Page 161 of The Sea Witch
She gripped his wrist, and he couldn’t stop the hiss of pain.
“Those chains aren’t decorative.” She looked down at the angry charred flesh of his wrists and sucked in a breath.
She placed her hands on the manacles and, closing her eyes, whispered words. With a snap, the manacles fell away from his wrists. She did the same to the shackles, which had burned through the leather of his boots.
As she did this, Ben explained, “Some adornments they gave me when they threw me in the brig. Unlike yours, theirs were charged with magic.”
“I’ll flay them and make a coat from their skin.”
As they kept charging through the forest, Ben explained, “The navy has no plans to stop with using the creatures merely against pirates. They’ll make the beasts their weapons in a global war. No ship, no country, will be safe. Not until the entire world is crushed beneath Britain’s bootheel.”
“By the tides.” She stopped in her tracks and scowled. “I don’t know what we’re seeking.”
“The carving knife might lead us there,” he suggested.
She placed her hand on the blade, which she’d tucked into her belt. “I don’t feel anything. But perhaps my magic can lead us to it.”
She closed her eyes, and her brow creased. A moment later, she opened her eyes, and growled in frustration.
“I tore off my enchanted chains,” he said. “Bent iron bars, and ripped a hole in theJupiter’s hull. My magic... it’s getting stronger. Use it.”
“Without the thing connecting us, I don’t know if it’s possible.”
“We’ll bind ourselves to each other once more.”
Voice firm, she said, “Before, we were robbed of choice. It happened, whether we wanted it or not.”
“Doyouwant it?” he pressed.
“I do,” she answered at once.
His hand cupped her cheek and she leaned into his touch.
“And I choose this as well,” he murmured. “I choose you. I’ll do so over and over again.”
Her eyes shone. “There aren’t texts showing how to create a bond without dreamwalking. I can only go where my heart tells me.”
“I’ll go with you,” he answered.
She nodded once, then closed her eyes. He remained mute as silent words formed on her lips. As she spoke noiselessly, the space encircling them dimmed. It was as though the sun set quickly, shading the area surrounding them, first into afternoon, then dusk, and then full darkness.
The darkness grew blacker and more profound than any night. No light could be seen. Nothing was visible. Impossible to know what was where, his sense of direction set askew in this all-embracing shadow. He couldn’t even tell which way was up.
“Now,” Alys said, her voice coming from everywhere and nowhere, “find me.”
Ben immediately reached out into the space directly in front of him. That was where she’d been, not moments ago.
His hand encountered nothingness.
He took a tentative step forward, and another, his hands outstretched, and yet all he felt was emptiness. The boundaries of the corporal world were gone. This dark void she had created with her magic didn’t adhere to natural laws. It existed out of time and place. Even the sounds of fighting had disappeared and a limitless silence encircled him.
“Where are you?”
There was no answer.
Using logic and his skills as a navigator weren’t possible, not here. Not when it came to following the call of her soul to his.
Drawing in a deep breath, he settled himself. He recalled the moment he first saw her at the top of the stairs at the tavern in St. Gertrude. The flash of her hair, the weapons she wore, and the fierce determination blazing in her eyes. How he’d chased her as though following a comet blazing across the sky, leading him to Alys Tanner.
