"What are you doing here, Kal?"

"Saving your life, obviously." He lifted his cutlass and rested it against his broad shoulder, the one that wasn't covered in bronze metal. "But, I'm sorry. You must have had it all in order."

Barring my teeth like some kind of animal, I growled as I pushed myself to my feet. "I meant what are you doing in this part of the Sea? Rev was the only ship for miles." The hilt of my sword appears beside my shoulder. I snatched it out of the pirate's hand who held it out to me. Did I cut his hand? Whoops.

"The Revenge brought us."

I swear my heart stopped pumping blood for a moment. "What?" If he thought I'd believe him, that my ship ran off to get help — from him — he was out of his mind.

He shrugged a shoulder, but that damn smirk was still on his lips. "You're right. We weren't anywhere near here. But then this ship comes barreling towards us out of the horizon. I figured I should probably follow it."

I glared at him, but I couldn't stop my eyes from glancing out to sea, where Rev and Kal's ship sit side by side. Traitor.

"Are you two quite done with your lover's spat? I have work to do."

My head flips to the side so fast it could've fallen off. I had forgotten Heinrich was still standing there. Great. I see Kal turn his body in the same direction, the cutlass falling off his shoulder. His smirk falls from his face when his eyes leave mine. Forget about Kal. This creep is more important right now. Pointing my cutlass at Heinrich, I sneer. "The only work you have to do is to convince the people of the Triangle not to watch you hang."

He raised his hands in front of him, turning his palms up, like he's actually surrendering. But there's no way — he's not that kind of man. I squint at him, there has to be a trick in there somewhere. Kal started to walk towards him, pulling a set of irons out of who the hell knows where, and that's when I see it. A small smile crept its way onto Heinrich's face. I don't know what he's got up his sleeve but whatever is, it wasn't going to be good. "Kal—!"

I don't know why I yelled for him. He could get blown to bits for all I care. But for some reason I did, like his name was ripped out of my throat on its own accord. He paused midstep, to look back at me with a brow raised, and that's all the time Heinrich needed. I barely saw him move but then I didn't see him at all. He vanished, right before our eyes.

Kal's crew jump back, some even yelling in alarm. I'm fairly certain I hear one of them say something about dark magic. I don't dare move a muscle. I've seen some crazy things in the Triangle but even I'd never seen someone disappear. What did that one crazy old man in Tortuga call it? Tele-something? Did Heinrich just do the impossible or was he simply hiding from our eyes?

Kal recovered first, blast him. His smirk turned into a scowl as he scans the ship, his sword in front of him. "Search the ship! He has to still be here!"

His men jump at his words but immediately get to work. I take a step to help but then almost hit myself. You don't listen to Kal Rakham. Shaking my head, I ignored the men who ran around the ship like scared children. Instead, I made my way to the edge of the ship. Peering over, I could now see multiple mermaids on the outside of the nets, trying to break them open. Why weren't their knives working? The mer-folk may be strange creatures but they were formidable. Their blades plenty sharp.

Leaning over the railing as far as I can, I snag a piece of the net. It's not rope — it's some sort of thin wire. No wonder their blades couldn't cut it. Fuck. How was I going to get them out? I could haul them up to the deck, but I'd prefer not to cause them more stress. The children's eyes are huge as they looked up at me.

"Want some help?"

I didn't even need to turn around to see who it was. I'd know that voice anywhere. "No, I don't." Not from you.

His shoulder bumped mine as he leaned on the railing beside me, looking down. I tried not to look at him, to ignore his very existence — I had great practice at that — but my eyes betrayed me. His face was so damn close, too close. His stubble took on a shimmering sort of hue to it, thanks to the salt spray and the sun. His metal arm was hot against my shirt, almost unbearably so. I wondered how it didn't burn him. His brows were pulled tight, creating wrinkles on his forehead. His frown deepened for a moment before he turned to me. I snapped my eyes back in front of me. If he saw me looking, he didn't point it out.

"Your little dragon, he's got strong jaws, right?"

