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Nox

A thread of unease goes through me as we get close enough to pick out the details of the ship. It’s easy enough because they’re heading directly for the Audacity . They aren’t attempting to pretend to do anything else.

“Orders?” Poet murmurs. She stands at my right shoulder.

I’m tired and itchy from the salt water drying on my skin, and I want nothing more than to get this over with, but that’s just my impulsiveness talking. I know better than to listen to that voice. “Let’s give them a nice warm welcome…at least until we know what they want.”

Almost as soon as the words leave my lips, Gable yells from the bow. “It’s Lizzie!”

“Lizzie?” I can’t stop my shock. I thought for certain we’d seen the last of that murderous vampire. She ran off with Maeve ages ago. I fully expected her to find Maeve’s stolen skin, retrieve her stolen family heirlooms, and then take a portal back to her world, never to return. She shouldn’t be here .

Except she is. She stands at the bow of the small ship, her long dark hair trailing behind her in the wind of their passing. She’s just as beautiful as the last time I saw her, but there’s something looser in her body language. Interesting.

A second person joins her, and I stop thinking about the vampire altogether. Because I know this person, this woman. I know that tall frame and those broad shoulders, that tanned skin and handsome face.

Siobhan.

“Fuck,” I breathe.

I haven’t seen Siobhan in years. There was a time when she sailed more freely about, using her charm and smarts to convince more people to join the rebellion. But as our numbers increased, it became necessary to remove herself a bit, to protect herself. So she essentially went into hiding.

She should still be in hiding.

The fact that she’s not is more than a little worrisome. I glance at Eyal. “Bring us close.”

“Yes, Captain.” He must sense my tension because normally he has a quip for every command.

None of the rest of the crew know how important Siobhan is to the movement to undermine the C?n Annwn’s hold on Threshold—namely that she’s the mastermind behind it. The fewer people aware of that fact, the safer she is. So why is she here ?

Eyal brings the Audacity up next to the smaller ship, and the crew tosses a line over. Within a few moments, Siobhan is pulling herself over the railing and onto the deck. I expect Lizzie to follow her, but it’s Maeve who joins us next, her red hair bright against her pale skin. She’s paler than normal, appearing a little shaky on her feet. And there is the vampire, landing lightly next to her and wrapping an arm around her curvy waist, looking like a shark protecting a minnow.

I would enjoy that development a lot more if not for the way Siobhan stalks toward me, her long legs eating up the distance between us. She looks good, really good. She wears the years since I’ve seen her well, there in the laugh lines on either side of her wide mouth and the crinkles in the corners of her eyes that seem to suggest she’s spent a lot of time laughing. And then she’s before me, easily six inches taller than I am and widely muscled.

I would have preferred to conduct this reunion while not soaked and missing my favorite coat, but life rarely cooperates with my preferences.

Still, no reason not to make the best of it. I spread my arms wide, a monarch greeting someone who might be a rival and might be an ally. “Welcome to the Audacity .” I cut a look over to where Lizzie glowers and Maeve smiles sweetly. “Welcome back, in your case. It looks like there’s a story here, but there’s one important question to be answered first. Your ship?”

“Leave it.” Siobhan brushes that away. “It’s got a beacon. One of my teams will pick it up.”

Which means they came here for us .

I knew that, of course, yet hearing it all but confirmed makes me twitch. “In that case, allow me to offer you the hospitality of my cabin.”

Lizzie snorts. “Pass. Is our old room still open?”

“Indeed it is.”

She turns, her arm still around Maeve, and heads for the hatch. No hesitation, no pussyfooting around. I’ve always appreciated that about the vampire.

I glance at Siobhan. “Maeve?”

“She was attacked during…” Siobhan sighs. “It’s why we’re here. She’ll make a full recovery thanks to the miracle of vampire blood’s healing properties, but that’s the least of our problems right now.”

That’s what I was afraid of. “Let’s get this over with.” I reluctantly pull the remainder of the water from my clothing and send the little stream of it back into the sea. It leaves everything vaguely crunchy, but it’s still better than being damp. Marginally.

I lead the way to my cabin, tucked behind the helm. Inside is part haven, part war room, but the latter seems to have taken over in recent months. It’s certainly why Siobhan has sought us out. Sought me out.

The moment the door closes, she sighs as if setting down a great weight. I hate that I understand exactly what it feels like. I’m not carrying around as much responsibility as she is, but being captain means my crew’s lives hang in the balance of every decision I make. As leader of the rebellion, Siobhan shoulders dozens and dozens of crews. Even I’m not sure of the exact number. It’s safer that way.

“Okay, enough with the mysterious leader shit. What’s going on?”

She smiles briefly. It’s a good smile, a little crooked, and it warms her honey-colored eyes. “There’s a reason you’re my favorite.”

“Now I’m actually worried. Stop flattering me and spit it out.”

She hesitates, but finally says, “It’s Bastian.”

The name rocks me to my core and sends me stumbling back several steps. “Don’t.”

Siobhan’s expression goes remorseful, but not so much that she stops speaking. “I wouldn’t have come to you if I had any other choice. I’m aware of the bargain we made.”

“Siobhan, don’t .” It’s pathetic that hearing his name, fourteen years later, is enough to make me shake. Some wounds never truly heal and scar; they fester.

“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 C?n Annwn. But that doesn’t make any sense. The C?n 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 C?n 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 C?n 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.”