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“That really all you got, glitter bitch?” Never laughed, though her voice was thready, and her head hung like she didn’t have the energy to hold it upright.
I moved closer as quickly and quietly as I could, only to draw myself up short when Never dragged herself to standing. A sick feeling swam inside me. The wound on her back ran all the way through her lovely chest, marring her top with a deep crimson stain that flowed down the front of her.
Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, and when she flashed her teeth at Anya, refusing to back down even when she must have been in a world of pain, they were tinted red as well.
“Enough!” I yelled, my voice booming through the stillness.
Anya fluttered backward wearing a challenge on her face, but in the blink of an eye, that challenge turned to shock. Because Never was there, grabbing her by her fluttering dress before spinning and shoving her onto a blood-soaked limb extending out from an ancient Ikesava tree.
The pixie’s scream echoed through the trees, pitched so high it made my eyes water. Disbelief and pain pinched her features. There had been a time, long ago, when I’d thought her beautiful. But after she’d revealed her true nature, she’d become no better than the monster she served.
A thread of satisfaction worked its way through me when I saw her seafoam green blood mixing with the shock of red at the end of that pale branch. The injury wouldn’t be enough to kill her, but it was a start.
Never stood in front of her, back heaving with labored breaths. And Anya, for the first time in our sordid history, looked truly terrified.
“You’re not…” she sputtered, far more focused on Never than her own injury.
“Not what?” Never bit out.
She threw a glance over her shoulder, just for a second, and all at once I knew exactly what had the devilish pixie shaking.
I’d done a fair job of convincing myself that I’d imagined that amber glow in Never’s eyes earlier, but the evidence I’d tried to dismiss the first time was right there. If that weren’t enough, the fact that the wound on her back was already closing on its own sealed the deal.
“Never?” I called to her quietly, hoping the forced calm in my tone would draw her attention.
She turned to look at me, her eyes glowing bright, but she didn’t seem to understand what was happening. A world of emotions churned inside her. That much was easy enough to see even without our connection.
“If you want her dead, you need to remove her wings,” I offered. As much as I wanted to take my vengeance on the pixie, perhaps Never needed it more than I.
Fury flickered across her expression just as shock rocked Anya’s.
“No!” Anya screeched, and in a thick plume of pixie dust, she vanished, taking half the tree with her.
Using that kind of magic when she was seriously wounded would have cost the pixie dearly. Wherever she ended up, she would be as weak as a day-old kitten, with no way to pull herself off that bloody branch, save for pure grit.
That was one advantage Never had over her. The woman, for all her mortal weakness, seemed to be made of the stuff.
What was left of the tree began to list. Its rotten, hollow trunk cracked as the weight of the thing shifted. Never didn’t seem to notice. She glared down at the empty spot until I came up behind her, caught her around the waist, and hauled her backward.
She didn’t fight. It was eerie the way she let herself be dragged. Once she was out of harm’s way, I came around to her side. “Love,” I said softly. “Look at me.”
When she turned, a mixture of outrage and confusion simmered in her expression.
“May I?” I asked, motioning to her shirt with a hand that appeared far steadier than it felt.
She blinked at me, her brow pulling together, until understanding dawned. Her chin dipped to her chest and her own hand came up to prod at the ragged hole in the fabric. “How did you…” The question trailed off, and when she looked up again, the amber was fading fast.
I thought I knew what that glow meant, but it shouldn’t have been possible. Dragging her back from the jaws of death was one thing. I’d risked angering the other gods to bring her back.
But a god sharing power with a mortal? That was something else altogether.
I’d never heard a single tale of a demigod accomplishing such a feat.
Never rolled her shoulders back, blinking quickly. “I thought I was done.” Her words were little more than a whisper.
Despite the dangerous new questions swirling in my mind, I couldn’t bear the space between us any longer. Or to see her looking so damned vulnerable. So, I closed the distance, catching her beautiful face in my hands and kissing her lips hard. When I pulled away, the faint, metallic taste of her blood lingered on my lips, but I didn’t care. She was okay.
So much better than okay.
