Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Wade jumped out of the lifeboat into shallow waters that wouldn't be so bad if the storm hadn't whipped up the waves into a frenzy. He turned to hold the lifeboat steady with the help of the two selkies who'd guided them to shore. The werecreatures and fae who'd weighed down the inflatable boat flung themselves overboard and waded to shore, buffeted by the waves. The werecreatures managed to brace themselves against the sea better than the fae, but everyone made it to shore in one piece.

Wade picked his way around the large rocks filling the shore, heading for the eroding cliff overlooking the sea. He squinted through the driving rain as, around him, the Boston god pack began shifting with bone-cracking ease. Werecreatures—mostly wolves, but Wade saw a grizzly farther down the shore and someone who he thought might be a leopard—raced through the rain and up the sloping ground, scrambling to the top of the cliff.

"There are ruins from the mortals' military on the island. I told Harper that is where I sensed a net of Niall's magic," Lady Caith called out from the base of the cliff, the tide crashing against her feet and ankles as Wade approached.

"Could you tell if Casey was alive?"

Lady Caith shook her head. Her magenta hair had been braided into a crown around her head, but some pieces were escaping the style from the wind. Then she pointed at the sea they'd just escaped from. "Look. Caoránach does not come alone."

Wade spun around, wiping rainwater out of his eyes. He shifted a tiny bit of mass to sharpen his vision, bringing into clarity the distant speedboats cutting through the waves. There were a lot of them.

"Should've paid Lucien to go after more of Niall's property," Wade grumbled.

"It is a bit disconcerting that you are so friendly with that master vampire."

"Oh, we're not friendly. He's just a useful bastard sometimes."

"Clearly." Lady Caith tipped her head back to look up at the cliff they stood beneath. "We need higher ground."

"I can give you a lift." Wade mimed putting his hands together and launching her in the air.

She snorted delicately. "I can make my own way up. Where will you be?"

"Fighting the sea serpent."

"I had wondered what you were. I had my suspicions in my garden. I am not sure I like being right."

"Why not?"

"Your kind makes their own legends. Sometimes they end up like the one in the sea."

Wade frowned at her. "I'm no god."

"You are lucky, then, that I am Tuatha Dé Danann." Lady Caith raised a hand, fingers curling like claws. In her palm, magic spun into being, the color a deep, angry gray, like the storm clouds above. "I left Tír na nóg for reasons that do not concern you, but I left with the fury of a storm in me. You cannot defeat Caoránach on your own, but we can drive her away. My court will help the Boston god pack retrieve their alpha, as obligated by the alliance we all share. You and I will deal with an Oilliphéist."

"So we're gonna crispifry her?"

Lady Caith shrugged, magic tangling around her wrist and fingers. "I suppose that is one way of describing it."

Wade nodded. "I'll get her out of the ocean and see how much fire she can take. What will you do?"

Lady Caith's smile was small and hard. "Your selkies can call whirlpools. My specialty is with the air and the sea together."

Wade glanced at the sky, frowning at the way the clouds were already starting to spin. "Man, my wings are gonna ache after this."

He stripped off the raincoat and left it piled on the rocky sand, stepping away from Lady Caith. Wade then shifted mass, letting go of his human form, falling into the shape of what he truly was. He stretched, body settling into the clawed legs, long tail and neck, and the heat of a volcano in his belly. He stretched his wings up and out to their fullest, tail lashing against the sand as he sank down on his haunches. With a politeness that would make Sage proud, he offered one foretalon to Lady Caith, allowing her to step into his palm. He lifted her up on top of the cliff, which was honestly safer than if he'd tossed her.

"We need to remove Caoránach from the harbor," she said, pitching her voice a little louder. Wade's hearing in his true form was highly sensitive and enhanced, and he could make out her words perfectly. She stepped up to the edge of the cliff, attention focused on the ocean, hands angled to either side of her body.

The wind picked up, white spray from the waves misting the air over the sea. Despite the daylight hour, the clouds were thick, and there was no sign of the sun. Boston was a distant strip of land, and he hoped the storm had driven everyone inside. If he made the evening news, his pack would be so pissed.

