Chapter Twenty

" D oubling the speed... Taking into account when the moonrise was last night and when we think Marina was taken..." Calder comes to stand beside me, holding out a fancy gilded cup and a little pouch. "I think we should catch up to the boat by noon. The coven back in Pine Ridge is acting on the assumption that the stolen yacht is where she's being held, and they can scry that."

"They can track that, but not Marina?" I demand, taking the cup and bag reluctantly.

"Koshchei is hiding Marina and himself somehow. That's probably good, since it'll use his energy and weaken him further."

Unless that means he snacks on my girl. I growl and clutch the golden cup more tightly. "But he's not hiding the boat?"

"Probably didn't think we'd track that. Maybe he didn't understand that Marina is family. That we love her, and if you mess with one of our own, we don't let you get away with it."

I nod. "Thanks for helping. I gotta do something really nice. Thank everyone."

"You can just say ‘thanks' and let us hug Marina when she's rescued. That'll be thanks enough. Now, come on and eat your fairy bread. It's delicious, and it gives you whatever you need in terms of protein, fats, carbs, whatever. Same with the drink. If you need rehydrating, that'll do it."

"Damn. That's— Do they sell this in town? Never mind!" I push thoughts of Carter and Cal using this as a magically perfected pre- and post-workout diet out of my head. There are other things to worry about now.

Calder shakes his head anyway, blue-gray skin sprinkled with spray from the river as we tear down it at dizzying speed. When he sits next to me on the little benches that line the sides, I can see he has tiny scales, glimmering little crisscrosses in his skin. "I've never seen it in any store in town—or anywhere. Fae don't like to share fairy-made things with non-fae, usually. But, I guess the owners of Country Pines thought this was a big enough emergency because there's a cooler full of these little cups and a bag of fairy bread for everyone. It came with the boat."

"I've never had it before, but I know what it is. My nan on my Dad's side used to make it," Ardy sits next to me, too.

"I don't know how to kill a demon," I suddenly blurt. "Minegold thinks it's me, not anyone else, who can actually finish him off."

"I don't think you have to do it alone. I just think you have to strike the killing blow."

Silence. Roaring of water. This boat does crazy things, like shrinking down and expanding back to normal size like it's some Willy Wonka creation. Now I'm wondering if Roald Dahl ever visited Pine Ridge, or if there are other towns like this where he grew up.

"I'd feel better if I knew what the fuck this bastard looked like. Where to aim, you know?"

Ardy heaves himself up and comes back with a curling scroll of paper that looks like it'll break if you breathe on it. It doesn't, though, and he opens it up to show me a handsome man with long black hair and a crown of bones. He looks elegant, sinister, and powerful.

Damn.

I wonder if Marina might like being his queen rather than mine. Pretty sure he won't need her to help him budget while he finishes school and comes home smelling like sweat and hand sanitizer every day.

"That's him at full power, when he used to terrorize the mortal world. His human face, you could say. What he looks like as a demon—a demon risen way too soon without proper regeneration? Your guess is as good as mine. But I'm betting on big and ugly."

"Oh, goody."

EVERYTHING IS FADING . Some little voice inside says that I should fight, but I don't. If I fight, I could live longer—and he can use me for another minute, another hour. He said a day, but I doubt that I have that long, not after he stole the first true fullness I've had in hundreds of years.

So I fade, silent, eyes closed, pretending I don't hear Koshchei's raspy breath near me, that I don't feel his red eyes glaring.

"I will kill your human consort, then, and take you by force."

"What?" I yelp, sitting up with a wince, eyes flying wide open.

"It is nearly noon, and you haven't agreed to my generous offer. Now, I will use all but the last little bit of your energy to find the boy and slay him. And I'll feed you his soul, whether you like it or not. I figure you'd rather have it than let me swallow him whole."

"I— we're in the middle of the sea. You can't get him from here unless you turn and go back to Pine Ridge."

"We're almost to the sea, but not yet. I can stop and turn— if you won't save him. This is the juncture of the river and the sea, little rabbit. Simply break your bond. Say you return to your creator. I have... What do the humans call it? First refusal? Yes, I have first refusal of your soul. You stole it from me and gave it to another. Give it to me now, or I'll turn and kill him, and make you watch."

I almost break in my sudden panic to protect Kevin.

Kev wouldn't panic. He's steady. Been steady through all of this, the shore that never changes, even when the river rages.

Koshchei won't last long enough to hurt him. I won't last long enough. Especially not if I... I look around for a weapon in the dark little box of a room. I'm not sure if I would win in a fight against him, but I'm willing to exhaust both of us—to death.

