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She exhales a soft curse. “That’s convenient. How do I know you’re not lying?”
“Easy.” I almost slump against her shoulder before I remember we aren’t not-girlfriends anymore, and she’s been definitely trying to kill me for the last couple weeks. “You know how much shit I took. Do you really think I have it hidden on my body?”
“It would be simpler if you did.” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “I guess it’s time to steal a ship, then.”
I blink. “That is a huge leap of logic. How the fuck are you going to get anywhere? And did you forget about the entire realm of hostile motherfuckers who don’t take kindly to trespassers?” A tug on my magic makes me turn my head to find Bowen leaning with one arm braced over his head against the shield. His expression is thunderous, and it’s aimed directly at me. Fuck.
“If I let him out, do you think you can resist the urge to attempt to murder him?”
“Evelyn, I am still fighting the urge to murder you. I make no promises.”
Not the most optimistic statement, but I don’t think it’s going to get better. I take in a slow breath and concentrate on breaking the circle. In seconds, Bowen is at my side. His hands clench as if he wants to grab me and drag me away from Lizzie, to put as much distance between us as possible.
Instead, he drops down next to me. “If you ever do that again, I’m going to put you over my knee and paddle your ass until it’s purple.”
Lizzie lets out a musical laugh. “Oh, you’re obviously new to this. Adorable.” Her tone says that she finds him anything but.
If I don’t rein this in, we’re going to end up in a bloodbath. Again. “You can’t just go around stealing ships, Lizzie. Someone will report it to the Cwn Annwn, and then this only ends with your death.”
“Perhaps.” She shrugs a single shoulder. “But if the ship I steal is one of the Cwn Annwn ships with those distinctive crimson sails …”
“Hard to sell it as one of ours—theirs—without a crew,” Bowen rumbles.
“Don’t need much of a crew. With the amount of magic seeped into those boards, I’d wager those fucking ships practically sail themselves—at least long enough to get me where I need to go.” She pushes to her feet, and my pride doesn’t hate the fact that she stumbles a little. “There’s one of the crimson-sailed motherfuckers just off the coast right now. The gossip says they had a rough go of it fighting some mermaids. I just need to kill enough of the crew for the rest of them to agree to work with me. Simple.”
She pauses and looks at us. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Are you coming or what?”
CHAPTER 32
Bowen
I DON’T KNOW IF MY HEARTBEAT IS EVER GOING TO RETURN to normal. Watching Evelyn attempt to fight this monster of a vampire, knowing she’s willing to sacrifice her life to save me? I’ve never experienced fear like that. I still don’t quite understand how the fight turned from verbal to physical to verbal again, but it’s increasingly clear that these two have an incredibly complicated relationship. There’s a part of me that wonders if Evelyn will want to take things up with her ex now that they’re no longer literally at each other’s throats, but she slumps against me and leaves her head on my shoulder as we watch the vampire pace.
“That’s a terrible plan, Lizzie,” Evelyn says conversationally. “The crew you don’t kill will just wait until you sleep and then slit your throat. You might survive it, but if they toss you into the water and start pelting magic at your head, even you would have a hard time walking that off.”
It’s just starting to register what ship the vampire’s talking about. The Audacity. She hasn’t sailed away, and it’s impossible to say if it’s because the losses were greater than I realized, or if Hedd is having some kind of drunken binge in victory. With him, he could go either way.
But it means they’re not out of reach.
It means Nox isn’t out of reach.
I clear my throat. “It would be challenging to pull off by yourself, but with three of us, as long as we can deal with Hedd, it’s an all-but-guaranteed victory. At least with that ship, and that crew.”
Evelyn straightens and gives me a long look. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t know why Nox has allowed themself to remain as quartermaster. Maybe it’s like they told you and they don’t have the votes, or maybe they have other reasons. But if we kill Hedd—and his most loyal supporters—then we’re looking at a very different crew. One that can give us answers.” I glance at Lizzie. “One that should be able to chase down the Crimson Hag to retrieve your stolen goods.”
Evelyn looks unconvinced, her mouth tight. “You don’t think killing half a Cwn Annwn crew and the captain will bring attention to us? I thought that’s the last thing we wanted.”
Normally, I would agree wholeheartedly. But there’s one specific detail working in our favor right now. One that gives us a chance of pulling this off when we’d never be able to otherwise. “You heard the vampire.”
“I have a name,” Lizzie snaps.
I ignore her. “The only thing known on First Sister is that the crew of the Audacity sustained enough losses when fighting the mermaids to prevent them from coming ashore or leaving immediately. It’s not inconceivable that a large part of the crew would die. It’s happened before. More times than I would like to think about. If the remaining crew is … motivated … to embrace that as truth, who’s to say any different?” It would require Nox massaging the report a little, but I suspect that wouldn’t take much convincing.
