“Can you glamour us so they can’t see us?” Sam asked quietly, before Olen could respond. “Maybe muffle the sound of the engine if we have to work our way around, since they’re probably watching us now? Maybe even listening.”
Could I? I felt everyone’s eyes on me as I turned, taking in the entirety of the boat. At nearly forty feet long, it was much larger than the conference room at the firm. As far as glamouring the whole thing? This might be different from the simple glamour I’d done as we moved through the canal. But it was night, so that should help. I watched the water and the way the moon highlighted the waves. Finally, I nodded. “I think I can do it. I’ll try.”
“And the spell around the other vessel? What of that?” Olen asked.
“Let me do this first while I think about what that would take.”
From the set of his jaw and his narrowed eyes, I sensed he wanted to argue my response but, again, Arella intervened. “Thank you. We will prepare and await further word from you.” With that the three turned and slid gracefully back into the water.
Shay, who had been watching from Jeremy’s side, said, “Well, they seem just a bit uptight.”
Sam was the one to respond. “First of all, they can hear you, so you might want to watch your words, and, second . . . they have children that were taken from them that may be aboard that vessel. Children that could be sick or injured, as we speak.” She didn’t say this with any judgement in her voice, but Shay still flinched.
“I didn’t know. I thought I was just following some human. Boss?” She sounded unsure as she looked at Jeremy.
“Dis true,” he admitted.
She straightened, squaring her shoulders. “Then I would like to help in any way I can. I’m fast and I’m good in a fight.”
“Thank you. We’re going to need all the help we can get.” As I said it, it felt like the understatement of the year.
Chapter 14
Approaching the pirates
It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would to glamour the boat. Shay shifted and flew around us to confirm the glamour worked while Sebastian kept the water fae informed of everything. The privacy bubble I’d used at the firm was a bit more tricky. I pushed it out as far as I could, but at first it didn’t encompass the full length of the Sea Witch, falling about ten feet short. Even pulling on my Power ring, I could feel the strain. I’d expected the bracelet to come to my aid, but there was nothing.
Hesitantly, I asked, Trixie, a little help?
Me? Certainly, Roxanne. I thought perhaps you were planning to rely on that little ring. I gritted my teeth. Between the strain of holding a bubble this large, the glamour, the weight of the situation we were in, and the petulance I felt in Trixie’s response, it was all I could do not to snap my reply back.
I wasn’t sure if you were feeling drained from sharing magick with Sam earlier. And, for the record, this ‘little ring’ has saved my butt more times than you can imagine over the past year.
Her tone became immediately contrite. Apologies, Mistress. With that, I felt an influx of magick, similar in many ways to my own and that of the ring, yet still slightly foreign. The bubble expanded past the bow of the boat with minimal effort. I drew a relieved breath.
Thank you. If this is too much of a strain, let me know.
It is no strain at all, Mistress.
Roxanne. It almost felt like I was dealing with a teenager again. I shuddered, then reminded myself there was no comparison. My stepdaughter Michelle’s attitude throughout my tumultuous marriage made any exchange with Trixie seem like a pleasant walk in the park.
There was no response, but I could still feel her attentive presence.
“Okay, I think we’re covered. Cappy, you want to move out?” I called up to the cockpit.
“How fast and which direction, lass?” the small man asked. He’d been standing in the doorway, watching and listening to everything.
“I’ve got this.” Rand followed Cappy into the cockpit. The engine came to life and the effect within the bubble was immediate. The sound was muffled and my ears felt like they needed to pop. Shay and Jeremy both shook their heads, working their jaws as they did so. I hadn’t considered that shifter ears would be much more sensitive than ours.
Cappy and Rand slowly took us around to what we hoped was either the front or rear of the vessel from the shape of the barrier the water fae had tested. We’d barely moved much more than forty or fifty feet when Rayna cried out. I hurried to the rear deck.
“What?”
She pointed. Coming from . . . nowhere . . . was a rope, the length ending in the watery space we’d just moved from. “A spear. Or harpoon or whatever they’re called. It only missed us by a few feet!”
We were still moving away from the spot we’d just been idle in, but she was right. Whoever was aboard that vessel must have decided to shoot at us right after I’d glamoured the Sea Witch.
“Rand?” I yelled.
“I see it. We’re going to move out of range and then come back in from a different angle. Tell Sebastian to warn the water
