Jazz's words sent Kat's heart into her throat. He was right. The dark ships were definitely heading toward the Jolly Marauder, firing cannons at it. Trying to sink it.

"We need to get back, now!" Jazz ordered. He hesitated a second, then pointed towards the ladder. "Through there."

Trix shook his head. "I can't go down through there."

"You can if you leave the body. You could now," Jinx pointed out.

"Don't you understand? I can't leave the body! Cage..." Trix's eyes traveled to Cage who was still engaged in battle in his beast form. His eyes turned yellow again and he burst into hysterical laughter.

Jazz cursed, and for a second, his eyes turned white. He winced and pulled back into himself. His eyes filled with tears as he grabbed Kat's arm.

"You need to get Cage back and force him to come with us."

"Force him?"

But Jazz was no longer listening. He charged forward, crossing blades with two men. Jinx did the same and Kat understood that they were making a path for her, giving her the opportunity to get closer to the beast.

The blood in her veins seemed to freeze. Would the beast charge at her the moment it saw her? Would it be just like before, Cage's love for her twisting the curse and making her the favorite target?

But what if it did? It would be the best way to draw him away and where they wanted it, so she'd figure out how to not get killed later. 

Sword and dagger out, she made her way through the crowd, trying to get as close as possible to the beast. Once the pirates realized that she was heading for the monster, they stopped trying to impede her progress, as if they too were curious what would happen when she reached it. Kat didn't dare get too close though. She stopped a few yards away from him and started waving her arms.

"Hey, over here!" she called over the sound of grunts and groans.

The beast finished slashing its current target before its golden eyes settled on her. Kat expected it to launch towards her. What she didn't expect was for the beast to freeze. The hesitance gave a few of the pirates surrounding it the chance to sink their blades into its flank.

"No!" she yelled.

The beast let out a sound between a roar and a yelp before swiping at them with its claws. The men screamed as the talons tore into them much quicker than they expected. The beast returned its attention to her. Blood seeped out of the cuts, and yet she couldn't feel anything. Did that mean Cage wasn't hurting?

The thought left her mind the moment the beast hurtled towards her. With a short yelp, she twirled around and headed towards the edge of the deck. This unpleasantly reminded her of how she used to run for the dungeon to escape the threat. Except this time, there was no safe room at the end of her run, just three people who had enough magic to maybe contain it.

The deck shook again, and as Kat looked beyond the railing, she realized that Wolfbane's men were firing cannons again right from underneath them. In the distance, like a floating shadow, she could spot the Jolly Marauder. Her heart dropped through her stomach. Harrison and Leila were there, taking fire, unable to protect themselves because they didn't have magic. Jazz was right, they really needed to get back to the ship.

He and Jinx had already retreated to the edge of the deck, next to the ladder. Trix was no longer there, but hopefully going down where they'd left the boat. The body he'd been carrying leaned against the railing, abandoned.

Kat faltered to a halt and turned to face the beast, holding her weapons up, even if she knew they couldn't hurt it. The beast stopped its advance as well, pacing back and forth before them, snarling at the pirates who had dared to follow. Jazz waved his arms again and sent the men flying before turning to Kat.

"We need Cage back."

The beast growled and shook its head, still patrolling like a grotesque version of a guard dog.

"Please, we need to go," Jinx tried, her voice pleading.

The beast didn't even look at her, its face down, only turning it to snarl at the pirates from time to time. As the sound of cannons blasted through the air and more and more people walked the main plank towards them, Kat knew she had to do something. Going against her very instincts, she sheathed her weapons and took a step towards the beast, hands reached out.

"It's okay, you can come back," she whispered.

The beast turned its head towards her, but there was something in its gaze she had never seen before. Pain. And as its yellow eyes moved beyond her, to the body resting against the railings, they filled with unshed tears.

Kat's heart convulsed as she came to realize that perhaps it wasn't a matter of Cage not being able to come back, but him not wanting to. What had actually happened to him? But as the building shook under them again with the thunder of cannon-fire, she knew she didn't have the time to explore this.

"I know it's hard, and staying there is easier, but we need you," she continued. "Harrison and Leila are being attacked. Our ship is being attacked. We can't linger, we can't..." Something suddenly clicked and she turned back towards the body.

With all the carnage and craziness, she'd forgotten why Cage had come to this forsaken place to begin with.

"No..." she whispered.

It couldn't be. That horridly maimed body couldn't be prince Ferdinand. This couldn't be the way in which their adventure ended.

"We can't allow more people to die," Jazz said, his voice calm but filled with determination. "Whatever happened, we're not done."

His words caused the crack of breaking bones to fill the air and Kat's attention was drawn back to Cage who was now lying on the deck, a groan of pain escaping his lips. All of a sudden, the phantom pain of all his wounds hit her at once and she gasped, stepping back and hugging herself, trying to calm her raging heartbeat.

"Let's go!" Jinx said, sending a giant fire-ball at their would-be followers.

