I get my good leg over the side and roll into the boat, the tarp beneath me as I sit up and grab the sides. When I look up again, I scream. The Jolly Roger is nearly on top of us, the mermaid’s fierce teeth right in front of me.
“Captain, they’re boarding us!” Pirates rush around me, their swords drawn.
Something swings past me, and then I see someone hit the deck in front of me, his sword swinging as he cuts down man after man. No, not someone—it’s Hook. I can tell by the fierceness of his fight, the way he moves. I can almost smell the sea spray and pine tar on him.
More men land on the deck and fight alongside him. Then I see a flash of dark hair and a ridiculously great rack. Widow. She’s here, too, fighting with a ferocity I can only envy. The one with all the tattoos, Bill, grabs two pirates and crashes their heads together. Starkey wields his sword like he’s doing a dance, cutting and murdering with effortless flair.
Hook runs to the captain’s cabin and flings the door open, then wheels around, his gaze searching the ship. When his eyes meet mine, he stomps right toward me.
A pirate rushes him. Hook cuts him down without even turning his head, his blade slicing the man almost in two.
“There you are, lass,” he yells over the sound of the whirlpool.
Water is splashing all around now, the wall of swirling water so close I know there’s no way we can escape.
“Damn you, Hook!” Calico Jack calls, but he doesn’t come down from the wheel to fight.
Hook ignores him and reaches for me.
Shame coats me as I go to him, letting him lift me from the rowboat without protest. He’s my enemy, but if I stay here, I’m dead. I can’t help Peter if I’m at the bottom of this hellish whirlpool.
“Hang onto me, lass. Tight.”
I wrap my arms around his neck, and he helps me clasp my legs around his waist.
“Tighter,” he growls in my ear.
I squeeze, clinging to him as he reaches for a rope and lashes it around his forearm.
He turns his head and yells, “Abandon ship!” Then he yanks on the rope.
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 the top 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.