Wade stretched out his wings and looked up at the sky and the clouds that spun there in a way not unlike a hurricane. He really hoped Lady Caith wasn't going to create one of those. He didn't think Boston could handle a storm like that.

He snaked his head around, staring through the rain at the approaching speedboats and the quick-moving shadows he could see in the churning sea. Amidst the waves were spots of faintly glowing lights that darted through the water and the whirlpools that spun offshore. Wade knew what those meant—fuath were harassing the selkies. Ugh, they were as bad as pixies.

Wade spread his wings, digging his hindquarters into the sand, crushing chunks of granite rock as he readied himself to launch. With a snap of his wings, he threw himself into the wind and sky, wings flapping hard to get himself airborne, long tail snaking out behind him. Gravity sloughed away as he rose higher into the storm, the island falling away from him. Lady Caith was soon lost to sight, even if the result of her magic wasn't.

The higher he flew, the stronger the wind became, and Wade had to work to keep himself steady in the air. The Boston Harbor stretched out below him. He adjusted his eyesight, bringing everything below him into close relief. As he watched, one of the farthest yachts out suddenly capsized before being tossed into the air by the bulk of a monster swimming below.

Wade adjusted his vision again, bringing Caoránach's shadowy form more into focus. She was fast-moving as a sea serpent, and Wade knew he couldn't get drawn into a battle beneath the waves. He'd lose.

What he needed was to get her into the air and get her away from the island. He could fight her, but he knew he couldn't win against a god. Best he could do was chuck her east and hope she landed hard enough on the water that she'd break some bones. Maybe her neck. Or her spine. Wade wasn't picky; he just wanted her gone as of yesterday.

Some of the whirlpools disappeared below, while others changed size. The wind picked up even more, and Wade had to work his wings harder to stay in the area. The rain came down so horrendously it was almost like a curtain, impossible to see through. Despite the ferocity of the building storm, Wade could easily make out the churning of the water below as it spun in the same direction as the wind and rain above it.

It was rising— twisting —into a waterspout created by fae magic.

Oh, he didn't want to fly into that. He really didn't, but it was forming right over Caoránach's position in the sea, the spray circle down there highly distinct, and Wade couldn't leave her down there with the selkies. He wasn't giving her the harbor, and he wasn't giving Niall Boston, and neither of them were getting Riordan.

Wade folded his wings, diving through the sky before snapping them open again. He banked on a wingtip, flying around the open air that wouldn't be open for long once the spinning sea water reached the rainwater in the middle to become a pillar of destruction. He caught a glimpse of Lady Caith on the small cliff, doing her best impression of a lighthouse with how brightly she glowed.

He did another circuit around the rapidly forming waterspout before he finally caught sight of his prey. Caoránach's bioluminescent spines breached the water below at the edge of the waterspout. The selkies' whirlpools around the base of the waterspout had disappeared, and Wade didn't dwell on what that could mean—that the selkies could be hurt, that any of them could be dead. He focused instead on the problem that had led him to Boston, diving down without a roar so she wouldn't hear him coming.

He sank all four taloned claws into Caoránach's body, dragging her out of the sea. Water and blood flowed around his talons where they were embedded in her body, pierced right through scales and skin. Her great head crested a wave, mouth open in an angry roar that reverberated through the air. Wade matched it with his own and a burst of dragon fire as well, burning the nearest glowing spines on her body. They turned black, breaking off at the connecting point to her back.

Her roar this time was something hideous, full of pain, but Wade wouldn't apologize for the agony he inflicted on her. He flapped his wings harder, dragging her bulk out of the waves, belching fire at her when Caoránach's head wrenched around, mouth open for an attack. She spat something black and foul-smelling in his direction, but whatever it was—poison, acid, take your pick—Wade met it with fire. The smell it created when it burned was so gross . If he'd been human, he would have gagged.

