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The fog usually came with a better warning.
Roman screeched his car to a stop by the harbor and got out. He sprinted down the closest staircase that led to water level, thumped down the rain-drenched steps, and slowed when he got to the docks. He scanned the harbor, knowing he only had seconds—minutes, at best—to get the hell out of the fog.
Out on the choppy water was a single boat. A girl steered it, her long, strawberry-blonde hair whipping behind her in the wind. The boat rocked relentlessly, pitching her from side to side.
A serpentine back lined with cerulean spikes snaked in and out of the water. The great serpent was surrounding the boat—pushing it away from the docks and slamming into the bow hard enough that it nearly capsized.
“Shay!” Roman’s voice shredded his throat. He hurtled out onto the dock, boots thumping on the wet wood. It had stopped raining, but the fall of night had brought lower temperatures that semi-froze the dock. It was treacherous, and the wind chill at fifty miles per hour burned his skin and made his eyes water.
“Perfect timing!” she called. She steadied herself against the wheel as the serpent slammed into the boat again. “This bloody thing won’t leave me alone!” She tried to make it sound like a joke, but Roman had spent enough time with her to detect the edge in her voice. She was scared as hell—and rightfully so.
He thudded to a stop at the end of this stretch of dock—the longest stretch. He thrust a hand out, the sharp movement pushing his magic outside of his body. It stretched like an elastic, and he willed it not to snap.
He could feel his power as if it were an extension of himself, so he could sense when it wrapped around the serpent like ropes. Roman swept his magic out wider, casting it out like a fishing net. The monster’s howl of defiance rumbled the ocean. It bucked and flailed, spraying water—
Roman swept his hand down and bent his knees, the action pulling the serpent deeper into the waves. “Hurry!” he gritted out.
He pushed himself back up, his magic confining the serpent to the ocean floor. Despite the cold, he was already sweating—and his magic would only last so long before the serpent snapped the restraints.
Shay drove the boat to the dock and leapt out. Her shoe slipped on the wet edge, and she nearly fell into the water.
Roman’s hands closed around her arm, and he pulled her the rest of the way. She collided with him, her cheek glancing off his chest.
“What are you doing here?” she panted, tossing her damp hair out of her face. “Roman, I don’t have the necklace with me—”
“That’s not why I’m here. I’m here for you.”
It was hard to hear the civil defense sirens over the howling wind, but her eyes widened the moment her ears picked up on them.
“Oh my god, Roman! It’s a fog warning.”
“I know.” He grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. “We need to get out of here.”
They ran down the dock, the soles of their boots fighting for purchase on the sparkling frost. The water here was deep by human and immortal standards, but the serpent was too big to go after them. It disappeared into the ocean with one final lash of its scaled tail, its bellow tearing across the water as powerfully as the wind.
They were almost there when fog swallowed the dock. They couldn’t see anything but an opaque white cloud and distant, murky silhouettes.
“Shit, shit—Roman! I can’t see.” Shay gripped his hand like a vise; her fingers were cold and stiff.
“I know, I can’t either. Keep going—don’t slow down.”
A shape appeared up ahead. A monstrous mass of a body.
Roman slowed.
Shay skidded to a stop beside him. Her boot slipped out, her free hand coming up to grab his arm.
Roman shook his head, not wanting to believe his eyes as the monster with the whip-like tail and spikes all over its back prowled along the shore.
It was the same thing that had attacked them in the Facility. The same thing that had nearly killed him.
Roman whispered, “Oh fuck.”
Shay felt like she had no blood in her head as she stared at the creature pacing by the dock. Waiting for them. That smooth, skull-like head. That grotesque body with skin that looked more like dry bone. Those beastly feet and claws.
“We’re going to have to use my illusion again,” she whispered. She rallied it, her eyes turning as black as the monster’s.
“Shay, that barely lasted two minutes last time, and I’m parked up there.” Roman pointed. It would take them longer than two minutes to get there, even at a breaking run—even with a hellseher’s speed.
