“I can feel everything.” His words come out like a confession. “You’re keeping me here, tethered and present.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I wrap my legs around him, pulling him deeper. “I’m right here.”
The current continues to build, and every surge makes him shudder, makes his control slip further, makes him look at me like I’m the only thing in the world that matters.
When I start to crest, the electricity grows stronger and brighter, until it’s a sustained surge that floods through both of us as pure pleasure crashes over me.
Logan’s body locks as he follows me over the edge.
His face buries in my neck, and there’s wetness against my skin. Tears, maybe, or sweat. The sound he makes is broken and shattered, like I’ve reached inside him and touched a part of him that he keeps hidden from the world.
When he lifts his head, there’s a silver shimmer in his irises that fades as I watch, like embers cooling. And without thinking, I reach to touch the rings hanging from his necklace.
He goes completely still.
“I love you.” I trace the outline of the bands. “All of you. Even the parts you think are too dark for anyone to love.”
“You don’t know everything,” he says, and he can’t meet my eyes. “There are things I’ve done. Things I am. Things that would make you?—”
“I don’t care.” I cut him off before he can finish. “Whatever you’ve done, whatever you are, you’re mine, Logan Ashford. And I’m not going anywhere.”
His arms wrap around me so tight it hurts, his body pressing against mine like he’s trying to merge us into one person.
The boat rocks gently beneath us, and Logan holds me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear, his face buried in my neck, his tears wet against my skin.
“I’ve got you,” I promise him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His arms tighten even more.
And in this tiny cabin, in the middle of a sea of monsters, wrapped up in each other like the outside world doesn’t exist, I let myself believe that everything will be okay.
Even if it’s probably a lie.
21
EVIE
The sun risesas the Pillars of Hercules emerge from the morning mist.
They’re two massive rock formations, one on each side of the strait, so tall they seem to scrape the clouds. According toMaritime Passages of the Lost Islands,Hercules created them during his tenth labor, tearing apart a mountain to connect the Lost Islands to the mortal realm.
I extend my heat sense without thinking about it, because with every new location passed, I search for Oliver’s thermal signature.
He wasn’t here. He was never here.
But I can’t stop trying. Because stopping means accepting that the trail ended on the Crown, and I won’t accept that until I have proof.
“Everyone up,” Kieran says, cutting through the early morning quiet as he emerges from below deck. “We’re here.”
Jade stumbles up from below deck, and Logan follows close behind, positioning himself slightly in front of her. Callie’s last, with more color in her cheeks than she had yesterday.
Jade moves to the railing, frowning down at the calm surface. “The water isn’t moving.”
A closer look shows she’s correct. The sea’s surface has gone stagnant,reflecting the clouds in a mirror image.
Then, three columns of water surge upward, one directly ahead, one to port, and one to starboard. They twist and spiral until they’re towering above us. Twenty feet. Thirty. Forty.
And then, they solidify. Not into ice, but intobeings.
