Previously on SoulMarked...

(Ultra readers-digest version because it's been a while)

"Do you mind me asking..." Harry cleared his throat. His mouth felt dry. He wasn't even really sure if he wanted to know, "What, ah, other SoulMarks are there?"

"Not all of it's bad."

"I—" Hades, she wished she could evaporate, "I meant that Handsome is a SoulMark. It's, uh, on my left shoulder blade too."

"Weel, be 'at as it may, Ah stand by what Ah said...You are stunning."

Harry felt the warm tickling of a new SoulMark appearing on his shoulder blade.

~...~...~

"Hook, about the SoulMarks...I'm sorry you thought..."

"No' yer fault, Cassie." His frown spoke of old and new feelings, "Ah know it came at a cost tae ye."

"Doesn't make it better for you though. I made my choice, but you..." He didn't get a choice. Again her words trailed off. Again there weren't words for her emotions, so she said all that she really could say. "I'm sorry."

"I appreciate that."

~...~...~

"Hook?"

Chapter 19: My luck seems improved

Cassie was used to wearing loneliness like a second skin. Really, she was. After four years she had grown accustomed to it. There used to be month-long stretches before she even remembered she was lonely. However, since meeting Hook, Cassie had been feeling the emotional equivalent of physical starvation.

And when his pale blues fell on her again she knew why.

Hades and all his Olympus-dwelling family, for whatever forsaken reason Hook made her feel less lonely. It was like looking at him with new eyes. Her jaw slacked ever so slightly as she stared at the handsome pirate.

She didn't feel so alone.

"Yes Luv?"

She did however still feel profoundly stupid standing there flapping in the wind with nothing to say.

Just like that she snapped out of it. "I...ah, I—What about you?" Cassie fumbled out, feeling even worse when she saw how his eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"And what about me?" Harry echoed back. Even bewildered he managed to weave his question into a playful lilt, like he was playing with the question. His mysterious allure seemed so, well, seamless.

Cassie clarified her original thought, "I asked some of my questions, don't you have any for me?" Now Harry Hook's interest was visibly piqued. The tall brunette slowly re-closed the gap between them, a ghost of a smirk playing on his lips.

She'd seen that look before. His undivided attention was slowly heating every nerve in her body.

"Mmm," Harry practically purred, "That's it? You'll tell me anything I want to know?"

She wondered at what point her blood would start to actually boil from the rising temperature.

"I'm no liar." Cassie leveled the pirate with a deadpan expression, "'A fair exchange of information,' remember?"

"Aye." Harry looked like the proverbial cat that had swallowed the canary, "I remember. Seems I got a fair bit of information already though." He was baiting her, forcing her into a corner where she had to admit that she simply wanted to keep him there. Cassie hated that he was clever enough to notice and also cocky enough to use that to poke at her.

"If you remember correctly you asked about my SoulMarks, which are really more about you than me." Cassie countered, feeling relief at having squirmed her way out of that particular corner.

Hook seemed amused by this rather than put off, as though he enjoyed being bested. Maybe he did.

"So they are Kitty." Harry's grin was a liquid smile, as wide and mysterious as the ocean depths. His face quickly took on one of contemplation, complete with him puckering his lips and turning his eyes upwards. "What to ask though."

"World's your oyster." Cassie stifled a small grin at her own pirate-themed pun.

The phrase seemed to have inspired Harry, whose eyes widened momentarily before narrowing in satisfaction at the little cat, "Now there's a thought."

He turned his focus back to her, "If you were free, really free—no barrier, no isle of the lost, what would ye do?"*

Life outside of the barrier? Cassie had considered it before, every VK dreamed of life outside the barrier at least once. But her problems weren't limited to geography.

A silent sigh as her eyes fell to the cobblestone dejectedly, "There will always be the Queen."

"Oy." Cassie was surprised when she felt his hands take each shoulder, forcing her eyes back to his breathtakingly blue eyes, "What if there was no Queen? What would you do if you weren't afraid?"**

He was looking at her as if her answer was the world to him. Maybe he needed her to believe in a future without the Queen.

A world without the Queen was a world of opportunity, of hope.

"I would want to see everything," If he hadn't been looking directly at her, not even an arm's width away, Hook wouldn't have heard those gently purred words.

"Everything Luv?"

"Starting with Wonderland."

"An' how do ye plan to see everything?"

"It doesn't matter." Cassie shrugged off his hands, her momentary dream quickly shoved from her thoughts, "It'll never happen anyway. The king has no plans to free any more V.K.s." And even if he did, there was no way someone as invisible as her would be chosen...

