Nell’s bracelet contained fairly weak crystals, but even they could detect when a crystal was actually being harnessed nearby. The explosion had been too far, so Nell knew this use had to be nearby. She had tracked it to a shipyard, and eventually the mechanical monster. Now, she was back at her house in a room full of betrayal and accusation, but she needed to make sure the monster was really gone and retrieve the crystal if she could. It couldn’t be in the wrong hands any longer.
Adelaide walked out before Nell could explain anything, and she wasn’t about to tell these complete strangers any more than she already had. There would be time to explain this all later, she told herself. She jotted down a quick note and left. Even then, she wasn’t fast enough.
Nell teleported back to her house, but it was empty. She picked up the nearest knickknack and hurled it across the room, biting back a sob of frustration. The monster had been gone by the time she got there. And now, so was Adelaide.
Chapter Thirty-Two
ADELAIDE
This time, when I woke up in Clark’s arms, I felt no urge to move. I savored the feeling of his chest under my head, the sound of his steady heartbeat, and all the sensations of being molded against him. I thought I would wake up regretting opening up last night, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. In fact, I was filled with an uncharacteristic hopefulness, about both my accidental marriage and having a game plan for the necklace.
Which is why I was so unprepared when the alarm bells rang on the ship.
Clark jumped up next to me from a dead sleep. I was already moving. We threw our clothes on, but he turned back just as we reached the door.
“Would you consider staying here?” he asked.
“Not a chance,” I told him, grabbing my dagger and sheath.
His face turned grimmer, and he laid a single kiss on my lips before wrenching the door open. His brothers were in the hall already, and we all ran up the stairs. Dawn was just breaking over the sea. It would have been serene if not for the enormous war ship literally flying toward us.
Gunther got out his binoculars.
“It’s the general,” he said.
Clark tapped him on the shoulder. “I thought you said those ships were slow?”
“They should be. They used to be. I guess they’ve advanced the technology.” Gunther shrugged, but the worry in his eyes belied the nonchalant gesture.
SuEllen and Locke were already on the top deck, the crew scrambling to positions. We ran up to meet them.
“Cannons, fire!” she yelled.
The strange cannons hit the water near the floating ship. They exploded a second time, as before, but hit a barrier this time. There was a red glow on impact, and then nothing.
“That’s not possible,” the captain said. “I haven’t seen that since…”
Nell appeared at her shoulder. “This is proof they’re working with Uncle.”
SuEllen nodded, but her usually-confident expression had gone slack, and her face had paled considerably.
The enemy ship crashed down in the seas, rocking our boat precariously and sending an enormous wave over the side.
“Children below decks!” the captain commanded. It didn’t escape my notice that last time, she had scoffed at the idea. “Abandon cannons. Archers, at the ready!”
What archers could do that cannons couldn’t, I had no idea. Every crew member had donned their swords and bows at the start of the fighting. Including Nell. My heart leapt into my throat. What if something happened to her, and I never got a chance to tell her I forgave her?
I ran to her. “Nell, what you did was asinine and presumptuous, but I love you.”
Relief broke over her face. “I love you, too. Now, get ready to take cover.”
She joined a line of archers with SuEllen at the lead.
“PeNelope, you should get in the cabin,” the captain told her. “You’re too valuable to lose now, not when we’ve just found you.”
My brain snagged on the captain’s use of the word “we” instead of “I,” but there was no time to process that now.
“That is not leadership, Auntie. You taught me that.”
The captain put a fist over her heart in a gesture I was unfamiliar with, but that clearly conveyed respect. The ship was coming toward us on the water now. Clark moved to stand in front of me, his own bow nocked. Of course, he could shoot a bow. Looking down the line, Locke, Xavier, and Gunther each had one as well. Apparently, I was the only adult on this ship not trained in a variety of weaponry. Then again, maybe a lifetime with Clark would remedy that.
I glanced nervously at him, at all those who had become my makeshift family. If we have a lifetime.
It did seem someone was always trying to kill us. I had heard soldiers say the waiting was the hardest part, but it didn’t sink in until now. The minutes slipped by while the ship got in range of our arrows. No one spoke. I wasn’t sure I even breathed.
Finally, the order came.
“Fire!” A volley of arrows crossed the gap between their ship and ours. The arrows hit the same barrier the bombs had, hitting an invisible wall and dropping.
“Merde!” Clark yelled.
“They’ll have to put it down if they want to cross. It keeps us out, but it keeps them in.” SuEllen raised her voice. “Rest.” The bows went down.
Clark turned to me. “Addie, please, go below decks.”
“What? And leave everyone I care about up here while I cower with the children? No, Clark.”
He bent his forehead to rest against mine. “I understand. I hate it, but I understand. Stay behind me then, please?”
“Of course. I —” I stopped. I was wearing the most powerful weapon on either ship, if I could only figure out how to use it. “I’ll stay safe.” That promise was vaguer than the one I had been about to make.
“Thank you.” He kissed my forehead, then turned back around.
