Page 101 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

For a moment, there was nothing but thrashing limbs, a twisted saddle, and pressure, like an extra atmosphere or two. And the knowledge that now no one was driving—except for the dangerous, half-crazed monster we were trying to cling to, who had an agenda all his own. And who was hunting guards all by himself.

A second later, he caught them, racing up beside his lady, only I might have been wrong about which one that was. Bodil’s beautiful black and silver mount was bleeding, with a haze of red spreading in the water around her, and she looked up at Galgygos with desperate, pleading eyes. And we suddenly had a furious savage on our hands, going to town on the guards and their mounts surrounding her.

Which would have been great, except that Pritkin was speeding away with half a dozen guards on his magically bottomed-out ass!

It was something that Bodil seemed to realize, and the next moment, a furious demigod had somehow stepped through Enid’s shield and—

“What are you doing?” I demanded as she grabbed Galygos’ reigns.

“Stealing your mount,” I was told savagely right before she elbowed me in the gut.

And not on my watch, bitch!

But before I could retaliate or even remember how to breathe, we were off, although less, I suspected, because of Bodil’s skill and more because the guards and half their mounts were now dead, and Galygos and his lady friend were chasing down the rest. Seahorses seemed to be vengeful little bastards. Or make that vengeful, two-story bastards, or closer to three in Galygos’ case.

And if I’d thought he was tearing through the water before, it was nothing next to this. It seemed that his little seahorse mind had figured out that the guards were bad, m’kay? And decided that what he really wanted to snack on right now wasn’t more shrimp, but rather a whole boatload of Queen’s Guard ass.

And since that was what I also wanted, I decided to forego revenge on the bitch who had jailed and now assaulted me and find a perch. Get ready, I mouthed at Enid because after Galygos finished his main course, we needed to retake control of our mount. All I got back was a terrifying “Are you kidding me?” look that said that fighting demigods wasn’t in our agreement.

But I didn’t have time to argue because we were already crashing into the guards hammering Pritkin.

Galygos swerved to take out the closest competition, and I screamed at Enid to “Drop your shield!”

For once, she didn’t argue, or else it popped on its own as we were already getting strafed by the spell fire zipping around. I felt a bubble slam into place around my head, and then a wave of water hit me, rushing in to fill the void where the shield had been. It would have knocked me off my seat, except that I didn’t have one, and at the same time, I grabbed hold of the sparkling clouds around the nearest two fey.

And jerked.

And, oh, what a difference that made!

Their power tasted thin, like Enid’s, because I was comparing it to a god’s. But while it might not have had the heady rush of Zeus’s energy, it still packed a punch—and could hopefully deal one as a bunch more riders had just crashed into us, turning the race into a free-for-all.

Bodil shot a barrage of spell bolts at our attackers, Galygos savaged three mounts at once, and Enid screamed at me from inside her bubble. And I shifted the nearest guard outside the track and reached over to grab his mount. Because Galygos wanted to fight more than he wanted to race, and Pritkin and his personal gaggle of guards were getting away!

I dragged myself over there less than gracefully, grabbing the dropped reins and just holding on until I could crawl up the horny hide. But I got the job done. My new mount wasn’t on Galygos’s level, but it wasn’t crap, either. An immense, black beauty with flashing red eyes that matched Bodil’s right now, as Enid joined me, and we left the stable mistress behind.

She and Galygos didn’t look like they needed the help.

Pritkin did.

And this time, he was damned well going to get some.

“Take the reins!” I yelled at Enid, who clambered onto the higher-level driving position without even pausing her rant at me. It was almost Pritkin-worthy, but I’d heard all that before, and—

There!

“What are we doing?” she demanded as we shot ahead.

“Island hopping.”

“What?”

“Get me close to every damned guard you see!”

She had a lot to say about that, but again, it didn’t matter. Because our latest purloined ride was trying its best to get back to its pack, or whatever you call a family of seahorses, all of which were being ridden by other guards. Which was why the next few minutes were a heady mix of panic and exhilaration.

Panic because Enid and I were doing the equivalent of Pritkin’s Han Solo run from earlier. Exhilaration because every time we caught up to someone, I got fed by another cloud of magic. I ripped them off of fey after fey, like stealing a bunch of glittering cloaks, and by the time I reached numbers six and seven, I had practically a whole wardrobe.

That fight didn’t last long as a result, and Enid and I quickly left them behind, one seahorse bleeding out in the water, the other hauling ass back the way it had come, and the two fey floating in our wake and looking stunned. Maybe because a glimmering golden whip had uncurled from my hand, causing the water to bubble and hiss and their wards to give up the ghost. And, suddenly, things got a little easier.

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