"I... I will need more time to think," I whisper. More time to think about how to break you, when you're nothing but bones made of marble, and I'm soft. Always been so lush and soft.

A smile chases over my lips. Kev liked me soft.

"I will give you a few minutes, no more. You've pushed me to my limit, rusalka."

"Good." Make him mad. Make him attack, use up his strength, that's a start...

"Don't try me. I can be a merciful lord or the very opposite."

My hands brace against the wall, down behind my back. "You were never my lord. You were a captor. A pimp , that's what my lover calls you." I smile and lock my calf muscles as they screech in protest. "You were not a king, not my king, and you never will be."

"Don't set yourself up as something powerful, little pawn. Just because you're currently needed, doesn't mean you aren't a disgrace."

When I stand, everything goes dark on the edges of my vision for a minute, but my voice is slow and steady. I think I'm still smiling, too, because I feel... I feel like Kev is with me, believing in me as I become the person he always saw. His badass mermaid. Not a demon temptress. His beloved wife. His queen. "Not a pawn. Queen. And a real queen will sacrifice for her people!" I hurl myself forward, sharp teeth sinking into the skin that's starting to encase his chest, nails clawing, and legs pumping as hard as they can to kick at him and keep swatting, pushing, and generally knocking off-balance.

I'm doing a good job, judging by the way the boat suddenly rocks hard and tips forward like some giant is holding us down.

"PERFECT!" JANET CROWS and thumps Leo on the back. "U.S. Army training and werewolf eyesight. Best combo ever!"

I can't breathe. I can see the boat ahead of us, a sporty little blue and white yacht with the name Mohawk Maiden 34 on the side. The blast from the handheld anti-tank gun or baby bazooka, whatever, glanced off the waterline and cut a gray and black gash in the craft. Water's going in. Boat's starting to drop down faster than I thought possible.

But it's not a twisted burning heap of metal, so I'll take it.

"I'll lead the water-based attack. Some of the selkies and kelpies will have caught up to us by now," Calder cries and slides into the water.

"Come on." Leo grabs my arm. "We'll wait until our boat is closer and then we'll take on Big K."

"Shouldn't I have a weapon?" I shout.

"This one. Duh." Janet rolls her eyes and passes me the blazing hot MANPAT that still has a haze of smoke coming from its mouth. "That'll be enough to put a hole in him. We'll figure out the rest from there."

"I don't know how to shoot this thing."

"Then break his skull with it," Leo says in a flat, factual voice.

Wolfie doesn't seem to be the excitable type, and that's probably a good thing since I'm soaked with sweat and my heart is going triple speed.

The water ahead of us is beginning to churn. Five or six forms are making for the sinking miniature yacht, and I see tentacles curling around the edge, hauling it to its side.

"She'll have water around her soon," Leo sighs in satisfaction.

I nod, all the while praying, "Please be alive..."

WATER KISSES MY FEET and makes the floor slippery. Koshchei goes down while I tower above him, sucking in healing strength from the wetness encircling my ankles. "We're sinking!" I say delightedly.

"Marina!" I hear a familiar voice bellowing.

"Calder!" I can feel my wounds sucking themselves closed, skin sealing up the gashes my "overlord" gave me. "Don't have an army, huh?"

"You can watch them turn the water red when I'm done with them!" Koshchei latches onto me, and I instantly feel him leeching strength from me.

No! No, no, I don't want this tug of war where he drains me as I refill! I need—

Sunlight suddenly splashes across the dark, sunken room, and I look up in shock.

Leo waves, and Calder's face peeps through. "Tentacle strength. I've been working out," he says.

"No!" Koshchei roars when two gray-blue tentacles rip me away from him.

I'm flung backwards into the water and caught in a tangle of limbs and cheering people—the selkies and kelpies who live in the lake at White Pines and the surrounding woods.

"Hi, guys!" I gasp as I surface, half-laughing, half-sobbing.

"Marina! Marina, baby, are you okay?"

My heart fills up so fast that of course it overflows from my eyes. My Kev. He came for me—and he's standing on the prow of some shimmering ship, some big weapon on his shoulder...

This is not the time to be having lustful thoughts, but... My eyes water and so does my mouth. I thought I'd never see him again, and now he's the vision of every hot commando I've ever seen.

"Traitor! Die with a human instead of live for your lord?"

Water swirls and sucks around us, a whirlpool forming as Koshchei slowly stretches, rising until his torso is out of the water, a gaunt mass of splintering black bones and gnashing teeth that stands thirty feet tall.

"That's your little human. I can tell. He's the only one who stinks of you." Koshchei's long fingers reach out as if he's going to pluck Kevin right off the deck of the other ship.

