Page 74 of Panther in the Shadows
"Semantics. But enough philosophy. Let me show you what I discovered in the deep places. Let me introduce you to someone special."
The water behind her darkens. Something worse rising. Deeper. More personal.
Another figure surfaces.
Smaller than the others. Younger. Her hair floats around her face in dark tangles. Her eyes hold the same empty blue glow.
But I know her face. Know it as well as I know my own reflection.
Elspeth.
My sister. Her body never recovered. Her spirit never laid to rest.
And now bound to serve the sea-walker who murdered to raise her.
"No." The word tears from my throat. "No, you can't. She's mine. She's family. You can't have her."
"I found her wandering the deeps." Catalina runs pale fingers through Elspeth's hair like a proud parent showing off a child. "Still punishing herself. Your sister's guilt made her so easy to bind, Moira. She blamed herself for drowning. For getting on that boat with your father. For the storm that took them both. All the years of self-punishment. She practically begged to serve."
The words hit and suddenly everything makes horrible sense. Elspeth blamed herself. Spent years as a spirit trapped by guilt and grief. And Catalina exploited that. Twisted it. Used my sister's pain to bind her soul.
"You think you can save her? You couldn't save her in life. What makes you think you can save her in death?"
The rage that's been building since this started finally breaks free.
Magic surges through my blood. Raw ocean magic. The kind Gran warned me about. The kind that can reshape coastlines or swallow ships whole.
The ceramic bowls around me shatter. Salt water rises from the Sound itself, responding to my fury. Clean magic pushing against corruption. Sea witch power recognizing its purpose.
"I couldn't save her then." Ancient power layers my words. The weight of every Flynn woman who came before me. "But I can free her now. I can break your hold and send her spirit torest. And then I'm going to bind you so deep in these waters that not even the ocean will remember your name."
Catalina's smile widens. "There she is. The real Moira Flynn. The sea witch who's been hiding for a decade. Finally willing to drown in her own power to save what's already lost."
She attacks.
Water rises in massive waves, corrupted magic crashing toward my boat with enough force to splinter wood. The bound spirits move with her, coordinated and precise. Old Tom's fate hanging in the balance.
But I'm done hiding. Done pretending to be ordinary.
I raise both hands and meet her corruption with clean ocean fury.
The clash sends shockwaves across Stormhaven Sound. Magic colliding with magic. Death power against life force. The battle has finally begun.
Elspeth's empty eyes find mine across the corrupted water. For one heartbeat, I swear I see my sister looking back. Then the glow returns, and she moves with the others. Another weapon in Catalina's arsenal.
CHAPTER 18
RAFE
The corrupted throat tears in my jaws like wet paper. No blood. No warmth. Just pale flesh that tastes of salt and rot and death magic so thick it coats my tongue.
I release it and the body collapses into the water, sinking beneath the oil-slick surface.
The victory lasts maybe a heartbeat. The water erupts and the corpse rises again, throat already knitting back together. Blue light seals the wound like thread through cloth. Empty eyes find me and it lunges.
I dive deep, using the water to my advantage. Panthers can swim. This body knows the ocean. I twist beneath the surface, coming up behind it.
Around me, the Sound is chaos.
