Page 41 of The Last Heir of Elsewhere

A moment before, he’d cracked the hilt of that sword against the back of Lonnie’s head from behind, just as I’d instructed. Part of me was disappointed at how easy it’d been to subdue her. I’d wanted to see more of the magic she was only just beginning to use with conscious effort.

No matter—I’d see it all soon enough.

“Trust me,” I grumbled, as I bent to pick up Lonnie’s limp body off the floor. “This one will require careful handling.”

“How do you know?” Riven asked. “I thought you couldn’t see her.”

I glanced down at her unconscious face, and I shook my head resignedly. “I don’t need magic when it comes to her.”

While I couldn’t see everything going on in the world at any given moment, some people were easier to keep track of than others. Since the first time I’d met her as a child all those years ago, I’d never been able to see Lonnie and therefore she’d become the ruler by which I measured my own abilities. She was the stone with which I sharpened my talent, the dragon standing between me and the ultimate prize of total omniscience.

I’d spent the better part of ten years trying to see any glimpse of her future, but to no avail. As a result, I’d watched her grow up through others’ eyes, and learned her temperament so well that I’d have been able to predict her movements even without magic. Though we’d hardly spoken, I felt as if I knew her. She was outside my power, and therefore my weakness in every possible way.

A part of me felt slightly guilty for the pain the blow to the head would no doubt cause her, but it had been necessary. Even without prophecy, I knew her well enough to guess that left awake to argue she’d talk endlessly, wasting precious hours that we didn’t have.

I knew, because she’d been difficult even as a child and I knew, because she was just like her mother, and in the decade that I’d known her, Rhiannon had never once accepted anything without a fight.

In the end, Lonnie would have agreed to come with me anyway. This was merely expediting the inevitable. Every pain I caused her was for the greater good.

I only hoped she would see it that way.

* * *

We walked through the shadows,and reappeared in the Inbetwixt harbor.

At this early hour, most of the world was still asleep, but not the sailors and merchants coming in and out of port. The early morning skyline was a sea of towering masts and billowing sails, bobbing gently in the rhythmic sway of the waves. The salty tang of the ocean mixed with the fresh scent of rain. Seagulls cried out overhead, their calls echoing off the docks and mingling with the distant shouts of sailors. Everything looked as it normally did. In fact, without the remnants of dried blood still splattered across the docks, you would never have guessed that a fight had occurred here just two nights ago.

I strode down the deck toward my ship, Lonnie unconscious and still cradled in my arms.

Because of her unpredictable detour, we were running late. Originally, I’d planned to find Lonnie the night of the fight on the docks and begin our journey together two days sooner, but she’d managed to dodge my men quite skillfully. Of course, she didn’t do it alone. I shook my head, sighing. My younger brother was still finding ways to irritate me, despite the fact that we’d hardly spoken in thirty years.

Perhaps because he himself didn’t know what he was planning to do before he did it, Scion’s future was almost as difficult to predict as my own. It wasn’t until Bael had rejoined the group that I’d been able to find all three of them. Unlike Lonnie or Scion, my cousin was always resolute in his decisions, making him an excellent subject for my particular brand of magic.

I knew, for instance, that Bael would soon wake at the inn in Forlorn, and find Lonnie gone. I knew that while Scion would take hours to calm down enough to focus, Bael would immediately begin searching for his mate, using the talent he’d inherited from his Unseelie father.

Unless our ship left within the hour, both he and Scion would arrive to rescue their mate. If we were already at sea, however, it would take them days—perhaps weeks—before they saw her again. I was hoping for the latter.

At the very end of the dock, my ship bobbed slightly in the choppy water of the harbor, its sails billowing in the wind like great white wings. Riven led the way up the ramp to the main deck, and I followed, walking carefully with Lonnie in my arms. As we stepped onto the deck, the crew all turned from whatever they were doing to stare, but no one questioned me about the unconscious woman.

They’d learned a long time ago not to ask questions.

Before I could take a single step toward my cabin, a thin woman with close cropped black hair ran up to me. “We’re nearly ready to sail, sir.”

“Good,” I said shortly. “Thank you, Lin.”

Lin danced between her feet, and made every effort not to look at Lonnie. Like the rest of the crew she knew not to ask questions, but as the captain in all but name, she was allowed more leeway than most.

“Should we move out, then?” she asked. “The wind is picking up, so we might not even need magic to move the ship out of the harbor.”

I gazed up at the crow’s nest, where two crew members with a knack for manipulating the weather were already perched. It was fortunate they could conserve their energy, considering the rough seas that awaited us along the coast and beyond. If the rain in the village of Forlorn was anything to go by, storms were inevitable.

I smiled slightly. I enjoyed sea travel because for some reason the weather was one thing I’d never been able to predict. Sea travel, which was almost entirely dependent on weather, felt unpredictable in an otherwise painfully boring world. There were no surprises in life when I already knew what was going to happen at any moment…perhaps that was why I was so fascinated by the woman in my arms.

“Yes, finish raising the sails,” I said briskly. “I want to be far away from the shoreline that it’s a distant memory by the time dawn truly breaks.”

“Yes, sir.” Lin gave a little tilt of her head, somewhere between a bow and a nod of agreement, and scurried away.

“Wait!” I called after Lin, an idea occurring to me a moment too late.

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