Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
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.”