8. Hook
My head throbbed, an unwelcome side effect of the enchanted rum I’d drunk the night before. I’d lost count of the days that’d passed since Never had left my world and I’d discovered the demon’s shadow had followed her on the trip.
Months had passed. Possibly years.
I wouldn’t admit to myself that I’d given up, but I’d been dead in the water for too long. I’d tried everything, every option I could think of, and nothing had worked. Even with my power, I couldn’t summon a portal or flash myself anywhere.
I sat up in bed, cursing the hangover that would no doubt plague me the rest of the morning. In truth, my black rum hangover was becoming my constant companion, much as it had been before Never.
Only I was a little worse for wear these days.
That damned woman had given me hope. Hope that I could have something I’d never even imagined I’d wanted. It’d been a foolish thing to dream of having her in my life, in my bed. At least, foolish to dream of it lasting any longer than it had.
Anger crawled up my spine when I thought of her leaving. I wasn’t angry with her for returning to her world. I’d known it was coming.
But Petra’s dirty trick riled me. Every time I replayed the scene in my mind, that flash of black slipping through with Never and her brother, fury rolled through me in a hot wave.
Even now, asI shoved my feet into my boots and fastened my cutlass to my side, I all but tingled with it. From my fingertips to my toes and back. I held up a hand and tried to flex the sensation away until the darkness of my drawn quarters became visible even through my palm. Slowly, the world around me started to change. Polished wood and the familiar scent of the sea were replaced by trees and shrubs, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in ages.
And the smell. I knew what the forest was supposed to smell like, and while that scent was present, it was overpowered by foreign fumes. The air shimmered around me. The ground beneath my feet ceased the steady dip and roll of a ship on the water.
“What the devil?” I whispered, planting my hand on the pommel of my cutlass and turning in a slow circle.
I was in a forest, all right, but unless I was mistaken, it was a forest inside a city.
A trio of females approached, all wearing tight-fitting clothes. They were running, but from their laughing and smiling, it didn’t look like they were running from anything. As they passed, one of them offered me a little wave.
“Great cosplay,” she said, flashing a bright white smile.
“What?” I asked, but they continued on their journey. I turned in another slow circle, taking in every detail of my surroundings. “Where the hell am I?”
Everything about the place felt foreign. The smells were too sharp, the sounds garbled under the weight of a persistent hum. Even the air felt wrong, like it was tainted.
Buried beneath it all, though, was the hint of something familiar. A gentle pull. My heart tripped over itself as the possibility of what that meant infiltrated my confused thoughts.
Am I in Never’s world?
Again, that tug deep in my being stilled my lungs, freezing my breath in my chest. “She’s here,” I whispered.
I spun again, trying to get a feel for which direction that pull was coming from, and when I found it, it took everything in my power not to run.
This world was unfamiliar ground for me, and if I truly was in the human realm, there was no telling what could happen. I couldn’t depend on my power here. And if the council of gods found out I was no longer manning my post in the Nassa, there would be hell to pay.
I couldn’t bring myself to care about that last bit. All that mattered was following the tug of my magic until it brought me to the only thing in all the worlds I truly wanted.
For hours, I wandered the unfamiliar streets. Once I finally got a handle on the scents and sounds, the horseless carriages, and the snickering humans who thought something about my appearance was amusing, I finally picked up on her scent.
The magic was enough to point me in the right direction, but she must have been on the move. I would turn a corner, thinking I would find her there, only to be pulled in a different direction a minute later.
It was maddening, and after what had felt like a lifetime of trying to get to this world to find her, my patience had officially run out.
I wanted to see her. Needed to feel her.
My only hesitation came from not knowing what I was getting myself into. How long had it been for her? Would she remember me? With the ache in my chest, I found it hard to even entertain the thought that she might not.
Unless our short time together hadn’t meant anything to her.
The thought doused my thoughts in ice water. I’d given her a piece of myself to get back to this wretched smelling place. A piece that should have tied her to me, assuming we had any kind of real connection. I was almost certain we did, but when two more hours passed, shrouding the unfamiliar city in darkness, her scent was becoming a distant memory. With every new street, it was drowned out by the overwhelming stench of hundreds of thousands of other humans.
I focused my attention on the power drawing me to her. Gods, I hoped it was drawing me to her. What if someone else had gotten their hands on that piece of me?
I shook my head. Even if that’d happened, I wouldn’t feel... this.
Countless steps and twists and turns later, I was standing in front of a towering structure that appeared to be made almost entirely of glass. A few squares of light shone from the countless windows lining its high-reaching exterior, but up wasn’t the direction my magic was telling me to go.
No, it was leading me to a set of metal doors being guarded by a man dressed in all black. A line extended down the alley, with at least a hundred people standing and chatting idly. Most of them wore clothes that glittered and shimmered even in the dim light of the streetlamps.
The women were especially dolled up, wearing heels that looked as though they could have doubled as weapons if used properly. Were they all waiting to go inside?
I approached the man standing guard. “I have a need to enter this establishment,” I said, taking a polite but firm tone, making it clear I was not to be trifled with.
The guard looked me up and down and chuckled. “You’re a few weeks late with that get up.”
My get up?I glanced down at my clothes, then at the others standing in line, and immediately understood the problem. What was it the woman in the forest had said to me?
