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I reach into my pocket for the key and take it out, about to throw it at Maren, when Smith knocks it from my hand. I watch as the key goes sailing over the rail and down into the sea below.
God almighty. This can’t be it.
“I’ve got it!” Maren yells. She gets to her feet and runs at us and for a moment I think she’s going to attack Smith too, but she’s leaping over us and over the railing, diving over the edge to get the key.
I hear her splash below and in that distraction, Smith flips me over, nearly knocking over the railing, and strangling me with one hand while he reaches for his knife. “Let’s see how quickly I can remove your heart. As fast as I removed your father’s head?”
He holds the knife above my chest and I hate how equally strong we are, hate that I didn’t listen to Maren and take her blood earlier, hate how quickly my life just fell apart again, and I fear that perhaps he is going to end me here, that I’ll soon be joining my father in whatever place the mortal immortals rest.
Then Sedge staggers over, hovering over us, looking bloodthirsty as I’ve never seen him, holding up a blunderbuss aimed right at Smith’s face.
Smith has the audacity to smile at him and it’s while he’s smiling that Sedge pulls the trigger. The muzzle fires, the case shot hitting Smith, obliterating his face and the force of it causes him to crash back through the railing.
A choked scream sounds while Smith falls to the sea below.
I quickly look over the edge to see him sink into the waves and disappear. Maren is also nowhere to be found and the surface is littered with the bodies of the naval members that fell victim to my crew.
Sedge drops the gun and puts his arms under my shoulders, helping me to my feet and I turn around to see Henry still motionless on the floor of my quarters, Lucas beside him, holding up his head, covered in his blood. His own blood pours down his face from his ear, mixing with the tears as he bawls, rocking back and forth.
It’s only then that I realize that I’m crying too.
I look to Nerissa in the cage, my vision blurred. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to her, the words choked. “I don’t know how to get you out without the key. And I can’t otherwise undo the magic that’s keeping yours at bay.”
She’s gripping the bars so tight that her knuckles are white and she nods, her attention going to Henry. “I wish I could help you, my child,” she says to Henry, her voice low and strained. “I can only wish that the gods take your hand as you go.”
“No! We must do something!” Lucas sobs uncontrollably, holding on tight to his dear friend. He stares pleadingly at us with his tear-streamed face. “We have to make him better. Please make him better.”
But Henry is dead.
My poor boy is dead.
Sedge goes to his knees beside Lucas, putting his hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him and I feel frozen in place, a dread so sharp and cold that I don’t think I’ll ever feel warm again.
This can’t be.
“Ramsay!” I hear Maren yelling my name from outside. “Ramsay!”
I stagger out to the balcony and look over the edge where the rail is broken. She’s in the water below between the two ships and she waves the key at me. “I have the key!”
I look over my shoulder at Nerissa but she only shakes her head solemnly.
“His soul has left us,” Nerissa says softly, her copper eyes welling with tears. “It is too late to bring him back.”
I look back at Maren but can’t bear to say the words.
But from the way her face crumbles in sorrow, I know I don’t need to.
She knows.
Henry is gone.
PARTFOUR
The West
CHAPTER34
Maren
