Unfortunately, there’s none to be seen on his face. If anything, he looks more irritated. “I didn’t hurt you, so stop playing that game.”
“Maybe I have a glass jaw.”
“You don’t.”
He’s right. I abandon that line of manipulation and move on to the next. “I didn’t mean to end up here. There was a glitch in the portal I was using. I have a family that needs me. Children. Four of them. If I don’t get back, they’ll starve.”
He might as well be carved from granite. “What are their names?”
I blink. “What?”
“Your starving children. Their names.” He snaps his fingers. “Quickly.”
“Dean, Sam, John, and … Cas.”
The captain doesn’t seem convinced. “Even if that were true, which I highly doubt, it makes no difference. We have our laws for a reason.”
“Your laws. Not mine.”
“You’re in Threshold, Evelyn. They’re your laws now.”
The way he says my name is so severe, I don’t know what to do with my body’s reaction to it. I simultaneously want to flee the room and climb him like a grumpy tree. Which is just further proof that my hormones cannot be trusted.
First Lizzie, who was totally willing to let me die and will undoubtedly try to hunt me down and kill me for betraying her.
Now this captain, who gave me the option to join his crew but obviously has no problem killing me if I decline.
The best way to win a fight with a telekinetic is to never start one. The second best way is to knock them silly in a dirty attack and then run like hell. Neither is an option right now. I’m on a ship in the middle of an ocean. I have nowhere to run to, even if my arms were free.
There’s an angle here. I just need to find it. “What’s your name, Captain?”
He clenches his jaw like he might not answer, but finally he says, “Bowen.”
“Nice strong name for a nice strong lad.”
He doesn’t smile. “You have a choice, Evelyn. Make it.”
So we’re back to that. I shift, trying to press against his telekinetic hold on me. The fucker is strong, I’ll give him that. I think I could break the magic around me given the right spell, but the longer he holds me, the more I wonder if that’s even true.
Most people have tells, even if you’ve only just met them. Their faces or bodies give them away, provide leverage to get what I want. Having a conversation with him is like beating my head against a stone wall. I don’t think I can talk my way out of this one.
True fear licks up my spine, putting an edge of desperation into my tone. “Drop me at a portal. Any portal. Or throw me back into the sea and I’ll find my own portal.”
“We’re days away from the nearest island. You won’t make it without a ship.”
If that’s true, then he’s probably right. I could theoretically propel myself through the water for a decent amount of time, but my energy reserves aren’t unlimited, and I can’t hold a spell for days on end. Especially one that would require so much power.
But neither of the other options are good. “Well then, I’m not choosing.”
He flicks a glance over my shoulder to the door we just came through. “Not choosing is still a choice. Any choice that isn’t joining the C?n Annwn is a choice for death.”
I go cold in a way that has nothing to do with the pleasant chill of the room or my wet clothes. “What’s to stop me from joining your little fan club and then betraying you the first chance I get?”
“There are vows.”
Vows were made to be broken. Bunny’s voice whispers through me. Maybe I can work with this? I shrug, feigning nonchalance. “Oh, well, in that case—”
“Whatever you’re thinking, discard it,” he cuts in. “In the event that someone breaks their vows and deserts, a hunt is called and the entire fleet participates. The longest a deserter has lived is three days.”
Three days. That’s … not a long time. “So you put a magical tracker on them when they take the vow. That’s hardly sporting.”
Bowen stares at me for a long moment. “This is not a game. I’m sure you’re very formidable, but you are no match for us. Take the vow and take it seriously. Mourn your old life if you must, but let it go.” Shadows lurk in his eyes, but he blinks and they’re gone. “You don’t want the fate that awaits you if you try to run. Trust me.”
He sounds so sincere, it makes me fight down a shiver of dread. I’m good at evasion, but this group is the C?n Annwn. The Wild Hunt exists in multiple folklore traditions, but the general consensus is that they’re unstoppable. When they ride, smart people hide. Getting swept up in the hunt might mean you end up miles—and sometimes years—away from where you started … or it might mean you end up as prey.
The prey never escape.
These C?n Annwn either got their name from the myth or the myth got the name from them. Neither option is ideal for my odds of evading them indefinitely. Three days. I bite down on questions about that person. The way Bowen spoke of them, I bet he was part of that hunt. Were they just a normal person? Were they magical? Surely I have some kind of advantage over them.
I clear my throat. “Why the choice? Seems like guiding people back to their home realms would be just as good an option as anything. Having your crews staffed with reluctant people can’t be good for business.”
Again, a flicker, but I can’t divine the emotion behind it. It seems too much to ask for that he agrees with me. Bowen finally shrugs. “I don’t make the laws, Evelyn. I enforce them. Now, you’ve stalled long enough. If you don’t choose, I’ll choose for you.”
I almost ask what choice he’d make for me, but I don’t think I want to know. He might have stopped his crewman from attacking me again, but he’s obviously one hundred percent done with my shit, so it’s just as likely that he’d toss me overboard to fend for myself if he didn’t kill me outright.
Great.
Awesome.
I close my eyes and try to think. There’s a way out of this. I just have to find out what it is. What I need is a loophole. No organization or person is free from things that they’d rather keep quiet. If the C?n Annwn has existed as long as it seems, I bet they have a boatload of secrets stashed somewhere. One has to be nasty enough to convince them to set me free from their group. Without a magical tracker attached to me.
Good thing I excel at stealing secrets.
Or, fuck, worst case, I can find a portal, jump through it, and start running.
Either way, under no circumstances will I spend the rest of my life trapped here, vow or no vow. I lift my chin and stare down Bowen. “Fine. Have it your way. I’ll make a choice. I’ll join the C?n Annwn.” For now.
CHAPTER 5
Bowen
“YOU’LL JOIN.” I STARE AT THE WITCH, WAITING FOR THE other shoe to drop. She agreed too readily. I don’t know her well, but I’ve spent years dealing with an unruly crew, half of which became C?n Annwn with the same enthusiasm as the woman before me … which is to say none at all. “Just like that.”
“I’m sorry, were you looking to tie me down and torture me until I saw reason?” She lifts her brows. Her hair has already started to dry, and it’s lighter than I’d first thought, not brown but blond. It makes her green eyes look even greener, or maybe that’s the way the color is coming back into her pretty face.