Page 15 of Stalking Wendy Darling

Step two: take out thereplacementchef.

It was easy enough. I spent the morning helping him clean up the mess from the night before, and I couldn’t help but notice the beer he sipped. I sprinkled in a healthy dose of the poison I’d bought in the Silverfish Isle when he was busy hacking heads off a giant fish. Twenty minutes later, he keeled over at the counter. I never even learned his name.

“Perfect,” I told him, patting his clammy cheek. “You stay right there.”

I mean, he was dead; he wasn’t exactly going anywhere. The tall bastard did get in the way as I finished up dinner, though. I should have thought this through and killed himafterthe food was made.

Hauling up the heavy pot was back-breaking work, but I dragged myself to the deck one sagging wooden step at a time, and dropped it down in the middle on the ship. I made a show of eating, always keeping an eye on the captain as he loomed at the helm in his long coat and fancy, feathered hat, staring across the Banshee like it had insulted his mother. Probably sore because more ropes had mysteriously frayed overnight and now he knew he was being sabotaged.

I watched him from the corner of my eye, gnashing my teeth as Rolando laughed uproariously at something his buddy said, his moustache taking flight at the gust of air, and Hook didn’t eat a single fucking bite of food.

Fuck.

I lifted the spoon to my mouth, ate nothing, and returned it to the bowl. The captain didn’t shift an inch, watching, always watching. How was I going to get him to eat? If I didn’t think of something fast, everyone would start—

Dropping to the deck, unconscious.

Ugh, this was not good timing.

Someone collapsed at the helm first, then like a domino effect others fell, bowls and spoons clattering to the deck. Wynton went limp beside me before he tumbled off the crate we sat on. I felt a little bad, but I hadn’t used enough poison to kill everyone, just to make them feel like shit tomorrow. I liked this ship after all, and ships needed a crew.

Anton and Hook began yelling, the quartermaster knocking over cups of beer, snatching them from people’s hands. Chaos broke out. Fights broke out, fuelled by fear. The Banshee roared with sudden noise, and I soaked it all in, justice finally served.

Well, not quite.When everyone was unconscious, I had a captain to kill.

When Neville and Sterling tumbled off their crates, others strewn across the deck, I let out a convincing croak and flopped sideways onto the deck. Solid wood slammed into my hip, making me wish I’d done a less impressive slide off my crate, but I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes.

I listened to panic spread, and wondered if the splash of water was some idiot leaping into the ocean like it was a pandemic he could outswim and not a simple act of poisoning.

“Stay calm,” Anton yelled. “Everybody stay—”

His words slurred and then a solid thud sounded not too far away. Ha! Even the quartermaster ate my food. I really should have asked if people liked the taste before they passed out. I thought it was some of my finest work.

Silence fell, even the heavy breathing of panic dropping to unconscious quiet.

And then… footsteps cracking across the deck.

I stiffened, gritting my teeth. Everyone was supposed to be knocked out so I could take my sweet time murdering the captain, and then tie up the troublemakers of his crew. No doubtsome of them would be unhappy that I’d freed Joanna. And poisoned them. And killed their captain.

Actually, maybe we weren’t even going to be besties. Maybe we were—

A scream ripped out of me when a boot pressed on my injured shoulder. My eyes flew open only to well with tears.

“How did you know?” I gasped, ripping myself away from Hook’s boot and propping myself against a fallen crate. It took effort to remember how to breathe as fire raced down my arm. I clutched the wound, pain blazing through my veins, blood warming the clothes under my palm. Great. I’d been doing such a good job at keeping the blood inside, where it belonged.

“Yesterday,” he answered, looking down at me with murder in ink-dark eyes. “When I pulled you back on deck, you were in pain. You’re here for the girl.”

“She’s a woman, you prick,” I spat, gritting my teeth against the bonfire clawing down my arm.Fuck,it hurt. My nostrils flared, hands curling into fists as I pulled myself off the floor and to my feet. My knee still ached thanks to the maudlin asshole I killed to board the ship, but it was nothing like the inferno in my shoulder. “But yeah, I’m here for my sister. Hand her over, and I’ll spare your life.”

Hook threw his head back and laughed, black hair tumbling over his forehead, his face at once rage-inducing and painfully handsome. He wasdevastatingwhen he laughed, his black eyes lit from within, teeth surprisingly pearly and perfect. Most of the crew had stubs of yellowed teeth. I wasn’t judging but… they weren’t pretty to look at. This bastard was pretty, but his laughter was so condescending and dismissive that it lit the fuse of my rage.

Alright, asshole, underestimate me at your peril. You’ll learn the hard way, just like my first and worst enemy—Nevis, the cow.

The thought of that old bitch made me even angrier. I lunged forward and grabbed the rapier Hook kept at his waist while he was still laughing at the sky. I’d torn it free and driven it through his shoulder before he’d even stopped laughing.

“An eye for an eye, asshole,” I spat.

Hook stopped laughing. I wasn’t happy with how my blood ran cold, a little shiver of warning going through every one of my instincts.

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