He growled, his arm tightening around me. Before I could shove him away, Clarice yelled again. “Incoming!”
I pushed. Jackie stumbled back. Another fireball, twice as big as the last, plummeted from the sky. Jackie swung his body into a defensive position, arms raised over his head, and coughed a string of strange and foreign syllables. The firebomb exploded, but either its Magic was more powerful, or Jackie had reacted too slowly. Like fall leaves in a stiff breeze, burning flecks rained to the deck, charring timbers. Errant sparks ignited Clarice’s top-most sail.
On instinct, I squeezed the clouds, bringing down a torrent of rain. The flames went out but not before doing their damage.
“This wasn’t part of the deal, Faercourt.” Clarice, still at the helm, glared at the tattered remains of her sail. “I would never have agreed if it risked harming my ship.”
“Did you think you could transport a fugitive of the Council without any risk?”
“It’s not like you gave me much choice.”
“If you don’t like it, then why don’t you come up with another idea? Quickly.” He jabbed a finger at her. “You might actually have to use your Magic for once.”
“For once?” She stomped her foot. “I already used it once, and that was once more than I ever wanted after leaving Zhou Min. I swore I was done with Magic, and you made me break my promise.”
“You’ll break a lot more than that if you don’t get me and Evelyn off this ship.”
“While you two waste time arguing, the Council is gaining on us.” I poked Jackie’s shoulder with a sharp finger. “Quit being such an obstinate prick, Jackie.”
Clarice snarled. “Tell me where Nicholas is. You promised.”
“You’ll get us off this boat?” Jackie asked.
“That wasn’t part of our deal, Faercourt, but I’ll do it to get the Council off my tail. But only if you keep your end of the bargain.”
“Your brother’s in a debtors’ prison on an island off the coast of Threnmarcht.”
Ah... a brother. I’d been wondering what vulnerability Jackie had exploited to gain Clarice’s cooperation. Threnmarcht was a northern country of glaciers and icebergs, sitting on the border between the Antellic Ocean and the icy Polarctic Sea. I shivered at the thought of being imprisoned anywhere near that frigid wasteland.
At the news of her brother’s whereabouts, Clarice’s face hardened. “And the money?”
“There’s a false bottom in my trunk. There should be more than enough to finance your excursion to Threnmarcht and to pay your brother’s ransom.”
“If you’re lying to me...” Her words drifted away, threat unspoken.
Jackie closed the short space between us, lashing his arms around me as Clarice left the helm, striding toward us. The Council unleashed three more fireballs. I clenched my jaw, resenting the need to spend my energy fighting them, but I wouldn’t leave Clarice’s ship vulnerable. Whether she knew it or not, we were kindred spirits, joined by our mutual hatred for Le Poing Fermé and by us both being victims of their manipulations.
But I was done letting them use me.
Clarice likely felt the same.
I battered the remaining clouds with my will, rending a furious rain from their depths. The fireballs diminished and fell harmlessly against Jackie’s shield.
“Do it now, Captain,” Jackie said. “Get us off this ship and go find your brother.”
Clarice stopped several feet before us, feet planted, a hand on her hip. Her scowl was black, her eyes hard obsidian. She raised her other hand, slashed it through the air, and snarled incoherently.
The dizzy sensation struck again, and my vision blurred. A horrible screaming like thousands of tortured voices battered my ears. My bones rattled. My joints stretched like strands of silk pulled too tightly in a loom, on the verge of snapping.
My voice rose to answer the howling in my ears, and the moment I thought I’d surely shatter, the turbulence stopped with a bone-jarring crunch.
Time and space recoiled, slapping me hard in the face with invisible force.
Everything went black.
Chapter 25
I hit the ground with a thud and lay there, wherever there was, as the world pulled itself together around me. “Ugh.” Squeezing my eyes shut, I waited for the vertigo to ease. “If that’s how it was when we went from the basilica to the Velox, then I’m glad I was unconscious for it.”
“It wasn’t like that last time.” Jackie’s voice sounded dry and cracked. “I think she did it on purpose.”
I opened one eye and peeked at the night sky. Dark silhouettes of trees blotted out the stars. Rocks and tree roots jabbed my spine. I rolled over, intending to push myself to my feet, but stopped when my stomach lurched. “Where—” I paused as a sour burp worked its way up my throat. “Where are we?”
Jackie, who’d apparently recovered faster than me, stood and snapped his fingers, igniting a silvery ball of light over our heads. Its glow revealed that Clarice had transported us to the border of a forest growing along a steep cliff line that plummeted into the ocean. Angry waves crashed below, threatening to dash us against sharp rocks if we took a wrong step and fell over the edge.
Jackie tugged me to my feet, and I scrambled back, moving deeper into the woods. “Is this your rendezvous point?”
His silver light lit the scowl on his face, giving him a macabre expression. “Not quite. It’s farther north.” He pointed into the forest’s shadows. “That way.”
“How can you be sure?”
“The location is marked with a Magical indicator.” He tapped his temple. “I just have to follow its call. We need to move quickly to stay ahead of the Council. It won’t take them long to realize we’re no longer aboard the Velox.”
Jackie marched into the forest, carrying himself with confidence. I followed, grumbling under my breath. Here I was, finally home, and couldn’t properly celebrate my return. I’d come so far and yet still had such a long way to go.
Fallen brush and dried leaves crackled as we weaved through the woods. Despite Jackie’s Magical lamp, roots and rocks hid in the shadows, waiting to catch my feet and trip me. I stumbled often and snarled a string of steady curses under my breath.
“You should’ve chosen another alias when we first met.” Jackie smirked at me. “Grace was never very fitting for you.”
I ignored his jibe and changed the subject. “So what happens next? We meet up with your associates and return to Fallstaff, and you present me like a roast pig on a silver platter to Thibodaux? Shall I stuff an apple in my mouth first?”
He snorted. “I imagine you won’t go down without a fight. You’ll throw your thunder around, put on a good show, maybe even inflict some damage. But in the end you’ll lose.”
“And then what?”
He paused and glanced over his shoulder, eyes ablaze with cold, silvery flames. “Why, then, you’ll be mine.”
“You don’t care whether you have me willingly or not?” Bitter acid climbed my throat. “You care nothing about having my respect? My trust? My love?”
The muscles around his eyes tensed. “You could be my partner, Evelyn.”
“Or else be your slave?” I climbed over a fallen tree, eager to put distance between us. Jackie vaulted over the log with the grace of an acrobat, not willing to let me get ahead of him. “Why is your will the only one that matters? Why does what I want have no value or meaning? Why is my autonomy so easy for you to dismiss? I’m not a sword or a hammer. I’m not a tool or weapon to be used and discard at your whim. I’m a person with as much right to live her own life as you have.”
“None of us has a free will.” He glowered at me and plowed ahead through an awning of low-hanging brush. “There is only fate, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you find peace.”
Anger turned my insides into fire, burning my heart, heating the iron to molten ore. “You’re doing this because you think you have no choice? No say? I’ve accepted that forces beyond my control exist, and they play an active role in my life. But if I thought those forces were unbreakable shackles rather than a swift current in a rushing river—a river that could be navigated, even rerouted over time—I might have fallen into the same trap as you.”
“What trap is that?” His tone was antagonistic and bitter, but still he marched on, determined to continue his path, both figuratively and literally.
