Chapter 32

chapter 32

Lizzie

After spending the night wrapped up in each other, Maeve and I sleep well past noon. I manage to keep my hands off her long enough to drag her to a nearby restaurant and ensure she gets fed, but by the time we’re done with that, the sun is sinking low in the sky.

Siobhan arrives soon after. The cloak she wore yesterday to shield her features is nowhere in evidence. She’s so fucking athletic and that jaw is so strong, I have the sneaking suspicion that I could break my knuckles on it.

I belatedly realize she’s holding a harness. It takes me all of three seconds to realize what she intends. To use it on Maeve. I open my mouth to protest, but Maeve anticipates me. She squeezes my hand and steps forward. “It’s the fastest way to ensure we make it through the water without anyone noticing.”

I don’t like it. I don’t like any of this. And not just because it requires me to swim through dark water where anything could be below me. I haven’t gone under since the fight with the water horse, and I’m not looking forward to this experience. But the alternative is to let Maeve and Siobhan go without me, and that’s no alternative at all.

For Siobhan to be the leader of this rebellion, it means that she’s willing to accept losses. Not this Bastian, apparently, but Maeve is hardly a linchpin in the rebellion. If something happens tonight, then she’s just another martyr along the way. A name to call as the people who care about her charge into a battle that will see most of them dead.

I’m not going to let that happen. Maeve is not replaceable to me. She’s not some faceless martyr. She’s mine. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, even if it means striking down Siobhan herself.

Siobhan leads us down to the lowest level, where the docks are, but turns away from them and heads toward the edge of town. It’s not particularly late, but the farther we get from the docks, the more deserted the gently curving street is. I catch a glimpse of light behind closed shutters, but apparently we’re in a residential neighborhood and there’s no nightlife to speak of.

It certainly makes it easier to sneak around without being seen.

Within a few minutes, we leave the town behind entirely. The carefully curated road turns into little more than a goat track—or whatever the goat equivalent they have on Drash is—that curves around the bay in a deceptively gentle incline. We pick our way along single file: Siobhan in front, followed by Maeve, with me picking up the rear. It takes all my preternatural skill to stay on my feet. The rock reminds me of shale, ready to crumble without a moment’s notice. One wrong step, and we’ll end up falling into the water crashing against the rocks below.

I’ve never been such a pessimist, bordering on fatalistic. Again and again, I consider knocking Siobhan over the head, tossing Maeve over my shoulder, and getting the fuck away from here. Only the knowledge that Maeve would never forgive me stays my hand.

This is fucked.

The trail ends in a neatly hidden cave mouth. Judging by the crates stacked up well past where the waterline is, this is a location used by the rebellion. Siobhan moves to one of the crates and pries open the lid. “We’ll want to change out of the clothing we’re in. Here.” She tosses something at me and then at Maeve. I hold it up to find a garment very similar to a wetsuit. It will cover me from ankles to wrists to throat, and the fabric is thick in a spongy kind of way. It’s not a proper scuba suit, as such things go, but as I strip out of my clothes and pull it on, it instantly insulates me from the chill in the air.

Next to me, Maeve has also donned her suit. She rubs her hands down her hips and makes an appreciative sound. “This is very cleverly made.”

“They come in handy in a pinch.” Siobhan braids her hair back in quick, efficient movements. With her suit hugging every inch of her, I reluctantly admire how powerfully she’s built. Even more so than I initially realized. She looks like she could bench-press a car—not just because she’s a shifter—and has inherently more strength packed into that strong frame than even a human of her same size and shape would.

“Lizzie, I need you to watch Maeve’s back. I’m going to climb up into the ship through the hole as soon as we break it and retrieve Bastian. The two of you will be in the water alone for a short time.”

She wants me to watch Maeve’s back. I look out over the dark water. Rationally, I knew what I was agreeing to, but somehow I’ve been able to avoid thinking about the specifics. That’s not an option any longer.

I’m more than capable of protecting Maeve on land, but in the water? With all that space in every direction, the darkness shielding anything that may be approaching? My throat spasms and I have to fight to breathe normally, to not gasp. I don’t know if I can do this. I have to do this. Maeve is hardly helpless in the water, but she’s a seal. Anyone with the smallest drop of offensive magic will have her outgunned.

