Life aboard the pirate ship resumed as usual. Every morning, Red was presented an option of two dresses from the pirates' treasure stash (which she still hadn't found), and each day consisted of goodhearted training from the crew but icy silence from their captain. She overheard talk of their travel, but hadn't figured out where they were headed and where she would die. Hook had made it clear that she meant nothing more to him than the money she would bring him after she was dead and he sold her pelt on the black market. So she steered clear of him, and he did the same. The tension in the air between them was palpable, and it made her so uncomfortable, she reacted instantly. If she'd been able to pay attention to him past her own insecurities and embarrassment over the kiss they'd shared, she would have seen his equal uneasiness in her presence.
Killian's unease announced itself in more volatile ways, however. He allowed the crew more stops ashore at various pirate ports on the continent. Every time, he would bring groups of wenches aboard, and Red knew it was to irritate her. Unfortunately, it worked. He attempted to forget her with many faces and bodies, but he couldn't fully erase her from his mind. He still felt her soft, silken skin beneath his fingertips, her hard lips pressed into his proudly, her gasp when he'd kissed her neck. The thoughts of her aroused him, and served to piss him off, and he forgot by fucking whores and drowning his mind in alcohol. None of it worked, and left him with a hangover and a bad attitude, but he didn't care. It was his only outlet since the wolf-girl had so openly admitted her hatred of him.
They would never move past this point of owner and trophy; that would always be their way. He didn't know what he'd expected, but the stony silence only made him long for the trading port where he could finally be done with her.
A month went by this way, and he knew his crew had begun picking up on the tension between their master and guest. He growled with agitation that he'd been so obvious. If his crew knew his unease, he hadn't done his job at being their cold-hearted leader. He was their example, and all they'd seen was a lovesick boy. He was overreacting, of course, but his guilt imagined all varieties of imaginary situations in his head. He pictured his crew staring at him whenever he was in the same room as the lass, and he imagined them whispering about his desire for her behind his back. It was a vicious cycle - his guilty inability to be done with her - and it left him with sleep circles under his eyes and a nasty attitude.
The sun set on the horizon as Killian stood at the helm watching the ocean rippling apart for his ship. He loved the sea - the waves, the rocking on the boat, the smell of salt impregnating the air - and it was the only thing that calmed him. Leaning on the protective railing which ran around the entire outer rim of the ship, something glinted out of the corner of his eye, catching his attention.
His breath caught in his throat as the woman came into view, her slender frame dressed in a yellow dress which glowed golden in the setting sun. Since she watched the dying rays of the sun, preoccupied, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her raven hair pulled back away from her face, falling in soft curls down her back and around her shoulders. Although her eternal complaint about the clothing offered to her was that none of the dresses were red (something Killian purposely did to peeve her now that he knew of her attraction to the color), the gold looked amazing on her. Her black hair stood out boldly against the lighter color, and the gold made her blue eyes shine with an otherworldly beauty that took his breath away. How he wished he could shut off his attraction to her.
Finally, as if some heavenly force had switched off a light, the sun fell beneath the horizon and the night went dark, leaving him with only an outline of her back illuminated by the lanterns swinging on the deck.
As Red stood watching the ocean turn black, she felt his eyes on her, but refused to look at him. She was probably only imagining it anyhow, since he'd forcefully been ignoring her since that day on the beach. The breeze blew her hair away from her face, and she closed her eyes with a sigh. All of the emotional stress being on this ship was becoming too much for her. There was the matter of Hook, first and foremost, and then her hurt at him admitting she was nothing more than his treasure. She wasn't a human being, and at best she was just another woman for him to bed, and the truth of that hurt her more than she cared to admit.
She watched him over the past few weeks aboard the ship, silently cringing and ignoring her jealousy as he paraded his whores in front of her every time they made port. But she also saw how he cared about his crew, how they loved him, and she knew there was a soul within him deep down inside somewhere. A heartless man didn't win such love if he didn't deserve it.
So wrapped up in her thoughts was she that she barely heard the cries of the crew before her eyes snapped open.
"What's that in the water?!" someone said behind her, his voice coming out in a shriek. Turning, she saw the men clustered around the port side of the ship, pointing at the water and prancing nervously. She couldn't see through the crowd of bodies, but every once in a while a flash of light, similar to lightning, lit the ocean and sent the men clambering away from the ship's railing.