Something slammed into his left thigh, a sharp edge slicing through the scales there. Wade roared in irritated pain, lashing at the thing—which turned out to be Caoránach's barbed tail—with his own. He kept flapping his wings, using all his strength to drag her fully out of the ocean, clawing at her writhing form.

::Do you think you can cage me, fledgling ?::

Caoránach's voice was meant for the water. The way it sounded in his ears, in his mind—bloated and heavy and wanting to echo—gave Wade a headache he didn't appreciate. He didn't bother responding, mostly because he couldn't. His brain's ability to translate languages worked great. His ability to respond to mental conversations was still forming. Reed had told him it would be decades more before that part of his mind fully formed. Until then, he could receive other people's thoughts, just not project his own.

It was weird, sometimes, to think that he'd be a kid in dragon years for centuries to come when it felt like he'd lived a lifetime already.

Wade fought the wind and her writhing body to gain altitude, taking glancing blows from her barbed tail that he forced back with his own, never giving her a chance for what he assumed was a poisoned barb to penetrate his body. He spat more dragon fire at her, aiming for her head. She curled her body down toward the sea to escape the scorching heat, nearly making him lose his position in the air.

He lurched forward, wings beating furiously to keep them stabilized in the air. The churning power of the waterspout was growing, the two sides of the vortex nearly meeting in the middle of the sky. The wind was gale-force level now, screaming past his ears and buffeting him and Caoránach both.

She twisted in his claws suddenly, and Wade lost hold of her with one of his back talons. Caoránach's sinewy body writhed as her head quickly turned, mouth with its many rows of teeth like a shark opening wide. What he thought were whiskers around her nose turned out to be tentacles, which, also gross, and they stuck to his scales when her teeth sank into the meat of his shoulder with vicious intent.

Wade roared in pain, wings stuttering as agony radiated from the bite. Caoránach had broken through his scales and her teeth were shredding the muscle beneath as she jerked her head from side to side, trying to tear out a bite of him. Worse, a spreading numbness was flowing down that arm, weakening his grip.

Oh, not good.

Wade didn't panic, merely snarled in rage and a little bit of pain while snaking his long neck around to bite down on the closest body part he could get. He sank his own fangs into Caoránach's scaly, slimy body and let loose a punch of dragon fire that blotted out the world. It steamed the rain around his face, and Wade closed his eyes against the heat that would never harm him.

It sure did harm Caoránach though.

She wrenched her mouth free of his shoulder and bellowed furiously. ::You cannot stop me, fledgling!::

If Wade was human, he would've rolled his eyes. Gods. Such arrogant assholes.

Wade pulled his teeth out of flesh that tasted like rotten fish, and with a roar, Wade heaved Caoránach into the spinning body of the waterspout. She got tangled up in its force, the sea and sky finally meeting in the middle, solidifying the massive, dangerous column of water and wind powered and controlled by Lady Caith. It spun so tightly that it almost made him dizzy.

Then Wade realized he was dizzy and that his left wing wasn't working as well as his right. Which probably meant poison, and that was just the worst. Really. He hated dealing with poison. The best way to clear his system of it was to shift mass, but he'd need to get back to the island for that. Only problem was they'd drifted quite a ways from it during their struggle. Even now, with the waterspout quickly heading out to sea at the behest of Lady Caith's magic, the wind was so strong it was capable of blowing him off course in the rapidly deteriorating condition he was in.

Which left only one option—diving into the sea.

The one place he really didn't want to go.

Wade folded his wings, tucked his legs close to his body, and dived toward the sea below. He pulled up before he hit the surface, stomach buffeted by waves. He snapped his wings out, spreading them as wide as they could go to help catch him before he went under. He was already shifting mass, dizzy and a little nauseous, but forcing through the change. Shoving most of himself elsewhere and packing his mind and bits of him into the familiar human body was a little disorienting in the middle of a storm.

With no wings to hold him aloft and only useless arms, Wade fell into the cold water, getting a face full of seawater from a particularly high wave. He inhaled liquid before going under, lungs seizing with the need to get air in them. Even though he ran hot, the water was cold against his skin, the distant numbness at his fingertips from fading poison threatening to creep back through his body with the first hint of hypothermia.

