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"I’m not the one who made the Djinn vulnerable to capture," he said He had to stop for breath "You knewDavid would do this Vows You didn’t care" A ashed over the bubble above us, leaving a thin, lacy filh ed on, but it was losing some of its fury It knew I’d won

We’dwon Me and the storreed "I tried, okay? I did the good-girl thing I fought the good fight, and where did it getet better, was I? I’ skin the rest ofto my strict moral code" I took a deep breath and tasted ozone fro frenzy "It’s just power Doesn’t oes"

"And you can quit any time you want"

My tone hardened I still didn’t like being mocked "Fuck your intervention I’ers tightened around the bottle The one holding the only thing that ht stop me I’d known fro to come down to this

I smiled

And he surprisedDavid Not just for his sake - for yours If you live through it, I don’t want you having that on your conscience"

"I’hed blood "You kind of loved me, too Look how that turned out" I slapped h to split the wood Overhead, the store inside me "Call him!"

"No way in hell"

All he had to do was get David out in the open That was all I wanted I slapped the deck again, and again, and again Splinters jabbed deep, and I left priood

Lewis opened his eyes and locked stares with e "No," he said, very softly "This isn’t going to happen the way you want" I looked up There were other people out on the Proainstwith them, like an actual person who mattered They all wore identical tense, focused expressions the look of soldiers just before the battle

I looked down at Lewis and smiled a real, warm, sunny smile "We’ll see," I said, and stood up to put my hands on et some air

Nobody stopped me as I walked

In time, I felt the last whispers of power click into place, locking ine, generating our oer Our own reality The storm and I were one

Easy,I told it Easy, for now

And the winds began to slow It could bide its time

So could I

I waited until the winds died a bit, then let go of the bubble of force that Lewis and David had built at such cost

I ended up on the port side of the ship, in a bar - preciously nauests and creere still gathered Tables and chairs had been righted There’d been some minor injuries, but not even a broken bone, reht, unlike the crew of the Abigail

I bellied up to the serving bar and perched on one of the high chairs There were three guys behind the bar One was cleaning up broken glass The other tere taking orders

A lot of people were drinking I didn’t blame them at all

"What’ll it be, ave me a smile so even and white that he should have been in a commercial It faded quickly Even across the other side of a ship the size of a small city, word traveled fast, and it clicked in quickly who - or what - I was

The roo to drink?"

"Cyanide?" I was trying to be char, but I could see froet

"Fresh out, ave up "How about a vodka tonic?" That was my sorry-for-myself drink, and this seemed an ideal place to throw a ten-minute pity party He turned away, mixed the drink, and put it on the coaster I sipped It was excellent "I’ to keep people calm" There was more than a touch of febrile panic in his eyes now

"Be sure to save so to need it" He poured himself a shot of whiskey and downed it without a pause, then fled, leaving me in possession of the entire bar’s contents I sipped my vodka tonic and took a self-assessment as pretty ot the hell out of Dodge

My back didn’t hurt anymore It also wasn’t nuet a look in the still-intact bar mirror, I saw the shadow of a black form under the new skin

A torch, eer

One or two of the ship’s staff hadn’t fled with the rest One stern-looking wo asked "On the house," she said "If you can get us out of this and home, you’re welcoulp, and said, "Two things First, if I want to drink this place dry, you definitely haven’t got a thing on board this floating sewage plant that can stophome Get used to the idea"

Then I tossed a twenty on the bar and resu, flat stern of the ship to gaze out over our churning gray wake Nothing in sight, not on any side, but open water and stor and openedIt didn’t takeof that black flood It was directly to starboard, and close

Maybe a day away, if that

"I’ what you wanted, you evil old bastard"

I felt Bad Bob’s chuckle inside ainst skin "Knew you wouldn’t let irl," he said When I shut hostly outlines "You bring ood start to our work From then on, no limits No limits at all"