She had no idea what was coming.
This was it. His deal with the kraken was over.
The helicopter meant rescue. It meant Carol would be reunited with her teammates. Her friends. Little Maggie would be back with her foster parents. They would follow her baby dragon sense to track down her uncle and get the surviving shadow dragons away from the corrupted fortress.
They didn’t need him anymore.
Worse. They needed himgone.Because if the Soul-Eater was free, somewhere in these waters…
His jaw ached. Those bird shifters with razorblade wings. He could still help against them. If they showed up again.
Help? Who was he kidding? Moss Taylor couldn’t do shit against mythic shifters like that.
And the kraken would be as much a danger to the people he was protecting as to any attackers.
No.
No more excuses. No more skulking around the edges of his duty. Carol and Maggie would be safe.
Safer without him.
He closed his eyes briefly. The shining ribbon of the mate bond flared, a moonlight dream held together by hope. It should never have lasted this long. And now he was going to shatter it forever.
Carol would be free.
Alone, but free.
Alone?
The kraken stirred. Moss veiled his thoughts, but too late. It saw what he was planning to do.
Shadows clustered around the delicate band of light connecting him to Carol like barnacles. He drove them away.
It was a distraction. While he was focused on the mate bond, the kraken broke free of his body.
He doubled over. Pain lanced through him, as though the kraken was cutting its way out of him. Its voice was gone. He could only hear its rage, a vast howl of anger, and feel the pain.
Which meant there was still enough of his human body to feel pain. He hadn’t shifted yet. There was still time to—
“Moss?”
His heart cracked into a thousand pieces. Carol stared up at him, her face pale and worried behind the tangle of her windswept hair.
“You have to run.” He took a step away from her, as though a single step would help. More tentacles tore free from his body, monstrous things of shadow and magic. The air darkened around him, as though the sun itself cringed away from this creature from the deep. “Run!”
“Moss, it’s okay.”
Her words didn’t make any sense. The kindness in her eyes didn’t make any sense. She was walking towards him.
“Please,” he begged. “Take Maggie and go.”
“We both know I can’t take Maggie anywhere. The only way she gets off this island is on that helicopter. Lance and Keeley are on their way—”
“I’ll kill them.” He backed away, waves breaking around his ankles. “I’ll kill all of you.”
She took his hand. He wasn’t fast enough to snatch it away. The moonbeam ribbon between them glowed stronger than ever.
But still so delicate. So breakable. He still had time to fix this. If he left her now—