“Cosplay,” I said, offering him my most confident smirk.
The guard smiled wide. “Fair enough. I’ve never met a woman who can say no to a pirate, but the sword has to stay with me.”
Fine by me. If it truly came down to it, I could inflict plenty of damage without it. I unbuckled the scabbard and handed it over. With that, he swung the door open and motioned me through, despite the grumbles of disappointment from those in the line.
The moment I stepped through the open door, I was accosted by music so loud it felt like a second heartbeat in my chest. It thumped through me, working its way up from the floor. The air itself seemed to shimmer with the sound. Beyond the music was a world of pulsing lights and moving people. Dozens crowded a bar where drinks were being served. Couples and groups of people mingled at tables and nestled in booths.
So many people.
But the pull of my magic was still strong and growing stronger with each step. Never was there, somewhere in the throng.
The music changed, flowing into something with a faster beat, and the group on the dance floor cheered. Their movements became almost animistic. Primal.
It was a vivid reminder of the parties my father had thrown before I’d been cast out to the Nassa; hedonistic orgies where ambrosia and sex ruled the night. Whether they knew it or not, these humans were partying like the gods.
The thought almost made me smile, until I spotted a familiar flash of unnaturally crimson hair. My breath caught in my chest. Never had her arms up, hands over head, her swirling and curling tattoos on full display.
The top she wore appeared to be held on by mere strings. Virtually nothing. And the way her hips swayed to the music brought my cock to full attention. Possessiveness surged in my veins, purging my mind of rational thought.
No one should get to see her like that. No one but me.
That was when I saw a man sidle up behind her, half blocking my view of her, and my blood reached its boiling point.
“Traitor.” The word came out on a growl so low it was unlikely anyone heard it over the music. Leo put his hands on Never’s hips and moved with her, and my world went black.
Of all the reasons I’d imagined for him to follow Never to her world, not once had I considered this.
My feet moved of their accord, drawing me through the crowd. Never’s back was to me as she danced, thankfully. I didn’t want her to see what I was about to do to her partner.
Then again, maybe she should see. Maybe she needed a lesson in just what it meant to be mine.
Another low growl rumbled out of me, and those closest to me on the dance floor moved out of my space. At the same time, Leo’s hand slid up, brushing across Never’s exposed midriff.
I could have ripped him away from her. Every bone in my body wanted to do just that, then cut him down and grind him to dust. Instead, I tapped his shoulder. He shook his head without looking, so I moved in close behind him, letting the jealous rage crackling beneath my skin take over.
“Leo.” I pitched my voice low enough that only a shifter or god could hear.
Before he could react, I reached around and gripped him by the throat, pulling my lips to his ear and digging my fingers into his flesh. “Get your hands off her.”
There was a moment where I thought he would fight me. A hesitation that made my blood sing for violence. Then he gave me a single slow nod.
“Now.” Again, he moved slower than my furious, impatient possessiveness demanded, but his hands eventually came up.
“It’s not what it looks like,” he whispered, too quiet for any of the mortals in the room to hear over the sensual thump of the music.
I didn’t care. Whatever it was, he had no business letting my woman move against him like that.
“Move.” It was the only word I could grind out that wasn’t a threat. Even so, it was a warning.
In another situation, Leo might’ve been cocky. He might’ve teased or tested me, but when he turned and saw the look in my eyes, he shook his head. “It’s not what you think.”
I could sense his arousal, even with the cacophony of overlapping sensations and energy assaulting me from every angle. He wanted her. That much was obvious.
What I couldn’t sense was anything from her. My magic had pulled me to this place, to her, but if she reciprocated any of the interest Leo had in her, I couldn’t feel it.
I studied him for another second. The urge to break him into a thousand pieces was still riding me hard, but I had more important matters to attend to.
“Move,” I said again, and this time, he did.
If Never noticed the change in energy, it didn’t show in her movements. Hell, it felt like half the dance floor was watching us and trying to make it look like they weren’t.
Leo leaned in, and I couldn’t help the sneer that curled my lips. “She had a rough day, Atlas, and she’s been drinking.”
He didn’t have to explain the rest. Maybe he’d only been dancing with her to keep anyone else from putting their hands on her. I wasn’t in a giving mood, but it seemed the universe saw fit to support that idea. Another male, several inches shorter than me, with long, mousy brown hair pulled up in a haphazard bun, had his hungry, hyena-like eyes on her.
I offered Leo a curt nod. It was the best I could do, given the swarm of emotions bombarding me. Fortunately, he took that small acknowledgment and moved away.
Stepping into the space he’d just occupied, I rested my hands on Never’s hips, just as he had. The hollow ache in my chest bloomed into something altogether breathtaking with the tiny bit of contact.
The man working his way toward her took one look at me and backpedaled. Smart move. If he tried to steal her attention after I’d spent gods only knew how long fighting my way back to her, it would not end well for him.
Never’s hips swayed and dipped. Her scent washed over me, making me feel drunk in a way my enchanted black rum never could. Drunk and all but blind with possessive anger.
She didn’t know I was the one putting my hands on her, or the one her luscious rear end was brushing up against as she moved. Did the woman truly not care who she was dancing with? Would she let any mongrel in this place put his hands on her?