The first victim's scream hadn't released into the night before he was hauled overboard in a flash of blue light.
Her heart squeezed in fear within her chest, and Red froze as the man disappeared into the water. The pirates yelled and ran from the side of the ship, but a few more were grabbed as quickly as the first. Chaos erupted on the deck, and something within her told her to run, but she remained glued in place. She trembled with fear of this unknown assailant, and she found her eyes searching for the captain.
He stood on the stairs leading from the bow to the main deck, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief. From his vantage point, he must have gotten a better view of the mysterious attacker, and his face showed his fear. He masked it well as he realized she was looking at him, and for the first time in weeks, he met her gaze. Her heart beat rapidly, a mixture of excitement intermingled with the fear, but she remained stuck in place. Hook broke the gaze first, racing down the stairs to calm his crew and freeing her to take a breath. She had to get a handle on herself.
Backing up against the railing, she gripped the wood and took long, cleansing breaths. The mayhem on the deck was contagious, sending her into a panic.
"Calm down," she ordered herself, forcing her lungs to take deep breaths of air. A few more screams echoed around the deck, and her eyes snapped open to assess the situation. She longed to run below deck and huddle into the supply crates, but something kept her pinned to the boards.
As she examined the deck, her eyes fluttered over Hook again, and he caught her watching him. His jaw set, and he turned toward her, determined to confront her and force her down below. His crew had gone wild, some of them had disappeared and were probably dead, and he wouldn't lose her too. He stalked toward her, caught up by the men who'd begun shoving one another to get to the safety of their quarters.
Suddenly, a spark of electricity ran up her spine, and she cried out as a chill coursed through her. Her eyes widened with shock, not knowing what had attacked her, and she saw Hook's eyes widen in fear as she began to rise from the deck. The world was in slow motion for a moment as the crew turned to see her levitated from the deck, paralyzed so she couldn't even kick against whatever had her.
As suddenly as the spark had happened, she abruptly wrenched backward, screaming from the pain. The last thing she saw as she fell overboard was Hook's face, aghast with horror.
Red woke with a start, gasping and feeling around. The ground beneath her was stony and uncomfortable. At first, she thought she was in pitch blackness (perhaps this was what the afterlife was like), but she realized there was a faint glow emanating from shells which ran around the walls surrounding her. The faint trickle of water from a natural spring echoed around the enclosed chamber, and her wolf's sense was just strong enough through the spell that suppressed it that she picked up a general layout of her prison.
She was in a cave, not entirely closed in by the sound of the water trickling away and dying off to her left, but large enough that she couldn't imagine the end of it. The layout of the glowing shells on the walls was so particular, almost as if someone had decorated the walls. She couldn't imagine the room forming itself in such a manner without the guiding hand of a sentient being. Once again, it seemed she was a prisoner. Her fingers reached up and found the ruby at her neck, dead in this dark cave, caressing it and realizing she may prefer one sort of confinement to another. No, she didn't wish to remain a prisoner on the pirate ship, but this dark, enclosed space made her skin crawl. She itched to see sunlight or at least the moon, but she couldn't even tell the time of day in this underground prison.
As she looked around, assessing the situation, a soft blue began to fill the cave. Remembering her mysterious kidnapper and the blue flashes of lightning, she tensed and gripped her skirts for comfort. The light built until it was too powerful for her to look upon directly, and then it died, revealing a beautiful, but deadly, female.
Her hair was as blue as the light that now glowed softly around her, and her skin was a lighter shade of the same color. She was dressed in a shimmering outfit that reminded Red of a mermaid's scales. However, she had two feet and walked perfectly fine on the water-kissed rocks that littered the bottom of the cave surrounding the stone slab where Red perched. The woman was tall and devastatingly beautiful, so much that Red found herself instantly jealous of such magical beauty. Nothing about her appearance was frightening, until the woman looked up at her.
A shiver ran down Red's spine as those evil eyes, so filled with hatred that it rolled off of her, and she tried to look away but found she was petrified by that stare. When the woman laughed, the spell was broken, and Red shook her head, a wave of worrisome fear creeping over her.
"Do you know what I am?" was the first question. It was such a peculiar way to start a conversation that Red's fear was momentarily alleviated by her confusion.