He kicked his legs, trying to orient himself in the churning water, and managed to get closer to the surface. Lungs burning, Wade swam upward, breaking the surface with a ragged gasp. He coughed out water and heaved himself over a wave, trying to drag air into his lungs. He twisted in the water, the waves all around him pulled into different currents from the magic in the water. The last thing Wade wanted to do was get sucked into a whirlpool.

Something cold and slimy wrapped around one ankle, and he got dragged beneath the water anyway.

He managed only a half breath of air, clenching his teeth together as he sank beneath the waves. Vision changing, he got eyes on the fuath below him, staring into an ugly face limned with violet bioluminescence. The soft glow cast the water spirit in eerie shadows, but it was still bright enough for Wade to see the clawed, webbed hands reaching for where he was tangled in its tentacle.

He dived for the fuath rather than trying to kick free of its grip, his own talons flashing in the dim glow. Wade managed to sink his talons into the fuath's closest arm and keep it at bay. The fuath screeched, the sound vibrating through the water between them. Wade tried to twist out of reach of the fuath's other clawed hand, but the sea wasn't the air, and he wasn't quick enough.

Sharp talons dug into his rib cage, scraping against bone, and Wade couldn't help the way his mouth opened on a surprised grunt as he tried to twist away. Bubbles escaped his lips, obscuring the water between them as he twisted in the fuath's grip. The edges of his vision wavered with dark spots as the pressure in his lungs got worse—not from the talons trying to break through bone but from his need to breathe.

Something dark streaked up from the bottom of the sea, slamming into them both. The claws in his skin were wrenched free, the tentacle around his ankle ripping loose. Wade floundered there for a second as the fuath was dragged down into the depths by a selkie, not sure which way was up and losing air.

Then another selkie reached him, the color of his pelt one Wade recognized from when Riordan had swum in the harbor before and lazed about in a bathtub. A cold nose bumped his chest, and Wade wrapped his arms around the large, sleek body, trying to stay out of the way of Riordan's flippers.

They sped toward the churning surface, breaking through the waves. Wade coughed out water and turned his face against Riordan's body, heaving for air. He coughed some more, fire tickling the back of his throat, and he forced it back. Gagging, he spat seawater out of his mouth and clung tighter. A flipper brushed against his side, and Wade finally lifted his head, squinting through the rain and the waves while Riordan kept them steady with ease.

The waterspout was far out at sea now, and he didn't think Caoránach had escaped it yet. If she had, he rather thought Riordan would already be moving. As it was, he bobbed there in the sea until Wade had caught his breath.

"Okay," Wade rasped. "I'm good."

Riordan barked a reply to that before he twisted in the water. Wade floundered a moment before he managed to tighten his arms around Riordan's body. He held on as Riordan swam back to shore, his strength keeping both their heads above the water. Wade was grateful for that because it meant he just had to cling to the other man and get hauled through the water without doing much else.

"You're my very own lifeboat."

Riordan barked in quick succession. It almost sounded as if he was laughing at Wade. Angling his head, Wade focused on not breathing in the water that splashed them as they cut through the waves. Other selkies broke the surface around them on their journey back to the Great Brewster Island, acting as their very own escort.

At some point, Wade's feet dragged against a rocky, sandy bottom, and he dug his heels in, sliding down Riordan's seal body and nearly losing his grip. A few more feet through buffeting waves, and they reached the shallows. He let Riordan go and the selkie dived beneath the water, rising up seconds later in the shape of a man Wade was ridiculously happy to see.

"Thanks for the save," Wade croaked out.

"You saved us first by dragging Caoránach out of the water," Riordan retorted, peeling his selkie skin off his shoulders and passing it over to Wade. "Here, take this."

Wade took the skin, the pelt warm despite having been in the cold water. He wrapped it around his waist, wincing when the motion pulled at the wounds on his rib cage. He lifted his arm to peer at the gouges, about to poke one of them, when Riordan crowded in close and bent to get a closer look.

