Page 48 of Bloody Black

I stride through the halls, elbowing my way past merchants and stalls. Searching for Prudence. The Bitter End is vast, and who knows where she might be. Clearly, she wasn’t bold enough to face me.

“Hey. Pirate. Wait up.” Robb jogs up behind me. He’s missing his coat, his shirt clings to him like a second skin, and there’s a new nasty-looking gash across his temple.

“You’re coming with me?”

He exhales a laugh that sounds more like a wheeze. “If you get yourself killed, I’d have to sail under Xandretta, and we both know she doesn’t like me.”

I close my eyes. Let the relief roll over me. “It’s true, she doesn’t. She doesn’t think you take all this seriously.”

“We’re all going to die. Some of us sooner than others.” Robb appraises me. “What’s your plan?”

“Kill Prudence. Slowly. ”

Robb walks beside me, careful to match my limp without making it obvious. His dagger gleams in the corner of my eye, still turning between his fingers. A nervous tic or a comfort, or maybe both.

“You don’t have to go with me. It’s my burden, not yours.”

“You’re my sweetheart,” he says at last, with a shrug that tries too hard to be careless. “Your problems are my problems.”

“Don’t say sentimental things like that,” I say. “You’ll make me cry.”

Robb snorts. “If I ever see you cry, I’ll assume you’ve been replaced by a sea witch.”

The words don’t carry the bite they should. The path narrows, forcing us shoulder to shoulder, and for a few steps I’m aware only of the weight of his presence beside me, solid and unshaken.

He’s not supposed to be here. But I don’t tell him to turn back.

“If something happens to me,” I begin.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

“If something does,” I press, “You go back to the ship, keep everyone safe.”

“Blackbeard.” He halts and turns to me. Looks deeply into my eyes. “Listen here. I will murder anyone who touches you. I will cut their throat and paint the floor with their blood. Understand?”

I exhale slowly. “Aye.”

“Let’s go then.”

At last, we turn a corner and find them. Prudence sits at a table drinking, her voice ringing. “We sail for Celestia. That was always the plan. Nothing has changed.”

My blood boils. I’d saved all their lives at one point or another, and here they sit. Drinking. Laughing.

Then, in response to someone’s question, she says, “We don’t owe her loyalty. We owe her nothing.”

“Funny,” I say, voice cold as the ocean, “I was just thinking the same about you.”

In unison, they turn. Gasp. Shout. One rises too fast, knocking over a chair. Prudence stills, mouth parted in shock. For a moment, no one moves. They look at me like I’ve clawed my way from the grave.

“You should’ve run when you had the chance,” I tell her.

Prudence draws her blade, elegant and effortless. She holds it lightly, like it weighs nothing. Like I do.

“You always had a flair for dramatics,” she says, circling wide, the hem of her coat brushing the dusty stones. “Dragging yourself out of the sea, bleeding all over.”

We circle each other, swords gripped tight. But there’s still time to salvage this. “I don’t want to fight you. Just come back to the ship. Things can go back to how they’ve always been.”

Prudence laughs. “And what then? I sail with you to William, and die for your revenge?”

“It’s better than dying here,” I answer. “Surrender, Prudence. Make apologies, and I’ll forgive your disloyalty.”

“Never.” Her snarl is pure venom. “You’re a storm with no direction, too blinded by revenge to lead. You think you can come here, sword in hand, soaked in blood, and lecture me?”

“I bled for this crew. ”

“That’s a lie!” Her voice cracks, sharp with rage. “You—you only ever bled for your precious William. You never cared about me. Not about Mercy. Not really.”

We’re close now. Breathing each other’s air. Every word a blade, every blink a risk.

“That’s not true,” I insist, my voice breaking. “We’re a team.”

I falter; she lunges. I would have easily dodged, except that someone grabs me from behind, holding my arms tight.

Prudence’s sword arcs through the air, a lightning strike in a dark room, straight toward my heart. Fast as a viper; unerring; her form near perfect. I’d trained her well.

It will be a direct hit. William will never pay for what he did; he’ll rule Celestia as king. No one will ever know the truth of who I am. My quest will be over. There will be only the silence, my journey at last at an end—

But Robb yanks me aside and leaps in between, taking the blade that was meant for me.

One moment, Prudence’s sword is swinging toward my head, silver flashing, wicked as her smile, and the next, his body is in front of mine, a blur of broad shoulders and stupid heroism.

It throws her off; that’s how surprised she is that he would choose to sacrifice himself for me.

Thankfully, her blade, instead of hitting his heart, lodges in his upper thigh. The sound it makes is awful. A wet, sinking noise as her blade punches through muscle.