The ship was closer now. A familiar voice came through a megaphone.
“We have you outnumbered, outgunned, and outclassed,” General Noble said. “Send Ms. Kensington over, and no one else has to get hurt. Withhold her, and we will have no choice but to take our chances destroying the ship and finding the necklace among the ruins.”
“They’re bluffing,” Xavier said while Clark relayed the message to Gunther. “It would take them weeks to go through the rubble — and in shark-infested waters.”
“Not with the crystal they’re using to track it,” Nell said in a numb voice.
“I know you aren’t suggesting we send Addie over. That’s not even in question,” Clark said.
“Of course not,” Nell snapped.
I was tuning out their argument, edging around them and fiddling with the amulet. It sparked blue. My hands were shaking, and I couldn’t seem to hold a thought down. I knew that would never be enough to control it. Taking a deep breath, I tried again.
I cradled the amulet gently and pointed it directly at the shield, willing it to do something. Anything. I closed my eyes to concentrate, and pressure built behind my temples.
The argument cut off with a sharp chorus of gasps. Blue light exploded behind my eyelids, and I snapped my eyes open. A single ray of blue light was battering against the red shield, purple sparks flying outward and disappearing into the sea.
“You have to stop her. The crystal is dangerous.” SuEllen’s voice distracted me, and the light faltered.
I turned to glare at her, not bothering to see who she was talking to.
“This is our only hope.” I squeezed my eyes closed again to focus, shutting out her voice and the chaos around me.
The ship heaved, and the pressure in my head intensified. I redoubled my efforts, trying to focus past the mounting throbbing behind my eyes. Something warm was dribbling from my nostrils, and I distantly registered raised voices.
A hand wrenched my arm to the side, and abruptly, everything was still. Clark stared at me, his hand still on my bicep.
“Addie, you have to s
top. You’re going to hurt yourself. Also, maybe capsize the ship.” He tried for a grin, but his eyes were wide with what I might have called fear on another person, but I had never seen the expression on him. It had no context.
I hadn’t known that last part was a possibility. Some part of me preferred death over being in their hands again, but my survival instinct was stronger than that. Still, it would be worth it to save those I loved. I mulled over the other possibilities. I didn’t think I would sink our ship, but it wasn’t a risk I could take. I wasn’t nearly as torn up about the possibility of sinking their ship. I pushed aside my budding sociopathy to consider at another time.
There was only one real choice then. I let my hand fall from the crystal. “Then I have to go.”
Clark and Nell both opened their mouths to argue.
“This isn’t your decision, either of you.” My knees were shaking, but I forced my voice to be even as I got the next part out. “Nearly everyone I love is on this ship. If you think I could risk that for a second, you’re insane, both of you. I may be the only person on this entire ship who isn’t a trained ninja warrior, but I’m going, nonetheless.”
“Let’s at least discuss our options,” Xavier said.
Gunther said nothing, looking at me sorrowfully. He knew, like I did, that there weren’t any options.
“What options?” I cried. “We’re up against the general who won an impossible war and technology we can’t touch! There are no options, and I will not let any of you die for me. Relay the message. Please.” I directed that to SuEllen, assuming she had some loudspeaker of her own.
I moved in toward Clark, but he pulled away, eyes wide with anger and desperation.
“I’m not kissing you goodbye, Addie. You aren’t going.”
“I am,” I said. I let him read the determination in my eyes. “This is my decision, and you know you would make the same one. Don’t you dare try to take that away from me.”
“Fine, then I’m going with you.”
“No. They’ll kill you.”
“I don’t think they will.” His eyes turned resolute. “Xav is still alive.”
“I’m coming, too,” Xav said. He knew better than any of us how dangerous the Court was. I sent him a frustrated look.
“And me, little sister.” Gunther’s pale eyes showed no hint of fear.
“You guys are idiots,” I choked out, fear constricting my vocal chords. I couldn’t bear the idea of one of them being hurt on my behalf. But I couldn’t interfere with their decision any more than I had allowed Clark to interfere with mine.
It struck me that in some ways, life had been simpler when there had been so few people I cared about.
“Ms. Kensington, I can’t let you go without me.”
“You should stay, Locke.” Clark spoke up before I could. “My brothers and I have a chance. More than that would only escalate the situation and increase the likelihood of someone getting hurt.”
Locke’s face was murderous. I stepped up to him, and in a rare gesture of affection, I hugged him. His face didn’t register shock or any of the things that might have made me feel too awkward to say what I had come to say.
“Thank you, Locke. Thank you for always being the first one to jump to my defense when you didn’t have to. I know there were times you could have let me suffer the consequences of my own bad choices and Father never would have held you accountable. I know better than anyone how many times you saved me, even from myself.”
Locke’s arms tightened at those words, like even then, he was trying to shield me from my own bad memories. I wasn’t finished.
“Words could never say how grateful I am to you, but I have to do this.” I backed away to look him in the eyes. “And you have to stay here. Please.”
