A shudder of anger passed through him. “I lived, and they let me off at the next port.” Dumped him on the dock was more like.
“Boy might become a man after all,” Blackbeard had laughed. His bushy eyebrows pinched together as he stared him down like he was a fish that flopped on his boots. “I’ll be watchin’ ya, boy.”
And Hook would be watching him. He’d made a vow that day. He’d rise, make a name for himself, and take away from Blackbeard the one thing he loved—the seas. Killing him wouldbe too easy, too quick. Better that he suffer by seeing the boy he’d nearly destroyed rise to become a better pirate than he.
“That was the hook?” Tink glanced at the offending object.
“I’ve had it with me every day since. He thought to bring me low with it, and so I used it to make a name for myself.”
She kissed his chest before grinning up at him. “And here I always thought you just lacked creativity.”
Leave it to her to find a way to make him smile.
“At least it’s better than being named for what your parents do and their favorite flower.” She pouted.
Tinker Bell. “I always wondered about your name,” he said. Such an odd one it was.
Her face flushed, and she dipped her head. “It’s pixie tradition. You have family names, we have job names. Our job name comes first, then our given ones.”
Interesting. “Can’t change jobs?”
“Oh, you can. Then your name changes too. I thought about it. I like music, but tinkering and making things are what I’m best at. Like my old treehouse,” she sighed. “Besides, the elders may have thrown a fit if I’d asked for a formal change.”
“And Lily? She’s a…”
“Tinker. Tinker Lily.”
His lips quirked. “So why don’t you go by Bell?”
“It’s too…” She waved her hand up in the air.
He understood. Bell was a beautiful name, maybe too gentle for her wild nature and fiery heart. No wonder she’d chosen to go by Tink instead. It fit. Even so… “You could change it if you hate it, love. Humans don’t have such rules.”
One finger slid down his collarbone. “I’ll think about that.” She took the silver ring on his necklace between her fingers. “She’d be proud of you, I think.”
He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “I doubt that.”
“What…?” She shook her head. “No, never mind.”
Hook swallowed down the knot lodged in his throat. “What happened to her?”
She looked away. “I don’t want to…” Tink blew at the lock of hair falling across her face. “Well, I guess I’ve already ruined the mood.”
“You could never ruin anything.” He tilted her face back to him. “It hurts to speak of her, I can’t deny it, but my vengeance against Blackbeard isn’t just for me.” He pushed the lock of hair behind a pointed ear. “I finally made it home two weeks later. By some chance, I’d managed to keep some of the violet root. But it didn’t matter. She’d passed two days before I returned.”
He took Tink’s hand in his, closing her delicate fingers over the ring against his chest. “If Blackbeard had let me go, I’d have made it in time. She could have gotten better.” He wouldn’t have forgiven Blackbeard for what he’d done to him. He’d have still sought revenge, at least for a time, but maybe that would have faded over the years. But his mother’s death? That he could never forgive.
Tink leaned impossibly closer. “When we’re done here, once we’ve retrieved the scale and lifted your curse, I want to help you stop him.”
He sucked in a breath, turning to face her fully.
“What about your home? And Lily?”
“She can go back and tell everyone I’m okay. Her bracelet is still intact, so we just need to get her back to one of the doors. Once Blackbeard is defeated, I can use the pearl to fix myself and go back later.”
So she’d still leave him. A deep ache rent through his chest.Should have known.
“That is…” She released the ring, her fingers trailing down his skin. “Unless you don’t want me to,” she rambled on, clearing noticing the change in him no matter how he tried to hide it. “He’s hurt you worse than me, I just want to help—”
