“Help! Someone help!” I scream. But no one hears me. The crew is hunkered down below, and my voice doesn’t carry in the vicious wind.
I grip the railing and stare at the water behind us as we hit the top of a wave, the splash almost knocking me from the deck. I hang on and will Hook to rise from the water, to swim to the ship, to do anything except die in this unforgiving sea.
“Please.” The water begins to calm, the wind dying down even more as the Jolly Roger gets to the edge of the Neverstorm. “Please, James. Please.” I wipe the water from my eyes and keep looking for any sign of him.
The rain stops. The wind, too. Only the rumble of thunder remains as we sail into smooth waters, the calm unnerving in its suddenness.
“We have to go back!” I hurry to the wheel and start turning it, though I don’t know if that’s how it even works. I assume it’s just like a car. I yank on it.
“We can’t go back.” Smee grabs the wheel and shoves me away.
“He’s out there!” I grab the wheel again. “We can’t leave him!”
“We have to.”
“No!” I scream as the crew begins to emerge. “We have to go back for him! Go back!” I grab the wheel again.
“We can’t go back for him! He’s gone, Moira!” His voice breaks, but he stands resolute. “He wouldn’t want us to go back into the storm. It would kill us all.”
“I don’t care about that! I care about him!”
“I care about him too!” Smee bellows.
I rush the wheel again, but Widow runs up and grabs me around the middle.
“Moira!” She pulls me away.
“We have to find him, please!” I scream, tears burning in my eyes and mixing with the rain on my face.
“Moira, we can’t go back.” Widow spins me around and puts her hands on my shoulders. “Hook navigated us through the storm and made it seem easy. It’s anything but. Only a skilled captain can make it through there alive. If we go back in, we all die.”
“But we can’t just leave him.” My voice cracks on a sob.
“We have to.” She pulls me in tight, her arms wrapping around me. “We have to go on.”
“He could be alive.” I cry and hold onto Widow. “He could be all right.”
She just holds me as I stare at the vicious water just beyond the rear of the ship, rain pelting the surface as lightning strikes in a curtain, as if daring us to pass through it.
“He’s strong.” My knees turn to jelly, and I sink down.
Widow follows, her arms still around me.
“He’s brave.” I stare at the water and will him to appear. He has to be there, maybe just beyond the edge of the calm water. “He’s so brave. He can make it.”
Widow shushes me, and I lay my head on her shoulder, my eyes still on the roiling ocean.
I don’t know how long we sail for after that. Even as the stormy water recedes and the moon glows serenely on the glassy ocean, I look for him. For his strong arms bending the water to his will as he swims toward me. I refuse to believe he’s … An image of Anne’s knife in his back flashes through my head.
“No.” I clench my eyes shut. “No. He’s okay.” He’s survived worse. The scars on his body are a testament to that fact. And I wouldknow. I would know if he were gone. I’d feel it. Wouldn’t I? Or is there someone else out there feeling his loss but not knowing how or why? His true love, mourning a man she’s never met.
“Moira.” Widow strokes my hair. “We have to go ashore.”
“What?” I look up and see a rowboat already on the beach.
“We have to go. The Crystal Caves are just ahead. Through them you can get to the heart of the island.”
My gaze travels up, and I see huge crystalline structures, like uncut diamonds all stacked in rows, rising into the night sky. The very top ones are so high they’re shrouded in misty clouds.
