Zander pulled his blade free from the man’s body, wiping sweat from his brow as he glanced at Ace. She looked how he thought he must have—exhausted, scared, heartbroken.
“These past few months were the best”—slash, slash, stab—“of my whole life,” Zander said. “Don’t apologize for them.” Slash, swipe, slash. He looked at Ace full on, his expression firm.
Ace smiled softly, her arms limp at her sides, the tip of her cutlass dragging on the ground as the man she’d just been fighting fell lifeless on the deck beside her.
“Okay,” she said. “Zander—”
Just then, a blood-curdling roar erupted from the main deck, making Zander turn. The roar came from Yarrow, who stood over a dead sailor, their blade still dripping red with the man’s blood. Theo was still on the upper deck, separated from Yarrow by a stream of bodies. Theo was surrounded on three sides by men, swinging his cutlass wildly to keep them at bay, his face like that of a cornered animal as he snarled at them. At his feet lay the empty guns he’d discarded one by one, the bodies of the sailors they’d killed scattered nearby.
Zander looked on in awe as Yarrow seemed to inflate to twice their size, their body vibrating with energy as they locked into hyper-focus on their struggling partner. With movements he could barely make out, Yarrow hoisted themselves onto the railing and leapt over the heads of two men, turning to disarm one and then swinging their sword around to cut the knees of one of the men closing in on Theo.
Standing, they pulled a dagger from their belt and threw it over their shoulder at a man approaching from behind; it embedded itself in the man’s eye. In the same breath, they ran their sword through the back of one of the men attacking Theo, then used the blade to propel his struggling body in an arc, swinging themselves into place by Theo’s side and kicking the man’s body away blade in one fell motion as Theo dispatched a third man.
As the sailor’s body fell to the deck, a pool of red blooming at his belly, Theo and Yarrow shared a brief but passionate kiss amidst the chaos before turning to fight once more. They stood shoulder to shoulder now, their backs to the sea, fighting the growing crowd filing onto the upper deck.
Zander watched the entire scene in the few moments it happened before launching back into action. He slashed at an invading sailor who’d climbed onto the forecastle, causing him to jump back in fear. He fell straight into the clutches of Bagu, who slammed him roughly to the ground.
Zander felt Ace’s hand in his and squeezed, looking over at her. She was looking hopelessly out at the crew, her eyes darting to the approaching longboat every few moments as she surveyed the tragic scene before her. Beyond their temporarily insulated place at the forecastle, her crew struggled to defend the Valerian against a horde of enemies. Half of The Valerian’s pirates had fallen or surrendered, and the other half would be out of strength soon. Theo and Yarrow still struggled on the upper deck, blood coating their skin as they continued to fight more than thrice their number.
Ace kept her hand clutched in Zander’s as she yelled across the deck.
“ENOUGH!” she hollered, her voice cutting through the noise, her eyes meeting Yarrow’s across the tumult. “We surrender. Lay down your arms.”
The fighting lulled. Curious, fearful, and more than a few shocked eyes landed on Ace. The pirates standing in front of her looked outraged at the call for surrender. Theo looked resigned. Yarrow looked heartbroken, shaking their head slightly. But Ace’s expression was rock hard as she repeated herself, her gaze still fixed on the upper deck. “Enough,” she said.
Yarrow’s hands rose slowly as they made a show of dropping their weapons. The rest of the crew followed suit, the clattering sound of metal on wood the only sound for several deafening moments. The sailors surrounding them didn’t see what Zander did—that Theo used the show as an opportunity to shuffle behind Yarrow, quickly pulling something from the satchel hidden beneath their long shirt. His other hand retrieved a pistol hidden in their belt.
Ace’s voice pulled Zander’s eyes away from them.
“Zander.” She reached one hand up to stroke his face. “It’s been a wonderful adventure, loving you.”
A shot rang out, followed by a deafening explosion from the upper deck. Through the sudden haze of smoke that filled the air, Zander saw Ace lift the ivory handle of her blade above her head and bring it swiftly down toward him.
Everything went black.
10
Zander lay in his bed, still too exhausted to move from his position on his stomach. He willed himself to open his eyes, but they didn’t so much as flutter. He could hear the breeze dancing against the shutters of his small house. Someone yelled just outside—probably someone calling after their children.
The smell of a fresh hide, ready for tanning, filled his nostrils. And something else he didn’t recognize. He took a deep breath, surprised to find that it hurt.
No. That’s not a hide.
It was blood. The metallic scent became suddenly clearer, as if his nose was coated in it. The sound that filled his ears wasn’t the breeze on his shutters, but the waves lapping against the side of the sloop.
And the voice… it came to him as if from a distance, growing louder and clearer as he settled back into his body.
Where is it? the voice called faintly.
Zander struggled to make sense of the question, his head pounding.
Where is it? it asked, louder now, persistent.
As the sound grew clearer, so did the pain.
“Where is it, you stupid bitch?!”
Zander’s eyes flew open as a loud SLAP followed up the question.
Standing in front of the damaged mast was a man he’d never seen. He was tall, imposing. His jet-black hair was pulled back from his face, revealing sharp, handsome features. His mouth was twisted into a snarl, and his piercing blue eyes were filled with hatred.
Kneeling before him, her hands bound behind her back, was the captain of The Valerian. Ace’s head was turned away from Zander, still twisted from the impact of the hit. Zander willed his body to move, to help her, but it wouldn’t. He felt his head swimming from the effort alone. Dark shadows appeared at the corners of his vision.
No, he thought. No, no, no.
“Have you been chasing me all over the ocean since I left?” Ace said, her voice dripping with sarcastic pity.
The man hit her again. Zander tried with all his might to get up, but he couldn’t move a finger, let alone stand. He wanted to throw himself at the man, to wrap his hands around his neck and squeeze until the life drained from him. But he couldn’t even groan. His rage only pulled him down, down, further into darkness.
“Where is it?” came a sharp whisper in the background of his awareness.
“It never left Antequera.”
Ace’s words, and the faint image of her back to him as she was marched off deck, bounced around his skull as he drifted once more into oblivion.
***
Zander shot up from the deck, gasping, his nervous system shocked from a sudden and biting cold. He labored for each breath, his heart pounding frantically in his chest. The world was bright and blinding, and he felt as if he should get up and run, but then the dizziness came, and he was once again on his back.
