Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144411 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Then Sedge staggers over, hovering over us, looking bloodthirsty as I’ve never seen him, holding up a blunderbuss aimed right at Smith’s face.
Smith has the audacity to smile at him and it’s while he’s smiling that Sedge pulls the trigger. The muzzle fires, the case shot hitting Smith, obliterating his face and the force of it causes him to crash back through the railing.
A choked scream sounds while Smith falls to the sea below.
I quickly look over the edge to see him sink into the waves and disappear. Maren is also nowhere to be found and the surface is littered with the bodies of the naval members that fell victim to my crew.
Sedge drops the gun and puts his arms under my shoulders, helping me to my feet and I turn around to see Henry still motionless on the floor of my quarters, Lucas beside him, holding up his head, covered in his blood. His own blood pours down his face from his ear, mixing with the tears as he bawls, rocking back and forth.
It’s only then that I realize that I’m crying too.
I look to Nerissa in the cage, my vision blurred. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to her, the words choked. “I don’t know how to get you out without the key. And I can’t otherwise undo the magic that’s keeping yours at bay.”
She’s gripping the bars so tight that her knuckles are white and she nods, her attention going to Henry. “I wish I could help you, my child,” she says to Henry, her voice low and strained. “I can only wish that the gods take your hand as you go.”
“No! We must do something!” Lucas sobs uncontrollably, holding on tight to his dear friend. He stares pleadingly at us with his tear-streamed face. “We have to make him better. Please make him better.”
But Henry is dead.
My poor boy is dead.
Sedge goes to his knees beside Lucas, putting his hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him and I feel frozen in place, a dread so sharp and cold that I don’t think I’ll ever feel warm again.
This can’t be.
“Ramsay!” I hear Maren yelling my name from outside. “Ramsay!”
I stagger out to the balcony and look over the edge where the rail is broken. She’s in the water below between the two ships and she waves the key at me. “I have the key!”
I look over my shoulder at Nerissa but she only shakes her head solemnly.
“His soul has left us,” Nerissa says softly, her copper eyes welling with tears. “It is too late to bring him back.”
I look back at Maren but can’t bear to say the words.
But from the way her face crumbles in sorrow, I know I don’t need to.
She knows.
Henry is gone.
PART FOUR
The West
CHAPTER 34
Maren
It’s just after sunset, the sky a watercolor painting of moody lavenders and blues. A few stars are starting to appear, announcing their arrival by dancing. Though we can’t see the land yet—least I can’t with my somewhat ordinary eyes—you can tell it’s near. You can smell it, the vague scent of vegetation and earth in the air.
Sorrow hangs in the air, too.
We had our funeral for Henry this morning, before the sun rose. Ramsay has been beside himself with grief, so Sam and I got to taking the boy’s body and Lothar fashioned a raft from planks and wreckage from the Nightwind’s many wounds. We put Henry on it and adorned it with all the trinkets and toys that he liked, little dogs and bears whittled out of wood by Drakos, plus his favorite items of clothing and his favorite books. Sedge took what was left of the coffee beans and scattered it around him like petals, since Henry had only recently taken a serious liking to the drink.
Many a tear were shed. They may be pirates, but the crew of the Nightwind are an emotional bunch, always wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Even the normally unmoved Thane was brought to tears and hugged Lucas and Sam extra tight.
And poor Lucas is grieving as much as Ramsay is. He seems to be doing alright after being shot at, though the top of his ear is gone and his head bandaged, but he lost his best friend, and to see him die in front of him like that—to have nearly died himself—will be a hard thing for him to get over. I doubt he ever will.
So with Cruz playing a heartrending tune on his violin, Henry was lowered into the sea and the raft was set alight. We watched as it drifted off into the rising sun, the flames growing as it rose over the horizon, bathing us all in glowing light.
Then he was gone.
The only one of us who wasn’t present at the funeral was Nerissa, but it wasn’t because she was in her cage. After I dove down to retrieve the key from the bottom of the ocean, thankful that we were over a seamount which meant I didn’t have to dive for thousands of feet, we decided to let Nerissa go free. Ramsay seemed to have given up entirely, not caring if the sea witch wanted to wreak havoc on his ship. As for me, I was starting to believe that Nerissa was someone we could trust. I know she would have saved Henry if she had been able to, or at least she would have tried, and from what she said, the moment she saw Ed Smith crawl in through the balcony, she had tried to contact Ramsay using her mind, the only thing she was able to do.