Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Bowen

MY ENTIRE CREW KNOWS MY CUSTOM OF SHARING A meal with new members the first night they are aboard. It’d be strange if I skipped that ritual with the witch. People might get the wrong idea, and that would only give Miles more ammunition against me. I saw the way my people watched me on the deck earlier. There’s doubt where there wasn’t any a mere month ago.

The worst part is that I don’t know how to combat it. I am a good captain. I’ve been trained by the best to be honorable and fair. We do our duty and answer the orders sent by the Council to kill monsters to protect Threshold, and the crews are rewarded generously as a result. I’ve ensured that this ship is as comfortable as possible and no one is going without.

I might not be the most charming or effusive captain, but I take care of my people. I never thought there’d come a day when that wouldn’t be enough, but no matter what I do, Miles continues to chip away at the goodwill my crew holds for me.

Evelyn’s arrival may just be the final thing to sway the majority of them to vote for him. It certainly will be if I start acting against type.

It still might have been better than standing in a room alone with Evelyn, who is wearing what I’m nearly certain is one of my shirts. On her, the V in the front looks downright indecent. The pants aren’t much better, clinging to her round thighs just as lovingly as her denim did earlier. I realize I’m staring at her body and I jerk my gaze back to her face, but it’s no better than last time. It’s not that she’s beautiful, though she is. The danger is in the glint in her uncanny green eyes that invites anyone present to be in on the joke.

Considering I’m pretty sure that I am the joke in this scenario, I’m not a fan.

Best to get this over with. I motion to the small table tucked up against one wall. “Shall we?”

“By all means.” She turns and walks to the table, which is a mistake of its own, because it gives me a view of her full backside. I’m going to need this woman to wear different pants that don’t cling to her body so closely. She is the very definition of a distraction. Maybe I can ask Kit to find her something. Ne is built both taller and with enough muscle that surely Evelyn would swim in nir clothes …

I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’ve been around beautiful people before, and I’ve never lost my cool quite so quickly or effectively. The fact that she’s one of my crew members only complicates things further. No matter what else is true, there is a deep power imbalance between me and the rest of my crew. The sole exception is perhaps Miles, but I barely tolerate the man and I’m certainly not going to jump into bed with him. I take my pleasure in port towns with partners who expect nothing but the pleasure I’m happy to give. It’s an equitable give-and-take where we all leave satisfied. Such a thing is impossible if I’m living in that person’s proximity day in and day out.

“What’s got that frown on your face, Captain?” From the playful tone in her throaty voice, she has some idea. “Cat got your tongue?”

“I would like my dagger back.”

Evelyn smiles even wider. “What dagger?”

“The one you lifted off me earlier today. If you want to get along here, stealing from your crewmates isn’t the way to go about it.” I move to the small tray that was left a few minutes before she arrived and carry it to the table. “You seem to think this is a game. It’s anything but.”

“And you seem to think I’m nothing more than a treacherous thief. Be careful there, Captain. Keep that up and you’re going to hurt my feelings.” Every time she says “Captain,” it feels like she reaches across the table and strokes one of those pink-tipped nails down my chest. She’s doing it on purpose. She has to be.

Except … what if she’s not? What if I’m misreading things entirely?

I haven’t had much interaction with witches over the years, and none like her. But even I know that in most realms witches are the descendants of a human who had children with a paranormal person. Humans are not inherently magical on their own, but they are a great conductor for magical energy in their progeny. It’s entirely possible one of Evelyn’s ancestors had a child with some flavor of paranormal person that draws people in naturally. A succubus, or a siren … except it’s unlikely to be the latter, when they’re all but extinct in every realm.

Thank the gods for that. I’ve seen the damage one can do when their song is unleashed. My skin heats at the memory. Best they not be left to wander about, spreading their … chaos … wherever they go.

Either way, if Evelyn is exuding this attraction naturally without intention, then I’m a bastard and a half for even engaging with it. I uncover the food and push her plate toward her. “Tell me about yourself.”

