“We have everything we need.”
His suspicion is a thick thing in the space between us, but he moves back and motions us forward. I catch Evelyn’s arm and speak low under my breath. “Don’t be caught alone with him if you can help it. He won’t …” I clear my throat. “He’ll just make you uncomfortable, and I’d spare you of that if I can. But the quartermaster, Nox, is good people.” I had offered them a spot on my ship a few years ago, with the intention of them serving as quartermaster once they’d earned the crew’s trust. They turned me down, saying their brand of chaos would drive me out of my mind in a few short months. They weren’t wrong, but I think I still would have preferred them over Miles.
Evelyn’s too pale, but at my warning, a familiar glint appears in her green eyes. “I can take care of myself, but thank you for the concern.” She slips out of my grip and climbs up onto the ship.
Dia snorts. “She’s not as helpless as you keep thinking she is.” She lightly smacks my arm. “But love makes fools of us all.”
“I’m not—I don’t—” I sputter into silence, and it’s just as well. Dia isn’t listening to me. She follows Evelyn on board, as nimble as someone a fraction of her age.
I cast one last look over my shoulder and then follow. Within a few minutes, the ship is easing into deeper water and the wind fills the sails. I keep my attention on the shore, ready to strike if Lizzie appears. She doesn’t.
Somehow, I doubt it’s the last we’ve seen of her.
CHAPTER 23
Evelyn
AFTER SAILING ON THE CRIMSON HAG, I THOUGHT I HAD a good handle on what it means to be one of the C?n Annwn. It turns out I was wrong. This crew is nothing like the Hag’s. Or at least like the Hag’s was under Bowen’s captaincy.
Hedd, the captain of the Audacity, is obviously threatened by Bowen’s presence, and he blusters and postures and does everything except pee on the deck to mark it as his. The crew takes their lead from him, giving us snarling comments when they bother to speak to us at all. It’s just as well. Most of them are people I would not want to meet in a dark alley.
The sole exception is the quartermaster, Nox. They’re a lean but powerfully built white person with platinum-blond hair cut short on the sides and slightly longer on top. Their pale brows give them an almost alien appearance, or that might be their superior bone structure. It’s the kind of strange one sees on runways back home.
Home.
A place I’ll probably never go again. I still haven’t processed that. I had barely been willing to hope that the portal actually went to my home realm instead of one that was just similar. With Lizzie’s arrival, I have confirmation that it would have sent me home. Except the portal is now gone, demolished by my and Bowen’s magic. If Lizzie didn’t already want me dead for stealing from her, she’ll definitely skin me alive for taking away her route home.
I don’t know how to deal with the loss of something I was barely willing to believe I had. I don’t know what this means for my future at all, but there’s no time to process it while aboard the Audacity. Every bit of energy is geared toward avoiding the crew and staring at the horizon behind us, sure that Lizzie somehow found a ship and is already in pursuit. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know how to sail, but it’s not as if that will stop her.
I expect the weather to change and grow colder as we sail continually north, but that assumption is a holdover from my realm. I don’t even know if they have seasons on Threshold. I guess I should figure it out, since I’ll be here for an extended period of time.
I turn to look for Dia, wondering if she’d be willing to share her ever-present joint. Right now, taking the edge off my frantically circling thoughts seems like the only thing I can actually do.
“You’re new.”
I jump and then curse myself for jumping. I’ve caught Nox watching me a few times, but they haven’t approached during the three days we’ve been sailing … until now. “Yeah, pretty new.”
“Strange thing, Bowen being left behind by his crew.” They’re still watching me closely. “He’s one of the more upstanding of our number, and while some”—their blue eyes cut to where Hedd lounges against the helm, looking like he’s sleeping standing up—“think that’s a weakness, he seemed beloved by the Hag’s crew.”
He was. At least by the crew members that Miles hadn’t already coaxed over to his side. Bowen seems to think that Miles would have gained the upper hand eventually, but it’s clear that my presence sped that process up. If not for me, he wouldn’t have called off the hunt of the dragon and the crew wouldn’t have been furious enough to vote him out so quickly.
I feel bad about that … kind of. His problems didn’t start with me, but getting him to question laws that are obviously corrupt can only be a good thing in the long run. I hope. If Lizzie doesn’t kill us both first.
I push that away and give Nox my full attention. “Seems like you have something to say. Might as well stop dancing around the point and spit it out.”
They’re dressed in the customary color of the C?n Annwn, but on them it looks … different. Less like a sailor playing dress-up. On Nox, the crimson leather pants, loose shirt, and duster look like part of them. It’s a neat trick. Bowen wears his cloak with the same level of comfort and identity, but even he hasn’t embraced the color for every bit of his clothing.
They lean on the railing next to me and stare out at the water. “If there’s something you aren’t telling us that will endanger the ship and crew, I’ll kill you myself.”
I blink. “That’s not very siblinghood of the C?n Annwn of you.”
They snort. “Only people like Bowen believe that shit. I believe in consequences, and there are consequences for breaking the laws. For the person doing the breaking and for anyone who helps them, inadvertently or not.” Their amusement fades away. “So answer me truly. Have you broken our laws?”
“No.” Not technically. Probably.
Nox sighs. “Nothing but trouble, the lot of you.”
My nerves threaten to get the best of me. I make a pass at the metal chain hanging from their slim waist on instinct. I can’t help it. Stealing shit makes me feel more in control. It always has.
Nox grabs my wrist and raises their brows. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Holy shit, they’re fast. Faster than Lizzie, even. I blink up into their perfect face. “What are you?”
“That’s a very rude question to ask.” They lift up my hand between us and shake it a little. “If you attempt to steal from me again, I’ll—”
“Kill me. Yeah, I got it.”
Their lips curve. They really are beautiful in an otherworldly kind of way. “Nah, I might just keep you.”
“Excuse me?”