Fragments of burning rigging drifted around them, fluttering bits of light in the dark night.
“Ya can still join me, boy.” Blackbeard lowered his cutlass ever so slightly.
Join the man who tried to kill Tink and his crew? Who’d taken his hand? Who’d doomed his mother? Who’d made his life a living hell? Father or no, he’d rather die a thousand deaths than serve that bastard.
Hook spit onto the deck.
Impossibly, Blackbeard’s countenance darkened further. As if summoned, a burning piece of sail landed on his beard and charred a section an even darker black. The brim of his hat dipped to hide his steely gaze as the smoke curled toward his nostrils. “So be it.”
The captains met in a clash of blades. The sting of the blow rang up Hook’s arm. Only thing he could thank this bastard for was not taking his sword hand.
“Ya think ta’ beat me?” Blackbeard taunted with another blow. “Look at ya. Bruised. Bloody.”
Hook gritted his teeth and adjusted his grip, doing his best to tune out words meant to distract and harm.
Wood creaked and groaned nearby as their blades met again.
“I’m bigger than ya, boy.”
Hook dodged a swing. “You’re slow, ya old croc.”
He was. Blackbeard might have him in size, but not speed. Hook kept his back to the railing as best he could, lest someone sneak up behind him. He wouldn’t go down that way, not unless he could take Blackbeard with him.
One parry and swipe after another, they circled in a deadly dance.
Hook’s heart hammered in his ears as he anticipated Blackbeard’s next swing. The other man’s weight shifted. Hook adjusted his aim. With a quick slash, he caught Blackbeard in the arm.
The captain lurched back with a howl of pain, teeth bared amid his beard. “Ya won’t get so lucky again.”
Hook smirked. He would, and then some. The old man was slowing.
A boom sounded across the water.
Fuck.
He barely had time to brace before the cannonball struck theKraken, sending both he and Blackbeard spilling to the deck.
His crew.
A surge of pure adrenaline raced through him as he pushed to his feet. An explosion lit the air in the distance as another cannonball let loose and sailed their way, this one missing. In the foggy dark, he could barely make out his ship. But that shadowed form—aye, I’d know my baby anywhere.It was true. TheJolly Rogerlived. Tink told him, but he’d barely dared believe it.
A groan made him twist back to see the captain rising to his feet, sword in hand. Blood leaked down his face from a cut somewhere above his bushy brows. The broad hat he wore was long gone.
“Cannons!” he bellowed to his men. The fire and fury glowing in his eyes burned hotter than the charred sails.
Blackbeard lunged at him with renewed speed. Hook’s eyes widened. Breath caught in his throat as he barely blocked the strike in time. Before he gathered his senses, Blackbeard swooped in for another strike. Then another.
The blade sliced his shoulder. Hook stumbled back amid the stinging pain.
But Blackbeard didn’t let up. He attacked like a man crazed. A cold sweat broke out across Hook’s skin. This wasn’t the captain of moments ago. The fall, the cannon, something sparked an unholy fury that transformed the aging man into the fearsome pirate of his youth.
The black braids and charred hair of his beard mocked him. His gold-toothed grin promised pain and death. And his eyes…they vowed to devour his very soul.
Hook’s blade sliced the other man’s leg, drawing blood, but he didn’t even slow.
Their swords clashed, locked. Blackbeard had the advantage, his curved blade caught against Hook’s hilt. He pressed. Hook bowed back, giving it everything he had as the edge neared his throat.
Another cannonball rocked the ship.