Glancing over at the creature, she almost answered mermaid, but stopped herself. Obviously, she was comfortable in water and was the same beast which had swept her overboard into the ocean without so much as a fight. Unfortunately, Red wasn't versed extensively in magical monsters and people.
The look of perplexity on her face must have been obvious because the woman smiled darkly and moved toward her so fast their faces were inches apart before Red could suck in a breath of surprise.
"Better question: do you know who I am?"
"It's becoming apparent you don't want an answer to your questions since I obviously don't have one," Red remarked, her fear turning into irritation now that she'd found her bearings.
The female's eyes flashed an electric blue, and Red fell back onto the stone slab with a cry as the sensation of drowning rushed through her body. She couldn't breathe and felt as if she was being crushed by the weight of the ocean. Writhing in pain, she gasped as the sensation passed and looked warily over at the woman. Gliding toward her, the creature smiled benignly and brushed Red's hair back from her face.
"You may not know me, but I know you. Or at least, I know of you," the woman explained, standing and gliding around the stone where Red lay recovering from the electric shock. "You see, I have a little bone to pick with your good friend Prince Charming. He killed my sister."
Memories began to fill her mind through the haze of pain from the near-drowning. That was when she realized she did know what this creature was, or at least she had a very good idea.
"The Lady of the Lake," she managed, pushing herself up on her hands and watching the blue woman carefully. "She was your sister?"
Nodding, the deadly female glided around the pedestal once more, keeping her gaze trained on Red as she rounded the cave. "Indeed. I am a naiad, the most powerful naiad now that my dear sister is gone. Your prince deserves to pay for murdering her."
Red laughed. It wasn't intentional, but it happened. She figured the combination of emotional and physical stress over the past few weeks added up to make her a bit insane. The look of anger on the female's face clued her in that another attack was coming only moments before she found herself tongue-tied and pinned back to the stone as another magical current rushed through her. It felt like drowning and being crushed simultaneously, driven by the rage of the naiad. Clawing desperately at the air, she was paralyzed by the sheer force of the magic. Just as she thought her lungs may burst, the wave passed and left her trembling on the pedestal. She clenched her teeth and sighed loudly as she remained on her back on the stone.
When the woman leaned over her, glaring angrily, Red stared her down. "The waterboarding isn't going to work. I mean nothing to Charming. He's my friend and nothing more. If you really want his attention, there are better fish to net." Like Snow, she thought to herself but didn't say aloud. She would never betray her friend even if it could mean saving her own life.
The woman shrugged and meandered toward the cave wall, leaning against it lazily as Red struggled to sit up again. "You're wrong; you do mean something to the man. However, I suppose you're right, although it's fun torturing you all the same. Besides, if I can't have the prince, I can always have the pirate captain as a conciliatory prize on my way to kill him."
Her heart leapt unwarranted in her chest at mention of Hook. Narrowing her eyes, Red watched the woman. "I hate to be the one to tell you, but I mean nothing more to the pirates than the gold I'm worth, which I'm sure isn't enough for them to risk their lives to find me. You should just kill me now and get it over with."
"Oh, I might!" the naiad chirped pleasantly as she rounded behind Red and materialized suddenly beside her, causing her to suck air. "I'll probably kill you along with the rest of them when they arrive, but men taste so much better than women. You're such a bitter lot."
Grinding her teeth, Red flexed her fingers to get the feeling to return to them. She shook her head. "They won't come for me. Trust me, it's not worth it."
She thought of how Hook had avoided her since their kiss, how he'd pranced wenches on and off of his ship to rub his disdain for her in her face, how he'd openly admitted she meant nothing more than gold and sex to him. The memories burned her, and she ground her teeth together, looking down at her hands as anger rose in her chest.
"Part of you knows he will," the naiad argued quietly, gliding to the stone and sliding onto it by Red's feet. Pulling her feet away from the creature, Red glared at her. "Don't lie to me, girl. I can read your emotions, your thoughts, and you think about him often."
"You don't know what you're talking about," she disputed, shifting her weight so she was farther from the naiad. The direction this conversation was taking made her uncomfortable. "I'm worth nothing more than gold to him, and even if he did come for me, it would only be to kill me. Since that seems to be my fate, no matter the situation, you should just get it over with. I tire of waiting for my inevitable death."
