Swelling Tides- Will Turner x Reader book 2

Chapter 7

AN

HI! So... it's been like 2 years... BUT WE'RE BACK BITCHES!!!! I'm not sure for how long, but here's a long awaited chapter 7- enjoy <3

Y/N's POV:

"Y/n! William!" Jack beckoned us over to the wheel where he stood next to Mr. Gibbs. He held a piece of cloth in his hands, yellowed with time, it's edges fraying. "We need to find something. Something very important." He said as we approached until we were looking over his shoulders.

On the cloth was a key. Well, an image of a key. And I knew exactly where I had seen it before. But again, that wasn't something I was planning on sharing so I kept my mouth shut. "So... you want us to find this?" Will asked, pointing to the key.

"No. You want you to find this. Because the finding of this finds you incapacitorially finding both of yourselves free men." He paused, turning to me. "Free individuals." He corrected himself.

"What exactly do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean, if you don't help me find this, I'll leave the two of you to die. A second time for Y/n." He smiled at me. I spent a second examining his expression to figure out whether he was serious but with Jack it was always hard to know. I shifted my gaze to Will who subtly shrugged his shoulders as he couldn't tell either. "Maybe on a remote island... or perhaps the middle of the ocean... I might even kill you meself!" Jack said merrily as he plotted our deaths.

"So if we do find this key, you won't do that?" Will clarified.

Jack nodded, "How much do you know about Davy Jones?"

Will's eyes darted to mine, then back to Jack. "Not much." He said, taking the cloth. But I knew him well enough; I knew his tells. I noticed as his shoulders tensed and the muscles in his neck tightened. Liar.

"Then yes. It will save your lives." Jack turned back towards the bow of the ship. I also knew him well enough. I knew although he hid it well, he had a moral compass. I also knew he just resurrected me. If he wanted me dead, he would have let me stay dead. I knew our lives weren't on the line. And I'm not sure if it was because I trusted Jack or because I was blissfully naïve or intrigued, but I was along for the ride.

A few hours later, we reached an island with sandy beaches and waving palm trees, a river cutting through the forest. "We were here not too long ago," Will said, his words warm on my cheek. He stood behind me as I looked over the balcony, his arms around me. "We came here to get you back." He kissed my jaw before leaving to help set up the rowboats as the ship weighed anchor not too far from the shore. I climbed into a rowboat after Will and Jack and a few others in another boat and we began rowing into the river. Slowly, the light became shallow and harsh and the palm trees became vines and moss. There was something almost eerie about this jungle. We towed until it got dark, finally seeing firelight in the distance. In fact, it may not have even been dark; we were that deep in the jungle I couldn't tell if the sun had set or if the tree cover had just gotten thick enough for me to think it had.

We arrived at a few huts next to a giant tree with a ladder in front of it. As one by one we got out of the boats, I gripped onto Will's arm. Partially for stability, partially for comfort. His chocolate brown eyes met mine as he took my hand and squeezed it gently. I climbed up the ladder after Jack and Will followed behind. Jack opened the door to the hut at the top of the ladder and we filed in behind.

We were greeted by a woman with black. ink on her hands, eyes, and teeth. "Back so soon?" She grinned, a glint in her eye.

"Tia Dalma, this is Y/n." Will said as she walked closer.

"Ahh, the woman I have heard so much about." She looked me over, circling me. "These boys put a lot on the line to bring you back. Consider yourself lucky."

"I do ma'am." I said, hoping I didn't sound as timid as I felt. Tia Dalma radiated power. You could almost feel her aura steeling your air away as she approached.

"Jack Sparrow, Will Turner; what are you here for again, so soon after you asked so much of me last time?"

"We've come for a bit of help and we're not leaving without it." Jack said, "And I brought payment! This time..." Tia nodded as Jack presented her a cage with Barbossa's monkey in it. "Look!" He pulled out his pistol and shot it, it screeched but received no damage. "An undead monkey." Jack grinned. "Top that!"

Tia took the cage, examining it before releasing the monkey.

"No!" Mr. Gibbs gasped before accepting defeat. "You have no idea how long it took us to catch that." He pouted.

"The payment is fair." Tia said.

"We're looking for this." Will pulled the cloth with the key from his picked, unfolding it on a table. "And what it goes to."

Tia glanced at it for a moment before turning to Jack. "The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?"

Jack paused. "Maybe. Why?"

"I hear you. Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants!" Tia almost taunted him in how she spoke. "Or, do you know but are loath to claim it as your own?" She laughed. "Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

Collective nods. "What is inside?" Mr. Gibbs asked."Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?"

"Nothing bad I hope." Another pirate chimes in.

Tia smirked. "You know of Davey Jones..."

"Yes?"

"A man of the sea. A great sailor, until he run afoul of that which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked her. She chuckled.

"Greed?" A pirate asked.

"The sea?" Another.

"Sums?" And another.

"The dichotomy of good and evil?" A moment of silence.

"Love." I said softly. Will turned to me.

"Love." Tia confirmed. I looked away from Will.

"No... no no no! I heard it was the sea he fell in love with." Gibbs declared.

"Same story, different version, and all are true." Tia said, her tone becoming harsher just the slightest. "See, it was a woman  as changing and harsh and untameable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it cause him was too much to live with; but not enough to cause him to die."

"What's in the chest." I asked point blank. I didn't need the narrative. I wanted answers. Answers about the key, the chest, and whatever the hell was happening to me.

"Him heart."

"Literally or figuratively?" Will asked.

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings. And so, him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide the chest from the world. The key, he keep with him at all times."

"You knew this!" Will turned to Jack.

"I did not!" Jack refuted. "I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, and you two can scurry off!" As if. Jack turned around and started walking away but Tia, almost as if she was made of wind and dust, moved swiftly in front of him, cutting off his exit.

"Let me see your hand." She extended her own towards him. Jack awkwardly smiled and begrudgingly let her unwrap the scarf around it. "I thought so. Marked for death." She walked away. "I have just the thing, just let me find it." She said, poking through her possessions in search before coming back with something heavy in her arms. "Davey Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you." She handed him a massive jar.

A jar of dirt.