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Never blinked at me, but gone were those feisty blue eyes and that snarky little smirk she wore so well. In the space of a few moments, mere seconds, the blue was replaced with inky black, and that smirk had twisted into a familiar sneer. All that was missing was the creature’s monstrous teeth.
“No,” I growled under my breath.
The shadow looked around the clearing like it was seeing it for the first time. When its gaze landed on the boy in the dirt behind me, it hissed.
Leo and Lily were still in their tiger forms, and the five of us formed a circle around Never.
“Can we do the spell again?” I asked. It should have been no different from pulling the shadow from Matty.
I dared a glance over my shoulder, but he was still unconscious. Considering the way his big sister looked at that moment, it was probably for the best.
Emerson and Theloneus exchanged a look.
“It won’t work,” Emerson said in a tone that left no room for argument.
“It’s the same spell, is it not?”
The shadow was ignoring us, choosing instead to study the scratched circle and the candles littering the dirt like nothing else in the universe mattered.
“We have a bigger problem,” Emerson said, pitching his voice low. “The amulet. She still has it.”
Dread slithered across my already raw nerve endings. He was right. It was there, dangling from her slender neck. It was as dull and dead as any other stone in this world, but it was only a matter of time before the shadow realized it was there. Once it did...
As though the thing heard that worrisome thought forming, it glanced down at the pendant. There was a chance it wouldn’t know how to use it. Hell, there was a chance it wouldn’t be able to do anything with it, period.
It reached up, turning the pendant in Never’s fingers. Then it glared directly at me. “Power.”
I felt a kick of rebellion rise up inside me, only it wasn’t coming from me. The creature’s eyes flashed from black to blue.
“Take it,” Never said. She sounded panicked, and she moved like she intended to yank the necklace free of her neck. Before the chain reached its breaking point, the shadow was back, clutching it in a white-knuckled fist.
It shook its head.
I stepped forward, and the thing shook its head again as it brought the blade in Never’s other hand to her throat.
Ice flooded every inch of me, turning my feet to stone. “Don’t.”
Please, don’t.I threw that plea out to the universe.
We both knew what would happen if the shadow killed her now. It would be pulled back to the Nassa, where I would make it my mission to make every remaining moment of our eternity together a living nightmare.
But Never would be dead, and her soul would be trapped in the Alius where I didn’t have a chance in hell of getting to her.
The shadow grinned, showing far more teeth than the woman it was holding hostage ever would. When I took another tentative step, it pressed the blade harder to her flesh, releasing a thin trail of blood that spilled down her neck. I stared in grotesque awe as that tiny stream of ruby liquid followed the path of the fine chain down to the only piece of me that mattered anymore.
My heart was tripping in my chest, thundering and racing, stopping and starting. Every cell in my body wanted to act, but one wrong step and that monster could ruin everything.
A fury unlike anything I’d ever felt burned through my better judgment in a flash. Even when I’d been cast into the Nassa and disowned by my father, the anger was but a whisper compared to the war chant drumming inside me.
“Let her go,” I commanded, throwing power into the booming order.
The creature faltered for a moment, then that evil grin spread wider.
“Let her go,” I repeated, feeding more power into the demand. “And leave this realm.”
The thing shook its head, and to my horror, the pendant started to glow.
No!