At the mention of Charlie, I automatically look the skies for him. I find him quickly, perched on the top of the crow's nest. I look back at the nets. Could that work? I supposed there weren't any other ideas floating around. I called his name and watched him float down to me. He hissed at Kal the moment his little metal feet touched the rail. It made me smile proudly.

Kal, unfortunately, didn't even seem to notice. "You think you can bite through that wire?"

Charlie eyed him, like he was actually considering it. But then he looks at me and makes his little garbling sound. Sighing, I shrugged a shoulder. "It's the best idea we have right now. Give it a try." He cocked his head to one side, the blue light of his eyes scanning my face. But then he dives off the edge of the ship, crawling down the net. We both watched in some sort of shared amazement when his jaw easily bites through the first wire, and then the next, until there's a big enough hole for the mermaids to swim out of.

I could feel the smirk Kal was giving me without even looking. "Fuck off."

"I didn't say anything." I could even hear it in his voice. It must be practically breaking his face.

In the water, the children were being pulled away from the ship and nets by their family members. I could hear their calls, like a woman singing in a cave. My chest squeezed almost painfully as I watched the reunion. Why I felt so touched by mermaids was troublesome.

Turning away from the water and Kal, so I didn't have to see the damn look on his face for being right, I lifted my fingers to my mouth and whistled. Rev started to move closer at the sound. Charlie landed on my shoulder, nuzzling my neck. Patting his head, I make my way toward the port side railings, "Yes, yes. You did good." One of Kal's crew goes to his side, tells him that Heinrich wasn't on the ship. Interesting. So maybe he really did disappear.

"Where are you going?"

This time, I didn't bother trying to stop myself from turning around. I tossed a glare over my shoulder. "None of your business, Rackham."

"Oh, we're onto last names now. And here I thought saving your life might have broken a little of the ice."

"There's no ice in the Triangle." My words only make his smirk grow bigger, if that's even possible.

"The mermaids owe you a life debt now, you know. Maybe even more than one."

Rev is beside the black ship now, a gangplank extending toward me. I walked across it, hopping off the railing on the other side. Once safely back on my own ship, I turned fully to face Kal. He's watching me like a hawk. "I didn't do anything. I don't care about a life debt."

He sauntered over to the railing closest to Rev, leaning on it with both forearms. His metal arm gleamed in the sun. "Doesn't matter if you do. They won't forget."

