Page 67 of Blood on the Tide

“If we—”

“Shut up. You’ve done enough.” Any doubt I had about giving her my blood disappears. It’s the only choice we have. “Get out of the way.”

“You don’t know what that blood will do to her. Neither of us do.”

Even with my powers artificially sealing her wounds, they gently ooze blood. She’s going to die if we don’t do something, and out of all the outcomes that I’ve played through my head, different scenarios with varying degrees of heartbreak, her dying is unacceptable. I won’t allow it.

“It’s our only option.” It shouldn’t be enough to change her, but no matter the outcome, at least she’ll be alive to hate me if it comes to that. I drag my nail along the inside of my arm. “Hold her head.”

Siobhan hesitates for the faintest heartbeat, and then she’s moving, shifting behind Maeve to lift her head and shoulders as I press my bleeding arm to her lips. Too cold. She’s too damn cold. I barely even registered how deliciously warm she is all the time until that heat is nowhere in evidence. My blood dribbles into her mouth, but she doesn’t swallow.

“Come on, baby. You have to live.” I gently massage her throat, artificially urging her to swallow. It’s tempting to give her more blood, but a few mouthfuls should heal even the most mortal of wounds. It just takes time.

Siobhan rises and walks deeper into the cave only to return with a stack of blankets. She props a folded one under Maeve’s head and covers her with the other two. “So... Now we wait?”

“Now we wait,” I confirm. I’ve healed people with my blood in the past, but I’ve never cared about the results as deeply as I do right now. I measure every slow beat of Maeve’s heart, searching for some indication that the blood is working. It will heal her. It has to.

“He wasn’t there.”

I’m so busy focusing on Maeve, it takes me a few moments to realize that Siobhan has spoken at all. And a few moments more for her meaning to penetrate. “Bastian?” Obviously I registered that we hadn’t acquired a fourth person in our retreat, but I honestly don’t give a fuck about Siobhan or her goals. If the glamour mage drowned, then he drowned.

“Yes. He had definitely been on the Crimson Hag, and recently. His scent was all over the cell in the brig, but it’s at least a few days old. They must have passed him off almost as soon as they captured him.”

She’s obviously upset, and she did help me get Maeve to shore, so I don’t make a derogatory comment about shifters and their noses. I think that’s called growth. Maeve will be proud of me if she wakes up. When she wakes up. I swallow hard and search for the appropriate response, the words Maeve would instinctively know. “I’m sorry.”

Siobhan scrubs her hands over her face. For the first time since I met her, she looks startlingly young and almost vulnerable. It strikes me that she can’t be more than thirty, maybe thirty-five. Practically a baby, and yet she’s carrying around a burden that I can barely comprehend. Whether she picked it up willingly or it was thrust upon her is anyone’s guess, and frankly I don’t give a fuck.

But Maeve cares and so I try. “I’m sure you’ll find him. You just have to retrace the route the Crimson Hag took and find out where they dropped him off.”

“That will take too much time. He’s headed for Lyari, and whether or not I know which ship he’s on... fuck.” She turns and punches the wall, and I’m startled to watch cracks form. Shifters are strong, but this is on another level entirely. “We’d have to search every ship sailing in that direction, and there’s no way to guarantee that would be enough. Even if I wanted to try that, we don’t have that many ships or that many people. It’s impossible.”

Again, I wonder who this man is to her, and if it’s as personal as it seems. Obviously he’s helping with the rebellion, but there are plenty of powerful people helping with the rebellion. This is something more—and not just because he has the ability to glamour people into doing his will. “Who is he to you?”

“No one now. But he was once.” She holds up her hand and watches her knuckles heal, the skin knitting back together where it had been broken by her punch. “No matter what you believe, this isn’t personal. His powers can change the course of the rebellion. If he dies, I don’t see a way forward.”

I snort. “That’s a whole load of bullshit. You have Nox, who can take out an entire crew in a series of heartbeats. And Bowen, who can probably level an entire fucking island with that damn telekinetic power. They are just two people who believe in your cause. There are others, and I imagine they must have a range of powers. Pull yourself together.”

“Nox...” She gets a strange look on her face. “You’re right. I’m letting frustration get the best of me. I really thought we’d save Bastian tonight and everything would be back on track.” She crouches down next to Maeve. “Her breathing has evened out.”

I scan Maeve again with my powers. The wounds have started to close, though it’s slower than I’d like it to be, but more importantly, her blood is once again flowing in a regular rhythm. Relief makes my knees weak. “Her heartbeat, too.”

“Look, I know this is shitty, but time is of the essence. I have to go. No one will look for you here, but I would stay out of the village. When she’s up for it, follow the trail past the path where it branches back toward the village. It will take you to the top of the cliffs, and you can skirt around to the east side of the island. There’s a sea cave there with a small sailboat. It’s not much, but it’s stocked with food and water and supplies. It can get you to the nearest island. You should be able to catch a ride on a trading ship from there.”

Obviously the sailboat in question is hers and how she’s been traveling without a crew. But that begs the question: “Where are you going?”

“A local captain owes me a favor. The Audacity will be sailing south of here in a day or two. If I can flag them down, then Nox will be honor bound to help me retrieve Bastian.”

I’m not so sure about that. I want nothing more than to see the back of Siobhan, but as I look down at Maeve, I can’t help hearing her voice in my head. Help her. I don’t want to. Putting the rebellion behind us would be my preference, anything to keep Maeve out of danger. And yet I find myself speaking: “No reason to split up.”

“Excuse me?”

“It will be quicker if you wait for Maeve to wake up and we take your ship... together.” I’m feeling my way, Maeve’s palm warming against mine where I hold her hand. “This one won’t be content to sit by and watch others take risks going forward, and I won’t let anything happen to her. We’re headed back to Nox as well. We might as well travel together.”

Siobhan studies me, her body tense as if she wants to spring into motion. “Very well. I’m going into town to make a resupply run and see if I can find any information about what might have happened to Bastian. I’m sure the Crimson Hag’s crew will have made landing by now.” She stalks to the crates and digs through them until she comes up with a cloak that looks identical to the one she wore when we met her. “Meet me at my ship by dusk tomorrow.”

“We’ll be there.”

“Maeve will be fine.” She flips the hood of the cloak up around her face and hesitates. “Sorry about your jewels, though.”

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