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As they near the vessel, he can hear the commotion onboard. The sails are unfurling as they sidle up to the hull and Edward imagines they’ll be the last of his fleet to board unless they’re quick to stop this crew’s escape.
Most of the shouting seems concentrated to an area on the far side of the vessel, and he signals his crew to move swiftly to take advantage of their diverted focus.
As two of his men prepare their ladder to board, Edward takes a breath to refocus on the objective at hand: Capture Sirius Black. A small voice in the back of his mind keeps repeating Officer Young’s report of a woman onboard, but he tries to quell that.
He’s gotten similar reports a dozen times over the last six years and it’s never her.
Stolen in the night and never seen again, Lily Evans haunts him at his core. Someone he was supposed to protect that he failed. Much like Isabel some six years later.
A whispered ‘Ready, Sir’ snaps him into focus and he nods to his men as he takes the rope and leads the charge.
Ambling up the ladder is an undignified affair, especially as the boat begins drifting—they must’ve gotten the anchor up. Edward keeps his eyes trained on the railing of this foreign vessel, trying to make out any shadows that pass in order signal his men to still to remain undetected.
As he nears the halfway point of the ladder, he hears footsteps bounding across the deck in their direction. He holds a hand out to call for silence and his crew stills. Holding his breath, he takes another step up the ladder at the same time she appears over the railing.
If Edward didn’t have such a sturdy grip on the rope, he’s sure he would have plunged backwards into the ocean in pure shock.
Moonlight illuminates the golden hues in her red hair, which itself is a shade lighter than the last time he’d seen her. Her skin is freckled and marked by sun and scars of which he shudders to think of their origins. Her eyes, always so expressive and rich have locked on his, and they’re wide and bright and scared.
Her fear strikes something deep within him and he takes another shaky breath, imagining what horrors she’s had to endure these passed years. He’d failed her then, but he’s been given a chance to make things right, and though his mind screams Sirius Black, capture Sirius Black! his heart is pumping hard and fast to the rhythm of You can rescue Lily Evans.
“Lily…” her name tastes of hope and regret and he prays she remembers him, that she hears the apology carried by his voice. She seems frozen in her spot and Edward blinks, still overcome with the shock of seeing her again. Though older, she’s undoubtably the girl he knew in Jamaica.
After seconds of silence, he gently reaches for her as a plea to remember him and realize the opportunity she has to escape, but something in this movement startles her. Her spine straightens and she shakes her head, a crease forming between her brows.
He doesn’t understand what happens next as he watches her unsheathe a sword with ease and bring it down on the rope of the ladder. He doesn’t understand the brief flash of relief he sees on her face when the ladder becomes loose and useless under his feet. He doesn’t understand what’s happened as he feels the surface of the water break beneath him as he plunges under, and Lily Evans slips through his fingers again.