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It took every bit of my strength to carry Teach’s dead weight onto the deck of the ship. I cringed at the sound of his lifeless body slamming against the floorboards. I’m not sure how it was possible to love and despise the man at the same time. I took one last look at him. All the color had drained from his face, his skin looking unnaturally waxy. White foam continued to leak from his mouth, coating his infamous beard. The man would haunt my nightmares for an eternity. With a swift motion, I pulled my dagger from my belt. I wanted to feel my blade split his skin and pour his aubergine blood over my hand, just to prove to myself that he was truly dead.
“James, what are you doing?”
“I have to, Kat. I must know for certain.”
“He’s dead. It’s over. You don’t have to do this. You’re better than that.”
She grabbed my hand, stilling the blade. Her fingers trembled as she wrapped them around mine. All I could see were the horrors that Blackbeard had committed against the both of us, flashing continuously in my mind. I looked into her emerald eyes; they were pleading with me to be done with this man and wash him from our lives forever.
“You’re right.”
She nodded, and the two of us pushed his limp body over the edge of the ship. I stared at the floorboards rather than watching his body plummet to the watery grave below. The sound of the splash was music to my ears. I was finally free. Teach’s death meant the end of a nightmare. It was time to begin a new era. One where I was the master of my destiny. I would never again bow to another’s will.
“We should get out of here, Kat. Something about this place feels evil. We need to find the ruby and get to Neverland.”
“I found it.”
I turned to her, but she continued to stare into the water at what was left of her nightmares.
“You found it? You found the ruby?” My excitement flared at the prospect, but I needed confirmation that she had indeed found the Heart of the Divine before I let it get the better of me. I wasn’t sure I could handle the disappointment, not after everything I’d endured.
“That’s what I was coming to tell you before…”
She reached into her pocket and produced a ruby that fit neatly in her palm. The contrast of the blood-red gemstone against her porcelain skin was stark. And I remembered the vision she had of me all those years ago.
Blood red.
That is what my future held, and there it was, resting in her palm—my destiny. The angles were perfectly cut. An ethereal glow emanated from the center as if a specter had taken up residence inside the gemstone.
Gingerly, I plucked it from her hand. The moment it touched my skin, I expected a surge of power to course through me. But there was nothing. The power of the cosmos lay in this simple stone, and it was at my fingertips, begging to be wielded to my whim. But how?
“Do you know how to use it?” I asked, both anxious and hesitant for her answer.
“Are you ready to go back to Neverland, James?”
“You’re sure this is it?” James asked, but I couldn’t concentrate on his words. My eyes shifted back to the water, fixated on the bubbles rising from the sea as it consumed Edward’s body into its depths. Doubt lingered in my mind. I wasn’t certain that the poison had truly done its job. I still felt its effects on me, and I’d had years of exposure. But Edward was a large man, and poison was fickle. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to check and see if his black heart still beat because my own heart was conflicted. But maybe it had nothing to do with my heart.
All the years I’d been Teach’s property had broken something within me. Was I damaged goods? Was my mind so far gone that I could no longer trust myself?
At least I could count on the sea to claim victory over his death if I’d fallen short.
“Kat?” he asked, pulling me from the downward spiral of my thoughts.
“Er… yes. Yes, I’m sure of it. That’s the Heart of the Divine.” I wrenched my eyes from the sea, determined to put Edward Teach behind me.
“It looks so,” his brow creased as he rolled the perfect ruby in his calloused fingers, “unassuming. I mean, it’s beautiful. I can tell that it’s no ordinary gemstone. But I was expecting something more.”
“Can’t you feel it?”
“Feel it? It’s cold and solid in my hand.”
“No, not the tangible. The energy.” I paused as he looked at me speculatively. “You do feel it, right?”
How could he not feel the power radiating from the stone? It hummed a haunting call. A sinister whisper that drew me in. This wasn’t simply dangerous. It was catastrophic.
“No, I feel nothing. What do you feel?”
“It vibrates with the power it contains. I promise you. This is what you’ve been searching for.”
