Page 80 of Panther in the Shadows
The realization hits like cold water.
Catalina needs deaths to complete her ritual. She raised corpses to fight for her. But I freed most of them. She only has Elspeth left. She needs more deaths. Needs me to either die fighting or join the drowned willingly.
That's why she's taunting me. Why she's not attacking. She wants me angry. Wants me to exhaust myself throwing power at her until there's nothing left. She'll strike when I'm defenseless. Take what she needs.
The magic settles. Waves calm. Pressure eases.
Catalina tilts her head. "Giving up so soon? How disappointing."
"You can't complete the ritual without me." My voice is steady. Certain. "You need deaths. You only have one corpse left. You need me to die."
"Very clever." Her smile widens. "But knowing doesn't change anything. You still can't beat me. And your panther is still dying on shore. Tick tock, little witch. How much longer does he have?"
Through the bond, Rafe's pain burns. His fear. Not for himself—for me. He's begging Declan to let him go. To get back to me. To help. But his body won't respond. The corruption has spread too far.
A choice forms. Clear. Terrible. Necessary.
"You want me?" I walk to the edge of what's left of the boat. The wood creaks under my feet. "Then take me."
"Moira, no!" Rafe's voice cuts through the comms. Desperate. Broken. "Don't you dare. Don't you dare give up."
"I'm not giving up." My eyes stay on Catalina. "I'm changing the battlefield."
Off the boat. Into the water.
The corrupted liquid swallows me whole.
Cold crashes over my head. Invasive. Wrong. The death magic tries to seep into my skin, my lungs, my very blood. But water is my element. Even corrupted water has to obey certain rules.
Down. Past where sunlight reaches. Into the deep where Catalina's power is strongest. Where she's been building her ritual. She follows me down. This is what she wanted. Me in her domain. Me where she thinks she has every advantage.
The water grows darker. Colder. The pressure increases until my ears ache and my chest feels crushed. Swimming deeper. Diving. Following the thread of death magic to its source.
The ocean floor appears beneath me. Rocky. Covered in black sand that shifts with unnatural currents. Carved into the stone are binding circles. Hundreds of them. Interconnected. Pulsing with blue necromantic light.
This is where she does her work. Where she binds souls to corpses. Where she's been preparing to raise an army of the drowned.
Catalina materializes from the darkness. Here in the deep, she looks more monster than woman. Her skin has gone translucent. The corruption flows through her veins like ink. Her eyes burn with blue fire.
"Foolish girl." She circles me like a predator. "Did you really think you could beat me in the deep? This is my domain. My power. I am the ocean's darkness now. I am death and water merged. I am?—"
"Drowning." The word cuts through the water. Through her monologue. "You're drowning. You've been drowning for years. And you're so deep in the darkness, you forgot what the ocean really is."
She lunges.
Death magic lashes out like whips. Black tendrils that seek to bind. To corrupt. To drag me down into the same darkness she inhabits.
No fighting with rage this time. No walls of water or crushing pressure. Instead, reaching for the other part of my magic. The part Gran spent years teaching me. The part I've ignored because destruction is easier than healing.
Life magic.
Clean water rushes in from the deep Atlantic currents, from places Catalina's corruption hasn't reached. Light follows—bioluminescent. The glow of deep-sea creatures responding to my call. Tiny points of light in the darkness that multiply and spread, turning the black water blue-green.
The binding circles crack under the assault.
Catalina screams. The sound is silent underwater, but the vibration rattles my bones. My teeth. Something ancient and angry realizing it's losing.
The fight truly begins.
