‘I’m sorry!’ said Forest. That memory, suppressed for so long, surged through him like a tidal wave, running through muscle and vein until his bones felt loose. ‘I let you to die! I’m so sorry!’

‘It’s okay, Forest. I’m not here. I’m not even real. I never was.’ He gripped Forest’s arm. ‘But don’t worry. I’ll stay with you. We’ll go under together.’

Somewhere at the edge of his awareness, he could hear a droning.

He listened. It grew louder.

The Black Wind.

And, with it, the cave sang, the acoustics like a choir of eerie voices.

Tears rolled down Forest’s cheeks. He was alone in here. And he was about to die. Drowned, in a cave. Just like his father had wanted.

‘No, shhh, none of that,’ came Huck’s voice. The flame from his lighter was gone. ‘We’re together until the end.’

The singing grew louder. Little waves lapped at his feet, rolling the rounded stones back and forth.

He pressed the scar on his forearm. An oath he’d made to himself. The Witch’s face loomed in his mind. She gave him safety, sedatives. ‘Pretend it never happened,’ she advised him. ‘Pretend it never happened. It’s better that way.’

Pretend it never happened.

No. He couldn’t. Not anymore.

This was real. This was happening.

And as the waters rose, Forest Dempsey curled into a ball and cried for his mother.

CHAPTER 54

MACKENZIE

Mackenzie stood at the prow of the Margot’s Revenge, watching the morning sun rise out of one eye, the other puffed closed from the beating he’d received. The sky was a bright red. In the distance he could see the rooftops of Shacktown.

Mackenzie had spent the night locked in a storeroom on board, nothing but a mattress on the floor and a thin blanket, nursing his bruised ribs. His nose had been broken, he’d lost a tooth, and his bung knee was worse than ever before. Tranquil hadn’t been kind to him.

All around him was the activity of a legitimate, working crayfish boat. It didn’t have the same simplicity as abalone, but he grasped at once that the crayfish pots would still be effective drug-smuggling vessels. Rough jokes, the glint of gold chains, men and women Mack hadn’t seen before, with the wild dark edge of sunken eyes and worry lines, evidence of methamphetamine abuse.

There was a joviality to it all. News had spread that Davey Dempsey was still alive and would be joining the crew. Their takeover of Shacktown was nearly complete.

He needed to get off this boat and warn Ahab and the fake Forest – he could see the marina from here. If Ivy really was Blackbeard, both of them were in danger.

Who was he kidding? If Ivy was Blackbeard, both of them were probably dead by now.