Crack,crack-crack,crack!Boom! Boom… Boom!
Vibrations travelled up Percy’s legs as his gaze followed the gunmen’s fire and the carronades’ balls. Some sailed over the other ship, but one crashed into the bulwark and another into the running rigging.
Men shouted and scrambled about, apparently unprepared for battle.Fuck.
Rapid footfalls came up behind Percy, and he spun, lifting his cutlass just in time to block a blow from one of Butcher’s men.
Boom-boom! Boom!
A cannonball glanced off the splintered taffrail to hit a gunner’s leg, then bounced across the deck. The man screeched.
His opponent took advantage of Percy’s distraction and lunged, but Percy turned sideways, forcing the man’s blade to scrape past his belt, rather than gut him. He blinked past the momentary dizziness that swam in his head and gritted his teeth against the throbbing pain to his injuries. He could do this. Hewoulddo this.
Stepping back, he entered the ready position and was gratified to see the slight hesitation in the pirate’s gaze.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
“Keep firing!” Butcher bellowed.
Boom!
The ship shook, but Percy was ready for it. With a narrow arc, his cutlass sliced through the air as he advanced, cutting shallowly into the man’s skin. His opponent bellowed and retreated, holding his chest.
The shock and fear on the pirate’s features turned swiftly into fury, and he charged.
Fuck. Percy sidestepped the man’s blow and rounded on him in one fluid motion, impaling him through his side as he ran past. With a groan and a gurgle, the man was felled to the deck.
Boom, boom!
Just as soon as that pirate was defeated, another took his place, a dirk in each hand.
“You don’t wish to fight me,” Percy called to the man over the din.
“Aye, I do. Butcher brought us glory. An’ women. An’ ’e wants ye dead.”
The man lunged.
Boom,boom-boom!
The low noise reverberated in Heather’s ears, and ripples of fear travelled up her spine. She hadn’t anticipated the battle, but she would have to make her plan work. Butcher would murder everyone on board, and she needed to find Percy and take him home to England. Theremustbe a way.
“You,” the Earl of Hanley growled from the companionway next to her. “Howdareyou start that fire! I know what you’ve done, Calluna, and you shan’t get away with it. Come with me belowdecksnow.”
Heather retreated a step and shook her head. “No.”
His face turned a deep shade of purple, and his mouth opened to speak, but Heather missed his words entirely when pirates from thePandoraswung from the fighting tops and ran across the wooden plank positioned between the two ships, swarming theAmerica’s crew.
“Now,Calluna!” the earl shouted, his demeanour growing hysterical. Sweat gleamed on his brow and upper lip. “Give back what is mine, damn it!”
Boom! Boom-boom!
Movement to her left caught her notice, and she narrowly evaded a falling man. Following Percy’s unintended lesson fromall those days before, Heather crouched beside the felled man and divested him of his dirk and cutlass. Then she approached the Earl of Shite, aiming the blade of her cutlass at his throat.
“You shallneverhave me,” she said, nerves and hope both twisting in her stomach.This is it. “In fact, you ought tofearme.”
His chin trembled, and the sweat began to slide down his temples. “I shall never fear you.”
“You think not?” She huffed a laugh of derision. “I do, in fact, have something of yours, Earl.”