Red fumed, her feet drawn up beneath her as she glared at the naiad. The creature merely smiled and drifted off of the stone, watching Red with a curious expression.
"Your suicidal tendencies would lead one to believe you feel you deserve death," the naiad observed, floating over the surface of the shallow water as if her feet never touched the ground. Red flinched away from her as a sharp finger touched her chin. The naiad easily turned her face despite her fight, and she was looking into those malevolent blue eyes. The creature's beauty was only a mask for her hunger, for her hatred. Her revenge had grown so powerful, she saw every human as a threat although the heart of her hatred was against the prince. Red knew she wouldn't make it out of this alive, especially if the pirates did, by some twist of fate, track her to this cave. The beast would kill every last one of them, draining their souls until nothing remained.
"I'm not suicidal," Red argued, trying to pull her face away but unable to do so. "I'm just tired of everyone threatening to kill me and no one actually doing it."
The naiad laughed, a tinkling sound that made her skin crawl. "You are a brazen thing," she remarked, looking back into her prey's eyes, paralyzing Red with that gaze. "I see the true reason you don't believe the pirate will follow you, or rather, the reason you hope he won't."
With a dark smile, the woman released her, but now she had captured Red's attention, however unwilling it may be. "You wish for death, however subconsciously," the naiad explained, floating around the room with her audience's attention fully trained upon her. "Because perhaps Hook isn't the real monster after all." Suddenly, the naiad was directly behind her, her breath cold on Red's neck. "The real monster is you."
Closing her eyes, Red cringed against the words and the cold air which sent painful shivers down her spine. The truth in the revelation hit her like another wave of the naiad's watery magic, and she forced herself to suck in a long breath so she knew she wasn't drowning again.
"It's true; I've seen it in your thoughts, in your emotions. You've already killed one man you loved, what if you killed another?" the naiad conjectured, her voice light and airy as she revealed Red's deepest, darkest secrets. Her deadly blue eyes trained on the human girl once more as she continued relentlessly, "You have the potential for the greatest love of your life with the pirate, but why allow yourself to indulge when you could simply lose him just as you lost Peter."
His name brought back a wave of sorrow she hadn't been expecting. She could still see his face, and she'd even begun to remember spotty patches of the night he had died. She saw the fear in his eyes, but thankfully she couldn't remember his actual death. That would have killed her. The guilt she felt over that night, over the death of her former love, was so intense that it crippled her. Her heart ached painfully at the memories, and she struggled to recompose herself. Her weakness was precisely what the naiad wanted. She preyed on emotions instead of physical strength, and the effect was far more disabling.
"You know Hook isn't the real monster. You've seen the fear in his eyes, seen the terror you put in him when he saw the real you. It's similar to the fear in Peter's eyes the night you killed him. He may be a pirate, but you are the true monster. Pirates kill for reason, but you... you kill for pleasure. "
"Stop... please... don't do this," Red begged, her throat thick with tears she refused to shed. "I don't love him. He doesn't love me. You're right: I am a monster. Kill me, please." She'd been broken for weeks after Peter's death, and that familiar pain enveloped her like an old friend. Gripping the gold fabric of her dress, she took deep breaths, but the tears came anyway. Quietly, tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to regain her control.
"Your denial is astounding, but you forget I can see into your heart. I know you are falling for the man, and by the way he looks at you in your memories of him... he is falling as hard for you."
"Stop it!" she screamed, wanting to throw herself at the naiad but finding herself held in place as if her hands were shackled to the stone. Looking down frantically, she realized the naiad's magic had her chained to the stone, watery cuffs powerfully holding her on the pedestal. Angrily, she glared up at the creature, her tears running off her cheeks and dripping into her lap.
"Shhhh," the naiad cautioned, her eyes flashing hungrily as she floated toward Red. "Do you hear that?"
Befuddled by the sudden turn, she tried to listen but heard only the sound of running water. "Listen..." Then she heard it.
The sound of footsteps splashing in the recesses of the cave, originating from what must be the distant entrance to the lair.
Panicked, she looked around for the naiad only to find the creature had disappeared. Left alone in the dimly-lit cave, Red desperately searched for something to save herself and the pirates she knew had found her. They were walking to certain death. Opening her mouth to scream, to yell at them to get out while they still could, she managed barely a squeak.
