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18
MAURA
I can’t beat Bowen. Maybe it would be different on the open seas, with water all around me. But in this tight room, with his superior strength and reach? I can’t even get close enough to strike. And the bastard is so damn fast. He hasn’t even bothered to use his magic…
Then again, neither have I.
I look over at Juliette, but she’s staring at the Cwn Annwn. There’s no way to signal that she should run the second I strike, so I just have to hope she understands in the moment.
The whole time we’ve been in Atlantis, I’ve kept my magic coiled tight around me. We’re on land, for one. And I’ve learned the hard way over the years that it’s best not to telegraph your strengths and weaknesses in a new place. You never know when you’re going to have to fight for your life.
Like right now.
When I was a child, I had to focus my magic with my hands, but these days all takes is a single breath to direct my intention. As I told Juliette when we were teenagers, most living beings have some level of water inside them. Bowen is no different. He’s human—or whatever the equivalent is in his realm.
I reach out with my mind, quick as a striking mermaid, and grab every single drop of water in his body. He makes a strangled sound and goes tense. It’s all the opportunity we need. “Run, Juliette,” I grit out. “I can’t hold him long.” Even now, he’s fighting my magical grip. I’ve never had someone do this before; normally, they’re so freaked out to be held in place, they freeze.
Not Bowen. He’s eerily calm as he tracks me with those dark eyes. In fact—
Juliette grabs my arm and yanks me forward just as the metal plate formerly containing our food goes spinning through the air with enough strength to embed itself in the wall behind me.
If I hadn’t moved, he would’ve taken my head.
Holy shit, he’s telekinetic. We’re not getting out of this. But even as I think it, I’m readying myself to fight. I’ve always battled hard for survival, but what is survival compared to hope? I desperately want the future the Juliette and I spoke about just a little while ago. If this bastard kills her or takes her into his crew and sails away with her, I’ll never see her again.
I clench my fist and jerk it toward me, attempting to yank every drop of water from his body. “Let’s see you survive this, fucker.”
The veins stand out in Bowen’s thick neck, and his complexion goes dark and mottled. He’s…fighting me? I can feel the water trying to respond to my command, but somehow he’s keeping it in place through the sheer force of his telekinetic powers. This guy is a monster.
Sweat breaks out along my hairline, and my body starts to shake. “Juliette, run.”
Of course she doesn’t. Instead, she rushes forward. She scoops up my fallen dagger in a practiced move and lunges for Bowen.
It all happens so fast. He snaps my hold and jerks a hand up in time to catch her around the throat. I don’t even have time to yell before he pins her to the wall and yanks the dagger out of her hands. “That is enough.” He hardly sounds winded, when my body is shaking like a leaf. It’s easier to control the water of the sea than it is to find and control water in a body. My failure might just mean our deaths.
Bowen points his stolen dagger at me. “If you move an inch, I will crush her throat.”
My mind races, coming up with and discarding dozens of plans in the span of a heartbeat. All of them are too risky to Juliette. “Let her go.” I hate how much my voice shakes, but I can’t help it. “Take the piece of eight back. We’ll return to our realm, and we can all pretend this never happened. It was a mistake. We never meant to come here.”
“Most people never intend to end up in Threshold, either. Intentions don’t matter. Results do.” He sounds almost bored as he says it, as if these are words he’s recited countless times before and will recite countless times in the future. The very thought is horrifying.
I open my mouth to say something. I don’t know what, though, because nothing seems likely to convince him to let us go. I never get a chance.
A wave of a magic rolls through the room with the force of a tsunami. All three of us flinch, and then the feeling hits me. It’s hot and sizzling, a physical sensation coursing through my body like the best kind of foreplay. I stagger. In the back of my mind, something is screaming to use this to my advantage, but all I can do is think of sex. There’s a bed right behind me, after all. And Juliette is right there. I don’t have much use for Bowen… Wait, what am I saying?
