I must have hit my head, given the colossal pang hammering in the back of my skull. I couldn’t find my bearings, couldn’t see anything through the cloud of smoke that engulfed the space.

“Ashley!” The stench of sulfur burned my nose, my eyes stinging as I searched the gray haze. “Ashley! Where are you?”

“Here.” His voice came from behind me, right at my ear, and his arms hooked around my waist.

“What happened?”

“The flagship’s under attack. Don’t let go of me.” He lifted me up in the air and tossed me over his shoulder.

Then he took off. I clenched my whole body around his shoulders and back and held on as he scaled the ladder and shoved open the hatchway.

Another eruption shook the ship, the magnitude of it so loud it felt like a sledge in my chest. Shock waves rippled outward, and his boots lost purchase on the rungs. We started to fall, my stomach plunging. But his hands caught the deck above, and he pulled us up.

“Let me walk!” I shouted over the din of shrieking men and distant gunfire.

“Quiet!” He heaved me through the hatchway.

I had no choice but to hang on as he ran through the lower decks. All around us, sailors scurried left to right, paying no attention to the shirtless commodore and his female prisoner.

Gunfire grew louder, erupting overhead. Screams and curses chilled my skin. The stench of sweat, smoke, and fear congested the air. Mayhem ensued, and we were headed into the thick of it.

“I hope you have a plan.” I hung upside down with my face against his back, wishing I’d had the foresight to grab a knife from the hold. “Where’s your ship?”

“With any luck, she still sits a hundred feet off the flagship’s larboard. My plan is to get us to her.”

That didn’t fill me with hope. If the flagship was under attack, Ashley’s ship would be, as well. The admiral was dead. The commodore of HMS Blitz was with me. Who was commanding these ships? Who was attacking?

In the back of my mind, I wondered if Priest was responsible for this battle. It would be just like him to make an appearance now with guns blazing.

Ashley burst out of the final companionway and onto the upper deck, holding fast to my lower body. The bulkhead beside us exploded in a shower of wood, but he didn’t flinch or slow his sprint.

Black obscured the sky and sea. Not just from the smoke. The hours of darkness were upon us.

I clung to his broad frame, blinking in the haze of sulfur, unable to believe my eyes. Bodies lay everywhere, some dismembered by chain-shot, others still alive and crushed beneath overturned cannons. Many were so mutilated there were only pieces left.