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Ethan’s face went white as he watched, helpless. “Evie! Tell me what to do, please!”

Layne’s jaw tightened as he watched the veins snake across my skin. “There’s nothing you can do now, boy.”

Ethan lurched forward, grabbing Layne by the shoulders and shoving him back. “Tell me what’s happening!” Ethan spat, his fingers digging into Layne’s shoulders. “What the fuck did you do to her, you bastard!”

Layne’s eyes blazed. Shadows surged around him like smoke, slamming into Ethan and knocking him back against the lamp post, the light flickering out.

“Ethan!” I screamed, fighting through the pain.

Ethan slowly rolled over, gasping for air.

I stared at Layne, my gaze slicing through him. “You tricked me,” I spat. “Lied to me.”

“Evelyn I⁠—”

“Don’t.” My voice was flat and hollow. “You used me.” Layne opened his mouth to speak, but stopped short. “None of it was fucking real, was it?”

“It was! It was real. But I⁠—”

“Get away from her!” Ethan cried, lunging at Layne. Just as they were about to collide, Ethan fell to the ground beside me as Layne disappeared in a plume of shadows.

Layne’s eyes narrowed at Ethan. “Don’t try me, boy,” he growled.

“Ethan…don’t,” I choked out.

Layne’s gaze softened as he met mine, his voice distant as he spoke. “You can’t help her.” He pressed his eyes shut, turning toward the rippling sea of shadows behind us. “Not now.”

Chains rattled louder, and the veins were almost to my eyes.

“Fix this. Whatever you did, help her,” Ethan demanded, scowling at Layne. “Now!”

My chest cracked under the weight of emotion I’d been trying to hold back for so long. I brought my trembling hand to Ethan’s face and brushed his cheek. “Ethan I⁠—”

The words died in my throat as the shadowy water around us erupted. Massive chains dripping with shadows burst from the Bay on all sides.

They shot toward me from every direction as they surged toward me like snakes ready to strike.

My gaze was frantic as I tried to move, to crawl away, but my tail lay next to me, useless on land. The haunting rattle drowned out everything as they closed in.

Ethan’s eyes widened. “What the hell⁠—”

I screamed as the chains wrapped around my wrists, a sharp and piercing pain digging into my skin.

Through my tears, I saw them.

Hooks.

Sharp hooks curled at the ends of the shadowy chains that tore at my flesh, dragging across my entire body. Each barb sank deeper as the chains pulled taut, the metal biting through skin and scale.

Thrashing only made it worse as the hooks sank deeper, carving trenches through my skin and leaving trails of fire in their wake.

Memories washed over me, the familiar press of scars across my fingertips as I trailed my hands along his body. I thought I would never understand what happened to him. What terrible battles he must have fought, or the history I would never be privy to.

I knew those marks now.

As the chains wrapped tighter around me, digging deeper into my body, I knew.

These wounds would bleed.