"Ye never know." Harry said, surprising Cassie with his optimism. "Uma's been schemin' against tha' barrier for near a decade." It was only natural his thoughts gravitated more towards 'anything-is-possible.' Uma had been planning ever since she realized her soulmate was on the other side of that barrier. He had to believe that somehow one of those plans would succeed. For Uma if nothing else. He did like to imagine it though. Freedom.

"You could sail with us—with me." Harry leaned back ever so slightly. His tone was glib, as though it was just an interesting thought and not much else. "Wonderland's not far by ship."*

"Maybe." Cassie smiled coyly but Hook didn't miss how her tone was more of a 'yes' than a 'no."

"And what would ye do little kitty once ye got to Wonderland?" Harry found himself wanting to explore that future more. He decided then that he liked the idea of sailing with Cassie, visiting any and all ports of her whims.

"I guess look for all the places my father described to me." a small, fond smile curved her lips, "He used to go on and on about the Tulgey Woods and the Hatter's tea parties and the Queen's court gardens. He despised the queen but he was in love with her garden." By the end of her short reminiscing Harry's own smile mirrored hers.

Within a moment though her smile faltered. Harry picked up the subtle shift and closed the distance between them by one more step.

"Yer da, what was he like?" Cassie felt shivers looking into the pirate's eyes at that moment. She truly for the first time felt that soulmate pull and didn't feel a knee-jerk desire to run away. Quite the contrary.

"He was a lot of things." Cassie felt like she was being pulled in by those pale gemstones, "He was kind, mischievous, wickedly witty. He loved playing tricks. He was a bit of a coward though." She let out a self-deprecating chuckle at the memories, "He used to tell me about life before the barrier; every story ended with him evaporating away whenever a situation turned bad or dangerous...But he was my dad and I loved him, I still do."

"An' yer ma?"

Her eyes dimmed, remembering how her father barely mentioned her mother. "I don't know much about her. She passed when I was very young. I hear she was kind. Dad says she was braver than him. She wasn't his soulmate but he loved her. He didn't like talking about it. Hurt too much I guess."

Harry's eyebrow lifted up inquisitively. Un-bonded relationships weren't unheard of, though they were still incredibly rare, usually there was a tragedy or a long story connected to such relationships. But the frown taking Cassie's lips was more pressing to the young pirate than any old drama. He was no dullard, he quickly surmised the cause of her frown and mirrored the expression.

"Ah'm sorry Cassie. How long ago did yer da..." his question faded but the lingering unsaid words were clear: how long ago did he pass?

"Four years."

Instantly Harry's heart thumped to the floor.

"Ye've been alone fer four years?" It was a rhetorical question, a knee-jerk reaction to hearing the news and an exact mirror of his thoughts.

How had she stayed so strong being alone for so long? She continued to impress him the more he learned about her.

Cassie turned her gaze back down to the street below her and cleared her throat.

A gentle, soul-crushing whisper, "We both know the answer to that."

"Aye." Hook breathed the word.

Hook's hand clenched and unclenched uncomfortably, missing the comfort of his hook's smooth grip. Every fiber of him wanted to take her and lock her somewhere safe from the world. He hadn't been thinking through the actions, only following what felt right at the time. When her amber eyes flashed up though he felt his heart constrict and the steps that followed were shocking even to him.

Cassie had seen his hand twitch, had watched it slowly glide to her arm. The action had not even registered however until she felt the warm callouses of that hand press into her jacket sleeve. Her heart bolted and that one, small, even minuscule act of kindness was it. That seemingly minor action caused in her an unpredictably large and sudden reaction, the accumulation of four years of small actions. Her amber eyes shot up to Harry's. A moment later her chin trembled and her amber orbs welled up. With great effort she held back the floodgates.

Hades, if she started crying now she didn't think she could stop...

Hook's reaction was almost instantaneous. Cassie saw him pause, his eyes widened in surprise. His decision was made the second he saw her lips tremble and her eyes twinkle with a fresh misting of loneliness.

He was only conflicted a moment before she felt the hand on her arm tighten. Then, imperceptibly fast, Hook pulled her to him and she was surrounded by his warmth and the comforting smell of driftwood and old leather. Harry's arms were strong, the arms of a sailor and a swordsman. His warm leather caressed her cheek, softer than any cotton she'd ever felt. Worn smooth and supple over the years. More than that she felt a strong squeeze, a reassuring pressure holding her together, even as she fell apart. It was the single most comforting and relaxing thing she had ever experienced.