Fear blossomed in her chest, her heart beating wildly. Somehow, the naiad had stolen her voice. She couldn't so much as warn them that they would die because of her.
Then she saw him. The dim blue light of the room illuminated Hook first as he slid under a low wall and stood, his eyes focusing on her immediately. The unwarranted relief she felt at seeing him was only outdone by the chilling fear she felt that he would actually have come to find her. He didn't hide the relief he felt at finding her, as he would if his crew could see his face, and he moved toward her as more pirates began entering through the hole in the wall.
She opened her mouth to tell him to leave, to demand he leave her and save himself, but no words would come. Her tongue wouldn't cooperate, and only a small whine left her throat as she wanted to scream and cry with frustration. Hook advanced across the room, standing beside her pedestal. His green eyes gleamed in the blue light of the cavern, and her heart beat wildly in her chest at that look. None of the cold-hearted pirate was in that gaze, only a heartbreaking satisfaction at discovering her.
The naiad's words rang in her mind as she watched him impotently. You are the true monster. Although they'd both fought their budding emotions valiantly, the effort was hopeless. They were falling for each other, and they may not be in love already, but the potential was there whether they admitted it or not. She definitely couldn't hate him when she saw the earnest relief in his eyes at the sight of her.
His good hand reached for hers, touching her hand and sending a wave of pleasant fire through her wrist. "You're okay," he muttered, almost to himself. "Come, I'll get you out of here."
Shaking her head vehemently, she tried to tell him to leave her, but she couldn't speak. He reached for her, his brow furrowing as he noted her reaction, but it was too late. Before he could touch her again, a sparkling blue light illuminated the room, drawing the attention of everyone gathered.
"How nice of you to come," cooed the naiad. Hook was riveted on her, her beauty more overpowering for a man than a woman. Red tried to reach for him, tried to stop him from being taken in by the spell, but it was hopeless. Without her voice, and her hands shackled magically to the stone where she sat, she could only sit and watch as she lost her only savior.
How ironic her savior, the man she was falling in love with, would be the one man she'd spent her every moment actively hating for the past months. She had hated him with a dedication borne of denial. She wanted to hate him for presuming to own her, to sell her, to kill her, but she'd known since the night they danced that he wouldn't. She hadn't admitted it to herself because it was easier to hate him, but she'd seen it then. She'd seen it again the night he'd released her, and then when he'd kissed her. The naiad was right, Hook was falling for her, and their mutual denial had been too strong to push through. She'd allowed her inhibitions about his lifestyle deny her what the naiad had said could be the greatest love of her life.
And why? Because the naiad was right about another thing: she was a monster. She had killed Peter, and she had loved him. Without her cloak, she'd been incapable of resisting, and she'd killed him without a second thought. Deep down, she felt she didn't deserve the love of her friends or even her family; she was unworthy of love from people who would never dream of murdering another person in cold blood.
Killian found himself wrapped in a warm, blue light. He moved away from the stone, forgetting his reason for being here in the first place. Red could only watch in horror as the naiad's spell overtook him, and he drifted toward her, unaware of the danger he was in.
The woman was beautiful, her blond hair shimmering around her round face, and her eyes, wow, her eyes. They were full and blue, sparkling with an addictive sort of magic that drew him toward her. Still, he didn't fully trust her, and he resisted, remembering he had a reason for being here.
"Who are you?" he asked, a hint of suspicion creeping into his tone.
"Don't you recognize me?" she asked, her voice familiar. When he blinked, Milah stood before him, her brown hair curled down around her face and down her back. She was dressed as he'd last seen her, with her black pirate outfit on, and his heart swelled in his chest. He missed her, but then he realized that wasn't the right word for how he felt about her. He had missed her once, but now he only felt a mild ache where she'd once been. Something else had filled that void and had begun healing the pain.
"Milah..." he answered, stopping in his relentless steps toward her. Her brow drew down in upset as he stopped.
"Haven't you missed me, my love?" she asked, the hurt in her voice almost too much for him to bear.
Shaking his head, he smiled wryly and huffed out a breath. "I did... I've wanted to kill that bastard ever since he tore your heart out, taking a piece of mine with it."
Milah smiled, pleased with his answer. He continued, "But you're gone. I have no way to get you back for the underworld is a place even I can't go. I have moved on without you."