“Here’s a pro tip for free.” She peers at the food as if trying to divine what it is. It seems simple enough to me, if heavy on the fish, but maybe they don’t have the same varieties where she’s from. Evelyn looks up at me through her eyelashes. “When you’re mining for information, it helps to coax it out instead of demand. With that tone, I’m liable to think this is an interrogation instead of a conversation.”

She’s right, but I can’t help it. I’m uncomfortable and off-balance—and I’m hardly the most charming person at the best of times. “Answer the question, Evelyn.”

“If you insist.” She picks up a fork and pokes experimentally at the fish before shrugging and taking a bite. Her green eyes go wide. “Oh. This is really good.”

“We have several brownies in the kitchen. They take great pride in turning out fare that is far too good for those of us in the crew. We’ve learned not to question it—or to wander into the kitchen without invitation.”

“Brownies? How does one of them end up in Threshold, let alone several?”

Something uncomfortable squirms through me. “A family unit was forced through a portal by the owner of their house. We fished them out of the sea much the same as we did with you.”

Evelyn goes still. For once, there’s no amusement on her pretty face. She frowns. “You don’t see a problem with that at all? I suppose I’m to blame for jumping through a portal without getting all the information about its destination first. I’ll own that. But surely even you can see the lack of justice where they’re concerned? It wasn’t their choice, foolish or otherwise, that brought them here.”

The squirming inside me grows in strength. I swallow and do my best not to let the sensation present as an outward fidget. I took no pleasure in their vows, but I would have taken even less in their deaths. “The law is the law. Like I told you earlier, intent matters less than the fact they ended up here.”

“Fascinating. You’re like a windup toy. Question the laws and that’s your only response.”

“In a world that touches on every realm in existence, surely you can understand how important it is to have rules. Without the C?n Annwn, it would be anarchy. Monsters would slip from realm to realm, hunting those who are ill-equipped to deal with them and killing indiscriminately.” I give up on trying to be still and drag a hand through my hair. “Things are the way they are for a reason.”

“Why are the C?n Annwn the ones who get to make the rules?”

I’m temporary distracted by her popping an olive into her mouth and chewing slowly. I shake my head roughly, trying to focus. “What do you mean?”

“I would think the question is self-explanatory. There was a time in my realm when the myths about the C?n Annwn didn’t exist, which would suggest there was a time when they didn’t. Or at least when they kept to whatever realm spawned them. Who set them up as the protectors of Threshold? This system benefits someone. I’d like to know who.”

“It benefits the people of Threshold,” I say through gritted teeth. “Even with us doing our jobs to the best of our ability, there are people we can’t save. Without the laws in place, even more would die in horrific ways. Our origins matter less than what we accomplish in the present time.”

“Yikes.” She makes a show of shuddering. “Maybe that’s true. Maybe it’s not. Either way, it’s not very pirate-y, anti-authority, anti-capitalist of you to be sailing around, scooping up refugees, and giving them a bullshit bargain where there’s only one option because the other outcome is death. Come on.”

She takes a few more bites while I sputter.

“Listen, I’m not from around here, but at least ask some questions, man. You’re in a cage just like the rest of us. Don’t you want to know the boundaries?”

“Did you not hear me when I said we save lives?”

“I heard you.” She sips her wine and makes an appreciative noise that I’m too frustrated to, well, appreciate. “I still don’t think it outweighs the lives you’ve ruined by forcibly recruiting them to your cause.”

I have been one of the C?n Annwn for twenty years. Ever since I woke up, thirteen years old, soaked and half dead on the deck of a ship. This ship, in fact. I never did regain my memories of my life before that point, but Ezra, the former captain of the Crimson Hag, brought me under his wing like I was his own son. He took as little joy in following the laws of the C?n Annwn as I do, but he never faltered.

I won’t falter now.

“I told you what would happen if you broke your vows. That same fate awaits anyone who does. The Council may keep a loose grip on most of our captains at this time, but that’s only because they are still fulfilling the role set out for them in Threshold. If a captain went against that? If I went against that? Not only would they make an example of me, but they would do the same with my entire crew. It’s not just a single life that hangs in the balance of these decisions, Evelyn. I have to think of my people.”