Locke held my gaze for a solid thirty seconds. “I can see that you do. Be safe, Adelaide.”
I turned away from him before I could succumb to the tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. There would either be time for that later, or there wouldn’t.
SuEllen reappeared with a megaphone of sorts. I hadn’t even noticed her leave. Clark held out his hand for it, and the captain handed the device over.
“We will send the girl with three escorts. You leave this ship in peace. That is our only offer.” To me, he explained, “My father understands war negotiations. He’ll take the deal.”
I nodded, wishing I was half as confident as he was. Or at least, as he was pretending to be. The reply came almost immediately.
“We accept.”
The ship came close enough to lower a gangplank between their vessel and ours. I hugged Nell, Locke, and SuEllen. I didn’t say anything, though. There were no words for what these three people had done for me, and I didn’t know when I would see them again. If I would see them again.
The Princess
When the mechanical monster had stabbed Nell through the abdomen, she had been more overcome with shock than pain. That was even more true when Auntie SuEllen had shown up on the deck of their boat. Nell had caught sight of a face she never thought she would see again, and the torrent of emotions that came over her was almost painful.
She sat in the captain’s cabin now.
“Is BeLa here too?” Nell asked her Auntie.
The sorrow that overcame SuEllen’s face was answer enough, but she shook her head anyway.
“I’m glad I found you, though,” SuEllen said, jade eyes burning with sincerity.
“As am I, Auntie. You almost didn’t, though.” Nell looked up at her aunt. “Mother’s cream saved me.” She wasn’t sure where that had come from. Perhaps she had needed to tell someone who might understand, who knew her mother and all the complicated feelings that went with their relationship.
“I didn’t always see eye-to-eye with the queen, but I can be grateful for that, at least.”
Nell chuckled. That was understating things. The two women had presented a united front for the queendom, but they had never gotten along behind closed doors. Looking back, Nell wondered how much her uncle had facilitated that. Likely they would never have been best friends, but it was obvious now how he had manipulated an already-strained relationship.
Thinking about that brought emotions Nell didn’t want to deal with, though. Instead, she focused on the woman before her, and how overwhelmingly fortunate she was to have found her again. For the first time in years, Nell felt like she could breathe.
Chapter Thirty-Three
CLARK
Xavier insisted on going first across the gangplank. Gunther followed, then Addie. I went last. Since I had found out my father was alive, I had harbored conflicting emotions about the man. Crossing the wooden walkway with the people I cared about most in this world, those emotions were quickly hardening into hatred.
I wanted to rip his jacket off and throw it into the ocean, but Addie’s slim, trembling hand was in mine.
I guessed they had to bring their barrier down to let us pass, but it hardly mattered now. SuEllen would never risk arrows with the four of us here. My father was waiting, surrounded by an entire ship full of men in white reptilian masks. If they were going for an eerie ambience, they had succeeded. I wondered if Jayce had gotten his revenge, or if he was in the bottom of the sea somewhere now.
We stepped down on to the deck one by one, Xav standing back to help Addie. They made no motion to move the gangplank or the ship, though.
“I told you if you demanded the girl, his sons would come.” Jayce’s sneering voice had blood rushing in my ears. The general’s eyes closed briefly, and something flickered across his face.
Was that fear? Disappointment? It was gone as quickly as it had come.
Whoever Jayce was talking to didn’t respond. No one spoke for a tense moment.
“We’re here, as agreed upon, General,” I said.
“It’s Master Yomi now.”
“Really? That’s all you have to say? You fake your death, abandon your sons, join a cult, kidnap my wife for the second time
, and now you want to quibble over titles?” I kept my voice quiet for fear I would explode entirely.
My father’s lips parted, the equivalent of a jaw drop for him. Addie turned to look at me, eyes wide. Not because of my tone, I realized, but what I had referred to her as. I hated that the first time I said it was when I was shaking with fury.
She placed an arm on my hand, stepping next to me. My brothers came to stand on either side of us, Gunther at her right, Xav at my left.
“So, what now? Back to the brig with all of us?” Her voice was solid ice, but her touch on my arm was warm, comforting.
“No, indeed.” An aged, unfamiliar voice came from behind one of the masks.
My father’s face paled slightly. He had all the power here. What could he possibly be afraid of? I refused to entertain the notion that it had anything to do with me. The creepy disembodied voice continued.
“Master Yomi has been accused of showing favoritism to the girl, sparing her life, and risking our mission when it was not necessary. Killing one of our own on behalf of that same girl. Tell us, Master Yomi, where did you get the information on the amulet being operated only by its wearer.”
“As I have said many times now, I cannot recall the name of the textbook. It hardly seemed a chance worth taking when it remains our only hope to fulfill our noble mission.”
My father was a master bluffer, and I had a feeling that’s what this was. What exactly is going on here?
“He’s lying. Yomi’s just gone soft.” The title was mocking from Jayce’s lips.
We had done this. By letting the snake in our midst, we had set all of this in motion.
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