Her face dropped, flashing a dangerous emotion for just a brief moment. Then she smiled again, a brilliant smile. "Perhaps this..."
Her body shimmered, and suddenly she changed into another familiar face, and his heart leapt in his chest.
"This is better?" she asked in the wolf-girl's voice. Her green eyes bore into him as they did every day, challenging him and forcing him to reconsider everything about his existence.
Unconsciously, he took another step toward her, lost in the brilliance of her beauty. She was similar to Milah, but she was so drastically different. Her hair was darker, and her body was much more slender and delicate. She was intelligent and she defied him, resisting him where no other woman had before. Part of his attraction to her was purely based on that resistance. Another part of him wanted her for the challenge she posed for him: she wouldn't fall into his arms just because of lust or desire. She wanted him to woo her, wanted him to prove he could be a lover and not a man who would demand affection from her. And she made him desire to work for her affection not to just take it because he had the power to do so.
"Ruby..." he answered, his voice merely a whisper.
Red's brow drew down in confusion. She saw the magical projection of herself, she saw how Hook was drawn to it more than the other woman she'd seen before, but bewilderment crossed her as she heard the word from his lips. Ruby. What did that mean? It wasn't her name; he didn't even know her name. He had always called her 'wolf-girl' at least where she could hear him.
Then her hand reached for the talisman she still wore around her neck, and her chest constricted. Was the nickname his personal joke about the collar he had placed around her neck? Her ire threatened to rise, but she thought better of it. The way he'd spoken the name, so full of desire and care, she knew it wasn't a bitter joke on her behalf.
He began walking toward the naiad once more, reaching for her, and Red's heart beat with a wild panic. She looked around hastily, trying to get the attention of one of the crew, but they were as enraptured as their captain, surely seeing visions of their own loved ones in the naiad's projection. Free of the spell, Red could see the creature's bloodthirsty fangs and her eyes aglow with hunger for these men and their blood. She ached to be free of her bonds, to somehow attack the beast even if it would do little more than afford the pirates a chance to escape, but she was powerless to react. She was reduced to watching as the one man who could save her - from this current imprisonment and from a much more symbolic prison over her heart - was drawn in by the beast's spell, toward his certain death.
"I..." began Hook again, his words trailing off as he drew near his Ruby.
"Shhhh, there is no need for words. Just come to me, Killian," she whispered fervently, her green eyes full of her desire for him. It was like the day he'd found her in the jungle, her hair dripping wet and her naked body shielded from him by her dress. She seemed so small, but there was a part of her that was always large and in charge of what happened in her life. Even as a prisoner on a pirate ship, she maintained control over her existence, and he admired her for her spirit.
"Kiss me," she begged, her voice so desirous and desperate that he wanted her instantly. He was only inches from her now, and he could see the want in her eyes just like that day on the beach. He reached for her, feeling the smooth curve of her hips beneath the fingertips on his right hand. Wrapping his left arm around her, he smiled as she felt the coolness of the hook on her back and gasped pleasantly.
As he leaned toward her, she reached for him, and he became heady with her nearness. Just before their lips could touch, he paused and held her inches from his face. "You said my name," he pointed out, his voice thick.
She smiled up at him even as impatience flickered over her green eyes. "It's a perfect name," she amended, moving to kiss him. He held her back, leaning away from her to get a better look at her face. His cool never faltered.
"I've never told you my real name."
A flash of panic crossed her eyes, but she recovered expertly. "I've heard the crew say it, silly." She giggled as if the comment was the silliest thing she'd ever heard. He smiled benignly, still holding her as he looked into her beautiful face. Too beautiful, too perfect.
"The crew doesn't call me by my real name...silly," he corrected gently, his tone taking an edge. She looked up at him, floundering for an excuse, and tried to push away from him, but he held her fast.
"The only way you could know my real name was if you could somehow read my mind," he commented easily. The woman in his arms twisted to release herself from his grasp, but he held her too tightly.
"Of course not. That's ridiculous. Let me go, and I'll explain," she corrected.
"I don't think you're who you say you are," he hissed, pulling her so close he was whispering in her ear. Before she could open her mouth to argue, he sank the hook on his left arm deep into her back.
