“We. Have to,” Tink groaned. “Go!”
He gritted his teeth, pushing to his feet with her help. He hurt everywhere. And his side—not a deep wound, but it burned worse than fire coral. “Not yet. I have to—”
“Live!” She grabbed his face between her hands, forcing him to look at her. “You have to live!” Tears formed and fell. “With me. Don’t leave me. Not again.”
His heart nearly cracked in two.Bloody hell. She was everything, and he’d let her stay here, on this burning wreck about to sink into the depths, because of his hate, his anger. He’d almost lost her to the sea once.Not again. “Okay.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Okay, love.”
With one last look over his shoulder, he caught sight of Blackbeard. He struggled on the deck with his leg pinned below the mast. Groans and bellowed curses slipped out into the night. The old pirate didn’t spare a glance for Hook, not as he tried to move the massive beam without success. Fire crept across the deck near him. The pirates who’d lingered to aid him were gone—fled or felled.
He could end this. Right now.
Blackbeard’s sword lay on the deck, having fallen loose from the wood when the mast fell. It would be so easy to pick it up, plunge the wicked blade into Blackbeard’s dark heart once and for all, and fulfill years of dreams and longing.
His shoulders drooped. But it would be a hollow victory, a mercy more than revenge. He took Tink’s hand in his. The simmering coal of hate lodged in his heart dimmed. What he needed was ahead, not behind.
The deck tilted. Tink yelped as she tightened her grip. He stiffened. TheKrakenwas taking on water. They needed to get clear before she went down.
“Abandon ship!” someone called from beyond the ruined mast.
“Right. Let’s go, love.” He sprinted across the deck with Tink.
“Bloody fuck!” she screamed, leaning over the railing.
He couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face, even amid all the chaos. “Sounding like me, love.”
She pursed her lips and swatted his arm. He hissed in pain.
“Oh!” She jumped and winced. “I’m sorry, I—”
The ship groaned and rocked. “No time. We have to go.” He stepped onto the railing, pulling her with him.
“But—” She clutched at him. “I can’t. My wings. Not both of—”
He pulled her to him. “Don’t let go.”
With a hope and a prayer, he flung them into the sea.
Tink screamed. Water closed over them. Salt seared his wounds and nearly made him lose his breath. Tink slipped in his grip. He wouldn’t lose her. Never again.
Hook already kicked them away from the sinking ship by the time they surfaced. Tink coughed and sputtered but looked no worse for wear, from what little he could see above the water in the dark night anyway.
“Kick your legs. We have to get away.” If the ship sank while they were too close, it would pull them under with the wreckage. A horrible way to die.
Slowly, painfully, Hook swam across the sea with Tink’s help as the ship splintered and came apart.
“The boys…” Tink said, twisting this way and that in his arms. The little boat he’d loaded them into was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m sure they’re safe.” He was far less than sure, but he couldn’t risk negative thoughts. Speaking them, even in one’s mind, often made them true.
Neither spoke as Hook continued to swim into the darkness with her in tow, watching theKrakensink.
Father. He’d always wondered. Always wanted to meet the man who’d sired him, but now… He slowed his pace, letting them bob in the water. They were far enough away from the wreck, and his strength was already flagging.
“Peter is your brother?” Tink whispered into the silence.
“Aye.” Stars above, the pain in his side was killing him, almost as much as the pain in his chest he pretended didn’t exist.
Tink’s panic had faded, her chest rising and falling in even breaths where she clung to his back with her arms around his neck. “He told you that?”
