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Black eyes flashed with furious energy before the shadow got its bearings and made a dash for the railing.
“No!” I yelled, launching after it. I could not let that thing take her away from me. It would kill her.
I caught the shadow by the wrist and hauled it back. It spun and twisted, fighting like a hellcat with its tail on fire. It clawed with Never’s fingers and kicked with Never’s feet, but now that I was back to full strength, it was no match.
That should have been a victorious moment, and it might have been, were it not for the smirk that twisted Never’s lips and turned my blood cold.
Without warning, it tipped its head to the sky and released a scream that was half-demon and half-human. It startled the birds from the ship’s masts and drew half my crew out of their hiding places.
A mountain of pain was buried in that scream.
The sound sliced me open inside because it wasn’t just the demon pretending to be Never. Whatever hold it’d had on her that had prevented me from feeling her earlier was gone, and the wave of agony coming through our connection was enough to send me over the edge.
I whipped the creature around until its back was to my chest, its wrists pinned behind with one hand, and my other arm across its throat. “Stop. Now.”
The thing bucked ineffectively, spit out an inhuman snarl, and released another of those heart-wrenching screams.
“Leave her alone,” I commanded, desperate to make the pain stop, but afraid anything I could do would just make it worse.
Instead, more pain flowed into me. It was blinding, like the shadow was somehow shredding Never from the inside-out.
Or it was destroying her soul.
Only it wasn’t just her pain. She was fighting back. Beneath the agony, her determination was still there, weak but kicking.
I needed to help her before the shadow succeeded in causing more damage than I could heal, not that I’d ever had the power to repair a wounded soul. The problem was I had no way of helping. My healing magic would do nothing to drive the shadow out, and I didn’t possess the ability to separate the two.
It would kill her and set itself free, doing unspeakable damage to her soul in the process.
Unless I killed her first.
I shook my head. It was too risky. My power was back, but it still felt too fresh and entirely too raw.
Another wave of searing pain burned through our connection, growing stronger in time with another heart stopping scream.
It was too much. I couldn’t leave her in that kind of misery.
Gathering her up in my arms as best I could with the shadow still flailing about, I stood and headed for the railing.
“What are you doing?” Leo asked, his voice raspy as he fought to drag himself up.
“The only thing I can do.” I looked down at her face, twisted in pain. Her back bowed farther than I would have thought possible, and it was all I could do to keep my grip on her without breaking something. “Keep fighting,” I whispered.
Then I tightened my hold, pulled in a breath, and tipped us both over the railing into the pristine waters below.
25
HOOK
The shadow thrashed wildly in the cool water. It twisted and clawed, but I held fast, letting our combined weight drag us down. Thankfully, this part of the sea wasn’t dangerously deep, so I didn’t have to worry about Never’s fragile body being crushed by the weight of the water above us.
All I had to do was hold on long enough to wait out the invading shadow.
Was it a great plan? No, but it was the only one I could think of.
I was fairly certain that if the demon could have retracted itself from Never’s body, it would have already. Hence the pain and screaming. Which meant the only way to remove the shadow without another powerful demon to assist was for Never to die.
Briefly.