"I didn't know you'd been hurt," Riordan growled. His fingertips against Wade's side were surprisingly warm, and he couldn't stop himself from leaning into the touch.

"It'll heal." He'd heal faster if he shifted mass again, but he figured twice in one day was pushing it. "Right now, let's find Ella and the others. I'm pretty sure Niall was on his way to the island before Lady Caith conjured up that waterspout."

Riordan straightened but didn't remove his hand. He kissed Wade, the touch of his lips lingering. Wade licked at him, tasting salt and nothing else. He pulled back when he heard a shout from down the shore. Around them, other selkies were coming out of the water, pelts slung over their shoulders or wrapped around their waists, all of them clearly having no issue running around in the nude.

Saoirse approached, and Wade made sure to keep his eyes on her face and nowhere else. "Everyone is accounted for."

"You're sure?" Riordan asked.

Saoirse nodded. "The waterspout was a good distraction, and Wade here kept Caoránach occupied."

"It wasn't all me. We have Lady Caith to thank for most of that effort." Wade looked up at the cliffside and squinted through the pouring rain. He didn't see her at the edge anymore. "We should find her and see where everyone else is in case Niall and his people made it to shore."

"We sank some of those speedboats, but a couple did get through," Donal said.

Wade didn't see any on the shore, but maybe Niall's people tried to swim, and some of them drowned. He could hope. "Let's get up top."

Rather than try to climb the cliff, they headed down the rocky shore for where the land sloped lower, and it was easier to get off the beach. The grassy stretch of land beyond was muddy from the rain. Wade's toes squelched in it as they walked. There wasn't much, if any, plant coverage when they made it up top, so it was easy to see the people scattered near the middle. Wade blinked his vision to something sharper, bringing into focus Lady Caith, Ella, and others. A group of werecreatures was huddled together, most of them looking at whoever was in the middle rather than out. He hoped that meant they had found Casey.

"Let's go join the fun," Wade said.

Even with the saturated ground, everyone moved pretty quickly to reach the others. As they approached, Wade saw that several of Lady Caith's fae guards had their swords drawn and angled around Niall and some of his fae where they knelt in the muck. He didn't look like a rich businessman anymore but rather a beleaguered criminal who was about to get his head chopped off if they all skipped the trial part and went straight to judgment and execution.

Lady Caith didn't turn to look at them as they approached, skin still glowing in a way that had nothing to do with self-care efforts and everything to do with magic. Her magenta hair was a scraggly mess around her head and blowing in the wind, having escaped all its pins. Her clothes were plastered to her body, but she didn't appear cold.

"Caoránach?" Wade asked.

"I am still guiding the waterspout to open ocean," Lady Caith said. For all that she was dragging a serpent god out to sea, her focus never wavered from where Niall knelt before her.

Wade went to stand beside her, looking over his shoulder at the werecreatures behind them. It was easier now to see how they were all crowded around Harper, who was wrapped around a bruised and bleeding but very much alive Casey, with Ella hovering behind both of them. "Is he okay?"

"Niall had him on a sacrificial spell meant to break the territory markers belonging to the kin and feed him to Caoránach, giving her unfettered access to the harbor for her own claim. The spell has been dealt with."

"He's alive," Harper said, not taking her nose away from her husband's throat. "The sooner we get off this island, the better."

"Most of our boats are still seaworthy," Riordan said.

"Oh, good. I'm pretty sure flying everyone to shore would be a bad idea. I don't want to be on the news," Wade said.

"You were never the mundane human you pretended to be," Niall ground out in a low voice.

Wade faced forward again and stared at the fae. "Nope. And the Boston god pack was never mine. I'm from the New York City god pack."

It was funny the way Niall and his people all went absolutely still at that statement. Wade stared Niall down, refusing to blink, and waited the fae out until Niall was the one who dropped his gaze under the pretense of meeting Lady Caith's. "I issued a bargain because we are worth more than the scraps we have been given by mortals."

