The prince draws his sword and points it at James. “You,” he snarls.
“Listen, this really isn’t how it looks,” James tries to begin but just then he is yanked forward by his arm holding the sword. “Ahh!”
Fortunately he isn’t heading for me anymore because Frederick is the new victim of James’s forced swordsmanship.
I feel my eyes widen as James lands a flurry of blow against the prince. He twirls, coat flaring around him. With a twist of his wrist, he sends the prince’s sword flying through the alleyway. It lands with a clatter near my feet.
My mouth drops open as James turns again and decisively elbows the prince twice in his face. Frederick drops to the ground without even a grunt, completely unconscious. Naia screams.
I can’t believe what I just saw. Not because I wasn’t expecting it, it’s exactly what happened in the script. Captain Hook so effortlessly defeated the prince that Moira decides to use him in her plan for revenge. Deciding that if he could defeat a prince he could easily kill a little mermaid. She convinced him that Naia is more important to go afterthan her, a bigger target since she’s the princess of the sirens. They form a temporary truce to get Naia killed and the plot develops.
No, what I can’t quite wrap my mind around is that it is James who did that. Siren’s song controlling him or no, I don’t think he has ever moved so quickly and decisively in his life. I’ve watched this man try to get into the conference room carrying one coffee cup and exactly two folders and it wasn’t a pretty picture.
His face also registers his surprise. He has probably never done anything near as violent as that in his life.
His face still shows his surprise as he turns back to me, swinging his sword.
Right… he still isn’t in control of himself. I throw aside my sword since I’m not about to risk tripping and skewering myself and take off running. I race through the town and market stalls, shoving past the NPCs milling around. I doubt any of them will interfere even if they notice James has a sword. This is how the plot is supposed to go. If I am correct in my hunch that we are existing in a script controlled by a plot then it’s very likely that only James and I even have free will.
And the plot it seems, is determined to take away even that.
I push myself to run, until my lungs are burning and I find the edge of the town. All I had to do was follow the view of circling gulls and the sound of the roaring waves. As soon as I reach the edge of the land, I yank the cloth off my waist, pull back my arm, and throw it as hard as I can into the water.
It lands, bobs twice, and then disappears beneath the waves. I hear a clatter behind me and whirl to see James has kept up with me. He throws the sword down with a disgusted sneer on his face. I watch his face as his eyes move back and forth, likely while he tries to process what just happened. He must decide that it’s too much to dwell on because he sinks to the ground.
“What just happened? I didn’t have any—Vera, I almost killed you!”
“It’s not your fault,” I murmur as I glance to the waves. I move over to his side and kneel next to him. I eye the sword for a long moment and then finally decide I don’t like it. It joins the siren’s song in the pier.
I reach out a hesitant hand and rest it on James’s shoulder. “Are you all right?” I ask, patting him awkwardly.
He is wheezing for breath and choking and now that I’m touching him I realize he is trembling.
“No, of course I’m not okay,” he gasps out. “I had no control over myself. I could have hurt you, Vera. I think I did hurt that guy.”
“Frederick will be fine,” I mutter bitterly. If the plot has its way, he’ll outlive both of us.
“Frederick, so that was his name.” James sighs as he rubs a hand down his face. “I feel more in control of myself again. I don’t know what that was though.”
“I think it was the plot,” I say as I glance toward the waves. The plot using a plot device to have its way and bully us. “Don’t worry, I got rid of it.”
“I promise, I didn’t mean any of that.”
I pat him absently on the shoulder as my mind whirls.
“We are working against the plot,” I say at last. “And the plot seems to have a mind of its own. It will try to force itself upon us. I think that only if we work together can we overcome it.”
This is the scene where Hook and Moira finally become allies. They make a bargain to kill a siren princess and wind up falling in love. But maybe that’s part of the reason why James is back in control of himself again. Because we are supposed to make a bargain.
Well, we can, but it won’t be the type of deal the plot will like.
Hook and Moira have their own twisted bargains that makes it so they work together and start to trust each other at least a little bit, so why can’t James and I? “We’re going to get through this story as quickly as possible, but let’s be very clear. We do it as a team. Together we can figure out a way to make it so that we don’t fall in love, and we don’t actually kill each other. Got it?”
James glances at me out of the corner of his eye like he can’t believe what I just said. However, he finally holds out his hand to clasp mine. He gives it a good hard shake. “Deal.”
