The knife falls, and Ed steps back. A normal person, a sensible person, a person with a sense of self-preservation would run before the dread pirate Blackbeard changed his mind.

Stede, being none of those things, steps closer.

"Hey," he says softly. "It's...fuck, I wish I could remember what I'd done to hurt you so. Please forgive me."

He wants to hug Ed, but that would probably be a bad idea. He's hurting, he's hurting because of Stede.