Page 17 of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami

“Think so,” I gasped because I still couldn’t get my lungs full after the witches’ almost-suffocation.But it was getting better.And the pain in my side felt more like a bad bruise than a broken rib.I decided to count myself lucky and started paying attention.“What’s going on?”

“You brought some friends with you,” she said dryly, nodding down the ditch to where a handful of witches were in Bodil’s face.That made me crack a grin despite everything.And then to chuckle, even though it hurt my bruised ribs.

“—on the contrary,” Bodil was saying placidly, but her eyes were suspiciously bright, which always preceded a good time.

“Just give her to us, and we’ll go,” Zara said, shooting me a look past Bodil’s shoulder.The tall, elegant fey had positioned herself between me and the witches, whether intentionally or not.“She challenged, so she’s ours!”

“Yet the challenge is finished, is it not?”Bodil asked, cutting off an explosion from Pritkin, who had come up behind her, with an elegant gesture.“She won.”

“What?”

“She did not!”

“If you hadn’t pulled her out of there, she’d be dead!”

The witches were all talking at once, but that last was from the old hag with the topknot who’d advised Zara to fight me and was now sending me the evil eye.It was less problematic than it had been back in the cave since her grizzled hair was straggling into her face, and she kept glancing worriedly at Enid; why, I didn’t know.Had I missed something?

“Did I miss something?”I asked.

“She tried to curse you as soon as you landed.I blocked her,” Enid said, loudly enough to be sure she was heard over the thunder.

“What did you expect?”One of the witches clustered around Zara demanded.“The Gauntlet hasn’t ended yet—”

“It damned well has!”Enid snapped.“You cheated!It was at least fifty of you on one!Bodil saw—”

“Shecheated!”One of the younger witches beside Zara said explosively, pointing a shaking finger at me.“You were supposed to be drained!”

“Sorry I didn’t die on cue,” I said sourly and pushed dripping bangs out of my face.

“And as such, you forfeit—the challenge and your life!”

“Or you do yours,” Bodil said, unperturbed.She threw a glance at me.“Do you wish me to kill them?”

It was so casual, so matter-of-fact, that it was all the more chilling.As if, to Bodil, that would be a minor chore or a courtesy she was extending to a member of our group.And maybe it was.

Faerie was a scary place.

“No,” I said, after a pause to let them sweat.“No, they’re not worth it.Can you just send them back?”

“Now that I cannot do,” she said regretfully.

“Why?”I looked around.“Where the hell are we?”

“Stratford,” Pritkin said hoarsely, looking around.“That’s Evesham Road.”

“What?”

“I read his mind when the two of you were talking in the garden,” Bodil said, as if mental eavesdropping was no big deal.“And had started looking for a suitable portal to get us here when you fought—”

“She could have been killed!”Enid said, her narrowed eyes never wavering from the witches.“You should have told us so we could help!”

“Nonsense.Prince Emrys had made contact with their third, and he was assisting her,” she said, using the name Pritkin went by in Faerie.“Not that the daughter of Artemis needed it.If I hadn’t found the right portal and pulled her in, she would have killed them all.”

I blinked slightly at that and hoped the rain made it look like I was simply trying to get water out of my eyes.Because that...was a goddamned lie.Bodil must have mentally heard me because she threw me an amused glance over her shoulder.

“I suppose you owe me a debt of gratitude,” she said to the witches.

Which is how I learned a lot of old English curse words, or would have, had I been paying attention.Instead, I was focused on the rest of what had been said.“We’re in Stratford?Like Upon Avon?Like where the Circle’s HQ is located?”

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