24. Hook
“Get us as close to shore as you safely can!” I yelled to my men.
They were working as quickly as they could. Any fool could see that. That fact did little to quell the impatience eating at me. The ship moved like a tired slug thanks to a distinct lack of a breeze to help us along.
I tipped my head to the sky. Really? When I need help more than ever, this is how you respond? Shaking my head, I chastised myself for even bothering. The other gods—if they even still existed—wanted nothing to do with me.
So, I couldn’t help wondering if the fates were conspiring against me.
A fresh wave of pain bled through my connection with Never, turning my vision crimson. There was no way to tell where the pain was coming from or how serious it was. None of that mattered when every second that passed meant more of her blood was spilling in the dirt.
I needed to get back to the island.
And when I get there, Leo is dead.I shook my head, trying to clear the image of his enormous tiger pinning her to the ground. His claws…
More pain brought that image right back in full force, followed by a heart wrenching sense of acceptance.
Was she giving up?
“Faster!” I bellowed. Quitting was, unequivocally, unacceptable.
A new flurry of emotions and sensations trickled in. I didn’t even have time to parse them out before the pain reared its head again.
Rage was the only response my mind and body had to that sensation. The urge to stop Never’s suffering was the driving force behind it, but if I couldn’t have that, destroying anything that had ever given her so much as a sliver in her finger would fill the void.
Gripping the wheel at the helm until my knuckles paled, I glared at the island. Petra’s camp was halfway up the mountain. Even in broad daylight, I could pinpoint it without thinking.
From that spot, a flash of amber light shot up through the trees.
“What the devil?” The question was barely out of my mouth before a blast of power slammed into me.
The next thing I knew, I was staring up at William’s worried face, backlit by a perfect, blue sky.
“Captain? Good gods, man, you scared the life out of me,” he said, holding out a hand to help me up. “What was that?”
“No idea.” But that wasn’t entirely true. As I took a quick inventory of myself, I felt different. My chest and back tingled wildly at two familiar spots. “It can’t be.” I jerked myself up to sitting and yanked at my shirt. “My scar. Is it—”
Disappearing?
The evidence was right in front of me, but William’s wide-eyed stare said it all. In the space of a few quick seconds, it was gone. Only one thing could have healed that mark.
My power had been returned to me.
Pulling myself to my feet, my men inched back. I flexed my hands and tested the tired joints of my body to find they weren’t tired anymore. For the first time in centuries, I was whole. At least, in the physical sense. It felt like a miracle, until my brain caught up with what that change meant, and my newly whole heart cracked inside my chest.
The pendant had been destroyed.
Frantically, I searched within myself for that tenuous connection to Never, and I found nothing.
Not even a whisper.
The loss nearly pulled to my knees before my anger surged.
“Forget going to shore,” I growled. “Set course for the eddy.”
“Sir?” William asked hesitantly. “Are you okay?”
No, I most certainly was not. But having that part of my power restored changed the balance. If Never was still alive when I found her, I would take her to the only part of the Nassa where nothing magical could touch her.
“The eddy,” I repeated slowly, sinking into the fury bleeding from my bones. Then I closed my eyes and focused my mind on remembering how to use my power.
When I opened them, I was standing in the center of Petra’s camp. The Lost were gathered like sheep around the demon, but that wasn’t what made my breath catch as the scene coalesced in front of me. It was Never’s limp body dangling from the demon’s hand that brought my world to a standstill.
“Petra!” My voice echoed through the trees, jarring every one of the Lost out of their shared trance.
The two who were holding Leo’s bloody human body let him fall to the dirt, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted. The only thing that mattered was exacting vengeance on the demon and its twisted shadow.
Then Never’s foot jerked. She made a choking sound that made my heart both soar and plummet even as the demon’s lips split in a menacing smile.
“Put her down,” I commanded, throwing the full force of my power into the order.
Petra’s hand twitched and its eyes flew wide. It clearly wasn’t expecting to see me quite so soon, let alone with my power restored. Of course, a little surprise wasn’t enough to frighten such a creature.
She knew my abilities as well as I did.
I couldn’t project my powers like a warlock. I couldn’t control the seas the way my mother had or send wrathful bolts of lightning from the sky as Zeus had been so fond of doing. Most of my abilities were related to brute strength and proximity.
Instead of fighting my way through the Lost, who were creating a wall between me and Petra, I unsheathed my cutlass, focused my energy, and transported myself directly to the creature’s shoulder.
There was no time to waste with more words.
I brought my blade down in one powerful blow, severing its arm at the biceps and sending Never crashing to the ground.
