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29
HOOK
I shook her limp body again, but there was no response.
“Not like this.” I reached inside myself, searching for the reservoir of power I knew was there. All I needed was the tiniest thread to guide me.
What if I really had lost my connection to it entirely?
That wasn’t possible, was it? Power like that didn’t just evaporate. Yes, it had lain dormant for centuries. At least. But it couldn’t just be gone.
Something in my chest twisted painfully and I tried again, digging deeper. I clawed through the endless years I’d spent wandering these waters, finding my way back to the last time I’d used it.
Nothing.
“Come on,” I whispered, pulling Never’s body closer, holding her head against my chest. “Come back to me.”
It was just a twinge, a tiny, fleeting thing, like a word you couldn’t remember dancing on the tip of your tongue, but I was sure I felt… something. When her hand twitched at her side, I forgot how to breathe.
Had she felt it too?
Leaning down so my lips barely brushed her ear, I tried again, silently pleading with the universe as I did. “Come back, Never.”
I was rewarded with another tiny surge and another barely perceptible twitch.
Shecouldhear me, or sense me. I didn’t really care which, so long as she kept fighting. I gathered her up in my arms and when her eyelids fluttered weakly, my heart swelled. It was a familiar sensation, like a growing warmth that started deep in my chest and radiated out, seeping into my bones and coursing through my veins until every cell in my body was filled with it.
Her neck was soft against my lips, her skin delicate and sweet even with the sheen of saltwater. I kissed her gently just below her jaw and channeled every ounce of power I could dredge to the surface into the command. “Wake up.”
Seconds tick by and nothing happened. No reaction at all. I was nowhere near full power, but no ordinary mortal had ever possessed the will strong enough to disobey that kind of command, even in my diminished state.
But Never was far from ordinary.
She wasn’t the kind of woman who responded to orders, even when it was in her best interest. Did that rebelliousness extend even to her unconscious mind? The woman had a will of iron, if that iron had been forged in the fires of hell and quenched in the blood of gods. So yes, it probably did travel with her in every state of her being.
I kissed her neck again and tried to coax her with a whisper, “Please, you frustratingly stubborn woman, please come back to me.”
When I pulled back, a soft moan slipped through her lips. Her hand found my arm around her waist and her cold fingers wrapped around my forearm. The contact, her response, only made the warmth in my chest burn hotter. Her sweet lips twisted into a grimace and her whole body vibrated against me.
Heat built on itself, compounding until my skin stretched uncomfortably tight across my muscles and it felt like flames were crackling across the surface. It’d been too long. I counted myself lucky to reconnect with my source power at all, given everything, but I felt another small issue developing.
I wasn’t entirely sure I remembered how to control it.
Which meant this could go very badly, very quickly.
I pushed her away, trying to put some distance between us, but it was already too late. A surge of power pulsed from me and slammed into her. Her back arched and her body twisted. It was all I could do not to lose my grip and send her tumbling to the concave floor of the skiff. I had about one second of terror wondering if that blast had succeeded where the wretched pixie had failed before Never’s eyes snapped open and locked on mine.
Relief flooded her features, but in a blink, it was replaced by a fury so raw it was devastating.
She shoved at my smoldering chest with such force that I actually did let her go that time. She fell backward, landing on her butt in the bottom of the boat with a defiant little thump, and a sound I’d never heard before rode the night air to me.
“Did you just growl at me?” It was nothing short of adorable, and I clenched my jaw to hide the smile threatening to curl my lips, despite everything.
She opened her mouth, no doubt to fire off some feisty retort, but before she uttered a single syllable, her eyes flew wide. She scrambled sideways, wrenching herself up and leaning out over the edge. Her body heaved and bowed violently as her system purged the seawater she’d inhaled.
Gods, it looked painful. I inched over and reached out to run a reassuring hand down her back, wincing as another silent retch contorted her torso. When it passed, she batted my hand away. It was a weak effort, and I disregarded her protest, pressing my palm between her shoulder blades instead and letting a wisp of my power pulse gently into her.
After a few seconds, the tension drained from her body and she turned, sinking back against the side of the skiff with her eyes closed. She let out a bone-tired sigh and laid her cheek against the sealed wood.
