“Hook!” I scream, but he doesn’t see her fast enough. She hits him full force and stabs her knife into his back.
I stand and run for him, but the tightened rope yanks me back, slamming me onto my back and sending agony racing through my wings.
“James!” I scream and get back up, then work at the knot at my waist.
“Captain!” Smee unties himself, then struggles to his feet as the ship crests another wave. He falls to the side, his arms flailing as he loses his balance.
When I get free, I run for Hook, but he and Anne are fighting hand-to-hand in a blur as we ride down another large wave.
I’m almost to them when we hit the bottom, the ship lists forward and then to the side with no one at the wheel. A wave crashes onto the deck, swamping it. The sheer force of it washes both Hook and Anne overboard into the turbulent black water.
Chapter
Seventeen
“Hook!” I scramble toward the side of the ship.
Smee wraps his arm around my waist and drags me back from the railing.
“Let go!” I scream and try to look over the side. He has to be there somewhere, maybe swimming or hanging onto one of the ropes.
“No! You’ll go over too!” Smee yanks me back to the wheel, then grabs hold of it.
The ship evens out, and I throw my elbow into him, hitting him in the ribs. He lets me go with a grunt, and I rush back to the railing.
“Hook!” I scream, but the rain still pours, and thunder dims my cries. I can’t see him. I can’t see anything except foamy black water that roils and seethes.
“We have to go back!” I yell at Smee.
“There’s no going back!”
“Help! Someone help!” I scream. But no one hears me. The crew is hunkered down below, and my voice doesn’t carry in the vicious wind.
I grip the railing and stare at the water behind us as we hit the top of a wave, the splash almost knocking me from the deck. I hang on and will Hook to rise from the water, to swim to the ship, to do anything except die in this unforgiving sea.
“Please.” The water begins to calm, the wind dying down even more as the Jolly Roger gets to the edge of the Neverstorm. “Please, James. Please.” I wipe the water from my eyes and keep looking for any sign of him.
The rain stops. The wind, too. Only the rumble of thunder remains as we sail into smooth waters, the calm unnerving in its suddenness.
“We have to go back!” I hurry to the wheel and start turning it, though I don’t know if that’s how it even works. I assume it’s just like a car. I yank on it.
“We can’t go back.” Smee grabs the wheel and shoves me away.
“He’s out there!” I grab the wheel again. “We can’t leave him!”
“We have to.”
“No!” I scream as the crew begins to emerge. “We have to go back for him! Go back!” I grab the wheel again.
“We can’t go back for him! He’s gone, Moira!” His voice breaks, but he stands resolute. “He wouldn’t want us to go back into the storm. It would kill us all.”
“I don’t care about that! I care about him!”
“I care about him too!” Smee bellows.
I rush the wheel again, but Widow runs up and grabs me around the middle.
“Moira!” She pulls me away.
