to the main deck and straight to my quarters.

“Henry!” I yell, trying to open the door but despite there being no lock, it won’t open, something heavy has been pushed against it. “Lucas! Sedge! I’m coming!”

I look around for the boarding axe that we use to smash through the locked doors of conquered ships but there’s none to be found, then I run a few steps back then launch myself at the door with my shoulder, the door almost coming off the hinges and something toppling over on the other side. I pull back and throw myself against it again, this time the door splintering under my weight and I burst through into my quarters.

I see Ed Smith standing before me, the balcony doors open behind him from where he must have climbed up.

He has two pistols in his hands aimed at the heads of Sedge, Lucas, and Henry, who are on their knees in front of him, facing me.

And I’m having a most awful case of having lived this moment before. But while then it was with Prince Aerik and he had the marlinespike against Henry’s head, I knew that somehow we would prevail, and we did thanks to Drakos. This time I’m not so sure. I feel so unsure that I can’t even feel the planks beneath my feet, as if none of this is happening and I’m not even here at all.

BONES.

I hear Nerissa’s voice boom in my head from over in the cage but I don’t dare look at her, nor do I look at Maren who I know is behind me, gasping softly at the scene before us.

I tried but I couldn’t stop him,Nerissa goes on. I can’t work my magic from the cage. I’m sorry.

I ignore her. I focus on the boys, on the crew, and I try to manage the unfathomable hate for this man before me before it swallows me whole.

Ed Smith looks the same as he ever did, as is the case with us Brethren. But while he may have not aged, evil has done something to his features, hardened them into something reptilian. His nose is more pointed, his narrow mouth twisted into an arrogant, ruthless leer, and he’s wearing a red periwig that brings out the red in his brown eyes, making him look positively demonic. His shipPembrokehas only been under his command for the last ten years, before that it was another, and before that was another. I wonder if he switches his names out as often as he switches out his wigs. It’s not easy to evade notice when you’re in the public service and yet you never age.

The rage licks me from the inside out, a red-hot inferno that I feel spreading to my mind, rendering me into something raw. I’ve never wanted to murder someone more. Make him watch as I rip off his head and shit down his neck.

“Captain Battista,” Smith says in his haughty accent. “Or should I say Captain BattistaJunior. You seem surprised to see me.”

“Let them go, Smith,” I tell him, my words coming out like knives, “and there won’t be any trouble for ya.”

He sneers. “I invite your trouble, Battista,” he says. “It reminds me of how bad you are it. Once I got wind from my fleet that you were out here on your course to land, well, I had to set course for you. Knew you’d be coming to Acapulco, naturally, knew that with your tricky sails you cut straight across the ocean, the trade winds be damned. I just figured it was better to deal with you out here instead of closer to shore. Much tidier that way, isn’t it.”

He waves his pistols at my crew. “Honestly, I’m not even here to kill you, Battista. Eventually, yes, but I merely want to make you suffer first. You see, what you should have done after I killed your father was give up the ghost. Give up this immoral lifestyle. Hang up the jolly roger and call it a day.”

His eyes narrow. “And yet you didn’t. You saw what happened to your dear old father and yet you decided that you should become captain of theNightwind. You made it even worse by having a wife, a daughter, on board. These ships are no place for children, don’t you have any decency? You know what you went through, you and your useless brother, seeing your own father executed at my hands, and yet you didn’t think about the risks in raising them here?”

His fingers twitch on the triggers and I’m staring into Henry’s eyes. They’re so open and full of fear and hope that I will save him and of course I will save him.

Of course I will save you, I think, before looking to Lucas, who is trying so hard to brave but his chin is trembling, and then to Sedge who shows no emotion on his face, only determination.I will save you all or die trying.

“They’re safer here than they ever are on land, and you know it,” I say, my voice hoarse with contempt. “Does your crew know what you are? Do you hide it? Do you keep one human to feed from? Is he sworn to your secret? Even you know that on the ship you have freedom you could never have on land. The high seas are very good at harboring secrets, that’s why we keep our secrets here.”

He scoffs, raising his chin and staring down his nose at me. “Spare me your sermon. Your words only exist to make yourself feel better. But mark me, you’ll only blame yourself after this,Captain. Their deaths are on you.”

I know what he’s about to do before he does it.

“No!” I scream and I launch myself through the air at him just as he pulls the triggers. Even though I’m flying at him as quick as a flash, everything slows down. I see the bullets both fire from the muzzle of the pistols, a burst of flames and gunpowder, one shot a second behind the other and going to the back of Lucas’s head. The delay has him leaning toward Sedge, the bullet just grazing the tip of his ear in a spurt of blood.

The other bullet fired quicker.

It went right in the back of Henry’s head.

A horrible burst of red sprays up.

I feel I am dead of a shattered heart before I even hit the ground.

In this case I hit Ed Smith, taking him down with my hands around his neck. We tumble backward and onto the balcony and I bite his neck, trying to tear him apart like a rabid animal.

“I can save him!” Nerissa yells from the cage. “Let me out before it’s too late!”

“Ramsay, the key!” Maren screams and I bring my jaws away from Smith to see her running to Henry’s side, collapsing to her knees beside him, tears of horror streaming down her face, while Sedge comforts Lucas who is screaming in pain and holding onto his head.