Rain pelted his shoulders, and huge drops splattered into the sand. The storm was here, and it swirled his words around me like a vortex.
“The second you step into that water, I’m figuring out how to follow you.” His eyes locked on mine. “So you better come back unless you want me tearing apart an underwater kingdom. They’ll write poems about that, too.”
A laugh cracked in my throat. “You’d do it. I believe you.”
“First rule, Mare.”
The wind howled as he settled his hands on my shoulders and dropped his forehead against mine.
“Don’t kiss me,” I whispered. “If you do, I won’t leave. It’ll feel too much like goodbye.”
“Always asking me to do impossible things,” he murmured, pulling me in. His body shielded me from the storm, then he pressed a single kiss to the top of my head. I wasn’t sure what was rain or what was tears as I lingered. Just one second more.
Two.
I lost count.
Then I turned away before I could change my mind and faced the sea.
The clouds were black, igniting with flashes of lightning that split the sky and speared the horizon. This wasn’t right. The waves sucked sand from the shore, waiting to drag me under too. It felt like a trap.
The shard pulsed in my hand, responding to the magic in the air. And then the ground shuddered beneath my feet. Gusts of wind shrieked across the beach, the sound like a banshee rising from the depths.
But it wasn’t a ghost.
The sea witch.
She emerged from the waves, her black hair writhing like sea creatures in the gale. Salt spray clung to her skin. A silver and blue wrap tangled around her legs—legs that shimmered with the faint gleam of scales. Her taloned nails curled around a coral staff, capped with rough-cut amethyst crystals.
I stumbled back a step, my boots sinking into the wet sand. Tivara had felt me coming. She wasn’t going to let me leave this beach.
Her raspy voice rolled through me like a rising tide.Give me the shard, Marin. You’re not strong enough to return it to the sea queen.
The shard pulsed softly. I gritted my teeth.
Your curse is already claiming you. I can feel it. The sea queencan’t save you. No one can. You’re out of time.
My fingers tightened around my dagger. I spoke out loud, more to myself than to her. “I can still make it.”
No. You’ll die on this beach, and when you do, I’ll pry it from your cold fingers.
Tivara’s staff struck the water, unleashing a beam of violet light. And from the churning sea behind her, a figure rose. A hulking mass of coral and glittering minerals. The screams from the mines echoed in my ears. A nightmare come to life.
Salt-spiked chains clinked across its barnacled shoulders as it stepped onto the shore.
Gavin moved first.
He stepped between me and the waves, drawing his cutlass, eyes locked on the monster. Bowen flanked his left, the axe blade catching a flash of lightning. Cass drew her blade, her blonde hair snapping in the wind as she nudged me back a few more steps.
“You didn’t think you were doing this alone, did you?” Cass’s lips curled into a fierce smile. “This witch destroyed my family. I’ve been waiting for this.”
Chapter 47
Marin
The roar came first,inhuman and wreathed with the force of the sea. Rain lashed the air, soaking the beach as the creature charged, its massive limbs forged of coral and bone. A spiked chain swung in its grip, shrieking through the storm.
Gavin ducked. The chain sailed over his head as he lunged, sword flashing. The blade scraped against the creature’s coral leg, spitting sharp fragments into the sand.
