Page 127 of The Worst of Them

Whatever Ann said just now had left him shaken.

Jack’s hands curled into shaking fists. “For once, hear me as my father instead of my captain. Do something to rectify this—if not for her sake, then mine.”

Copson sighed. “I understand, Jack,” he said, softer than Cecily had ever thought possible. “But it’s not right for you to kill Fiero.”

Maybe it was because Jack was blinded by rage that he failed to see that the intensity in Copson’s demeanor wasn’t stubbornness, as it usually was. There was purpose there, and while Cecily wouldn’t mind throwing Fiero overboard, she had enough wits about her to see that Copson saw some greater picture.

Killing Fiero wouldn’t avenge her because vengeance belonged to…

The blood drained from her face as she realized. She studied the captain’s expression again, his grip on the wheel, and knew what Ann had said to him.

No…not just what she’d said. She’d promised.

Jack shook his head, the fury mounting in his eyes once more. “Father⁠—”

“He’s right,” Cecily cut in.

Jack turned to her, stunned. “What?”

“Listen to him,” she said. “Don’t kill Fiero.”

Over Jack’s shoulder, the captain looked at her with a raised brow.

“He’s coming for us, isn’t he?” she guessed. “Jonah. The change in the wind, the…feeling. He knows.”

She didn’t want to describe how disturbed she felt. It was worse than before, darker. But the captain was surely already aware. Everyone on the Fortuna Royale could probably feel it, but no one would say a thing. Just as she hadn’t.

“Yes,” Copson said mutedly.

“Then we kill Fiero,” Jack said. “If that’s what Jonah wants, we should do it and spare ourselves.”

“It’s not that simple,” Copson replied, his voice harder. “Fiero didn’t touch Cecily, but he must answer for Vanetta. Be as angry as you like about it, but I won’t deny Jonah retribution that is rightfully his.” He frowned, adding in a grumble, “I’d do the same were I Jonah.”

Jack’s lips pressed into a thin line. With a frustrated huff, he stalked off, leaving Cecily alone with the captain.

The wind wrapped between them, carrying the faint reek of death.

“Thank you,” he said, the words hardly more than a breath as he stared resolutely at the rest of his ship.

“Don’t make me regret it,” she said. And rather than assume he’d ever answer such a request, she left.

31

THE MONSTER IN THE MIST

If Captain Jonah knew his daughter was dead within minutes, it took him only hours to respond.

Despite it being nearly noon, the sun seemed shrunken and far off, its light watery and weak despite the cloudless day, as though they sailed under a veil. The wind had stopped, the waters calmed, and the Fortuna Royale drifted as not even a breath dared to stir the sails.

For the discerning, Jonah’s retribution was inevitable. He would come for the man who killed his daughter, and the pirates occupied their nervous hands with busywork while they waited for the fabled ghost captain to arrive.

Cecily, however, watched the water. She didn’t know what a ghost ship would look like, but she wanted fair warning before it was upon them. Instead of fear, Ann’s cries echoed through her mind. They sounded so much like her own deafening wails after losing her father.

Cecily was supposed to be the one who was dead, not that innocent girl, and that there had been so much grief from those who’d loved her. If Fiero had killed her properly instead of mistaking another for his true target, Jack and Hester would mourn her. Stede, and maybe Greyson too, but it wouldn’t compare to a mother losing a child.

There was too much grief in this world, but there would be even less if it had been Cecily. She didn’t think it was self-pity that made her think so—merely a mathematical balance of moral scales she’d concocted to weigh her own soul. Jack had healed many things for her, but she suspected some part of her would always grieve and regret all that had been done this past year.

The water rippled. Tiny rings blooming over the still surface, snapping Cecily from her thoughts right as a face emerged from the sea.