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 C?n 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 C?n 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 C?n 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.
If Hedd was anyone else, he’d have already filed his write-up of the end of the hunt, but he’s notorious for being late on such things. His laziness is our boon right now.
Not to mention, if we have Nox in close quarters, they can’t dodge our questions forever. We can find out more about the network of safe houses used to send people home. We can find the best place in the underground organization to be the most helpful.
And we have the best chance of staying alive while doing it.
Lizzie crosses her arms over her chest and glares down at us. “This plan—my plan—is all well and good, but neither of you is at full health currently. You’re dead weight. You’re about to pass out, Evelyn. And you.” She turns her cold shark eyes on me. “All it would take is one good hit to put you in the grave. Maybe I should put you out of your misery and take care of it right now.” She flashes her fangs.
“Lizzie, we’re past the point of threats. If you could do this on your own, you would’ve already done it and you wouldn’t practically be rolling out the welcome mat inviting us on to be part of your murder party. You want your jewels. They’re on the Crimson Hag, and you need our help to get them back without bringing the whole of the C?n Annwn down on you.” Evelyn uses my shoulder to push to her feet. “We’re going to town right now to get patched up, and then we’ll board the ship under the cover of darkness.”
The vampire’s lips thin, but something almost like amusement flickers over her face. “I see that you’ve embraced the pirate life.”
“Of course I have. Swashbuckling, thieving, and looking good while doing it? It’s like it was made for me.”
“Mm-hmm. And I’m sure the fact that the C?n Annwn murders all nonhuman beings while calling them monsters doesn’t offend your soft, beating heart.”
“Oh, that?” Evelyn waves that away. “We’re just going to have to bring down the C?n Annwn. Easy peasy.”
The vampire laughs, and I find it upsetting that the sound is particularly pleasing. I suppose it makes sense though. Vampires are predators, through and through. It makes sense that everything about them is designed to draw in unsuspecting humans. My power shifts around me, but I make an effort to calm it. Our plan isn’t foolproof, but it’s also not the worst I’ve come up with. However, if Evelyn and I try to do it without the help of the vampire, we’ll have a significantly more difficult time.
Besides, there’s nothing to stop me from tossing Lizzie in the ocean if she becomes too much of a threat.
I stagger to my feet, ignoring Evelyn trying to step in and take my arm. Perhaps it’s foolish, but I don’t like the way the vampire’s looking at me. There’s no reason to show more weakness than I absolutely have to. “Cato should be able to get us all patched up in short order. Then we’ll see about the best way to reach the ship.” If the Audacity hasn’t left by now, I highly doubt they’ll sail off before morning. We have a little time.