Petra threw me off like a rag doll before I could make the leap on my own. The creature let out a horrific screech and lunged at me, swiping the deadly talons of its remaining hand wide. I dodged the fumbling blow with my heart racing from the adrenaline of the fight even as my eyes were desperate to sneak even the slightest peek at the woman lying unconscious on the ground.
I resisted that urge, using my worry and anger to take a swinging slice up when the demon lurched toward me again. My trusty blade gleamed black with its putrid blood when I opened a wound at least two feet wide across the creature’s chest.
It sent up another of those deafening, furious screams before lumbering into the trees, leaving a disgusting trail of foulness in its wake.
I should have followed it, sliced it into tiny, bite-sized pieces, and fed it to the sirens. Though I doubted even the sirens would touch something so rank.
But I had a much bigger immediate concern: Never wasn’t moving.
I’d cut the creature’s arm off strategically. It wouldn’t kill the creature, nothing would, but it’d been my best chance of saving Never from having her throat crushed or neck snapped. Or so I had hoped. It wasn’t a foolproof plan. One powerful twitch could have ended her life right there.
Worry and guilt flooded me as I hauled myself around and made my way closer to her.
Even from a short distance, and through the rush of uncomfortable emotions clouding my thoughts, I could see the slight rise and fall of her chest. That was promising.
Before I could so much as lay a finger on her, an angry growl bled into my awareness, and I caught movement in the corner of my eye. Several of the Lost had fled with their master, but a sacrificial contingent remained, intent on putting up a fight.
From the edge of my vision, an enormous, blood-soaked tiger launched at the batch closing in on us, and all hell broke loose.
Leo collided with three of those soulless men, sending all of them crashing to the ground. The others, dozens of them, closed in around me and Never like starving hyenas. I was on my feet and slicing with my cutlass, fighting to keep them at a distance, all the while trying to keep an eye on her.
If she died now, the shadow would be set free and Never’s soul would be pulled into the Alius.
I didn’t care about the shadow anymore, aside from finding a way to draw it out of her safely. When my back was turned as I was dispatching two more of those soulless husks, another moved in to attack.
I wheeled around, my blade dripping red with the blood of the hollow-eyed men I’d cut down, to see Leo fighting off the attacker. He had several large gashes marring the striped fur on his left side that were spilling an alarming amount of blood. But still he fought. After he’d ripped the throat out of the man who’d tried to attack Never, he threw me a look and dipped his head.
It was just a second, but I understood the apology all the same.
He hadn’t meant to hurt her earlier. His tiger was wild, and in truth, it had been the shadow attacking him. We both knew that. Fury was still rippling through me, driving me, but that small acknowledgement tempered the flames a touch.
After that, we moved as one, closing ranks around Never’s unconscious form and fighting off what was left of the Lost. Every now and then I would catch a flash of turquoise in the trees, but it was there and gone.
If Anya had even half a brain left in her misguided head, she would steer clear of me for the rest of eternity. The pixie had gotten the better of me once. She would not get another chance. And if she tried anything with Never?
Well, she would get a one-way ticket to join the rest of her kind in the afterlife.
A feminine groan filtered through the melee, sending a jolt of electricity through me. I dared a quick glance over my shoulder.
It was coming from Never. She wasn’t awake, but relief trickled through me all the same.
In that split-second of distraction, one of the Lost darted forward. He drove his rusty blade into my middle, burying it clear to the hilt. The sensation was six kinds of sickening, though I had a feeling the searing pain was an echo of what I would be tortured with if I let Never die.
Glaring back into the man’s empty grin, I caught him by the wrist before he could pull back, and yanked him as close as the hilt of his sword would allow. “Poor form, old boy,” I ground out, jamming my cutlass into him.
He let out a gurgled scream, and I shoved him off, yanking my blade free as I did. Pulling his disgusting sword from my middle took a little more effort, but the wound healed in seconds.
I stared for a beat. I’d forgotten what it was like to have every ounce of my power at my beck and call.
A whimper drew me around. Never stirred, but she still wasn’t fully conscious. It was then that I realized the sound had come from Leo.
For as angry as I’d been with him, seeing him like that, his majestic tiger staggering, struggling to hold himself up from multiple injuries and blood loss, all of my ill will drained away. The remaining Lost hovered without attacking, and I used their hesitation to drop to my knees. I placed one hand on Never, the other on Leo, closed my eyes, and directed the whole of my energy to the deck of my ship.
A cool breeze washed over my heated face, and I knew I was home. Shouts and orders from William and my other men bounced across the deck as Leo collapsed on the wooden planks in a heap of fur and blood. I stepped over Never, wishing like hell she would open her damned eyes.
She didn’t, but at least she was breathing.
