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No, I most certainly was not. But having that part of my power restored changed the balance. If Never was still alive when I found her, I would take her to the only part of the Nassa where nothing magical could touch her.
“The eddy,” I repeated slowly, sinking into the fury bleeding from my bones. Then I closed my eyes and focused my mind on remembering how to use my power.
When I opened them, I was standing in the center of Petra’s camp. The Lost were gathered like sheep around the demon, but that wasn’t what made my breath catch as the scene coalesced in front of me. It was Never’s limp body dangling from the demon’s hand that brought my world to a standstill.
“Petra!” My voice echoed through the trees, jarring every one of the Lost out of their shared trance.
The two who were holding Leo’s bloody human body let him fall to the dirt, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted. The only thing that mattered was exacting vengeance on the demon and its twisted shadow.
Then Never’s foot jerked. She made a choking sound that made my heart both soar and plummet even as the demon’s lips split in a menacing smile.
“Put her down,” I commanded, throwing the full force of my power into the order.
Petra’s hand twitched and its eyes flew wide. It clearly wasn’t expecting to see me quite so soon, let alone with my power restored. Of course, a little surprise wasn’t enough to frighten such a creature.
She knew my abilities as well as I did.
I couldn’t project my powers like a warlock. I couldn’t control the seas the way my mother had or send wrathful bolts of lightning from the sky as Zeus had been so fond of doing. Most of my abilities were related to brute strength and proximity.
Instead of fighting my way through the Lost, who were creating a wall between me and Petra, I unsheathed my cutlass, focused my energy, and transported myself directly to the creature’s shoulder.
There was no time to waste with more words.
I brought my blade down in one powerful blow, severing its arm at the biceps and sending Never crashing to the ground.
Petra threw me off like a rag doll before I could make the leap on my own. The creature let out a horrific screech and lunged at me, swiping the deadly talons of its remaining hand wide. I dodged the fumbling blow with my heart racing from the adrenaline of the fight even as my eyes were desperate to sneak even the slightest peek at the woman lying unconscious on the ground.
I resisted that urge, using my worry and anger to take a swinging slice up when the demon lurched toward me again. My trusty blade gleamed black with its putrid blood when I opened a wound at least two feet wide across the creature’s chest.
It sent up another of those deafening, furious screams before lumbering into the trees, leaving a disgusting trail of foulness in its wake.
I should have followed it, sliced it into tiny, bite-sized pieces, and fed it to the sirens. Though I doubted even the sirens would touch something so rank.
But I had a much bigger immediate concern: Never wasn’t moving.
I’d cut the creature’s arm off strategically. It wouldn’t kill the creature, nothing would, but it’d been my best chance of saving Never from having her throat crushed or neck snapped. Or so I had hoped. It wasn’t a foolproof plan. One powerful twitch could have ended her life right there.
Worry and guilt flooded me as I hauled myself around and made my way closer to her.
Even from a short distance, and through the rush of uncomfortable emotions clouding my thoughts, I could see the slight rise and fall of her chest. That was promising.
Before I could so much as lay a finger on her, an angry growl bled into my awareness, and I caught movement in the corner of my eye. Several of the Lost had fled with their master, but a sacrificial contingent remained, intent on putting up a fight.
From the edge of my vision, an enormous, blood-soaked tiger launched at the batch closing in on us, and all hell broke loose.
Leo collided with three of those soulless men, sending all of them crashing to the ground. The others, dozens of them, closed in around me and Never like starving hyenas. I was on my feet and slicing with my cutlass, fighting to keep them at a distance, all the while trying to keep an eye on her.
If she died now, the shadow would be set free and Never’s soul would be pulled into the Alius.
I didn’t care about the shadow anymore, aside from finding a way to draw it out of her safely. When my back was turned as I was dispatching two more of those soulless husks, another moved in to attack.
I wheeled around, my blade dripping red with the blood of the hollow-eyed men I’d cut down, to see Leo fighting off the attacker. He had several large gashes marring the striped fur on his left side that were spilling an alarming amount of blood. But still he fought. After he’d ripped the throat out of the man who’d tried to attack Never, he threw me a look and dipped his head.
It was just a second, but I understood the apology all the same.
He hadn’t meant to hurt her earlier. His tiger was wild, and in truth, it had been the shadow attacking him. We both knew that. Fury was still rippling through me, driving me, but that small acknowledgement tempered the flames a touch.
After that, we moved as one, closing ranks around Never’s unconscious form and fighting off what was left of the Lost. Every now and then I would catch a flash of turquoise in the trees, but it was there and gone.
