Page 90 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

“No.” It was mild, and the sunny smile on Morgaine’s face never wavered.

“I will not play these games with you,” Nimue snapped. And there was power behind the words, enough that I could feel it ripple over my skin all these years later.

Power that Morgaine turned aside with a gesture as casual as brushing a speck of lint off her pretty yellow skirt.

“Do not test me!” Nimue thundered, and the room shook. But Morgaine ignored that, too, with an insouciance that felt foolhardy under the circumstances.

“I’m beginning to see where he gets it,” the incubus said, his words light but his expression. . .

Because yeah. I supposed seeing yourself as a baby would be attention-getting. Only he was looking far more interested than even that would warrant.

And he wasn’t looking at the baby.

“She’s beautiful,” he whispered, staring at Morgaine.

Because she was his mother, too, wasn’t she? He’d known her back in old Wales, or rather, Pritkin had when they were more intertwined. But neither had known who she was to them. That had been kept quiet to protect them, as plenty of people in Wales hated the fey and Nimue’s line in particular.

So she’d died there as nothing but a passing acquaintance. I’d told Pritkin the truth after that little adventure, but this was his first time seeing her as his mother. And he was soaking her in.

“Give me the child!” And okay, that command had felt less like a ripple and more like the storm I’d been expecting. Nimue had seemed fond enough of Morgaine when the woman was doing as she was told, which was basically never. But she had not enjoyed being crossed.

But to my surprise, Morgaine didn’t crumple to the floor or even noticeably react—other than to broaden that cheeky grin slightly. Something that did not falter even when the array of guards lunged for her at a gesture from their mistress, only to run into something halfway across the room. Judging by how hard they hit, it may as well have been an invisible wall.

Nimue began to frown.

“How are you—” she began and then stopped herself. Maybe because Morgaine had gestured to something that had appeared hovering in the air between them.

“Your court wasn’t impressed by my new abilities,” she pouted. “But they do come in handy, at times. Times like these, to be precise.”

“Take it down.” And, for the first time, there was real menace in Nimue’s lovely voice.

“Oh, you don’t like people using magic you don’t know against you? Fancy that.”

“Take it down!”

I was starting to worry about the room’s integrity, as that last thunderous command had caused little siftings of dust to shake down from the rafters. They highlighted Morgaine’s creation in the center—a ward, I assumed, although not one I’d ever seen. It looked vaguely like a compass, being round, with symbols at each cardinal point, and was starting to glow a bright, almost electric blue.

Probably with the magic that Nimue had started throwing at it.

“You can do that all day and only exhaust yourself,” Morgaine said casually, picking up a fuzzy yellow blanket and wrapping it securely about her bundle. “It’s like a key, you know. You only have three tumblers, grandmother.

“And it takes all four.”

“Stop this immediately!” Nimue thundered.

“Or what? Will you come after me? Or send your guards to jerk me and your grandson back again? You’re going to do that anyway, but this time, I’ve made plans. I made a deal with the devil, you might say—”

“Traitor!”

“You’re not going to kill my son, Nimue.”

“Your abomination, you mean! Do you realize what you’ve done? Do you have any idea—”

“Made someone amazing?” Morgaine asked, bouncing her baby slightly. And looking at him with such love that I felt a pang under my breastbone. Had my mother ever looked at me that way?

Why didn’t I think so?

“You put our power—all our power, including that of the gods—into the hands of the demons!” Nimue raged. “Do you not think they’ll use it?”

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