“Sure.” She shrugs. “Like I said, I understand you not breaking these laws if the consequences are so dire. But I’m curious by nature, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing to question why things are the way they are. It’s the first thing my grandmother taught me.”

I’m pathetically grateful for the chance to shift this conversation into safer territory. Though, truth be told, I want to know more about Evelyn and what kind of life she must’ve lived to turn her into the person she is today … and to cause her path to cross mine. “Your grandmother raised you?”

“I was orphaned at six. Bunny picked me up and I never looked back. She taught me everything I know.” She stares at her plate, but it’s blatantly obvious she’s looking into the past.

I recognize the grief that flickers over her face. I feel the same when I think of Ezra, gone now three years. The ship’s just not the same without him. Even years later, there are times when I’m faced with a difficult decision and I find myself looking to where he used to stand behind the helm. I always feel foolish when I do it. He gave me every bit of advice he could when he was alive. He trained me to be able to make these decisions on my own, once he was gone.

It doesn’t mean I don’t miss him, though.

“How did you end up here?”

I expect another laugh, or maybe a playful comment, but Evelyn freezes. Is that true fear on her face? She carefully sets down her fork. “We’re still on the move, right? We’re nowhere near where I came in?”

“We’re leagues from there now.” I lean forward. “Why?”

“I damaged the portal, but Lizzie is too damn smart to have only one route available. There’s got to be another one in the house, if not more. How do portals even work in Threshold, anyway? I should have asked that the moment I woke up.” Her words tumble over each other in her apparent panic. “It was really foolish of me to steal from her, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, and she didn’t have to be such a bitch about kicking me out of her house when I didn’t even want to be there to begin with. She practically kidnapped me. Which I wouldn’t have been opposed to, except for the whole ‘her family showing up and killing me for fun if they stumbled on me’ thing. Really, I was justified in stealing from her.”

I blink. “Lizzie is a … friend? Girlfriend?”

“Lizzie doesn’t like labels. And neither do I,” Evelyn says primly. Or at least she tries. She’s gone pale, her movements becoming jerky. She’s still talking too fast, even for her. “But I suppose if you were going to put a label on it, ‘lover’ is as good as any. That’s not the point. The point is that there’s a decent chance she’ll follow me to Threshold on sheer principle, since she threatened my life and all. If she does, we’re all in danger. She’s a bloodline vampire, and the power she wields is …” Evelyn shudders. “Trust me that I don’t know a single person who could survive a fight with her. I certainly couldn’t.”

I don’t know what it says about this Lizzie that Evelyn went through a portal, ended up in the space between realms, and was attacked while still barely conscious, and yet none of that caused the same amount of fear she’s exhibiting right now. It makes me want to reach across the table and take her hand. To comfort her. To promise I will stand between her and whatever danger this Lizzie presents.

The impulse is so strong I almost talk myself out of it on instinct. But I’m the captain, aren’t I? It’s my responsibility to see to the well-being of my crew, and that includes their emotional well-being. That logic feels flimsy as fuck, but I move before I can think too hard about it.

I reach across the table and take her hand. Little tremors work through her fingers. It makes my chest feel funny. “You have nothing to worry about. Threshold is vast, and despite all we’ve talked about with people wandering here by accident, it truly doesn’t happen as often as you’d expect. Portal travel is usually confined to whatever realm the portals themselves exist in. Even in Threshold, our portals to the network of realms are limited to the islands. One portal for one island, and while they’re stationary here, they aren’t in their home realms. It’s all but impossible to come here on purpose. It defies probability to believe she could follow you, powerful vampire or no.”

“If you believe that then you don’t know Lizzie.”

I squeeze her hand. “Even if you’re right and she somehow manages to defy the odds to track you down, you’re part of the C?n Annwn and the Crimson Hag’s crew now. This whole crew, including myself, will stand between you and any threat that arises.”

Evelyn stares at our joined hands for several beats. When she lifts her gaze to mine, she doesn’t look particularly reassured. “While I appreciate the attempt at comfort, if Lizzie comes here, we’re all fucked.”