A big deal about it. Gods, I really do love this woman. Only she would confess something so world-shattering and ask me to pretend like it’s just a normal thing to confess. When I finally manage to speak, my voice is rough. “I’m falling with you. Never think you’re alone in this.”
“Oh. Well. Good. Um. Yes, okay.” She drags her hands through her hair and winces. “Look, I know this isn’t romantic, but I’m kind of freaking out a little and we’re about to embark on a freaking war against the most powerful faction in Threshold and my ex still wants to kill us, so maybe we just let this simmer for a little while?”
It’s everything I can do to keep from lunging to my feet, picking her up, and spinning us around until we’re both dizzy. “Okay.”
“Okay. Great.” She backs away slowly. “I’m going to take a shower and put on some clothes. Don’t touch your wound. I don’t have magic to accelerate the healing beyond whatever has already been done. That spell won’t prevent you from reopening it if you fuck with it.”
It’s only when she walks out of the room that I collapse back against the couch. I’ve never been weaker in my life, more helpless, and yet I find myself grinning like a fool. Hope. Is that the thing I’ve been missing my entire life? Well, hope and Evelyn. Even a perspective change wouldn’t have been enough to put me on this path without her at my shoulder, asking me questions I didn’t have answers for.
Now we’ll find the answers together.
CHAPTER 29
Evelyn
I CAN’T PINPOINT THE EXACT MOMENT I DECIDED TO STAY in Threshold. To stay with Bowen. Maybe it happened even before I realized I had access to a portal that would take me to a realm similar to mine. I think I started to love him when he went into the village to question the people instead of shutting me down and going after the dragon to finish the job. The feeling has only grown in the days since. Too fast. People aren’t supposed to fall in love in a matter of weeks.
The people in our family fall fast, little bird. Make sure you choose someone who’s worth it.
I’ve chosen well. I may not have known Bowen long, but I know enough to be sure of that.
I duck my head under the spray and shampoo my hair a second time. Everything about this safe house has been a surprise. After finding the magic icebox packed with food, I discovered the closets filled with clothing in a wide variety of sizes. As if they expect people coming here to show up with nothing. To be on the run. Food and clothes and shelter, just like Nox promised.
It’s a shame that the Audacity has sailed away by now. I have some questions for the quartermaster. They saved our lives, and that would’ve been enough. But directing us here? It’s another journey in waiting. Another mystery tempting me to unravel it.
This isn’t a safe house for the C?n Annwn. Which leads me to wonder if it’s a safe house from the C?n Annwn.
It makes sense. Not that Nox would be connected to it, but that there would be an underground rebellion of sorts. It’s interesting how Bowen doesn’t seem to recognize this for what it is, which means he’s never come in contact with any kind of pushback. So maybe that’s not what this rebellion is doing. Maybe they’re secreting people out of Threshold. If Bowen’s belief about the vow being linked to tracking is true—and at this point, I question everything—then the people who come through here must have been found by the resistance before the C?n Annwn got ahold of them and forced the vow.
Do they send them home? Or do they shift them to places on Threshold where they can be folded into the community without having to become monster hunters?
Too many questions, but at least these ones give me hope. It’s much easier to join with an already established resistance than it is to build one from the ground up. Infrastructure is invaluable. Based on the readiness of this safe house, Nox’s people have it.
I turn off the water and get dressed in the borrowed clothes I found in a dresser in the bedroom. They don’t fit in a particularly flattering way, but that’s just as well. The muted browns and grays and greens available suggest they were picked for their ability to blend in.
I braid my hair and return to find Bowen dozing on the couch. His big body is sprawled out, legs hanging over the edge. He’s still too pale, but the steady rise and fall of his chest is reassuring. Tenderness nearly takes me out at the knees. He’s so fucking fearsome and powerful, but right now he’s vulnerable and trusting me enough to not bother to hide it. It makes me want to wrap him up and take him somewhere safe where he doesn’t have to fight anymore. It makes me want to stand at his back and support him while he does what’s necessary to balance the scales in his head.
I clear my throat, announcing my presence. “Shower’s open. Be very careful with your neck.” He doesn’t look too good. When he stands up, he moves with the careful way of someone devastatingly injured. “If you need help—”
“If you help me in the shower, I’ll be tempted to help you out of those clothes.”
I blink. “There you go, being charming again. You have a terrible sense of timing. Don’t look at me like that. With all the blood you lost, if you get an erection right now, you’re going to die. Do you really want that on my conscience?”
He huffs out a laugh. “I wouldn’t dream of burdening you like that, Evie. Why don’t you get us some food started instead?”
“Now you have me playing little wife.” I grin, but my amusement falls away at the hungry expression on his face. Oh, yeah, he wants that. Very much. “Go shower before you get us into trouble.” To prevent myself from indulging in temptation, I head into the small kitchen.
Much like the bathroom, the more I snoop, the more questions I have about the magic required to keep this running. It’s not cheap, and it would require someone to maintain it. Which supports my suspicion that the safe house is being used regularly. I was too tired to pay much attention to the terrain we walked through to get here, but it was mostly rocks and cliffs and dirt. Nothing particularly foreign to my realm, but nothing easily identifiable, either. As a result, I can’t say much about the realm this island must have a portal to.
In the icebox, there is food in packages in neat little rows, each labeled with a painstakingly neat hand. I don’t recognize the language on sight, but the letters form into squiggles and then morph into English. Translation spell. As I found out earlier, it’s a bunch of different kinds of soup, all precooked and just needing to be heated. I grab the beef stew and find a pot to cook it in.
Then I go hunting.