A scream shattered the room, breaking shells from the walls. Blue light flashed, temporarily blinding them all, and the cave rumbled dangerously. The power holding Red's hands to the stone was suddenly gone, and the steady trickle of water she'd heard in the cave broke, spraying wildly out in the room and soaking them.
"Hook!" she cried, leaping from the stone and running to him where he slumped to the floor. Beneath him lay the naiad, her blue eyes still glowing as she died. She looked up at Red and smiled as water ran out of her mouth instead of blood.
"My fatal... mistake..." she whispered. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her body turned to water, dropping the pirate onto the floor in a torrent of water. Rushing to his side, Red lifted his head out of the water, but he was unconscious. His proximity to the scream and the flash of light must have overcome him, and he'd been knocked out by the release of the naiad's life force.
"Hook...Wake up..." she urged, pulling him into her lap. Water began rising around her, and she knew they would drown if they stayed in this room. Already, the pirates clambered out of the cave, escaping through the hole where they'd entered.
With a start, his eyes snapped open and he spewed water from his mouth, glancing around frantically. When he saw her, he leapt away from her agilely, his green eyes assessing her critically.
"It's you..." he confirmed, and she nodded. Already, her feet were ankle deep as she rose to face him.
"It's me. That was a naiad, and I thought she'd killed you," Red admitted, suddenly uncomfortable. They hadn't been alone since that day in the jungle when they'd kissed. Although the water was steadily rising in the room, she didn't know how to react. Her desire to flee was strong, but there remained so much unexplained between them that she didn't know how to leave. If she left, they may just return to what they'd been for weeks, and she didn't want that.
"Ruby?" she asked suddenly, at least needing him to explain that one thing before they melded back into their roles of hating one another.
He smiled, knowing she had heard him and unable to deny it. Stepping toward her, his boots splashing in the swirling water, he reached for the ruby at her throat and lifted it in his fingers. "It's a little nickname I concocted for you in my head. I thought of it that night when I freed you to become the wolf," he admitted, looking into her eyes. She knew he wasn't lying; he had no reason to lie now. "My Ruby..." he muttered, almost shyly, and her heart melted.
"You weren't going to kill me, were you?" she asked, her throat thick with emotion as she watched him. He shook his head and smiled sadly.
"I couldn't. Not after the way you came to save me even though you hated me. That kind of compassion..." he drifted off and glanced away as he searched for the words. "I lack greatly in that area."
Red giggled and shook her head in disbelief, "You have no idea." They both laughed, and then suddenly, he grabbed her waist and pulled her toward him. Instantly, she looked up into his eyes in the dim light the remaining shells cast on the room.
"When I thought I'd lost you again... my pride lost the battle. I needed you with me, and it ate me from the inside: the idea that you were gone for good."
"Now isn't really the time for confessions," she pointed out, the water swirling up to her knees as he held her firmly against him.
"I know, but I needed you to know," he admitted, releasing her, "In case... in case things went back to the way they were. In case you still hate me."
Brushing past her, he led the way to the exit which was now filled with water. He paused by the hole, glancing back to look at her. To his surprise, she grabbed his arm and pulled herself to him through the rushing current, looping her arms around his neck and kissing him. It was a desperate, searching kiss, a kiss of surrender. She knew she was falling for him against her own will, despite herself, and she needed to feel him again before they both swam out of this room and into the unknown beyond. He held her strongly against him, returning the kiss powerfully and running his hands into her black hair even as the current built to the point he almost couldn't hold his own weight against its force.
Pulling away from him, she sighed and lowered herself into the water, eyeing the hole where the water gushed through into the caves beyond. "Lead the way, captain." She eyed him challengingly, and he smiled, taking her hand and ordering her to hold her breath as they dove into the water and allowed the current to carry them out of the small room.
As they swam, Red pondered what would happen now. Finally admitting her feelings for him, and hearing his confessions to her, somehow made their dynamic harder. His pride over being a cold-blooded pirate remained powerful, and there was still the matter of the talisman around her neck. Was it only a symbol of safety for the crew now? Or would it remain her shackle once they were back onboard and his crew was watching? Her worries mounted as they swam powerfully out of the cave and into the sunlight. Was she wrong to allow a pirate into her heart, and Captain Hook of all pirates? Was he wrong to move on from his past of bedding whores and stealing treasure to allow Red to heal his soul? With sunlight came the fear of the unknown.