I lean in to kiss him again, my hand sliding down his chest. “Now it’s my turn to pay attention.”
I’m nearly to his waist when his fingers wrap around my wrist, stopping me. The struggle on his face is clear—desire warring with control. Always control with him, as if he might release an inferno and incinerate the entire world if that control ever shatters.
“Not now.” His grip shifts, his fingers threading through mine, the change intimate and infuriating all at once. “The tide’s coming in faster than usual. We need to go.”
Cold water seeps past my ankles in seconds, soaking the hem of my jeans. I glance toward the stairwell—our only way out—and see more water pouring in from cracks in the ancient stone.
I’m no expert on tidal forces, but even I know this isn’t normal.
“What’s happening?” I search for any signs of panic on Logan’s face, finding none.
“Stay close to me.” He pulls me toward the stairs, splashing through water that’s getting deeper with each step. “And don’t let go of my hand.”
We’re halfway there when the water resists, clinging heavy around my legs, thickening like it’s alive. Logan’s pace quickens, and I stumble to keep up, my heart pounding the entire way.
Then, the water explodes around us.
My hand’s yanked out of his, and something cold and impossibly strong wraps around my ankle and pulls me backward, slamming me into the stone wall with enough force to knock the air from my lungs and make stars burst across my vision.
JADE
The wateraround me churns with unnatural violence, and something slimy is wrapped around my ankle like a living rope.
Across from me, Logan slams into the opposite wall with a grunt that makes my chest tighten. His dagger appears in his hand faster than I can track, the blade gleaming in the dim light filtering through the flooded tower.
The torches lining the walls flare to life, burning green-white, casting everything in sickly light that makes the water look like liquid poison.
“What the hell?—”
My words are cut off as a geyser erupts from the center of the room.
But it isn’t water. It’s a woman. Or something pretending to be one. Her body shifts between solid and liquid, her hair streaming in impossible currents, her eyes blazing with that same green-white fire.
And the tentacle around my ankle? Definitely hers.
This can’t be real. It can’t.
Then again, if the Hydra was real, this likely is, too.
Maybe it’s another test? With safety features? But something in my gut tells me it isn’t.
“Don’t use your electricity!” Logan’s voice cuts through the roar. “You’ll fry us both.”
From there, everything happens in both a blink and slow motion at once.
The tentacle tightens, crushing my ankle. Logan’s slashing through a tentacle that has him pinned. Black blood clouds the water, and the creature lets out an earsplitting shriek, but Logan keeps cutting with a mechanical efficiency that speaks of muscle memory rather than conscious thought.
I need to help. And while electricity is too dangerous, fire is safe. Fire won’t kill everyone in this tower.
So, I reach deep, remembering the heat I felt when I torched those rejection letters?—
“No magic!” Logan’s head snaps toward me, his eyes blazing, and he flips Alessandra’s dagger in his hand. “Catch!”
The weapon flashes through the air and speeds toward me.
The world slows. Because I’m about to die. Logan’s going to kill me. He just finger fucked me, and now he’s going tokillme.
So much for trusting guys with haunted gray eyes who say you’re the first person who’s touched them like they weren’t broken.