Maeve tenses beside me. “What about Lizzie’s family heirlooms? If she’s protecting me and you’re getting Bastian, then who is retrieving the jewels?”

Siobhan flashes a smile, too sharp. “Those jewels will go down with the ship. They’ll be easy to retrieve once the dust has settled.”

As plans go, it’s not the worst I’ve heard. I open my mouth to say as much, but Maeve gets there first.

She frowns. “There’s no guarantee they’ll still be in the ship within a couple hours of it sinking, let alone a couple days. The bay is closed off from the greater open sea, but if it’s anything like Viedna, the currents move strangely the deeper you go. It’s entirely possible they’ll rip the ship to shreds and scatter it. It could be months, or longer, before we’re able to find all of the cargo.”

Siobhan doesn’t look happy with the persistent questions. She turns to me. “Well? Does the selkie speak for you?”

“The selkie has a name,” I snap. It doesn’t matter that I refused to say her name initially upon meeting her. We are putting our necks out for Siobhan and the godsdamn rebellion. The least she can do is show Maeve a little respect. “Is there a reason you don’t want to answer her?”

Siobhan drags in a breath and seems to fight for control of herself. “I understand your priorities may not be my priorities, but I hope you can understand why I don’t really give a shit about some jewels. They have Bastian, and if we don’t retrieve him—”

“We’ve heard it before. Doom, gloom, the end of Threshold as we know it.” I wave that away. “Give us a moment.” I take Maeve’s arm and tug her deeper into the cave. The space isn’t large enough to have true privacy, not when a shifter’s senses are superior even to my own, but it gives the illusion and that’s good enough. “It’s fine, Maeve. I’m more worried about you than I am about the jewels.”

“It’s not fine.” Maeve jerks her arm from my grasp. “This whole time, you’ve had one aim, one task. I understand that we need to save Bastian, but surely we can do both. If you go into the breach behind Siobhan, then you can retrieve the jewels while she retrieves Bastian.”

Which would leave Maeve unprotected in the water. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Lizzie.” She’s so serious it makes my heart ache. “Don’t you think you’ve sacrificed enough for other people? Ever since you’ve come to Threshold—and even before that, honestly—you’ve been on a mission to retrieve what was stolen from you. We’re closer than we’ve ever been, and I’m not comfortable with you compromising yet again in the name of a cause that you don’t believe in.”

I almost laugh out loud at how she’s misunderstanding things. She’s right that I don’t give a shit about the rebellion. I’m never going to give a shit about the rebellion. But she does. She cares about it, so by virtue of loving her, I care about it, too. But even then, I’d let both Siobhan and Bastian burn if it meant Maeve would be safe. She’s not going to be content to sit on the sidelines.

So we’re going into the water and sinking the damn ship.

“We talked about this. I’m staying in Threshold. I don’t need the jewels.” I take her shoulders, holding her steady when she snarls at me. I love that she snarls at me. “I’m not leaving you in the water alone.”

“What do you think you’re going to do?” She tries to pull back and swats at my hands. “I saved you from the kelpie. I can take care of myself. I need you to trust me to do that, because I’m not going to be an oath breaker because you don’t believe I’m capable enough.”

Oh for gods’ sake, she almost sounds like Bowen right now. I strive for patience and mostly fail. “We took no oaths.”

“You’re being intentionally difficult and I don’t appreciate it.” She blows a hard exhale through her nose. “I know what we said, but it changes nothing. Deciding to stay is a big decision, and it’s also reversible. If we lose your family heirlooms to the depths? That isn’t reversible. I want you to have the option, Lizzie. If you stay, I want you to do it because you choose to, not because you failed and can’t go home.”

Fuck, I love this woman. I drop my hands. “If you want me to trust you in the water, then you need to trust me to know my own mind when it comes to those damned jewels.”

