“You’ve been fighting this monster for twenty years? How old were you? Eight?”
“Ten.” He sniffed and looked down as he balled his fist in the sand.
Wendy drew meaningless doodles in the sand between them. “How did you come to captain theJolly Roger? And, wait—” She set her hand flat on the sand and looked at him. “TheVerified History was published, like, twenty years ago. How does that math work?”
“Eighteen, to be precise.” James sucked on his teeth and stared at the endless waves.
She let him process his thoughts and returned to her drawing.
A sigh twenty years in the making leaked out of the captain. “Smee found me right after the failed murder attempt. He and Mirai were in a rowboat, of all things.” He shook his head with a brief laugh.
What? How old is Mirai?She held in the questions, not wanting to mess with his flow.
“Anyway, Peter saw Smee and learned about my hook sometime after I healed enough to add it, because that wretched book came out and suddenly Captain ‘Hook’ and his first mate, Smee, were the villains.” He scoffed and chucked a handful of sand into the water that lapped at their feet.
“Oof.” Wendy dropped her head back to gaze at the sky. “I feelsupremelystupid.”
He looked at her with a slight frown. “Oh yeah, why’s that?”
She dipped her head toward her chest to hide the color on her cheeks and confessed in a higher pitch, “I definitely thought that was your real name until right now.”
James threw his head back and laughed from the belly. She joined him after a moment.
“Ooh,” he breathed out. “That would have really bothered me not long ago. But now, it’s just funny.”
“Happy to serve.” Wendy did the arm portion of a curtsy. “How did Peter get his version published in a Verified History, do you know?”
A furrow appeared in his brow. “He has connections. Haven’t been able to track them yet.” He laid back and tucked his left arm beneath his head.
“Are you still bitter about Peter stealing your hand and your identity?”
Another rumbly sigh worked its way out. “I’m trying not to be.” He met her eye. “I’d like to pretend that my motives for getting him locked up are pure”—his lips turned down—“but some of it is undeniably a chance for revenge.”
“Understandable.” She patted his shoulder. “So. Whatisyour real name?”
“James.”
She blew a raspberry, and he grinned. This resulted in a devastatingly playful and handsome man, and she had his full attention. Wendy worked to keep the tremor out of her voice, but it was a heady feeling. “Thank you,James. Even the book says that much. Do you have a family name?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” he flirted.
Wendy was half-surprised her clothes weren’t already dry given how warm she was feeling. “Usually,” she responded, unable to think up a clever response with his eyes on her.
He took pity and gave her a real answer. “Qadir.”
“Thank you.”
He closed his eyes, and she scanned the horizon.
“James Qadir. Good, strong name,” she mused. “And not very villainous. I can see why he changed it.”
The captain snorted but relaxed further into the sand. She wondered if he had slept at all during the night.
Feeling braver, she changed the subject. “You got in the way of a net gun for me.”
He sat up and rubbed his neck. “I did.”
“You must like me a bit, then.”