Jazz leaned over and snaked his arm under Cage's, pulling him to his feet. He seemed half-unconscious, his head lolling from side to side, his shirt in tatters. Kat pulled herself together and, at Jazz's indication, started down the ladder, trying to ignore the pain in her bones, the way her skin felt as if it was tearing apart.

The rungs were warm under her fingers and she just descended like a machine, trying not to think about anything.

Prince Ferdinand, Cage's pain, their ship being under fire. It was too much too fast, and her magic swarmed beneath her skin with no rhyme or reason as her mind tried to make sense of the last half hour. What had they done? At what point did they all agree that they shouldn't all storm Wolfbane's lair? How had they stepped inside just to have to run out without actually doing anything?

The prince... His chest torn open, the empty eye sockets... He was dead. So obviously dead. What they had set out to do... They had failed. Cage had failed. Unless she was wrong and the body didn't belong to him. There was a bit of hope there, but so feeble, it was more like a shadow.

Something rushed past her leaving behind a wave of putrid air. It snapped her back to her senses and her heart began drumming much faster. She could think about all this once it was over or she'd end up like that body who'd just crashed against the jagged rocks below.

Once she was near enough, she jumped off the ladder onto a patch of rock and searched the darkness for their boat.

"Over here," Trix called.

His voice was still croaky and odd, but she headed that way. Once she was safely inside the boat, she glanced into the darkness for the others. Jinx had a fireball floating before them as she and Jazz held Cage up and led him towards the boat. In a matter of moments, all of them were inside and Jazz got the oars rowing with another flick of his wrists. There was no point keeping silent at this point, so their speed was much better than it had been when they'd arrive.

Kat rushed to Cage and wrapped her arms around him, but even if his eyes were half-open, he didn't seem to be conscious. His body was covered in cold sweat and curled on the bottom of the boat as he trembled. When she put her hand on his forehead, the heat was shocking.

The sound of cannon fire filled the air and Kat realized there was more than one battleship heading for the Jolly Marauder. Their ship only became visible in the reddish light of the fires and she couldn't tell if any of the cannonballs had hit their target.

"Can't we go faster?" Jinx asked, her voice strained.

"Trix?" Jazz asked. He sounded strained, too, and it was obvious that the use of magic was draining him.

"Oh, no." He let out a bitter laugh. "I won't tap into my magic. It would be the end of us all until this passes."

"Kat, could you...?"

Kat shook her head, the fear overriding the worry. "I don't know how to do anything other than fire. I won't risk setting fire to the boat."

"She has a point," Jinx said. Her flame extinguished and she put her efforts into making the boat go faster.

Kat watched their ship approaching, her muscles tightening with every second in which they weren't there to help. The closer they came, she realized that Harrison and Leila were firing back, the cannons shining in the night. The ship had taken some damage, but it didn't seem like something that couldn't be fixed. Hope filled her. Just a few more moments, just a few...

The battleship closest to theirs drifted further to the right, blocking their path, and fired three shots at once. The cannonballs tore through the Jolly Marauder, sending splintered wood in all directions.

"No!" Kat cried.

Their boat shot forward a little faster, but it was obvious they wouldn't get there on time, not with Wolfbane's monstrosity blocking their path. Could Harrison and Laila escape? Even if they did, what would they do without a ship? They'd be immediately captured by the very men they were trying to escape.

The panic and sense of helplessness seemed to burn her from the inside out as the enemies drifted closer towards them. If Jazz and Jinx didn't slow down or turn, they would crash right into the enemy ship.

It couldn't end like that. But it wasn't like there was anything Kat could do about it. Her magic didn't allow her to help move the boat, and if it somehow did, she was too afraid to try for the first time in such a circumstance.

Trix and Cage were incapacitated. Jinx and Jazz were both spent and doing their best, but it was obviously not enough.

That just left her. Her who had tried her hardest to smother magic instead of harnessing it and making it useful.

She had nothing. She was nothing.

The enemy ship was coming closer and now Kat was doubtful they could avoid the impact. They would die. Crush against the side and be pulled under. Drown among the pieces of their own ship. There was nothing she could do about it.

Yes there is! Do it!

The heat inside her intensified and she bit back a scream. It seemed to seep into her very core, burning the doubt out of her heart, burning everything inside her until all that was left was rage and flames. But in that moment, she knew what she had to do.

Driven by new energy, she pushed past Jinx and Jazz to the front of the boat. Their voices rang in her ears, but they were drown by her own determination.

You won't stop me. You won't get in my way.

"Move!" she ordered, and her voice seemed to ring above the waters. "Move, now!"

Trix started laughing again, that sick sound that seemed to belong to someone else. It grated on her nerves and only intensified the rage inside her.

The enemy ship didn't move. Kat reached her hands out and let the maddening energy course towards the tips of her fingers.

The fire spiral burst out, growing which each turn until it hit the ship head on. And went straight through it.

With a yelp, Kat lowered her hands, trying to pull the magic back, but she'd never learned how to do that. Instead, she watched the flames tearing Wolfbane's ship apart and continue their way towards a new target.

With a sound like growling thunder, the force of the magic blasted a good chunk of the Jolly Marauder into the air.

"No!" Jinx's cry mixed with Kat's own scream.

