Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
She resists for a heartbeat longer and then allows me to usher her into the tub. I watch her closely, waiting for the moment that she relaxes. It doesn’t come. She huddles in the center of the tub, her knees drawn to her chest. Which is just a testament of how truly terrified she was.
Best I can tell, Lizzie spent most of her life on land before coming to Threshold. There’s nothing quite like the sea to remind you of the fact that you’re not truly unkillable. The sea doesn’t care about your magic or your strength, and certainly not your stamina. It’s the ultimate equalizer. It’s perfectly rational to be terrified, but if Lizzie has spent lifetimes being an apex predator, she’s not going to be comfortable with fear. She’s certainly not going to thank me for pointing out that it’s a perfectly reasonable response.
My clothes are already starting to dry stiffly against my body, so I pull them off and drop them in a pile next to Lizzie’s. When I turn around, she’s slid down in the tub until her chin touches the surface of the water, her dark hair spread out around her as she watches me. “You were brilliant down there,” she says softly.
Brilliant. That’s not a word I would have used to describe the desperation in my attacks. I’ve killed for food and I’ve killed to protect myself, but it’s never been a fight like that before. I think my hands are shaking, but it’s easy enough to put the aftermath of the battle into the back of my mind when I can focus on her instead. “I wasn’t going to let it take you.”
“I’ve underestimated you, Maeve.” She smiles a little, though her eyes are still haunted. “I suppose I should thank you for saving my life.”
I shift uneasily on my feet. I don’t know what to do with this version of Lizzie. I don’t know how to comfort her in a way she’ll accept. “There’s no thanks necessary. Like I said, I wasn’t going to let you die.”
She lifts a hand. “Come here.”
I want nothing more than to go to her, but I still plant my feet and force myself to stillness. “We both just had a big scare. I hardly think that jumping into the bath with you is the right solution.”
“Probably not. But it can’t hurt.”
chapter 20
Lizzie
I don’t exactly intend to use sex as a distraction, but I can’t seem to stop shaking. The bath cleans the salt from my skin, but it also reminds me how close I came to losing everything. The water shakes with my little tremors, giving lie to my determination to be fine. I can still feel the press of the depths against my skin, eager to rush in the moment I lost my last bit of oxygen and my instinctive desire to breathe took over. Can still feel the way the kelpie tensed and twisted against me, its magic holding me helpless. I underestimated the water horse. All my strength, all my cunning, and I was as helpless as a civilian.
If Maeve hadn’t come after me, it would be feasting on my flesh right now.
“Lizzie.” Even the sight of Maeve, naked and glorious, isn’t quite enough to push back the feeling that’s shaking me down to my bones. Fear. It’s been so long since I’ve felt it that I hardly know its flavor.
No, that’s a lie. For far too long, fear was my bread and butter. It was the only nourishment I was allowed. My mother cleaved to the belief that if she overwhelmed me and Wolf through most of our youth, we would never feel it again. That, at worst, we would become immune, and at best, we would be bosom friends, able to twist it to our will. It’s certainly not true for my brother, but I’d mistakenly thought it was the truth for me. Wrong.
“How do you stand it?” I don’t mean to speak, to expose my quivering heart, but the words come all the same. “Down there. Where there’s nothing to see but blue and black. Where anything could be coming for you.”
Maeve’s expression softens. If I see pity in her eyes, I will flee the room, but there’s only a deep understanding. “It still scares me sometimes. But I don’t look at the depths as something that finite. It can be multiple things at once. I was taught as a child to respect the sea, and that respect and no small amount of fear reside in me today.” She moves closer and takes my hand, holding it between two of hers. “But fear isn’t the only thing down there. There’s freedom. Beneath the surface, there’s nothing constraining me, nothing holding me back. I can fight and twist and play and hunt to my heart’s content.”