25. Hook
The shadow thrashed wildly in the cool water. It twisted and clawed, but I held fast, letting our combined weight drag us down. Thankfully, this part of the sea wasn’t dangerously deep, so I didn’t have to worry about Never’s fragile body being crushed by the weight of the water above us.
All I had to do was hold on long enough to wait out the invading shadow.
Was it a great plan? No, but it was the only one I could think of.
I was fairly certain that if the demon could have retracted itself from Never’s body, it would have already. Hence the pain and screaming. Which meant the only way to remove the shadow without another powerful demon to assist was for Never to die.
Briefly.
There were a hundred different ways for that to happen, but drowning, as sick as it sounded, felt like the safest option. Of course, that was assuming she only had to be dead for a matter of seconds for the creature to make its escape. Then I could bring her back.
I’d brought her back once before, the first time she’d been in my world. It would work again.
It had to work.
The breath I’d pulled in before plunging us both overboard burned in my lungs. With every second that passed, the shadow’s movements grew more frantic, jerking Never’s body this way and that.
That was torture enough, but I could also feel the woman trapped in her own head with that monster. I couldn’t tell if she understood what I was doing, but she was there, fighting a battle I couldn’t help her with, no matter how badly I wanted to intervene.
Finally, her movements slowed. With a final weak spasm, her body went limp, floating against me like a dead weight.
All part of the plan,I reminded myself, though the reassurance went only so far as I kicked my legs and propelled us up. We had just breached the surface when an inky substance began oozing from her eyes and mouth.
“William!” I yelled, no longer caring if my desperation rang through in my voice.
He peered over the railing. “Aye, Captain?”
“Clear the deck!”
“Aye, Captain.”
I didn’t want an audience when I brought us both back aboard. Before I did anything, however, I needed to be sure the shadow was gone.
My heart was in my throat. Every sharp, shallow breath I drew felt like a betrayal as I watched that disgusting darkness bleed out of her. Part liquid and part smoke from the look of it. It started as a trickle but grew quickly into a truly alarming flow, turning the sea around us the color of raging storm clouds.
Then that darkness coalesced and shot through the water toward the island, leaving not even a ripple in its wake.
As quickly as I could, I returned us to the deck. I laid Never down gently, placed one hand on her forehead and the other at the center of her chest, and dug inside myself for my healing magic.
It was there, ready and willing. Maybe I should have eased into it, but a new hollowness had opened inside me when I’d felt Never go still in my arms. A yawning emptiness that demanded action. So, I closed my eyes, focused my thoughts, and sent a river of power flowing into her body.
Except that power bounced right back at me like light striking a mirror.
“No,” I whispered. Opening my eyes and studying her face for even the slightest change, I tried again.
The same result.
“What did you do?” Leo croaked, dragging himself to his feet.
I glared his way, worry and helplessness turning to anger in a snap. “I should be able to rouse her.” Shifting my attention back, I reached up and eased one of her eyelids back, but there was no movement. No sign that woman I loved still existed in that body.
My heart ground to a stop. Had I taken too long?
He let out a growl that was decidedly less impressive in his human form, but I knew what he was feeling.
Helpless.
Hopeless.
I did it again and again, each time pouring more and more power into my efforts as my frustration with the universe compounded.
In a moment of pure desperation, I focused inward, gathering my power and strength, pulling every drop of it up from the depths of my being. That celestial energy burned inside of me as I used my mind and my will to condense it into a single, pure point of magic.
Casting a final plea to the stars, the fates, and anyone else who might be listening, I drove that energy into Never’s chest. The force of it cracked bones, a sickening sensation against my palms that made my stomach twist violently. I yanked my hands back on instinct, but the damage was done.
Either it would work, or it wouldn’t.
If I’d had to remember how to breathe in that moment, I would have failed. All my thoughts and energy, the whole of my immortal heart, were suspended in time.
Time that dragged on and on without a single change in Never. Her lids didn’t flutter. Her chest didn’t rise.
Guilt and dread already had their hooks in me, and with every moment that passed, they were swallowing me whole. I leaned in close, pressed my lips to hers, and whispered, “Come back.” It wasn’t a demand or an order. It was a plea from the most vulnerable depths of my soul.
Sitting on the deck beside her, I took her hand in mine and waited. And waited. Until her skin cooled and my hope withered. All the while, the reality of what I’d done gnawed at my insides.
After what felt like an eternity past, an icy breeze rolled across the deck, prickling my skin. I lifted my head to see Leo standing at the railing staring out across the water. When another wave of that chilly air—far too chilly for our enchanted tropical climate—swept across the deck, he turned.
“Something’s happening.” He sounded about as weary as I felt, because ‘something’ could mean anything.
The muffled sound of bone scraping across bone made my teeth ache and my heart leap to attention. Something moved inside Never’s chest. I set her hand down and eased back. I rolled to my feet, remaining in a crouch so I could keep a close watch on what was happening with her.
To her?
I’d been swimming in an ocean of worry and guilt—not to mention the selfish desire to keep Never by my side—trying to figure out what my next steps might be if my last gamble failed. What I hadn’t stopped to consider was the things that could go wrong if it succeeded.
Upon her death, her soul should have been shuttled to the Alius.
What if it was?
What if time there was like time here, where it didn’t move with the steady flow of the human realm?
What if she’d been trapped there for years in the few minutes (or had it been hours?) since I’d dragged her to her death?
What if she came back different?
Another shock of cold raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and I braced my hands on the wooden planks.
What if it wasn’t her at all? What if the power I’d used to bring her back to me had drawn something else from the Alius instead?
Fool.
I’d acted rashly, thinking with my heart rather than my head.
Just when I was losing faith, I felt it, the connection I’d forged with Never coming back to life. It was barely there. A whisper drowning in leagues of noise, but it sent excitement racing along my skin like electricity.
I eased a little closer, watching her face, her neck, everything, for even the slightest twitch.
“Do you see anything?” Leo asked from behind me. “Or sense anything?”
I threw a glance over my shoulder to tell him I didn’t know, but a feminine sigh set my nerve endings on fire before I could utter a word.
I whipped around. Never’s chest was once again rising and falling, rising and falling, in a smooth, steady rhythm. Her eyes moved lazily beneath her lids, and when they finally opened, my heart stopped. I wrenched myself to standing so quickly I nearly lost my balance.
It can’t be.
She blinked up at me in confusion. The energy now pulsing through our connection was all her, stronger than I’d ever felt her before. But her eyes…
Her hands flew to her head. She pressed her palms to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. Panic gripped my already tripping heart and tightened the vice a full, gut-wrenching turn.
“Never?” I asked, rolling my shoulders in preparation for… what? A fight?
What if part of the shadow still lingered? What if a different demon had taken its place?
On the heels of those questions, relief bled through me, and it was coming from her. When she blinked her eyes open again, they were that deep blue that had been seared into my memory so many months earlier.
Had I imagined it?
Perhaps the stress of the moment had gotten the better of me. That must be it.
Because there was no rational explanation for Never’s eyes to glow amber. Right?