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Jack leaped through the rain and jabbed the gun against Ghost’s skull, hard

"Silver!" Jack shouted against the storm "Can you smell it, Ghost?"

"I trusted her, and she betrayed nashed his teeth at Jack

"You fools, they’re co, and Louis waved his sword high "Death is coo!" Sabine screamed

"You kept her prisoner," Jack said "You tortured her!"

Ghost stared at hi on the trigger The captain started to speak Jack saw a spark of so in his eyes--shame?--and knew precisely what those words would have been Ghost was about to declare his love for Sabine But it went against everything he believed, and after an endless moment of conflict that Jack had never before seen in hi

"I’ll eat her heart! I’ll have her power!"

"You don’t know that for sure," Jack said "She doesn’t even knohat she is!"

"I have black curses in my heart," Sabine said, her voice quiet in the storm yet somehow audible, as if the wind carried it to both Jack and Ghost "And I will put thee of lightning danced down frole bolt struck the farthest of the rowboats and it split in two, one half on fire and both halves quickly sinking Midtransformation, two of the olves on board burst into fla as they disappeared into the waves The third fell into the water, pawing at the sea in a frenzy, unable to swim Only the fourth, who had fallen out when he’d been shot in the head, seemed likely to survive He swaer to kill

Jack pressed the barrel harder against Ghost’s temple "Put her down"

Ghost dropped Sabine to the deck and turned to the railing, where the last of his pack awaited him They mocked Death’s pack with promises of pain and torment

Jack took Sabine into his e over her shoulder as the wounded olf dragged itself onto one of the two re boats

"I love you," Jack whispered

"And I you," she replied "Dying would ruin everything"

Jack did not smile but kissed her once more

There was a momentary lull in the storm In that instant of caler, and put a silver bullet into the wounded olf’s chest The creature screa sea, and for a moment all eyes--on deck, and at sea--turned to Jack Death’s crew et The temptation to fire wildly and try to kill them all almost overwhelmed him, but he had a limited supply of bullets Every one had to count

The two reh now for Jack to see hatred in the eyes of the crew, and the cold fury carved into Death Nilsson’s features Ghost snapped orders to his surviving pack, but Jack barely heard hi in the space that separated the two brothers

Lightning struck the water around the tboats One of theer mattered The Charon’s crew had returned The boats buside, and the first of the sailors leaped for the netting, scra toward the deck at inhuman speed

Jack fired as the olves flowed over the railing They moved so swiftly that several of his bullets hit only open air, but two of them struck home in the shoulder and abdomen of the sa and dying as the poison raced through hiht

Jack dropped to one knee, fishing bullets fro as sheThe ship rocked beneath them and wind battered them, but her uided instead by a storm within

There ar on the Charon’s deck, and the bloody melee spread from starboard to port Some of the sea wolves had coht in the e wolf-ed fro the ar the monster to shift to the median form as well Blood sprayed the deck and ashed away in the rain, all of it--the death and gore around Jack and Sabine--bleached to the gray hue of the storht back and forth across the deck If they rolled toward another melee, those pirates would scra the two captains rooe Tooth bit, claw slashed, and wherever they rolled or fell, they left bloody iun for the second time, but with even worse results With the wolves’ swiftness, and the curtain of punishing rain, only one of his bullets found its target, and this one he only ered the wolf, slowed it, but the poison orking slowly

He knelt to reload again, gauging how many bullets he had left He had to be ht be his last chance

Other gunshots cracked the air, but rifles were ineffective for hand-to-hand combat and were quickly cast aside or used as clubs As Jack thulanced up to see tolves drag Tree down to the deck and begin to tear hi at his belly and the other at his throat Tree fought hard, but then Death appeared froer on the attack--and drove his hand straight into the big man’s chest When Death withdrew his fist, Tree fell hard

Ghost leaped froht, and noas back at his brother again He did not even spare a glance for his fallen crew, and Jack realized that if they hoped to live, he and Sabine would have to ?" Jack asked, looking up at her "Is your hex not working?"

Her hair was plastered to her face, clothes clinging to her curves, and she looked like the ancient sea goddess she ," she said "But I can do only one or two of them at a time, or it would affect all of you"

Even as she spoke, Jack saw the hex take hold of one of Death’s pack The wolf staggered, turned toward Maurilio, and began to lunge at e at raindrops Maurilio darted away froe, serrated blade across its throat He drove the wolf down onto its back and stabbed again and again, gutting it in seconds

The fight began to turn, as Sabine’s hexes took hold and the ferocity of Ghost’s pack continued unabated

"Jack!" Sabine shouted

He heard the growl even as he turned and looked up to see the slavering olf launch itself fro down upon hiun up, but the monster struck hiether, Jack’s skull ih to darken his vision In that instant he felt the gun pressed against his chest, heard theas it fired directly into the olf’s throat and up into its skull, and then felt the flesh of his left shoulder punctured Bright, searing pain roared in