Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“How does one summon the Cŵn Annwn?”
Dia turns her attention to me, and while I expect there to be some kind of surprise or confusion in her dark eyes, instead they are narrowed and intent. “Why would you want to summon them? Best I can tell, you’re fleeing them currently. A whole fleet is quite the enemy to face.” She finishes her task and snaps her fingers at me. “Give me a light, dearie?”
I swallow down my sigh and lean forward to summon a tiny flame to light the end of her blunt. “I think you know we’re not talking about the faction who stole that title and used it to hurt the people of Threshold.”
She inhales deeply, gaze going distant, and then exhales a perfect circle. “I suppose I do know that. Regardless, that horn is dangerous.”
“That horn is marked with a language I’ve never seen before,” Bastian says slowly. “We have every reason to believe it links back to the originals.”
“It does,” Dia says simply.
Siobhan has the perfect stillness of a predator about to pounce. “How do you know where it came from?”
Dia smiles thinly. “My family has always kept particularly detailed records.” She taps her temple lightly with a single finger. “I’m old, and some of the records are faded, but give me a little while to think and I’ll come up with an answer—if I have one.”
I exchange looks with the others. Surely this old woman isn’t going to sit here and…Oh, apparently she is. She closes her eyes and continues to smoke, humming softly under her breath. Evelyn lets out a surprised laugh that she quickly stifles. “Oh gods, she’s going to her mind palace.”
Bowen frowns. “Her what?”
“Silence would allow this to go significantly faster,” Dia says without opening her eyes. She takes another puff and exhales the sweet-smelling smoke. Without turning, she offers it to me. “You look like you could use a little relaxing.”
Bastian makes a choked noise, but I don’t hesitate to take the blunt and inhale. I don’t smoke much, first because being a member of Hedd’s ship meant you had to sleep with one eye open. I might find the concept of honor laughable, but Hedd had none. He allowed his people to do whatever they pleased. The only rule was that if you had the strength, then you had the right.
I may be powerful, but I don’t look it. As a result, a lot of his people lost their lives at my hands. They thought they could abuse me, and I disabused them of the notion. Permanently. But that meant I couldn’t allow myself to let my guard down, certainly not with drugs or alcohol.
Since becoming captain, there’s been no space to relax. I’m at the top of the ladder, but that means everyone relies on me to keep them safe. Being a sloppy captain who engages in mind-altering substances is a good way to ensure I don’t deliver on the promise of my position. And that is a good way to end up voted out.
Almost immediately, a pleasant fuzziness gathers around my racing mind. I close my eyes and inhale one last time before taking Dia’s wrist and placing the blunt in her hand so she doesn’t have to open her eyes.
I barely register that Siobhan is moving before she takes my elbow and tugs me away from the others, to a remarkably clear corner where Bastian waits. Not quite out of earshot, but close enough that the others can pretend they don’t witness their hissing words in my ear. “What the fuck do you think you were doing, leaving us behind?”
I might not be able to summon my charismatic mask with my current stress level, but the drugs unwind me deliciously. I shrug easily and smile. “I would think that that was apparent. And yet neither of you follow orders all that well, do you?”
“Not particularly,” Bastian murmurs. “It’s one of my many charms.”
“How could I follow orders when you’re avoiding me and so have given none?” Siobhan looks like she wants to shake me, but thankfully manages to resist the impulse. “This won’t work if you keep going around me—around us—and taking unnecessary risks. We have to work together, Nox. All three of us.”
We.
With the whole of the Cŵn Annwn’s fleet on our heels, I have so much to worry about, so much to fear. And yet that single word, those two little letters, strikes terror into the very heart of me.
Chapter 22
Siobhan
“There is no ‘us,’ ” Nox snaps.
“There could be,” Bastian counters. “If you’d stop running.”
All it takes is one look at Nox’s expression to know that Bastian was right. They are running from us. I even understand why. I’ve avoided taking steps past the point of no return with the rebellion for longer than I want to admit. Stepping into the light and revealing myself to be alive, facing down my sister, watching the people I’ve come to care about die in a fight that might not be victorious? It’s terrifying…but no less terrifying than the more personal battles for the heart of someone I care about.