Cursing the universe, I moved around into Leo’s line of sight. He was fading fast, eyes blinking slowly like he was having trouble focusing on me. And William was there, my trusty first mate, awaiting orders.
“Bring me something to cover him,” I said, casting a quick nod in William’s direction. Then I knelt in front of the exhausted shifter. “You’re not getting that off easy.”
I meant it as more of a taunt than a threat, but when another whimper shuddered out of him, even the good-natured ribbing I’d hoped would perk him up died on my tongue.
“Hang on, old friend,” I said softly. Placing my hands over the worst of the wounds, I found that thread of healing magic buried deep within me and let it pour from my hands into him.
The gashes should have been fatal, digging deep into his side, past muscle and through bone, damaging his vital organs. And yet, his body resisted my help.
“Stubborn cat,” I muttered under my breath.
Most shifters could heal on their own. There was something special in the magic of the transformation, but with how much blood he’d lost, it would be a miracle if he didn’t get stuck mid-shift and die in agony.
I pushed harder, forcing my magic instead of letting it flow on its own, and felt the moment his tiger finally quit fighting me.
“That a boy.” I eased back and let the healing fall into a steady flow.
After only a few moments, his body began to shift on its own.
“William?” I called, my gaze skipping from Leo’s closed eyes to Never’s slack features and back.
My first mate draped a light wool blanket over Leo’s changing form. “Should we move him, sir?”
I shook my head. “Not just yet, but gather some clothes for when he wakes, would you?”
“Of course.”
Reaching down, I laid the back of my hand on Leo’s now human head. It was a touch warm, which was a good thing. It was a sign his body was healing on its own. Which meant there wasn’t any more I could do for him.
So, I moved back to Never. The deck of the ship was quiet. Most of my men had found other pressing matters to attend to that didn’t involve getting in my way, and I was grateful for the space.
I lowered to my knees on the other side of Never. Her eyes moved beneath her lids, perhaps caught in a dream, but that was all the evidence I was given that she was still with me. Well, that and her rapid breathing.
Laying my hands over her neck and chest, I released a tiny flow of my power into her to check for damage I couldn’t see. The moment my magic touched her, however, she jerked hard, wrenched upright, and shoved me back as she climbed to her feet.
Black eyes flashed with furious energy before the shadow got its bearings and made a dash for the railing.
“No!” I yelled, launching after it. I could not let that thing take her away from me. It would kill her.
I caught the shadow by the wrist and hauled it back. It spun and twisted, fighting like a hellcat with its tail on fire. It clawed with Never’s fingers and kicked with Never’s feet, but now that I was back to full strength, it was no match.
That should have been a victorious moment, and it might have been, were it not for the smirk that twisted Never’s lips and turned my blood cold.
Without warning, it tipped its head to the sky and released a scream that was half-demon and half-human. It startled the birds from the ship’s masts and drew half my crew out of their hiding places.
A mountain of pain was buried in that scream.
The sound sliced me open inside because it wasn’t just the demon pretending to be Never. Whatever hold it’d had on her that had prevented me from feeling her earlier was gone, and the wave of agony coming through our connection was enough to send me over the edge.
I whipped the creature around until its back was to my chest, its wrists pinned behind with one hand, and my other arm across its throat. “Stop. Now.”
The thing bucked ineffectively, spit out an inhuman snarl, and released another of those heart-wrenching screams.
“Leave her alone,” I commanded, desperate to make the pain stop, but afraid anything I could do would just make it worse.
Instead, more pain flowed into me. It was blinding, like the shadow was somehow shredding Never from the inside-out.
Or it was destroying her soul.
Only it wasn’t just her pain. She was fighting back. Beneath the agony, her determination was still there, weak but kicking.
I needed to help her before the shadow succeeded in causing more damage than I could heal, not that I’d ever had the power to repair a wounded soul. The problem was I had no way of helping. My healing magic would do nothing to drive the shadow out, and I didn’t possess the ability to separate the two.
It would kill her and set itself free, doing unspeakable damage to her soul in the process.
Unless I killed her first.
I shook my head. It was too risky. My power was back, but it still felt too fresh and entirely too raw.
Another wave of searing pain burned through our connection, growing stronger in time with another heart stopping scream.
It was too much. I couldn’t leave her in that kind of misery.
Gathering her up in my arms as best I could with the shadow still flailing about, I stood and headed for the railing.
“What are you doing?” Leo asked, his voice raspy as he fought to drag himself up.
“The only thing I can do.” I looked down at her face, twisted in pain. Her back bowed farther than I would have thought possible, and it was all I could do to keep my grip on her without breaking something. “Keep fighting,” I whispered.
Then I tightened my hold, pulled in a breath, and tipped us both over the railing into the pristine waters below.