Maeve makes another of those cute little growls. “If you’re that worried about me, then use that vampire speed to quickly retrieve your heirlooms.” She holds up a hand before I have a chance to keep arguing. “I understand your concern for me, and I respect it. Which is why, after the breach in the hull is big enough, I’ll put some distance between me and the ship until you and Siobhan and Bastian are ready to escape.” And then she’ll drag us to safety.

“I’m not leaving you. Tonight or ever.” The words have weight beyond this conversation, this coming conflict. I understand what she says about having a choice, but I already made mine. I’m not going back. I’m staying in Threshold. I’m staying with Maeve.

She sets her shoulders in a way I’m becoming increasingly familiar with. “Then it won’t matter one way or another if you have the jewels, so there’s no reason not to get them. Promise me, Lizzie.”

I fucking hate this plan, but Siobhan isn’t going to give us time to come up with a better one. And Maeve clearly won’t listen to reason even if I offer her an alternative. “Damn you.”

“Promise me.”

I’m helpless in the face of her intensity. I would give this woman the world on a platter if she asked it of me. Instead, the thing she wants is for me to allow her to be in danger, to trust her to handle herself in the coming conflict. When did she become such a stubborn little thing? Maybe she always has been, but we’ve been aligned in the same direction up until this point.

I finally give a jerky nod. “Stay alive. That’s an order.”

She catches the back of my neck and pulls me down into a quick and desperate kiss. “The same goes for you.”

We rejoin an impatient Siobhan. She wastes no time holding up the harness. “It will be simpler if you shift now.”

Maeve unfurls her pelt and swirls it around her shoulders. There’s that strange shimmer of consciousness, and then a giant-ass leopard seal flops before us. Seeing her in the water was one thing. Witnessing her size on land is completely different. She’s huge, a sleek, strangely adorable killing machine. Distantly, I wonder if I’ll ever stop being amazed by her.

Somehow, I don’t think so.

She moves in the awkward hopping motion that seals do to the edge of the cave and waits for Siobhan to slide the harness—a simple round leather creation with three leads hanging from it—over her head. Siobhan shoves one of the leads into my hand. “Hook your arm through the loop at the end. The tension when she tows us will keep it tight.”

The better to drag us through the cold, dark sea.

I slip my hand into the loop and grip the lead. There’s no more time for questions or arguing or trying to find another way. I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure Maeve makes it out alive. I’ll break my promise to her in a heartbeat if it means she’s alive to yell at me about it.

Siobhan can go down with the ship for all I care.

Maeve slides into the water in a movement that’s almost liquid. After a beat, we follow her. I’m not particularly sensitive to cold, but the suit removes what little discomfort I may have experienced. I’ve never engaged in water sports before, and as Maeve drags us along the surface of the bay, I vow that I never will. This is awful.

Maybe it’s the jerking motions of her dips and dives, constantly pulling us under and then back to the surface. Maybe it’s being nothing more than a buoy dragged along, completely helpless. Or maybe it’s the creeping fear that we’re acting the part of particularly juicy bait on a moving hook.

For future attempts to sneak aboard a ship and murder everyone, I’m going to insist on a boat.

The Crimson Hag crouches nearly in the center of the bay. With each glimpse I get of it as we approach, I begin to understand why Alix insisted on not fighting them. The Serpent’s Cry felt large enough when we were on board, but compared with the Crimson Hag, it’s the size of a child’s toy. The Crimson Hag dwarfs even the Audacity. This thing is a fucking warship.

How the hell is Maeve going to sink it?

Even without the sheer size of it, surely there are magical defenses below the surface. This ship battles sea monsters on a regular basis. If a monster could simply drive up from below and shatter the ship into a thousand pieces, it would be a very short hunt. But if there are magical barriers, surely Siobhan would have said something. She might be desperate to reclaim Bastian, but she doesn’t have a death wish. At least I don’t think she does.

Maeve pulls us even with the ship, slowing down enough that we’re basically treading water. Siobhan looks at me. “It’s time. Hold your breath.” She reaches out and pats Maeve. “Let’s go.”

As Maeve dives deep down below the hull, it strikes me that I should have asked more questions. I just hope we live long enough to regret it.