"There is no we in this fight. You would have come after my court as surely as you attempted to go after the Boston Night Court. But Saoirse found her skin, and your hold over the Maguire clan no longer exists. The Boston god pack has found their missing alphas, and your bargain with them is broken. You have no power here," Lady Caith said.

Wade snorted. "You should also know Lucien is a big fan of finders keepers. I don't know about Abby Boy, but between their two Night Courts, you're in for a world of hurt on the financial front."

Lady Caith took a single step forward, looking down at Niall. Her skin still glowed in a luminous way, proof her magic was still working to send that waterspout with Caoránach into the Atlantic Ocean. "What is left of your property and domain after Abhartach is finished with it will revert to the master vampire's control, as he has already claimed it. You have a choice, Niall Noígíallach. You and your court can return under guard to Tír na nóg and leave Boston behind, or your blood can feed this island. Which will it be?"

Wade thought that was a little too generous of her after the last few days. "Or I could eat him? I'd shift mass for that."

"But not to heal yourself?" Riordan asked incredulously.

Wade shrugged, fighting back a wince as the wound on his rib cage pulled with the motion. "It's healing."

He just needed to focus on it more, but he'd do that once Niall was dealt with once and for all. Riordan sighed and didn't try to argue with him.

"I require an answer," Lady Caith said.

Niall worked his jaw, hate twisting his beautiful face into an ugly expression. "And will you use my subjugation to return your court to Brigid's good graces?"

"Tír na nóg or a grave. It is your choice."

"It is no choice. Bring me home, Lady of Wind and Sky."

Lady Caith nodded, seemingly satisfied. Wade couldn't stop the shocked cry that escaped his lips when her guards raised their swords and chopped off the heads of every single one of Niall's followers. Niall didn't seem surprised though, nor did he protest the action, face a study in hatred as he glared up at Lady Caith.

"Oh," Wade said as he thought back on the conversation they'd just had. "You only spoke about Niall's life."

Lady Caith tipped her head in his direction. "You know words well."

"Eh, my dire is a lawyer who works for a fae law firm. I kind of have to."

"We should get everyone back to the boats. The storm isn't going to let up anytime soon, and we should return to Boston before the Coast Guard thinks about coming around," Riordan said.

"What about the bodies?"

"We'll take them with us. Some of my clan will carry them out to the sea."

"I'll handle that," Donal said, clamping a hand on Riordan's shoulder. "Let's get out of here."

Wade was all for that. Almost everyone was able-bodied enough to walk out on their own two feet. Niall was led off the island at sword point, while the selkies carried the heads and dragged the bodies of the deceased fae with them back to the shore. Casey wasn't really in any position to walk, much less shift, so one of the god pack members was carrying him.

The selkies in the water were part of other clans, but they fetched the lifeboats scattered across the waves and brought them to the shore for everyone to pile into in groups. The captains of the yachts and other boats steered their vessels as close as they dared in the stormy water. Transporting everyone to the boats took some time, but eventually, Wade found himself clambering up the metal ladder onto the Neptune , with Ailín still at the controls.

Some boats had been lost—either capsized or destroyed by Caoránach—but Wade was relieved when he overheard Riordan taking the report over the radio from other boats that everyone in the clan was accounted for.

"Thank you for all you did for us," Riordan said when he returned to Wade's spot in the cabin, squished into the corner on a bench.

"Thanks is a pretty big thing for your kind. Besides, I already told you that you don't need to thank me."

Riordan knelt before him, seemingly unbothered by the seesaw motion of the yacht as Ailín steered them back to Boston. His hand on Wade's thigh was warm, grip gentle. Wade was acutely aware that he still had Riordan's sealskin wrapped around his waist and that Riordan seemed in no hurry to ask for it back. "I mean it."

"Well, I don't want your thanks," Wade muttered, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. "I just want you."

Riordan made a noise that wasn't words in any language Wade's head could translate. But that was fine because Riordan kissed him like they were the only ones on that boat in a storm Wade would fly through all over again for him.