Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“They took him, Nox. I thought he was aboard the Crimson Hag, but when we brought down the ship in Drash’s bay, he wasn’t there. They transferred him somewhere along the way, and I don’t know what to do.”
No need to ask who they are. The Cŵn Annwn. But that doesn’t make any sense. The Cŵn Annwn have a long history of abusing their power, but there are lines that even the foolhardiest captain won’t cross.
I shake my head sharply. “Impossible. He’s a fucking noble. His family would burn Lyari to the ground before they’d allow the Council to send him to trial for anything.”
“Normally, you would be right. Not this time.” She looks away. “He was caught using glamour.”
My breath swooshes out of my lungs. “No. Not even he would be so reckless.”
In a place like Threshold, we have more varieties of magic than I can begin to count, but the one that the Council universally banned as soon as they came into power is glamour. The Cŵn Annwn rule Threshold with iron fists and crimson sails, all in the name of protection. Unfortunately, there’s no one to protect us from them. They don’t like the idea that they could be manipulated magically, so they spent the last few generations purging every single person capable of glamour from Threshold.
Bastian is a throwback to some many-times-great-grandparent who had that flavor of magic, but he’s successfully hidden it his entire life. When other children were being taught their letters, he was being drilled in how he should never give himself away. I swallow hard. “They’ll kill his entire family. If not for possessing glamour themselves, then for hiding him.”
“Yes.” Siobhan looks sick.
I’ve spent damn near half my life hating his family. They’re the reason he stayed in Lyari—the largest and most powerful city in Threshold—when I left. If he wasn’t the second son of a noble family, loyalty ingrained in him right down to his bones, he would have joined me and…
And what?
I still would have met Siobhan years later, and knowing what’s developed between them…It would have been heartache no matter which angle I take. I shake my head. “No.”
“Yes, Nox. Even if I didn’t care for him as a person, he knows too much about the rebellion. If he breaks, he and his family aren’t the only ones they’ll come after. They’ll hunt every member of the rebellion—including you and your crew.”
I drag my hands through my short hair. She’s right, but I’m not prepared to admit it. “Find someone else, Siobhan. I understand the stakes, but you made me one promise when I joined. One. Don’t break it now.”
“I wouldn’t if I had any other choice.” She sounds contrite enough that I almost believe her. “There’s no one else, Nox. No one but you and this crew you’ve stacked too effectively. Between all the air- and water-users you have aboard and Bowen, no one can match your speed or your shields. The Audacity is the only ship that can catch them now—and the only one that can make a clean getaway.”
I laugh harshly. “Now I know you’re fucking with me. There’s no clean getaway, Siobhan. If he was transferred between ships, then the Cŵn Annwn know he’s valuable and that someone is coming for him. They’ll have contacted the Council to report it. They’ll have a whole fleet protecting the ship he’s on. There’s no coming back from this.”
The only reason the rebellion has functioned so well is because we were beneath notice. A little mouse scurrying around, saving people in ones and twos, carefully skipping murdering some “monsters” we were set upon. If we’re found out, we’ll be annihilated. They have too much power. “It’s over, then.”
Siobhan takes my shoulders. “No. It’s not. You can save him. I know you can.”
Even knowing it’s a mistake, I stare up into her handsome face, am captivated by the glow in her honey eyes. This is what drew me in all those years ago. Siobhan believes so strongly that it’s like a force of gravity, drawing in those around her. She’s asking the impossible, but with her determination bolstering me, it’s difficult to keep fighting.
This is why she’s so dangerous.
I sigh. “So be it. It will be a bloody funeral for us all.”
Chapter 3
Siobhan
If I could have gone to anyone else, I would have. As I told them, Nox has stacked the deck too thoroughly in their favor. They have Bowen, who is one of the strongest telekinetics I’ve ever encountered. They have a crew filled with elemental users, which means the Audacity will emerge from any sea battle victorious. They have a witch whom I haven’t met personally but have already heard stories of despite her short time in Threshold.
Now that I’ve come with Lizzie and Maeve, they even have a powerful and deadly vampire—and the selkie who holds her leash.