Now!” he says, and my hand is suddenly moving, my fingers closing around the leather-wrapped hilt, the weight of it settling into my palm like it belongs there.
I stare at it, shocked. Because holy shit. I caught the dagger by the hilt.
How did I do that? I’ve never caught anything this perfectly in my life. I sometimes drop my phone just trying to answer it.
“Duck!” Logan shouts.
I drop just as a tendril of water slices through the space my head occupied, carving a groove into the stone wall.
Before I can recover, the water beside Logan explodes, and two more creatures surge through, shifting between flesh and water in ways that make panic surge up my throat.
One is on Logan before he can fully turn, its claws raking down his arm, tearing through fabric and skin like it’s nothing. Blood spills bright and horrifying in the sickly green light.
The gash is deep. Too deep. Bile rises in my throat at the glimpse of something white that must be bone. But Logan just spins, fire bursting from his palms in precise, surgical bursts, forcing the creatures back as if he’s done this a million times before.
“Logan!” I scream as another creature rushes at him—which is enough for it to notice me and race toward me instead.
Up close, I can see details I wish I couldn’t. Skin that ripples like water. Fingers that end in translucent claws. A mouth full of too many teeth that definitely don’t have protective heat shields on them.
“Left side, now!” Logan shouts without turning.
I swing in panic, expecting to miss. But the dagger slides between ribs—if these things even have ribs—black blood hissing as it touches steel.
The creature shrieks, the sound rattling my skull.
“Three inches left of center!” Logan yells, fire flaring in his hands. “Aim for the heart!”
The heart. They have hearts? How the hell does he know that?
But more water is flooding in, and the creature I wounded is circling back. Its claws swipe at my face, the wind created from them whistling past my cheek, sending me stumbling back against the stone wall.
My chest tightens, the room closing in around me, my eyes darting around in panic. I’m trapped. I’m never going to make it out of this tower. I’ll die in a watery grave, and my parents willnever know, because the Council will erase me from their minds, so they’ll forget I existed at all.
Before I can think about it further, the creature lunges. At the same time, my magic gathers inside me, fueling me with strength.
Because I refuse to be erased.
So, remembering Logan’s instructions, I push forward to gain momentum, gripping the dagger’s hilt with both hands, and drive the blade three inches left of center. It punches through with a sickening wet sound, and for a moment, we’re frozen like that. Me holding the hilt, the creature impaled on the blade, staring at each other in mutual surprise.
The light drains from its eyes, and it collapses into the water.
Logan’s fire flares across the flooded space, and the last creature drops and sinks beneath the surface like a dissolving shadow.
Everything’s suddenly quiet—too quiet—and he stands there for a moment, chest heaving, staring at the bodies like he can’t believe it’s over.
I stagger backward until my shoulders hit the wall again. Water swirls around my legs, dark in places where monster blood mixed with seawater. Fresh gouges scar the walls. Logan and I are soaked and disheveled, and I’m clutching the dagger like my life depends on it.
He turns slowly, scanning the room with deliberate care. There’s exhaustion in every line of his body now, like the adrenaline that kept him moving during the fight has drained away.
“What the hell were those things?” I say to him across the room, my voice rising in panic. “What the hell just happened?”
“We need to stay calm,” he says, which is rich coming from someone who just fought water demons without breaking a sweat.
I bark out a laugh that’s closer to a sob. “Stay calm? Are you serious right now? Because unless I hallucinated three murder mermaids with tentacles, I’m way, way past calm.”
“I’ll explain everything later.” He wipes something dark from his cheek. Blood.
That’s when I notice his arm. Because minutes ago, claws ripped it open so deep I saw bone.
