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It takes a free tentacle and gently wraps it around my waist, taking me off his head. It lowers me down toward Smith, holding me out right in front of him, close enough to touch.

“I know you don’t know me,” I tell Smith, watching the fear swimming in his eyes as I bare my teeth at him, “but I know you and I’ve known men like you. I know who you are and what you’ve done. You’re a pathetic, lily-livered coward, a sorry excuse for a man and an even sorrier excuse for a Brethren. You’ve spent your life hiding the creature that you are and attacking others who have the audacity to live life on their own terms. You resent their freedom, their willingness to shun a society that has already shunned them, and you envy their closeness and connection, something you never had and never will have. You will die here, you will die now, and you will die knowing you’ve never lived a true day in your ugly little life.”

Then I hiss at him and strike him with my fist, my claws coming out and plunging into his chest. I grab hold of his beating heart and rip it right out of his chest, leaving nothing but a gaping hole.

I hold his pulsing heart in my hand and keep my eyes on his as I bring it to my mouth and tear into it.

He lets out a gasp of dying air and I chew on a piece of his heart for a moment before I grimace and spit it back out, the chunk landing on his forehead.

“Even your heart is rotten,” I tell him, tossing the heart behind my shoulder where it splatters to the deck.

Suddenly the air fills with cheers and hoots and hollers and I look over to see the motley crew of theNightwindjumping up and down, their swords all raised in the air. I see Ramsay most of all, the proud look on his beautiful face, his dark hair blowing back in the breeze, and all at once I feel how free he is, how free all of them are, no longer tethered to revenge.

I look to Ed Smith, his eyes fluttering closed as he dies slowly, but his head is turned toward theNightwindand he sees them. Sees them celebrating his death, sees that in the end he lost and they won.

I make the Kraken continue to hold him up until he’s almost dead and then I say, “Tear him apart!” and the Kraken pulls its tentacles in opposite directions, tearing Captain Ed Smith of the Royal Navy in half, ripped right down the middle.

The Kraken releases Smith’s body parts and they tumble to the deck in a gruesome bloody thump.

“Bring me over to them,” I tell the Kraken, pointing at theNightwind. “But remember not to touch a hair on their heads.”

The Kraken understands this. I can communicate with it in an innate way, not hearing voices per se but just feelings. The Kraken comes off of the ship, leaving it to sink on its own, and then glides over to theNightwind. With its great size, we’re up against the pirate ship in a matter of seconds.

The crew all back up from the rail, looking wary, their swords and pistols ready. I don’t blame them.

“Don’t worry,” I tell them. “The Kraken won’t harm you anymore.”

They relax, just a little, and I tap the tentacle with my hand, asking it to put me on the deck. I know that because of my tail I’ll feel completely useless and helpless once I’m on the ship, but I want to hold Ramsay again. I want to kiss him and tell him that now,nowit’s over.

The tentacle gently lowers me to the deck but Ramsay steps out with his outstretched arms and takes me in them. The Kraken releases me and I wrap my arms around Ramsay’s shoulders as he holds me up against him.

“Hello, luv,” he says to me, grinning from ear to ear.

“Hello, Captain,” I say, staring up at him with a silly smile on my face.

“I told you I’d come back for you,” he says.

“Technically I came back for you,” I tell him. “But I won’t hold that against you.”

He chuckles softly at that and leans in to kiss me, a soft, sweet kiss that feels like butterflies and sunshine. A kiss that feels like I’m coming home.

A gasp rings out amongst the crew and I think that they’re all enamored with our public act of affection, enough so that I deepen the kiss, pulling Ramsay closer to me.

But then Cruz says, “Princess, uh, your tail…”

I open my eyes and break apart from Ramsay’s kiss and look down expecting to see my tail propping me up in some manner against the deck.

Instead I see a pair of pale legs from underneath my shift.

I let out an astonished cry. “Gods!”

I stumble backward but Ramsay’s arm is there, holding me back. He stares down at my legs with the same amount of disbelief. “Maren? What the devil?”

“I don’t know.” I gasp, shaking my head. I hold out one leg, then the other. They’re both wet, faint traces of shimmery scales left on my skin that seem to slowly evaporate into the air. I flex my ankles, toes, stretch my calves. They feel weak, perhaps even more so than before, but everything seems to work.

“My legs,” I say quietly as I marvel at them. “I have legs again.”

But even though I’m overjoyed to have them back and more so with what having legs represents for me, I do have a faint pang in my chest over losing my tail. I feel like I didn’t really have a chance to enjoy it again. But I suppose you can’t have the best of both worlds, something I’ve known from the very start.