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The shadow cast a curious glance down at the blade protruding from his middle. The same blade the creature had stabbed me with just a few weeks earlier. In a movement too quick for my brain to process, it yanked the blade free and hurled it at Lily.
“No!” I lunged.
Too late.
Her cry of pain bounced off the walls. She fought to pull the blade out of her already mangled shoulder. “Goddamn, that burns.” The blade hit the ground again as I rushed to put myself between them. The thing hiding in my brother would have to go through me before it got another shot at her.
But he was gone. Not like running down the sidewalk in retreat, either. Actually gone.
I scanned the street in front and behind us, letting my gaze trail up the walls and trace the lines of the rooftops, just in case. But there was nothing.
“How the hell did he do that?”
An angry growl sounded from behind me, and I turned to find a full-grown tiger crouching in the place of Lily.
“Oh, fuck me.” I grabbed the amulet around my neck.
Could I catch a single fucking break? Just one. Or had I offended the universe so deeply that it saw fit to thwart me at every turn?
Tiger Lily stalked forward, a low growl rumbling from her.
Of all the thoughts that should have filled my mind—like wishing for help, or for the universe to turn Lily back into a woman, or to bring my brother back without that fucking shadow camping out inside him—the only thought in my head was of Hook. His amber eyes and dark hair. His fucking smirk that I would never forget, no matter how hard I tried. Even the look of fury on his face when he’d charged into his room just before I’d landed in my living room.
I missed everything about him, and a weak, heartbroken part of me just wanted to run into his arms and pretend my life wasn’t falling apart.
Warmth spread through my palm, and when I dared a glance down, that goddamned glitchy pendant was lit up like a jar full of fireflies.
8
HOOK
My head throbbed, an unwelcome side effect of the enchanted rum I’d drunk the night before. I’d lost count of the days that’d passed since Never had left my world and I’d discovered the demon’s shadow had followed her on the trip.
Months had passed. Possibly years.
I wouldn’t admit to myself that I’d given up, but I’d been dead in the water for too long. I’d tried everything, every option I could think of, and nothing had worked. Even with my power, I couldn’t summon a portal or flash myself anywhere.
I sat up in bed, cursing the hangover that would no doubt plague me the rest of the morning. In truth, my black rum hangover was becoming my constant companion, much as it had been before Never.
Only I was a little worse for wear these days.
That damned woman had given me hope. Hope that I could have something I’d never even imagined I’d wanted. It’d been a foolish thing to dream of having her in my life, in my bed. At least, foolish to dream of it lasting any longer than it had.
Anger crawled up my spine when I thought of her leaving. I wasn’t angry with her for returning to her world. I’d known it was coming.
But Petra’s dirty trick riled me. Every time I replayed the scene in my mind, that flash of black slipping through with Never and her brother, fury rolled through me in a hot wave.
Even now, asI shoved my feet into my boots and fastened my cutlass to my side, I all but tingled with it. From my fingertips to my toes and back. I held up a hand and tried to flex the sensation away until the darkness of my drawn quarters became visible even through my palm. Slowly, the world around me started to change. Polished wood and the familiar scent of the sea were replaced by trees and shrubs, the likes of which I hadn’t seen in ages.
And the smell. I knew what the forest was supposed to smell like, and while that scent was present, it was overpowered by foreign fumes. The air shimmered around me. The ground beneath my feet ceased the steady dip and roll of a ship on the water.
“What the devil?” I whispered, planting my hand on the pommel of my cutlass and turning in a slow circle.
I was in a forest, all right, but unless I was mistaken, it was a forest inside a city.
A trio of females approached, all wearing tight-fitting clothes. They were running, but from their laughing and smiling, it didn’t look like they were runningfromanything. As they passed, one of them offered me a little wave.
“Great cosplay,” she said, flashing a bright white smile.
