Page 146 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

“No, but you should have. And you should thank me for it. She was going to fight, did you know that? Going to ally with Caedmon to try to take Aeslinn down. I heard her talking about it with his ambassadors one night and knew she was serious. She hated that bastard; their marriage was a nightmare, and he let her hang out to dry afterward. She should have never even given them an audience, but there they were, drinking tea like old friends!

“I knew then that something had to be done.”

“So you betrayed all of us,” Bodil said, and unlike Pritkin, there was no lack of emotion in her voice. If fury and loathing had a tone, she’d managed to find it.

It enraged Feltin, who darted forward, dragging his horde of Horrors along like a vicious train. Until he caught himself and paused, maybe thirty yards out now, looking shocked for some reason. As if he hadn’t even realized he’d moved.

Then he laughed, despite being underwater and without the bubble most of us were using.

“That was good,” he told her. “You almost had me. But I know better than to get anywhere near your clutches, Lady Bodil.” He sketched her a bow, and some of the Horrors actually bowed along with him, including a huge, scaled monster like something resurrected from the primordial ooze, who nonetheless put a clawed hand on his chest and bent over slightly.

I wondered if I was going mad.

“And for the record,” he added, “I saved you—or I tried. The gods were returning, whether we liked it or not, and the only choice was between dying uselessly or joining the winning side. I chose the latter, and because great Nimue was too idiotic to see it, I chose for all of us.

“And I made a good deal, a survivable deal, do you understand? Give them Nimue and put our army under Aeslinn’s control once I assumed power, and no part of what was to come would touch us—”

“You call this no part?” Bodil hissed. “They destroyed us!”

“No! She destroyed us!” he screeched, pointing at me. “I had the deal, and Zeus even modified it once the half-demon showed up for the Challenge. Give him over, and even the army could stand down. We could stay neutral. We could live!

“But the bitch ruined everything! When she vanished with the god’s prize, he was furious! He blamed me, even though I had done all that he asked. He ensured that we were one of the first attacked when the Black Day came, and I could do nothing to stop it, even though I went to beg for forgiveness personally.”

“How?” Pritkin said. “We heard that you went to Earth. How could you have seen him?”

I blinked at him, impressed. I was finding it hard to think at all except about the one revelation I’d managed to hold onto through all this. But he was fishing for information. Now, when we were staring down the gullets of the army about to eat us!

But it didn’t work because Feltin didn’t know anything. “He and Aeslinn had gone to Earth to prepare for whatever happened. I found them there, much good that it did me. And it’s of no importance now.

“Nothing is, except that you make a choice. Which is more than the rest of us were ever given. More than me.”

“You made your choice,” Bodil snarled. She’d been so calm earlier when the rest of us were losing our shit, but she seemed to have reached tilt. Pritkin had the right idea about how to deal with Feltin, but she couldn’t emulate him. Not now.

And now was all we had.

But it didn’t matter because Feltin was mad. Seeing his machinations destroy his world had broken his mind, or maybe Aeslinn and his godly rider had done that. But he was muttering to himself now, and his creatures were becoming increasingly agitated.

“His control is slipping,” Pritkin told me, his voice low. “And when it goes—” He didn’t have to finish that. “Go with Bodil when I tell you,” he said. “Go fast.”

“Go where?” I said as Feltin’s creatures lunged for us, and he had to drag them back again. “They’re everywhere!”

“I’m going to charge Feltin. He’s controlling these things. If I can take him out—”

“He’s too far away!”

“—it may throw them into confusion—”

“And get you killed in the process!”

“—and give the two of you a moment to slip away—”

“Now, who’s trying to convince himself?” I said, furious.

“I can’t watch you die!” The green eyes were wild. “Don’t ask me to watch you die!”

“I’m not. I’m asking you to stay with me and keep me with you. Partners, remember?” And I held out a hand.

I didn’t know if he’d take it. He was a stubborn man, and this whole hellish experience had asked him to grow faster and in ways that many people couldn’t, bringing up long-buried things from his past and introducing horrible new twists. Most people would have buckled under its weight or folded at the terror of where we were now.

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