Page 165 of By the Flames of Her Fury

Water surged higher, covering my mouth, but I forced my muscles to relax. Tears filled Tessa’s eyes. “No!” she screamed, reaching toward me with one hand. “Everett!”

The waves swallowed me. Cold, dark, and crushing.

I let go.

Shadows instantly surged forward. They flooded my veins like a second heartbeat, hungry and seeking after being kept at bay for so long. They unraveled me. My feet slipped to darkness, then my legs, my waist, my chest—all held together by tendrils of shadow. It was pain, but it was…hollow. Weightless. Eating away at my bones, my muscles, my magic, until there was nothing left to feel. Nothing to breathe or think or⁠—

You have to get Tessa.

The thought anchored me, keeping a piece of myself intact against the wraith’s hold. My shadow self slunk through the water and to the cave wall. Muscle memory told me to brace for impact, but I slipped right through the stone, as if it were air.

The world snapped into place when I came out the other side. Heat from nearby torches licked at the coldness surrounding me, shocking my senses.

Come on, Everett. Come back.

I fought against the shadowy infection, falling to my knees as I violently coughed up water. My knees…I could feel them again. My body was back, although shadows flickered in and out. “Get up,” I gasped to myself, water trickling from my lips. “Get up!”

Tessa was still inside. I rose and pressed a hand to the solid wall, concentrating on the shadows, and they answered once again. My flesh turned to dark wisps as it sank into the stone.

One more time, I said to the shadow wraith thrashing inside me. Let me return one more time.

Human and wraith merged as one, and I stepped back into the cave. Tessa clung to the wall by her claws, with only about a foot of space left before the entire chamber was submerged.

When she saw me emerge, the color drained from her face. “Ev?” she whispered, eyes wide in horror. “What happened to you?”

Shadows lashed out from my body. She leaned backward as I drew nearer. “Do you trust me?” I tried to say, but it wasn’t my voice. It was the grating, raspy voice of the shadow wraith.

Tessa blinked, then slowly nodded. I floated forward and wrapped my shadow self around her, willing the wraith’s magic to protect her. I drew her against me, fully swathed in darkness, and tugged her to the wall.

With a deep breath, I pulled her through. We melted into solid rock and collapsed to the ground. Tessa sucked in a breath, limbs cold and trembling.

“Ev?” she croaked.

I pushed against the infection with all my might, trying to force the shadows back into my skin. My hands—my real hands—flickered in and out of sight.

“What did you do?” Tessa urged.

I laughed weakly, but the sound was broken. “I got us out.”

Her eyes dropped to my legs, which were still encased in shadows. I couldn’t hold on much longer. The wraith had let me save her, but it was getting stronger by the second.

“No,” she murmured, her expression shifting from fear to grief. “You can’t⁠—”

“Find Vera,” I said, voice thinning. “Don’t—don’t let this be for nothing.”

The shadows climbed higher. I felt myself unraveling again, but this time, I couldn’t stop it.

Tears slipped down Tessa’s cheeks. “Find—Vera,” I rasped again. My vision went gray as Tessa stumbled down the path, looking back at me one last time. Everything went numb. The world faded as my body slipped into shadows, turning me into something else. Something made of darkness. Something that wouldn’t remember her. My Songbird. My…

Shadows around my mind tightened, taking my pain, my rage, my grief, my fear, and collapsing it into one final thought.

Hold on.

Just a little longer.

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Vera