"I can tell that you're the motherfucker who enslaved her and hurt her—because you're the only idiot stupid enough to try to mess with her!" Kev roars right back and pulls at something on his shoulder.

"P-POW!" a stuttering blast rockets through the air and connects with Koshchei's sternum.

Black bits of bone go flying, and the monster towering above us seems genuinely startled.

"Don't work alone!" I can hear Minegold's voice even though I can't see him. "Bring him down!"

Kevin's missile did something. Koshchei shrinks. Only his neck is above water by the time Calder and I process what's happening.

"Take him down! You heard the man!" Ardy yells from on deck, pointing in the water.

Take him down.

As one, Calder and I nod at each other and sink below the surface, attacking Koshchei at the knees, forcing his legs in opposite directions, bending him the wrong way, getting him off balance. He claws desperately at the surface, at anything he can grab, too weak to take on so many at once.

And the only thing to grab onto is the ship that came to rescue me. The one where my lover stands.

A SKULL THE SIZE OF a coffee table suddenly smashes into the rail where I have my feet braced. The boat has cracked going over waterfalls, but I guess it's a little bit susceptible to demonic forces since the rail splinters and a spiderwebbing crack appears on the deck under his jaw.

"I told her I would eat you whole—soul and all," Koshchei snarls, big mouth opening wide enough to bite me in half.

"No. Because I'm the knight. Her knight. And me and a huge amount of horsepower are about to rip apart your immortal ass—starting from the top."

And then I do the dumbest thing I've ever done—or most brilliant.

I let him roar, mouth beginning to engulf me as he pulls the ship toward him—and I fire.

Right into the top of his black, bony head.

Skull confetti rains down—and a couple of icky, gunky red eyeballs, too.

And when there's nothing left grabbing me—I end up in the water, watching black grit dissolve and leave a thick, slimy coating on top of the water.

"Well. Someone better have a clean-up spell," I say, sputtering and coughing as I swim to the surface. "Don't want dead demon polluting the Hudson." My head is swiveling. "Marina? Marina!"

Where is she?

THERE'S A BLACK TIDE grabbing me. Drowning me in water, the one safe place I have, the only healing refuge a rusalka can freely call her own.

Dark filth sticks to my skin, clogs my throat, and stings my eyes.

I hear his voice in my head, a last gasp. "You would rather die for him than live with me? No. I will take you with me when I go. If the Bone Lord dies—so do all his creations!"

Everything slips away, and I sink instead of float, blind and weighted down.

"You put such trust in him, little pawn. You talked of kings and queens, knights and souls. There's nothing that can save you from me now. I will always own a part of you."

Sound goes in and out, even in my head, when I feel a jerk on my shoulders, a frantic clutching around my neck, and I'm hauled upward.

"I got you! I got you, baby, it's going to be okay." A hand swipes across my face and clears my eyes.

The sooty grit coating me starts to slough off as Kevin rinses me and wipes me with his own shirt, kisses trailing over my face before landing on my lips and breathing into me.

Air doesn't want to flow into my lungs, but I manage a coughing whisper. "He's taking me with him. He owns part of my soul. He says. Always."

"What?" Kev's face swims into view, horrified. "No! You're mine. I'm yours. No one takes you anywhere unless it's home with me!"

Koshchei's voice is a snake-like whisper, a forked tongue just tickling inside of my ear. " Tell him you need his soul, rusalka. Not just to bind with. Tell him you need his soul, and see if he'll save you then. No human willingly trades his soul to a demon unless he's getting something out of it. And all he'd get is you."

"Need your soul." I blurt out the words even if I don't believe them, even if I don't want it. I don't. I don't want to take that—what will happen to Kevin if I do?

Kev cups my face and looks into my eyes, a crease between his brows as his smile suddenly lights up the shadows ensnaring me. "Well, you can have that, babe. You already do."

"And you have mine," I gasp—and then something unstoppers in my insides.

There's a wailing screech that rips through my body and out of my mouth—and something gray and spectral flies with it. The sky is dark overhead—and then poof!

Sun.

Water.

People pushing Kevin and me toward Manny and Ian, who haul us up on a very pretty fairytale-esque boat.

I don't feel any different. I don't know if Kevin does. I don't know if I've been tricked somehow.

But I'm alive and so is Kev, and I'm in his arms.

We collapse on the deck, sprawled like two interlocked starfish.

I hear someone say, "The adrenaline wore off. Get them covered and let them sleep in the sun for a bit."

Kev's arms tighten around me. "Love you. Safe now."

"Thank God. Thank you." I kiss him one more time before I pass out.