The fire inside her dimmed and all was left was fear at what she'd done. She'd blown a hole through the starboard side, from the keel to the main deck. Splintered wood filed the sea between them. The ship was definitely sinking.

Jazz pushed past her, knocking her over to the bottom of the boat. She landed over Cage who still seemed unconscious. Being in close contact with him reignited the magic inside her. She yelped and pulled away, dowsing the flames in her terror.

Jazz lifted his hands and pieces of wood flew back to their destroyed ship, rebuilding the keel, making sure it could still float. His elbows shook and he shut his eyes. Then his muscles tensed and sweat dripped down his brow. Jinx stepped next to him, helping him, tears sliding down her cheeks. Their boat had stopped moving.

They were so close, but it felt like a world away. Kat hugged her knees, her vision blurry with her own tears. She couldn't watch this any longer. 

What had she done? Had she killed Harrison and Leila? And now Jazz was practically using his own life force to pull more magic out of himself and fix this. Keep their ship afloat. Her body shook with repressed sobs and she didn't even dare glance at the damage.

You coward! You should be taking responsibility for this! You should...

Sobs choked her. She had no idea what she should do. She'd never felt more helpless in her life. Maybe just when the beast had attacked her and nearly killed her and she'd found herself clawing her way up the steps of Cage's castle, leaving a trail of blood behind. But then, she'd done nothing wrong. Sure, she'd been careless, but it was because she was in love and she wanted Cage to know that, feel that. Back then, magic was evil and proved it.

Now she'd been the one to use the magic and destroyed everything.

She needed Cage so much right then. Him to hold her and tell her that everything would be alright.

Anyone to assure her that she hadn't ruined everything, that she could still salvage this situation. She wanted to make it right so badly but she had no idea how. Even her inner voice had left her after spurring her on.

"Jazz," Jinx said, despair in her voice. "Jazz, please. Please..."

Kat wiped her eyes and looked to Jinx. She was glancing at Jazz with tear stains on her cheeks. Jazz glared back at her, the pain on his face heartbreaking. There were trails of blood on the sides of his face, as if he was sweating it. But that was not what was most frightening about him. His eyes flashed white for the briefest moment before they returned to their regular black. The moment they did, Kat knew for certain that she'd killed their friends.

"We need..." His voice cracked. It sounded so weak it was obvious that he could barely speak anymore. "We..."

Trix moved and sat on the bench, grabbing the oars. He began rowing towards the side of their ship. Jazz had put most of it together, at least enough for it not to sink. There was still a large hole in the side, but it was far up enough to ensure they could sail away from the range of the cannons.

For the first time, Kat glanced around. The enemy ships had scattered away after she'd blasted one of them out of the water, but she couldn't celebrate that small victory. Not when her heart was frozen with dread.

The boat drifted silently among the flotsam. Kat watched the Jolly Marauder coming closer, her heart becoming ever smaller. By the time they reached the ladder which would allow them to get on board, she decides she never wanted to move. She wanted time to stop.

Jazz grabbed the first rung and pulled himself up. It was hard to watch him moving so slowly when he'd always been filled with life and energy. Jinx followed.

"Kat..." Trix reached out his hand to her.

She turned away. "You should just leave me here."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." His voice was normal now, so low she could barely hear it.

"I just... I..." Tears choked her and she rested her forehead on her knees, hugging them to her chest tightly.

"Don't make things harder than they need to be," he said, his tone turning harsh. "This is about a lot more than you know. This is..." His words got lost in the sound of the waves. But he let her be and focused on waking Cage up instead.

To Kat's surprise, he managed it and Cage sat up. He looked stunned that they'd reached the ship and complied when Trix ordered him up the ladder. She stood, too, a mild ache inside her that he hadn't even looked her way. But Trix was right. This was beyond what had just happened. She didn't even know what had truly happened with Wolfbane, with Ferdinand...

So she headed up to the deck after him. Her mind spun as she made the journey, and the moment her feet touched the wood, she felt as if she'd come home.

"Kat!"

Leila rushed towards her and caught her in a hug. Kat hugged her back, hope reigniting inside of her.

"I'm so sorry!" she said, tears sliding down her face. "It was me! I didn't want to destroy the ship."

"You saved us," Leila whispered. "Don't feel sorry. You drove the enemy away."

Kat pulled back. "I did? I saved you?"

Leila bit her lower lip and stepped back, too. "I mean me. You saved me." She glanced back at everyone.

At Jazz leaning against the wall to the stateroom, a hand over his eyes, at Jinx hugging herself next to him, at Cage who seemed as out of it as he'd done in the boat even as he sat with his back against the main mast, then at Trix who was the only one who still seemed to have a pinch of confidence left.

"I'm sorry," she finally said. "But Harrison is dead."

🌟🌟🌟

Here we are. This adventure is over. And it didn't go all that well. Kat did a bad thing while she tried to save everyone. Poor Kat. And poor Cage after his own failure.

But now that they failed their mission... What will happen? Stay tuned to find out! Thanks so much for your support and don't forget to vote and comment!