Page 24 of Rebel in the Deep

I shake my head. Guess I didn’t do a particularly good job of escaping. What’s done is done, and Bastian is ancient history. It just doesn’tfeellike ancient history with the man himself on my ship, disrupting things with his presence. And Siobhan? She’s a future that was never mine to have. Not when she and Bastian have been together for well over a decade at this point.

They met a year after he watched me walk away. A fuckingyear.

That’s no time at all in the grand scheme of things. I exhale slowly. I shouldn’t be mad all this time later. Life on Hedd’s ship wasn’t particularly pleasant even after I worked my way up to be quartermaster at record speed. And Bastian was a noble-born second son who had never worked a day in his life. It would have ended in disaster.

Knowing that doesn’t allow me to rationalize out of the hurt I feel knowing hedidleave his privileged life on Lyari. For Siobhan. Not me.

I give myself a shake and head back to the helm. Eyal is there, just like Bowen said. I nod at him. “Set course for Barth.”

He raises his brows. “Barth is closer than I’d expect you to want to be after our quick escape.”

“I know.” It’s less than a day from where I estimate us to be now. “Morrigan will expect us to head to the farthest side of Threshold. This time of year, Barth should have a dozen islands in close proximity. We’ll be able to lose them there, even if they somehow follow us.” There are countless ways to track…“Fuck.”

“What?” Eyal lifts his voice as I dodge past him toward my cabin. “Nox?”

I ignore him and duck into my cabin. The desk contains the magic that allows communication between the Council and theAudacity. It also allows them to track our movements. If Morrigan hasn’t already reported our treason, she will soon. We need the desk gone and gone now. There’s no fuckingtime. I was a fool for not thinking of it immediately.

As tired as I am, I draw forth the last dregs of power within me and concentrate on setting the desk aflame—without letting it spread. Fire is a fickle creature, more temperamental than the others. Most elemental users only control one, so I’ve never been able to get a satisfying answer out of the others if they feel like their element has a personality. All four have had personalities to me since the beginning.

Hot and hotter, draining my power at an exponentially faster rate than normal. The desk is spelled, resisting my efforts. “Burn, damn it.” I flick open the small window, diverting power I can’t afford to use wind to whisk the smoke out of the room.

The space wavers before my eyes, but I muscle down and focus harder. If we have a chance at all of escaping, we need this thing gone. There’s a pounding between my ears that feelslike someone is ringing a bell right next to my head, but I ignore it.

Finally—finally—the desk crumples. It takes even more effort to catch every spark and divert it out the window. I should get the pieces of the desk, too…

It’s the last thought I have before everything goes gray and I slump to the floor.

Chapter11

Siobhan

When I circled back totalk to Nox, I expected them to argue, to shut me down, to do anything but collapse the moment I stepped through the door.

“You bloody little fool!” I take a step forward to rush to them, but the moment they go down, the carefully controlled fire in the ruins of what used to be their desk flares back to life. “Damn it.” I lean out the doorway. “Water-user! Get in here! Fire!”

Two people rush in. I belatedly recognize Callen and Gable. They move as a coordinated unit, one pulling water from the sea and the other “catching” it and sending it in a controlled burst onto the desk. Within seconds, the fire is gone.

Which leaves Nox, passed out on the floor of their cabin. “Medic!”

The call is passed down the line. I go to my knees next to Nox and carefully turn them onto their side. Their chest rises and falls in a steady rhythm, and best I can tell, their heartbeatis steady. I recognize this even before Orchid arrives in a rush and then curses under his breath. “Magical burnout.”

“Youbloody fool,” I snarl. “Couldn’t ask for help. Had to do it all yourself.” I scoop Nox up, hating how slight they feel in my arms, and look around. The fire may be out, but the soggy mess of the desk and stink of smoke permeates the room. It should be easy enough to clean out in the morning, but that would require hauling people out of bed and…Nox shouldn’t be alone right now.

Orchid sighs. “This has happened before regularly enough that I can say with the utmost confidence that Nox will be fine in the morning. They just need sleep and a hearty meal when they wake.”

This happens regularly enough…

Oh, I am going tostranglethem when they wake up. Despite all current evidence to the contrary, Nox isn’t a complete fool. They must know that every time a person experiences burnout, it runs the risk of their magic reserves not replenishing fully. And that change ispermanent. “I’m taking them to my cabin.”

No one bothers to argue with me as I sweep out of the room, across the deck, and down the hatch to the crew’s quarters. Bastian sticks his head out of his door as I pass. “What’s…Is thatNox?”

“Magical burnout,” I say shortly.

I should have expected him to follow, but somehow I’m still surprised when he catches my door before it can shut and slides into the room. I do my best to ignore him and lay Nox out on my bed. They look better already, some of the color returning to their pale skin.

“What were they thinking?” Bastian mutters. “We’re on aship full of magical people and they just had to…What were they doing?”

“Burning the desk that communicates with the Council.” A smart thing to do, but that doesn’t mean the way they went about it was smart. They could have asked for help from one of the dozens of people capable of it. Instead, they ran themselves into the ground to do it themselves. “Stubborn ass.”

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