Page 99 of Angel of Water & Shadow

Oh my God, he wasn’t supposed to actually come. I was going to grab him, no, scream at him, no, knock every bit of sense into him.

“I’m fine.” I ignored his wide eyes that tracked the coating of dried dirt, blood, and dust caking my clothes and skin. “But what are you doing here?” I waved my hand and gestured to the Boardwalk, frantically scanning for the foes that seemed to have shrunk into the shadows. It wouldn’t be long before they attacked again.

“I’m cutting through, so I don’t get in trouble for wandering the streets at midnight. Same as you’re doing, I think?” Javi’s gaze roved over me once more, and then at the uprooted walkway. “It looks like a bomb went off in here. What happened? Where’s security?”

Pulling myself to standing, I jumped over the railing. My knees locked, but Javi caught me by the waist before I could tumble to the ground. Without hesitation I wrapped my arms around him and brought him so close there was no space between us. The hug was brief, but so long overdue I almost didn’t let go, even if he didn’t squeeze back until the very last second.

Retreating to arm’s length, I gripped his elbows as I spoke. “Listen to me, Jav. You need to get out of—” A tremor rumbled through the earth and stopped me short.

“What the deuce?!” Javi swiveled around. “What was that?”

“I—” The words got cut off as an invisible force clamped my jaw shut. My fingers shot to my mouth, nails scraping against my lips as I fought to pry them open. My nostrils flared and my breathing grew more frantic as I tried to hum what was happening to me.

“River? Are you okay?” He searched my wild stare. “What’s going on?”

A figure came into view across the ravaged concourse, smoky shadows trailing it like wings. Finis stopped under a moonbeam and drew a finger so broken it bent the other way to her puckered lips. Shhh.

With a frenzied shake of my head, I rose my hands to point and try to warn Javi, but that same force compelled them to my sides, as if they’d been tied with invisible string. He pulled at me now, trying to untwist me, shouting for help I knew wouldn’t come.

The darkness that followed the demon broke off into tendrils that coasted over the ground like a fog. Moving with unbelievable swiftness, they wrapped around my legs, my neck, my forehead…Tears splashed my cheeks as my frustration built and shadowy bands of pressure cut off my thoughts. Fresh laps of agony coursed through my body. I couldn’t even open my mouth to cry. I couldn’t hear past the brutal pounding in my ears, couldn’t see past the sharp ache in my temples.

I was lost to the pain. I’d forgotten where and who I was—who was tugging at my hands, who was snapping their fingers, who was flapping their arms right in front me. Their brown—or were they green?—eyes looked so familiar, creases pulled down by the heavy weight of sadness.

They said something—what? Intuition fluttered in my chest but…the shackles of shadow tightened. So, I didn’t know. The world wasn’t making sense, only the torment was.

I became the pain, and it became me.

Light flared so bright it was all I could see. I squinched my eyes shut to escape it. When the flash subsided, and the silhouettes stopped dancing behind my lids, I opened them and stared at the mess of the courtyard: the shattered glass, the flattened walls of a game stall, the mangled wood of a ride. Someone lay atop the wreckage, their body limp, limbs splayed with an almost…peaceful look on their face. They could have been mistaken as dreaming.

The fog lifted from my brain, and I suddenly understood everything that had happened when I went blank.

Javi.

“No!” Every single ounce of oxygen inside me rushed out in a bawling gasp. Whatever demonic spell bound my arms and legs released, and I dropped to the floor.

“That wasn’t very nice of you to take the necklace.” Finis’s shadow fell over me, and it felt like I’d been trapped beneath the ice of a frozen lake. Goosebumps erupted and brought full-body shivers. “Where is it? Give it back. Please.”

Her guess was as good as mine. It’d somehow left my hand, and my leggings didn’t have pockets, and my jacket felt far too light. In fact, I was pretty sure my phone had dropped out at some point and was another casualty of the concrete wave she had summoned.

I covertly folded my hair behind my ears to scan the ground for either, but it revealed nothing. Not wanting my unease to be obvious, I changed the subject. “Where are Ryder and Leif?”

“By the sound of it…” A guttural yell pierced the night that made my heart skip a beat. The demon cocked her head. “Your boyfriend is getting quite the beating.” She sighed, sounding more annoyed than anything. “That’s what he gets for not following orders. Which means I get you all to myself.” I ignored the flicker of hurt that sparked inside me. “The necklace.” She stepped closer on exaggerated tiptoes, offering the semblance of a smile, sharp teeth bared to the cool night air. “I asked nicely.”

Tuning out another scream and the zap of distress it ignited in my chest, I focused on what was in front me: Javi was out cold, and I really didn’t care how politely Finis asked—she wasn’t getting my fucking necklace.

“That’s the last thing I’ll do,” I ground out, rising to my feet. It didn’t matter if I had it or not—she never would. I’d make sure of it.

Another low rumble shot through the theme park. Slobber dripped from her lips. “These aren’t decisions your mother would be proud of.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, well, you can’t please everyone.”

Her laugh screeched on the night, sharp enough to break glass. My shoulders shot to my ears. “At least we can agree on that.” Honing and nurturing that wispy shadow magic, she shaped it into a sphere with her cracked, pallid claws. My breath caught at the black spit dripping off her elongated fangs, combusting when it hit the sphere of dark matter like tiny fireworks. “Then at least do it for your friend?” She gestured to Javi. “He’s not dead. Yet.”

We both shifted towards Javi lying silent, inert, bleeding, and—by a miracle—still alive. My heart jumped into my throat with hope and then with fear. I’d never forgive myself for this. “Don’t drag him into this. He’s innocent. If you want the jewelry so bad, why not just kill me?”

“Trust me, I’ve had the impulse on more than one occasion, but alas, I’m to bring you to Chthonia.” The skin over her jaw started to deteriorate—her human disguise was slipping, revealing something avian and serpentine all at once.

Dread like I had never known before washed over me. “W-why?”

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