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We were sharing a body, and in some ways, even a brain. But everything that came through from that evil oil slick was primitive. The thing could barely form coherent words. Actual sentences? That was out of the question.
Oh, but I could feel it. Its intent came through loud and clear.
Destruction.
That was the name of the game for Petra’s shadow. Well, that and reuniting with its demon host. Which it was about half a second away from getting to do, if Leo had any say in it.
His snarling face lowered to within an inch of mine. I could smell his strange feline breath as his snarl buffeted my skin, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t do a damned thing about it.
Pain surged as his weight on my chest increased to the point that I didn’t dare let out the tortured scream building inside me. If I did, I would never draw another breath.
Would that really be so bad?
I’d done my job, hadn’t I? The shadow wasn’t inside Matty anymore, and I was pretty sure Lily hadn’t made the trip back to the Nassa with us. That meant she was still in my world, and I was sure she would stick around and take care of him until he figured out how to take care of himself.
In fact, she would probably stick with him even after that, because that was the kind of companion she was. Only ‘companion’ didn’t really fit anymore, did it?
Friend?Getting closer.
Sister?Nailed it.
That was the kind of sister she was. Blood ties be damned.
The fucking shadow cackled at that thought.
I swear to all the gods, if I ever get my hands on you…
But I would have to live to make good on any threat I threw at it now. A surge of fury hit me, filling me up from the inside. Weirdly, that raw, angry energy wasn’t mine, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from latching onto it and riding the wave.
I felt a kind of opening in my mind, a chance to take control. Shoving my hips off the ground as hard as I could, I managed to plant one foot firmly on the ground, then I kicked up with the other. It was really anyone’s guess if racking a tiger would have the same effect as kicking a guy in the nuts, but either way, it was enough to knock Leo off balance.
Off balance led to surprise, and surprise to recognition.
A split second later, those claws retracted from my flesh and his weight was gone. I squeezed my eyes shut, wheezed out the foul air burning my lungs, and shoved back against the shadow’s next attempt to regain control as I sucked in as much fresh air as my body would allow.
It was not impressed. For all the fun it was having in my body, it hated that it was limited by the fundamentals of human life. Namely, the fact that I needed oxygen. It didn’t care about breathing or life.
Destruction was the drum beat of the shadow’s existence, its purpose.
Destruction and power.
It’d been hiding the power bit from me earlier. That or I hadn’t noticed that detail in the red sea of pain my mind and body had become.
I rolled to my side, swallowing back a groan at the pain pulsing from the four puncture wounds in my chest. That inky bastard tried to retake control in that moment of weakness, but I dug my fingers into the dirt, clenched my teeth, and shoved it back again.
All that did was piss it off more.
Welcome to the club, asshole.
A new thought filtered in through the chaos. The thing wanted me dead. It didn’t want to be trapped in a human body anymore.
Trapped.
Eureka.
If this realm was anything like mine, the shadow was stuck with me until I died. That alone would have been enough incentive for me to live for-fucking-ever, but its unchecked base urges kept circling back to power.
With my body and my blood—and all the damned time in the universe—what were the odds it would eventually figure out how to access the magic of the pendant?
