Before I can even scream, we’re hoisted into the air, pulled high and fast until we’re up and over the deck of the Jolly Roger.
When we land, I think I might pee myself. From fear or relief—I don’t know which.
“Captain, the pulley’s stuck!” one of the pirates on his deck yells.
“Here, lass.” He pulls me off him and turns me, placing my arms around the front mast. Then he grabs another rope and wraps it around my middle, then ties a complicated knot with ease. “You’ll be safe here.”
He runs toward the sailors, climbs another mast with total ease and starts feeding rope through a pulley system overhead. When he pulls his hands back and yells “Now!”, his men pull so hard and fast the rope begins to smoke.
Starkey and the tattooed pirate appear through the pouring seawater and land in a heap on the deck. Then Hook loops another rope around the pulley system, and all of them heave it backwards. Widow rises over the railing and smacks into a sail before gripping it and riding it down to the deck.
“Fuck me!” she yells as she lands on a pile of rope, her boots skyward.
“Smee! Hard port! As hard as she can go!” Hook yells, and the pirates along the deck echo his order.
He rushes back to me and wraps his arms around me, shielding me from the back as the solid mast rises in front of me. “Hold on!”
Right as he says it, the ship lurches to the side, and I scream as the galleon’s timbers groan under the impossible pressure. The wall of spinning water rises to our right, and I can barely see thetop of it now. We’re caught in its powerful pull, both ships racing along with the screaming current.
Calico Jack’s ship is starting to rise up the nearest wave, and I can’t see anyone on the decks anymore. Only him at the wheel, still furiously turning.
“We’re going to get clear. Just hang on!” Hook presses against me, his body hard yet warm at my back.
Even though the Jolly Roger is a large ship, it’s nothing compared to the power of the black cyclone to our right. If we get sucked in, we’ll never escape.
A blast of water from the top of the monstrous wave falls onto the ship, the timbers whining again as one of the sails falls behind us, wood splintering and slamming into the deck. Water rises to my waist before it sluices off from the sides.
“We’ll get clear, lass.” Hook stands firm, his resolve like a physical touch. “She can take it.” He slaps the mast.
The ship is still listing to the side, pulling away from the vortex slowly. Once we’ve gotten far enough away that I can no longer tell if Calico Jack is still at the wheel, we pick up speed. The water no longer falls on us in punishing sheets, and the crew starts moving around on deck, working on the fallen sail.
“There.” Hook backs away and unties his impossible knot with nothing more than a flick of his wrist.
I turn and lean against the mast, my heart still pounding as I stare at the whirlpool that’s still too close for comfort.
Hook grips my chin and pulls my face back to his, his gaze going to my lips. When he gently rubs his thumb across it, I wince andremember where Calico Jack struck me … along with everything else he tried to do.
Hook seems to change in front of me. From the man who just saved my life into the monster Peter warned me about.
“Calico Jack did this.” It isn’t a question. Not really. When he meets my gaze again, he asks, “What else did he do to you, lass?”
I drop my gaze.
He leans down, trapping me in his deep blue eyes. “Speak plain.”
I don’t want to say it, don’t want to even think about what just happened. But Hook isn’t letting go. If anything, the storm in him is rising higher and higher, the pressure between us growing with each moment.
“Tell me.” His voice softens only a hair, only enough to stroke the part of me that needs coaxing. The part he somehow senses when no one else has.
“He, he tried to …” I can’t finish. I’m not ready to talk about that. I don’t know if I’lleverbe ready to talk about it.
Hook grabs the nape of my neck and pulls me close. “I’m sorry.” His voice is gruff, and I don’t miss the anger in it, but there’s also sincerity. I don’t know how I can feel it, but I do.
With that, he releases me and stalks off down the deck. “Back to starboard, steady as she goes!” he yells.
Starkey pops up from where he’s been working on the fallen sail. “Captain?”
“You heard me!” Hook barks. “Starboard!”