For a breathless second, no one moves. Not Prudence. Not me. Then she yanks the sword free .

Robb stumbles, crimson blooming across his leg like spilled ink. His mouth opens in a slow exhale, and I catch him, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“I’m fine,” he gasps. “Get her.”

I look over his shoulder at Prudence, my gaze hardening. It’s not the first time she’s hurt one of our own, but it will be the last. She’s already pulling back into a guard position, smug in her precision, her perfect form. Her blade drips red.

“Oopsie,” she says.

Something inside me bursts into flames. All I feel is fury as our swords clash. She meets my strike with full force, fury on her face. Neither of us is here to win; we are both too angry for that. We’re here to end this.

Behind me, I hear the scrape of boots, the wet shuffle of bodies circling in. Prudence’s companions—those snake-eyed bastards from my crew—are moving in. Robb grunts behind me, pain thick in the sound. He’s fighting her men, despite his injury.

My body twitches toward him on instinct. He needs help. Needs me.

But I can’t do anything. If I split my focus, if I glance back even once, Prudence will bury that cutlass between my ribs. My sword vibrates with the force of every strike, and Prudence is relentless. She’s all teeth and blade, cruel and quick as ever. As I taught her to be.

I, her teacher. She’s nowhere near as good as me, so she won’t win. Yet I keep hesitating, because I don’t want to do this. Even though her smirk deepens every time I parry too slow, and she seems to know .

I don’t want to do this.

If I could injure her just enough, just enough to make it stop, to slow her down.

“You left them, Anne,” she hisses. “You left the women on Larew’s ship. Your revenge means so much to you that you just left. ”

“I was saving us!” I retort. “There were too many of them and too few of us—”

“That’s never stopped you before. You just didn’t want your precious Robb to be injured!”

My sword knocks hers aside. I drive my blade across her stomach in a shallow, diagonal slice. Her breath catches on a choke, her hands flying to the wound.

Despite doing it intentionally, we’re both shocked by it. After years of being a pirate, of killing relentlessly, it’s the sight of her blood that chills me.

“Are you okay?” I ask immediately. “Can we please stop fighting?”

“There’s no place left for me. Not if he’s there.”

The wind keens through the stone, dragging at our coats, our hair. “What are you talking about? What does he have to do with anything?”

She’s standing so near the edge of the castle wall, it’s filling me with anxiety. Reminding me of Mercy.

“You don’t listen to me anymore.” The wind tears at her hair. “Has it occurred to you that if he were actually good, actually safe, you wouldn’t want him? Maybe these men are the same? That Robb is luring you in, lying to you in exactly the same way that William did?”

“If you hate him so much, why did you save him then?” I demand. “Why not let him fall to his death, like you planned?”

“Because I know you are falling in love with him!” Prudence shouts. “And I’m not like you! I won’t let him die, not if I can prevent it!”

I am so shocked that I honestly don’t know what to say. She saved him for me? Saved him because she thinks… Of course, I am not in love with him, but is what we are doing known to everybody?

Her brown eyes meet mine, the pain in them now obvious. “You think your merry crew of murderers will be happy at court? What kind of life do you imagine for me? A maid in waiting, forever kneeling?”

I don’t know. I’ve never imagined it.

“I’m a witch, Anne. In Celestia, they hate magic. They’d burn me at the stake. At best, I’d be walking around with a noose around my neck.”

“That’s not true. You’re my best friend. I’ll be queen. I’ll protect you.”

“I won’t even like that version of you.” She says it with such finality. “Out here, we are free. Out here, you are you, and I’m just me. But not there. There you’d be queen, and I don’t want to see what they’ll do. How they will change you.”

Prudence glances left, toward the sunset, toward the pier. To where the Queen Anne floats proudly. She takes another step back, away from me. “I’m tired, Anne. Tired of fighting. I’m just… tired.”

She shakes her head. “I never wanted to be captain. I was happy to follow wherever you led, because you had a plan. Happy to die for your cause, because you freed me. But now… ever since Mercy… I want more than that.”

She takes another step back, throws down her sword. She’s never walked away from a fight, not even once, and the very act of this shocks me. She’s been by my side since the very first day, helping me with strategy, helping me win, being my person to confide in.

I lower my blade. “Prudence. What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving. And you’re going to let me.”

“You’re my friend,” I began.

“I am. Always. Always your very best friend,” She says fiercely, her brown eyes filling. “But I deserve more from life than dying for your cause. I deserve more than a future at your feet.”

She turns, then looks over her shoulder. “This time, don’t follow me.”