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I am so fucked.
I draw Bowen’s dagger from its sheath at my hip. Bunny made sure I had plenty of self-defense training, but in the years since she passed, I’ve forgotten to practice more often than I’ve remembered. A good thief doesn’t need to defend themselves; they’re there and gone before anyone knows the valuables are missing. The last fight I had was a drunken brawl in a bar, and very few people are actually trying to kill each other in drunken brawls. It’s just a bit of fun to let off some steam.
I can’t say the same for this fight. If I don’t win, she’ll kill Bowen. That, I can’t allow. I take a breath and brace myself, and then she’s on me.
Fast. Lizzie is so fucking fast. I barely manage to deflect her strikes, and even then, I am nearly certain she’s pulling her punches. I’m not this good. It’s just reality. She could have killed me several times over, and I’m starting to think her holding back has nothing to do with keeping me alive to find her jewels.
Which doesn’t make any fucking sense. She didn’t care about my life when I was in her bed. Why the hell would she care about it now? “You were going to let me die,” I repeat. My breath is fire in my lungs. Gods, I would’ve thought my stamina would be better after all the time working on the ship, but I’ve never been a match for Lizzie. No human is.
“You really believe I was going to let you die?” She slips under my guard and draws a shallow, fiery line over my stomach. “Why do you think I was there to catch you stealing my family heirlooms, Evelyn? Because I came back to get you out!”
“Don’t lie to me!” I stumble back. “You were in that room for the jewels. Not for me.”
Bowen is still banging on the shield, which is draining my magical reserves faster than I would like. I can’t keep this up indefinitely. If I hit her with fire, it might be enough to override her healing magic. Again, I hesitate even as the little voice in the back of my mind screams at me to finish this.
“I knew you’d get out. You’re too smart not to.” Her eyes are glowing crimson. “I didn’t think you’d steal from me in the process.”
I shuffle back a few more steps and give a half-hearted stab. Suddenly I’m not so sure I’m right. She was in that room when I went through the portal, and even if she was there for her family heirlooms, that meant she went back to her bedroom.
It means she went back for me.
“Why didn’t you just fucking say that, Lizzie? For someone who normally acts like they’re charged by the word, you sure as shit have a lot to say today.”
She gives another of those snarls that make my skin prickle in terror. She’s losing her temper in a way I’ve never seen. Normally, when Lizzie is angry, she goes cold. There’s nothing cold about her now—she’s all frenzy. She comes at me far faster than I can meet, leaving a trail of tiny cuts in her wake. “You are the most aggravating person I’ve ever met. Impulsive, reckless, and downright suicidal at times.”
“You sure did like the things I do with my tongue, though.”
She hisses. “The jewels. Where the fuck are my jewels? Don’t make me torture you, Evelyn. I’ll do it.”
That’s the thing … I’m starting to think she won’t. She could have ended this fight dozens of times since it started. Gods, she could have ended it before it started if she’d used her magic on me. She didn’t. I might be bleeding from a dozen places, but they’re nothing a quick bandage can’t fix. Even my jaw is only slightly sore. She’s been holding back. She doesn’t want to kill me any more than I want to kill her.
The trick is getting her to admit it.
I slap my bleeding hand to my chest again, triggering the second attack. It’s the last one I have of this nature. She curses as she goes spinning into the air. This time, she hits a tree hard enough to make me wince. It doesn’t matter. She’ll be fine.
She limps to her feet, her hair matted to her face with blood. “I’m going to fucking kill you.” She charges me.
“No, you’re not.” I drop my dagger to the ground and spread my arms. My body is shaking from the fight and the use of magic and Bowen’s renewed attack on my shield, but I manage to keep my feet as she skids to a stop in front of me.
She lifts her blood dagger, expression murderous. “I’m not bluffing.”
“Neither am I.” I move slowly and grip the front of my already gaping shirt, tugging until one of the buttons pops. “Here’s a nice open target for you.”
She grabs the back of my neck and drags me to her blade, forcing me closer until it pierces my skin over my heart. “I’m very good at finding things, Evelyn.” She speaks softly, intimately. “I found you twice in as many weeks. You don’t think I can find my family heirlooms without you? Don’t tempt me.”
She’s still threatening instead of killing. I’m right. At least, I hope I’m right. “How long do you think you can avoid the Cwn Annwn in the search of yours? The fact that you managed to do it this long is a small miracle.”
She curses and shoves me down. I land on my ass hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. I’m slightly gratified when Lizzie drops down next to me. She throws her blood blade to the ground, and it shifts back to liquid almost instantly. “There’s nothing to keep me from killing my way through the lot of them. It might be fun.”
I snort. This is the Lizzie I know. I’m still not entirely certain the threat has passed, but if she’s willing to talk, I’ll do my best not to incite her further. Probably. “You would take a lot of them down before they finally cut you to pieces, but it’s a game of numbers, and you don’t have the advantage. Not to mention, this whole damn realm is water. Your chance of stealing a ship and remaining undetected is almost nonexistent.” I watch her out of the corner of my eye. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“Just tell me where, Evelyn.”
At this point, there’s no advantage in keeping the information from her. “You know, if you’d ask questions instead of coming through the portal ready to blow our heads off, we could have saved a lot of time and energy. I didn’t even mean to steal them. I was just so angry at you, and you know how comforting I find stealing when I’m upset.”
She lifts a brow, the imperious expression on her face all the more horrifying because she’s covered in blood. “It’s a terrible coping skill.”
“I’m not arguing that.” I very carefully don’t look over my shoulder to where Bowen has gone quiet. Thank the gods he has the wherewithal to realize we’re poised on the knife’s edge. One wrong move starts the fight again. “Your jewels are on the Crimson Hag. They tossed me off the crew after I interfered with them killing a dragon. I didn’t have a chance to collect my things in the process.”
