She said nothing. She simply walked past him and spat a stream of tobacco juice onto his boot.
She snatched the rum, took a swig, and spat again—this time not at his boot, but into the sand between them. A sign of truce.
Jack blinked. “I’m sorry. Your what?”
It was the kind of night that swallowed ships whole. A low, fat moon hung over the Caribbean, and the Interceptor cut through the black water like a blade. Aboard, a young woman named Anamaria gripped the helm, her knuckles pale against the polished wood. The wind tasted of salt and opportunity.
Jack looked at her. Really looked. For once, he saw not a woman he’d wronged, but an equal. A force of nature wrapped in salt-stained leather.
By the time the Black Pearl returned to its cursed anchorage, Anamaria was waiting on the rocks, a lit cannon fuse in her hand.
She lit the fuse.
Jack’s grin faltered for the first time all week. “Anamaria! I was just coming to find you. Felt terrible about the Interceptor . And the sloop before that. And… was there a rowboat?”
She hadn't always been a fugitive. Once, she’d been the proud owner of a sturdy fishing sloop, worked hard for with calloused hands and a sharper tongue. Then Jack Sparrow happened. The man had charmed her, borrowed her boat for a "simple run," and returned it as kindling. She’d spent three years rebuilding her life, only for that same scoundrel to steal her new ship right out from under her nose.
When the Interceptor was blown to splinters, Anamaria swam through burning wreckage, clutching a piece of her shattered helm. For a moment, she considered letting the sea take her. But then she heard Jack’s voice, laughing even as the Pearl sailed away.
She pointed to the Pearl , anchored proudly in the cove. “You’ve cost me two vessels, Sparrow. Now you have a ship. And I have a claim.”
“We’re pirates,” she interrupted. “We make our own law.”
And somewhere behind her, the captain was already plotting his next scheme. But that was fine.
“To my new ship,” Anamaria corrected, stepping forward. The crew went silent.