The Devil's Temptress: At World's End || Book 3

XII. Fai la nanna

"Fai la nanna, piccolino. Fai la nanna, va bene?" The rigging creaked amongst the silence, adding to the sinister atmosphere. Her ghostly voice was lost on her and her alone, every other man on board could hear it and although it made them shiver, they begged for it not to stop.

Nicolette's voice, as haunting as it sounded, gave them something to listen too. The soft siren calls drowned out the silence of hell and gave them something real to cling too. "So qualcuno to chiede dove fai la nanna?"

"You keep making those sounds and the men are going to think those ghosties are back."

The men may have gasped as the tune they hummed along to went unfinished, but it didn't matter as her own prayers for a distraction were answered. The warm hand coiled around her waist, pulling her back into his hard chest, his chin easily resting upon the top of her head.

"Come. Get some rest."

Jack. How could he be here? How could he be alive? How could she even be alive?

The sound of his voice was enough to make a cold shiver run down her spine. Common sense told her she should have died long ago, years ago, and Jack even longer still. Neither of them should have been here, living. Both of them had lived through death. It was dumb luck they were here.

And right now, she wished he wasn't. What was the point in him being here if he was planning on leaving again.

"Nikki?" Jack questioned when he received very little in the way of reply other than her form stiffening. "What's wrong love?"

"Immortality..." Came her sole response, and it lingered in the air for a long while, until she sighed. "It's always been your obsession hasn't it Jack?" He didn't have a chance to think of a reply or to even question what she meant before she went on. "If you stab the heart, you must take its place..." She turned in his arms as they loosened around her. "Did you know?" Their eyes met, Nicolette's harsh and dark, Jack's narrowed and cautious. He wouldn't dare answer, he wouldn't risk digging a deeper hole for himself when she was in this kind of mood but he was also curious. "Of course you knew."

Nicolette sighed, after scoffing, and pushed his hands from her hips, rolling her unmatched pupils away from him as a frown fell across his brow and she almost got away until he reached for her hand.

"N-"

"I don't want to know." Nic snatched her wrist away, folding her arms to hide them from his grasps. But she didn't leave, her mind wouldn't let her walk away just yet, it wanted to torture her more and so it directed her body to turn back towards the waters, watching the waves they left behind. "Fucking Davy Jones..."

As she muttered under her breath Jack moved, his steps silent, but this time he stepped up beside her, head turned just enough to be able to watch her out his peripheral. Contrarily, she refused to look at him and kept her eyes focused on the darkness while trying to distract herself by imagining what could be out there, in the depths. Until she realised what wasn't there....

"The moon is missing..." She whispered, eyes darting around the sky... "and the stars..." Jack, as if only realising this himself, looked up and raised his brow in wonder. Only for a short while however as a small scoff brought his focus back down onto her. "Moon eyed Nikki...wonder what they'd call me here, hmm?" She rose a brow, not expecting an answer, and as the seconds dragged on she deemed herself correct until finally, right at the last minute before she took her leave; Jack whispered.

"Beautiful." This gold capped teeth shone in the small light of the Pearl's lanterns and Nic held in a long relentless sigh. That was something she did a lot these days it seemed.

"Don't try those old games..." She spoke through gritted teeth and it was Jack's turn to shift nervously, his boots scuffing against the damp deck.

"There's no other way Vi." His voice was soft, low and slow. Jack knew exactly what was going on in her head even when she didn't. "It's the only way to stop Jones."