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“So, we’re full siblings?” Smee asks, raising her voice.
“No. Half. James Hook was your father, Smee. By then, I’d been banished from the ship for what happened to your brother. The only time your parents associated with me after that was when I found out where your shadow was. Of course, your father blamed me for the loss of his wife, too.”
“If James wasn’t my father, then who was?” I ask, leaning away from him slightly and lifting my chin.
“You’re looking at him. I made your mother a promise that I’d get your shadow back at all costs.” The Crocodile holds out his hands and spins. “Pan can’t open the vault. He’s grown too weak since he became mortal. There’s no way around the blood magic. Someone has to die for you to get your shadow back, Sebastian. Your father didn’t want it to be Smee.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. I won’t believe that nonsense. “Then I won’t open it. I don’t want my shadow enough to sacrifice someone I love.”
“Sadly, you won’t have a choice. For me to fulfill my promise, you need to be whole. And for me to go to your mother, you have to open that vault.” The Crocodile turns back to me, his eyes cold and calculating. “It’s been over twenty years. I’ve waited, I’ve been patient. To fulfill that promise, you’ll need to open Pan’s vault. I gave your father the benefit of the doubt and let him search for an alternative. Hell, even I did, but there’s only one solution, Sebastian.”
As the weight of his words settles on me, my heart constricts in my chest. A part of me wonders if this is just another manipulation, another lie, but there’s an eerie sort of truth behind his words that I can’t shake. I glance at Scarlet, bound and vulnerable, and Smee... I can see the tears in her eyes, unshed but lingering there. She understands now...
The Crocodile doesn’t do deals. He serves himself. It never made sense... I couldn’t figure out why he’d help me find my shadow when he’d been my father’s sworn enemy for decades. I knew there had to be something in it for him, but this? I never expected this.
Smee invited him here, but he had no intention of hearing her out. He saw an opportunity, a chance at our ship being divided. Weak. Blood witches line the deck of his ship, ready to heed his command. He came with one plan, to take me to that vault and, if necessary, force me to open it, to sacrifice one of the two women on this deck.
Considering the fact he loved my mother, he likely let my father search for another way. He let him try to find a way to open that vault that didn’t involve me sacrificing her only other child. When Smee told him about Scarlet, he didn’t have to worry about that anymore. There was someone else to pay the price instead.
Is that why my father wanted me to enter the gauntlet? Was it truly for access to the mainland? I never sat in on his locator spells, not towards the end. What if Pan wasn’t there? What if he wanted me to marry the king’s daughter so the blood oath would be enough to make me love someone else? What if it was his way of ensuring someone other than Smee paid the price? Blood oaths are only offered for royal weddings and the written magic we used to finish it is illegal, even in the outer realm.
Thinking back, my father tried countless times to get me to marry. He arranged meetings and always pressured me to start a family, but I’m a pirate and with how long we’re gone from the Luminaries, it wasn’t plausible. It wouldn’t have been fair to the woman I bound myself to, who’d have to leave everything she knows to come with me or stay behind and only see me for weeks or days out of the year. What woman would be happy with that?
Scarlet is different. She was going to have to leave it all behind, anyway. Assuming whoever would’ve won, besides me, let her live. She would’ve been transplanted into a new culture and left to figure it out. I didn’t think she’d want to stay on this ship.
I meant what I told her about it being dangerous and had I known about her mark, there’s no way I would’ve let her board when we left the Luminaries. She would’ve had to stay behind... that is if I could’ve looked past it then.
Scarlet didn’t have anything to lose by marrying me, but I didn’t anticipate falling in love with her...
Even after everything Smee pulled today, I know she did it because she thought she was helping me... I can’t lose them. Either of them. They’re all I have left. The two of them hold me together when I feel like I’m too shattered and broken. They remind me of who I’m supposed to be with both halves of my soul.
I won’t be the reason that either of their lights dims from this world. And I’ve faced the Crocodile enough times to know that he won’t give up. He’s waited over two decades for this. He finally has a chance to honor the promise he made to my mother without harming her other child. He won’t stop until that vault opens and one of them dies... I can’t let that happen.
I back up, inch by inch, until my leg is right next to Scarlet. She’s smart... so freaking intelligent that it astounds me most of the time. I don’t even have to give her a sign before she discreetly tries to fish out the dagger I keep in my boot. She’s seen me undress enough times to know it’s always there.
The wind howls around me as I stand on the deck of the Jolly Roger, my heart pounding in my chest. When I feel the small dagger pull free, I glance at Scarlet, wishing I could tell her everything’s going to be okay. I feel her panic, though not as strong as it was before we finished the bond. It’s there, rippling inside me.
She’s terrified, but I know her and Zephyr and Lorian well enough to know that she’ll get off this ship. I just have to make sure they have no use for her anymore. Smee won’t float her after this... I know it.
“Damn it all,” Smee curses under her breath, pacing back and forth as she rips the crimson bandana from her head.
A cold gust of wind sweeps across the deck, and I shiver as it cuts through my clothes, chilling me to the bone. Smee’s frozen, her eyes wide with fear and realization. The Crocodile had played her, and sadly, there’s no undoing this.
Smee snaps out of her stupor, rushing forward with her sword in hand. The blood witches raise their palms, but the Crocodile stops them without a word. Smee swings, but he deflects every move with such efficiency... He’s been doing this for a lifetime. She won’t get to him, but he’s appeasing her, letting her get her anger out, anyway. He needs her and Scarlet alive so he can force me to choose.
With everyone’s eyes drawn to the fight on the lower deck, I hear the ropes Scarlet’s trying to slice through whine with each sawing motion she makes.
“Scarlet,” I say, keeping my voice down. “I need you to know something...” She can’t speak—Nelvin taped her mouth shut—but she pauses to look up at me with those beautiful hazel eyes. “I love you, and I’m sorry. You’re going to feel this, and that’s my fault for making you finish the blood oath, but I promise you, you’ll be safe.”
Her eyes bounce between mine, trying to figure out what I’m talking about, but I need to do this while they’re distracted. It’s my only shot. Striding to the railing, I draw the blade of my sword across my arms, making sure I bleed. The beasts will come. I need to make damn sure they won’t be able to fish me out before then.
As the blade nicks my skin, Scarlet screams, the sounds muffled by the tape. My jaw clenches, the muscles hammering as my lungs seize from the pain.
The blood begins to drip in a heavy stream from the wounds as I step onto the rail. And with a deep breath, I float, giving over my soul to the deep.
36
Scarlet