Every muscle in Cassie's body was taut with restraint.

"Dammit." she ground out as she struggled to keep everything she had pushed down for the last four years inside. The more kindness he showed the harder her fight to hold back the tears felt.

"I got ye." Hook's voice was deep and slightly rugged. She could feel the vibrations in his chest and wondered if he could feel her heart trembling.

"Ye've been alone for a long time." She felt his chin come to rest tentatively on top her head, "It's okay to not be okay."

"I—" Cassie's throat closed around her next words. With each second the painful constriction in her throat grew as she struggled to keep the floodgates back. Words escaping her, she nodded instead; a small jerking motion.

Harry could feel her tension, the stiffness in every part of her body. The emotional strain had stretched her too thin, he could see that now. He could practically feel the heartbreaking word etched over his heart as he held her.

Hook's hold on her tightened, not uncomfortably, but like he thought it would hold her together. She could hear him grumble after a deep sigh, "Ah'm no good at this." Cassie scoffed as a sort of knee-jerk reaction.

"Me either." she forced through her constrained throat as she began blinking, drying her eyes with willpower alone.

"Well, then we're quite a pair you an' I." Hook gave a watery chuckle which Cassie matched. His good humor was comforting. Slowly her tidal wave of emotions was diluting down to the usual menagerie until finally she felt like she was standing on solid ground again. She could feel herself relaxing into the pirate's torso.

'Yer not alone so long as I'm here.' Hook gently thought as he nestled his chin on the crown of her head. Instead of voicing that thought though, the first mate cleared his throat, feeling acutely aware of how uncharacteristically gentle he had been.

"Ye seem calmer."

"Oh." Cassie hadn't even realized she had closed her eyes. "Sorry, I—I don't know what came over me. I'm not usually—"

"No explanation needed Luv." Harry cut her off with a saucy smile and a placating hand, "Ye able to get back home fine without me?"

"No—Yeah—Sorry." Cassie tripped over her words as she stumbled backwards out of his warmth, "I, ah, I can, yeah, I can find my way back. No worries." She back-walked, "Yeah, no, I'm sorry. It's late, you should—I'll be fine on my own."

"Ye sure Luv?" Harry had to resist the urge to reclose the distance between them. He easily disguised this desire behind a flirtatious smirk, "I can walk ye home." His smirk widened and he gave her a suggestive wink, "Could tuck ye in too."

"I think I'll be fine." The familiar banter was comforting.

"Yer loss."

"I'll live." She liked the back and forth, but even that had to end eventually, "I'll, uh, see you later Hook."

"Until next time, Luv." Harry gave a flourish of a bow as silent fingers brought her hand to his lips. Cassie could feel her whole body temperature spike as his lips pressed against the back of her hand. His lips were fire against her cool skin. Hook didn't miss a beat as he captured her gaze in his kohl-lined pools of blue. "I look forward to next time."

Cassie couldn't muster the brainpower to pull her hand away. In all honesty, she felt her very heart had stopped as his huskily whispered words crawled up her skin.

"Me...too..."

Harry's eyes and lips softened at her breathed response.

"In tha' case, my luck seems improved." Though it pained him, he let her go, knowing she wouldn't walk home until she knew he was too far away to follow.

~...~...~

The first mate was grinning ear to ear every step of the way as he wove back and forth through the twisting Isle streets back towards pirate territory.

The improvement in Cassie's reaction to him was enough to make the pirate downright giddy. She'd gone from feral towards him to, well, (continuing that metaphor) almost domesticated. She was warming up to him.

Harry could feel it.

For years he had been broken, standing alone at the edge for so long with no control. Every choice he had made before was some form of lashing out over his circumstances or had been some bravado to prove that his fate didn't own him. There was finally hope. For once he wasn't trying to escape his fate—it was almost laughable—after so long, he was suddenly looking forward to it.

His luck had finally taken a turn for the better.

"Hello handsome." A greeting in the dark.

A loud thud. A sharp pain.

Harry sank like a stone into oblivion.

*Reference to submission by Lottielue1

**Reference to submission by Heaven's Mistake

If your submission wasn't used in this chapter-don't worry. You'll probably see it later in the story.

It's been a bit crazy. Since I last wrote my husband and I moved into a new home, adopted two kittens, and I got a new job.

I know some of you were worried that I had abandoned this story. I have not and I don't believe I will. Life has been busy but I kept coming back to this and tweaking the chapter here and there.

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