Page 98 of Angel of Water & Shadow

“We are Night Stalkers.” Leif sidestepped around me and into my peripheral. “Born of shadow and darkness. We do not fear judgement for vengeance…”

Ryder’s muscles strained as he looked at me and also took in the words. For a split second I thought he might drop the weapon, as it slipped down his clammy grip. But something changed when he tightened his fingers. Setting his jaw, he brought tension back to the bowstring, the arrow once again aimed with deadly power. “For we have already fallen,” he finished.

“Wait!” I ventured a shaky step towards him. “Ryder, please, you don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, he does, River. He’s committed by blood.” Finis’s croaky, tuneless croon was the melody of a nightmare’s lullaby. “That’s a bond that can only be broken by completing the oath, or death. I don’t think he wants to die today.”

“Neither do I.” I spun just in time to see wispy shadows curling over her cadaver fingers. Leif sneered as I recoiled. My eyes darted between them.

“You don’t have to lie anymore. Not to us.” The translucent black tracers of energy thickened and spun around her hands. “We both know this is what you’ve really wanted. To meet the empty, thoughtless void where you no longer feel. If anything, I’m relieving you of that task.”

The grief and guilt and mental isolation had sunk their claws deep into me. So deep that at many points throughout my life I literally thought they might end me, those emotional scars just as tangible as the physical ones on my back. What I’d slowly come to realize was that I was honored to wear them. They were what made me…me.

Chin high, I stated, “Maybe I changed my mind.”

“Too late now.” Caught on the final syllable, the demon’s pitch dropped to a growl and reverberated into the esplanade. At first, I just thought it was me that was shaking. But then the path folded and split, a crack growing between my feet, pulling my legs outwards into a standing split. Before it could rip me in two, I sprung off one crumbling piece of cement and onto another, my knees once again breaking my fall.

Each beat of my heart hit my ribs like a mallet. Light flickered in the corner of my eye. As I turned to see what it was, the thousands of neon carnival bulbs blazed on and off, strobing so many colors it was impossible for my brain to process them all. My hands shot to my brows—a temporary shield, because then the soda dispensers flooded the food huts with the force of a dam that had blown, and my fingers covered my ears—but not for long. The ground beneath me shuddered and furled, gathering into a wave of cement, and my arms left my head, flailing about just to keep me from rolling over.

I knew what she was doing, exploiting my senses until it put them in overdrive, and I couldn’t do anything but cave to the episode.

Black spots crept into my vision as the sounds funneled into my nerves. I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t let her win; I wouldn’t let her win. My palms slapped the torn pavement.

Willing my lungs to work past the shock, I gulped down an inhale before the darkness stole my ability to breathe, Dr. Fairmore’s near-forgotten words coaxing me to focus on the expansion of my lungs. Redirecting every ounce of myself remaining, I exhaled and let the chaotic Source around me become something else entirely—the lawless momentum of the ocean that I craved and harnessed—and let its power wash over me.

The world came into focus as the blurry specks that shaded my vision started to retreat. Another wave of cement rolled beneath me. I faltered but made it to standing.

An unmistakable energy eddied in my gut and pulsated in my fingertips as an idea grew and took root around me: this undulation of rebar and rock was identical to a pumping morning at my favorite surf spot.

It gathered for another set: taller and faster, the blocks of stone bending beneath me. I whipped my head around, searching for something to use as an impromptu surfboard. A jagged steel sheet that must’ve been part of the top of a concession stand drifted by me.

Holding on to the vision of the ocean I’d mustered, I sprung after it. Using my core to steady me, I planted my feet between the corrugated grooves of metal and rode the fake swell like a sketchy reef break, headed straight for the demon.

Surfing the concrete, I whizzed past Leif. He attempted to mimic my footwork—and fell right on his ass. Even Ryder, someone so self-sufficient and strong, struggled to remain standing as a spray of rock fragments shattered atop his shoulders.

An unwelcome shock lacerated my heart as he yelped out in pain. My arms hesitated over whether to stay put at my sides or follow that twinge of emotion and reach out to him. But why would I try and save him after all he’d done to me? After finding out what and who he was?

Knowing full well he was willing to let me drown in the rubble…I still lurched forward and outstretched my hand as I rode the crest of the rocky wave past him. If I could get him next to me, I could hold him steady. Our fingertips brushed. In that half a second of contact, his eyes grew wide, shattering the darkness that had eclipsed their light. They flared a green so electric it stole my breath—I didn’t even have time to realize my hand had closed around the lapis pendant, not his calloused palm.

The second I touched it, it exploded in color, blooming with the hues of the open ocean. The tiny specks of silver-white embedded into the stone glistened like bioluminescence under the starry night. The last glimpse I got of Ryder before I spun to face forward was of concrete pellets raining onto his head. I didn’t have time to consider why he’d given me my necklace—why he didn’t grab me when he had the chance—as the gray wave curled towards the demon.

There was no time to channel whatever Source was tied to the necklace. I bent my knees, shifting my weight forward to gain some extra momentum, and dipped my shoulder, slamming it up as I hurtled into Finis.

A screech like a thousand hungry bats had taken flight penetrated the soundwaves. The impact reverberated through my bones, into my clattering teeth. I fell face-first into the trough of the wave, the metal slipping out beneath my feet as the broken cement crashed over me.

Chipped pieces of stone snuck into every crevice as it washed me almost fifty yards from where I’d made impact with Finis. When the swell slowed to a ripple, I hopped up and took shelter within the Pirate Ship’s exit, choking on the chalky dust. I peered between the railing’s orange support poles into the heavy cloud of debris, crouching and shading my eyes.

Someone—something—lurked by the gates on the opposite side of the courtyard. Finis, I surmised. Or maybe it was Leif and his perfectly coiffed man bun. Or had Ryder come to grips with what he’d done and come to retrieve what I’d taken?

I braced myself, fingers tightening around the metal. Except…none of the above was the perpetrator darting through the open square.

Their silhouette didn’t cast any evidence of extra limbs or pairs of horns. I sized them up, their wavy hair bouncing as they…tripped over their baggy cargo pants? As they tossed back the hood of their…Santa Cruz Skateboards sweatshirt?

This was no fiend at all.

“Psst! Javi!” I hissed from my hiding spot, flapping my hand to wave him over. The moon cast a glow over his half-open mouth and raised brows as he stepped through the destruction and made his way to me. “What are you doing here?”

“Heading to the coordinates you sent me.” He coughed on the ashy plumes that wafted in the air. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

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