Cursed | Armando Salazar x OC

TWENTY-SEVEN

We're only a few feet away when a booming voice sounds behind us, "JACK!"

Like one man, we turn to find Henry sprinting toward us, climbing a rock and leaping through the air with a sword raised above his head – aiming right at Jack.

In a beat, Jack pushes Carina and me to the side and dive to the other, missing Henry's blade by inches. Half on top of the girl, I roll onto my back to see Henry pursuing Jack with an uncharacteristic rage about him. He's never acted like this before, even less moved with such determined precision. His fighting style almost reminds me of...

My heart sinks.

Armando.

Of course, ghosts can possess the living but then...there is no way of coming back.

My head jerks toward the Trident and then to Carina. One look, and we both know we have to end this.

Pushing of the sand, we rush toward the ancient weapon. From the corner of my eye, I spot the rest of the Spanish crew sinking to the ocean floor with their weapons at the ready, although they keep to the water as to not turn to dust.

I want to curse. They can't be here right now! If we break all curses, they will return mortal and will drown, as there is no way they can swim to the surface that fast.

Focus, Samira. One problem at a time.

I follow Carina up the rocks and stop at the Trident. Together, we grab hold of it and pull upward. But years of neglect has made it part of nature and it's basically become one with the rock. However, upon catching a glimpse of Jack slicing Henry – er, Armando – across the face, I'm filled with desperate determination.

"Stand back," I tell Carina before delivering a mighty kick to the weapon.

It breaks free with a gargantuan force that sends the two of us falling backward, and I watch it soar through the air before landing a few feet from a fighting Jack and Henry.

Not wasting any time, I make a run for it. Jumping over rocks as I did over obstacles during Magda's training sessions, I reach it in record time. Only when I have the Trident in my hands, does another pair grab hold of it.

I look up at Henry's face, but it's someone else's eyes I'm staring into. "Armando..."

However, he seems to be looking right through me.

I realize with a sinking feeling that the rage has taken over again, this time blinding him to everything around him. He'd kill me too and wouldn't even realize it.

In that moment of terrifying realization, I dropped my guard and he yank the Trident from my hands, sending an exploding force of water through me. I scream as I am sent flying through the air, landing painfully on my back near the wall of water.

I gasp as the wind is knocked from my lungs, blinking rapidly to focus my mind on the present time. Another force rattles the ground, making me turn my head to the side.

There, at the spot I was standing on a moment ago, Armando has used the Trident to separate him from Henry's body. My heart misses several beats as Henry's form falls limply to the side, and Armando remains standing with the weapon in his possession.

"Henry..." Slowly, I get my breathing under control before sitting up. Before I could run to him, I see the entire crew of the Silent Mary watching me from behind the watery wall. Unlike their Capitán , they seem worried.

Time slows down as I enter a moment of clarity. Looking from the crew to Armando prowling toward Jack, and then to Carina trying to wake Henry up, everything falls into place.

I know what I must do.

Turning to the crew, I look at each of them – Lesaro, Moss, Santos, Magda – and say as loud as I can, "Magda, get to the Mary and sail her along the wall, start lowering the anchor as soon as she's there, hold her steady. There won't be time to swim up once the curse is broken, you'll drown. I'll see you all back on the Mary. Now go!"

But they don't move an inch.

Lesaro mouths something to me, but all I can see is his lips moving. Luckily, I catch some of what he's saying.

What if you die?

Yes, I could, but that's not important right now.

Backing up toward the fight, I repeat what I said, "Go!"

However, as I turn to assess the battlefield to formulate a plan, I'm just in time to see Jack being flung at me by an arm of water. I duck mere seconds before he goes over my head and through the wall, where the crew makes a grab at him.

Armando has figured out how to wield the Trident and is using it to toss the pirate around. At this pace, he'll either drown or break Jack by the sheer force he's throwing him against the rocks.

I want to huff in irony – what a useless weapon, the Trident, if anyone can wield it. Honestly.

Taking off across the sand, I make a run for Henry's sword that lies a few feet away from him and Carina. The latter looks at me bewildered as Henry's begins to wake up.

"What are you doing?"

"The release the power of the sea, all must divide," I recite what she told me earlier, "I'm going to break the Trident."

"Samira, no..." Henry slurs as he comes by, "...what if it kills you?"

"I can't die unless the ocean allows it, remember?" I force my voice to sound hopeful, positive, optimistic... while in my heart, I'm dreading what might happen. Smiling at him, I say, "Just make sure you're on the Pearl before the walls come down, alright? I'll see you up top."

I grab his sword and run off, feeling my heartbreak as he calls behind me, "Samira, no, wait!"

Although every fiber in my being wants to turn back and hug him one last time, I know time has run out. The only way to break Armando's curse and to save him from its rage, is to break the Trident. And if that means dying, then what a marvelous death that will be.

Unfairly accused of witchcraft.

Hunted down.

Locked away.

Sentenced to death.

Exiled.

Died a hero.

Chanting that over and over in my head, I see my window of opportunity: Armando has Jack pinned to a rock with the tip of the Trident, although it can't pierce through whatever blockage is hidden under his coat.

Sprinting over a rock, I find a traction point and push off, leaping through the air with the sword raised and ready...

Armando and Jack both look up when I land beside them, and with one powerful motion, bring the sword down on the steel of the Trident.

Like a taut piece of string, it snaps, breaking into thousands of splintery shards, and unleashes an electrifying force that expands throughout the entire ocean. I felt it.

Just as I felt the sharp pain that pierced my heart and spiderwebs through my body.