Rolling my eyes, I head up the stairs to the poop deck. "Whatever, Rackham." I yell to be heard over the breeze. I turned Rev away from the black ship, away from the mermaids who still seem to be watching me from the safety of the water. And I don't look back at Kal, with his stupid smirk and his stupid metal arm. Or at least I tell myself that I didn't, even when I did.

~~~

Tortuga is eerily quiet when I return late that afternoon. The skin on the back of my neck tingles from the tension in the air around the island. Anxiousness causes me to pull my cutlass from its place on my hip and hold it tightly as I head for Black Beard's. But as I walk the dirt packed streets, nothing out of the ordinary jumps out at me. I don't count the pair of metal cats running by. But where was everyone? Tortuga was never quiet. Not like this.

Pushing the door to Willa's open, I'm met with low murmurs and eyes watching me as I head for the back. The place isn't even packed like it always is, the loud voices of the patrons being heard from down the road. Needing to speak to Willa even more than I already did, I walk a little bit quicker into the kitchens. The amount of relief I feel at seeing my friend by the stove is an emotion I am not used to feeling. "Willa."

She glances over her shoulder, her eyes stormy. "There you are. I was beginning to get worried." Her focus back on the stove, she pointed with a wooden spoon at the tabletop behind her. "There's salted pork there if you want some."

I gave the food a glance before moving closer to the stove. Shaking my head, I lean against the counter beside her. "Willa, something weird happened today."

"If you mean weirder than that creep Heinrich trying to capture mer-children, then I don't want to hear it."

Groaning, I toss my hands into the air. "How the hell does word travel faster than my ship?" Pointing to the doors that led back to the main room, I leaned closer to Willa, "And where the fuck is everyone? It's like a ghost town out there."

Willa sighed heavily, pulling the pot off the stove and turning to face me, a hand on one hip. "Language, please, Elsie. And everyone is hiding to stay out of Heinrich's way. No one wants to anger him."

My face scrunches up in disgust before I can even think to stop it. "Why is everyone suddenly afraid of that old man? He's done nothing in the last eighty-odd-years since he Fell. Except be a pain in my ass."

"There's been talk, for a while now, that he's been planning something." At my blank expression, Willa sighed again. "Do you not listen to anything that doesn't affect you directly?"

My shrug was apparently answer enough.

Shaking her head, Willa picked the pot back up and headed for one of the empty tables. Setting it down with a thud, she turned back to me with her eyes hard. "There have been whispers that Heinrich has been planning to rid the Triangle of anyone unworthy and take it all over for himself. Something about creating a pure Triangle."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Willa's voice was hard when she spoke again. "Elsie, either watch your tongue in my kitchen or go back to your ship."

Geez, she really wasn't in a good mood. Pushing off the counter I had been leaning on, I moved closer to her with my hands held out at my sides. "Sorry, I'm just a little confused and upset right now. I go on a nice sail and find a brute trying to capture — or murder, since you said it — kids and now you're scolding me for not paying better attention! The Triangle has been the same since I arrived here, Willa, three hundred years ago. Nothing ever changes here."

Her eyes softened as she watched me yell. The thin line of her mouth smoothed out. "It appears that things are beginning to change. Whether you're ready for that or not is besides the point."

My shoulders slump, like a sudden weight is pressing them down. "But I like the way the Triangle is."

Her hand is warm as it presses into my cheek, her thumb running back and forth. "Well then someone is going to have to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand. That man has already disrupted my business, I can't lose all of my patrons."

Closing my eyes, I lean into her touch, trying to glean some comfort from her touch. My life had been exactly the same for hundreds of years. How the hell was I supposed to be okay with it suddenly changing? And what about the mermaids? I couldn't stop the itch under my skin ever since leaving them. I didn't care about some life debt but was I okay with children — even mer-children — from being murdered?

"Don't kill me for saying this, but I think you should speak to Kal."

My eyes snapped opened and any comfort I had garnered evaporated. "What? Willa—."

"Here me out. He's been keeping tabs on Heinrich for years, ever since the first whispers surfaced. If there's anyone who knows what's going on, it's Kal."

"What's he trying to be, some sort of hero?"

Willa rolled her eyes but a smile graced her lips. "You know, Elsie, sometimes people do things simply because it's the right thing to do." Her thumb kept up its constant back and forth on my cheekbone. "Would you like to stay here tonight?"

Humming low, I shook my head. "I'm not really in the mood, Willa."

"That's not what I meant. I thought you might want some company is all."

That was Willa. She couldn't stand the idea of me being all on my own all of the time. On any other night, I would've taken her up on the offer. Sleeping beside someone else was always soothing. But I didn't feel like being around anyone after the day I had. I tried to return the soft smile, placing my hand over hers on my cheek. "Thanks, Willa, but I think I just want to be alone tonight."

Her eyes traveled over my face for a moment before she smiled sadly. Nodding her head, she placed a kiss to my forehead before moving away, back to whatever she was preparing for tomorrow. "Grab something to eat before you go. I know you don't have anything on that island of yours."

I watched her work for a moment, a smile on my lips, before I did what I was told and then headed back to The Revenge. Sometimes I didn't know what I would do without Willa. I couldn't even remember what life in the Triangle had been like before she had arrived. Dark and bleary, for sure.

Thunder rolled above as I made my way onto the dock. Glancing up, the dark clouds seemed to echo the feeling in my chest. The hair on my arms straightened from the static in the air; the tower high on the hill sparking to life. Chewing on a piece of pork, I jumped onto the deck and knocked my heel into the wood. "Let's get home before the storm hits, Rev."

Charlie landed on my shoulder, gurgling his hello. Smiling, I scratched behind his head spikes. "Yeah, I know bud. Let's go get some sleep, huh?"

We watched the island of Tortuga II get smaller and smaller as Rev took us to the safety of our bay for the night. I just hoped that everything would still be the same when I woke up the next day. How much could really change in one night?