Page 43 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

“And besides, she can shift away if anything happens, can’t she?”

“But she won’t!” Pritkin snapped. “She’ll stay right there, as she’s proved a dozen times—”

“You sound like a broken record,” I said, grabbing Alphonse again.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Pritkin said, his green eyes darkening.

“Watch me.” My power had just returned, and it was itching to get me out of here.

“Cassie!”

“See you at the Challenge,” I said and shifted.

Chapter Thirteen

He always like that?” Alphonse asked as we wound our way through dazzling corridor after dazzling corridor.

The fey, especially these fey, loved ostentation, and some of the murals must have taken decades to do. They were huge and 3-D in cases, almost jumping off the wall. I had to move towards the center of the hall to avoid an abalone shell-covered fish leaping from the “water,” and a little further on, I had to do it again, this time for the fisherman who held the rod at the end of the line.

I’d never seen anything like it: jade sea turtles watched me from hidden caves, small mother-of-pearl octopi changed hues depending on what direction they were viewed from, and crystal sea serpents slid by overhead, where some light source I couldn’t see lit them from the other side like stained glass. It also shed varicolored light on us as we passed by as if we were under the sea. It was beautiful.

It was also intimidating, and I thought that last was on purpose. Nimue’s court was rich and powerful enough to afford world-class decor even in minor corridors, and wanted you to know it. But it wasn’t working as intended, as I was too busy wondering what was wrong with Pritkin.

“No. He’s been acting weird since I got here,” I told Alphonse.

“Well, I hope he snaps out of it by tomorrow and gets his game face on. You two die, and Tony might take off.”

I shot him a glance. “Thanks.”

“Just keeping it real.”

And yeah, I was starting to remember that about Alphonse. He had been the exception at a court ruled by deception and backstabbing. Not that he wouldn’t shiv you, but it would be face-to-face.

I guessed that was something.

“Pritkin always insisted that I learn how to fight,” I said, aggrieved. “Because he knew I’d have to. When everyone else was trying to bury me under a pile of bodyguards or hide me in the closet, he was throwing me off of cliffs.”

“And you . . . liked that?”

“No! But if the bad guys were going to do it to me sooner or later, better that he did it first, and I figured out how to deal with it. Pritkin saw that when nobody else did. And if he hadn’t made me see the importance of learning to defend myself instead of depending on others, I wouldn’t be here now.

“But when I finally get at least somewhat competent, he changes his mind! It doesn’t make sense.”

“Sure it does,” Alphonse said.

“No, it doesn’t!”

“It doesn’t make sense to the head; the heart has its own logic.”

I blinked at him. “I guess you are a poet.”

He shrugged. “Poetic or not, it’s true. You know, when I first met Sal, what I liked about her was how feisty she was. She grew up in a saloon—her ma was one of the “ladies” there if you know what I mean—and she had to learn to fight early. Cut a guy’s ear off when she was eight ‘cause he liked ‘em young and didn’t take no for an answer. She never backed down from anything.”

I remembered the hard-edged, one-eyed blonde who had been Alphonse’s other half and thought that that sounded about right. Sal had grown up in the Old West with a dagger in her garter belt and a gun in her purse. And nothing had changed over time.

When I knew her, her stiletto heels had transformed into the real thing because vampire or no, Sal never went out unarmed. She saw the world for what it was, always expected a fight, and made sure she had the means to win it. Alphonse was right; she hadn’t been scared of anyone—except her master.

“After we started dating, nothing changed,” Alphonse added. “I always made sure Sal was on my crew for any little errand the boss had ‘cause I didn’t have to watch her. She didn’t screw up instructions, and she didn’t run. We were the dream team.

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