A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets.
As Killian arrived at the designated duel sight just as dawn began to paint the eastern sky with lovely pinks and purples, his words from years ago rang in his ears. Back then he'd been faced with a coward, a pitiful excuse for a man, someone who had not even the courage to fight for his wife when she was threatened with a fate worse than death.
He'd never have harmed Milah, of course, and any of his men who had attempted to do so would have been dealt with swiftly and mercilessly, but his ruse served to point out in glaring detail just how correct Milah had been about the character of her husband.
They'd had a decade together, happy years full of travel and adventure. They'd fallen in love, and he'd never know how very pleasant it could be to be so completely united to another person.
But she'd had her moments of agony and doubt as well, wondering if she'd done the right thing, leaving her husband and especially her lad. From time to time she'd even considered going back to him, not out of any sense of love, but out of a sense of duty and maternal instincts. He'd always convinced her to stay, terrified of the prospect of losing someone who had become as much a part of him as his left hand itself.
But he'd hated himself for asking it of her. He knew what it was like to be a child abandoned by a parent, and the fact that he was partially the cause of it was bitter gall to him.
When he'd come face to face with the man—or whatever manner of creature he now was—yesterday within this very alley, it had been driven home to him with startling clarity just how right he'd been to allow Milah passage on his ship and his protection.
Should the Crocodile find a way to force Milah back to him, she would no longer face misery alone, she would face danger, and that Killian could never abide.
And so, before the dawn he'd slipped silently from their bed, kissed a still slumbering Milah with muttered words of love, and then came to face his own fate.
For he'd heard tales of the Dark One, tales so dark and disturbing they could freeze a man's blood within his veins, but Killian Jones was no coward. He would fight to protect the one he loved to the death, and would no doubt come to that. Proficient as he was with the sword, Killian had no illusions he had the skill to defeat an enemy with unlimited power and magic.
He was more than willing to fight for what he wanted, and if death was what he got in return, so be it.