Roaring, claws out, the creature dove for her.
Alys hit the sand as Stasia threw her down. She barely understood what was happening, only that her friend dragged her across the beach.
“Cease fighting me,” Stasia growled.
Alys couldn’t stop. “They did this to him.”
“Him and the other sailors. No end to the Royal Navy’s treachery. Cursing their own men.”
“I have to get to Ben,” Alys insisted. “Have to help.”
“There is no help for him,” Stasia answered grimly.
“But—” Alys grunted as Stasia threw her against the prow of the jolly boat.
The three other sailors who had transformed were also charging toward them. They were smaller than Ben, their skin a greenish color, but they had the same scales, the same claws.
Dimly, Alys was aware that the landing party was lifting her into the jolly boat as they hurried out into the water. Inés and Dayanna took up the oars, and Susannah and Thérèse cast a spell to speed them along the top of the waves.
Alys clambered to the stern, facing the island. Four monsters now dotted the beach, and the creature that had once been Ben was the largest of them all. He charged into the waves in pursuit.
Stasia muttered something under her breath.
Suddenly, Ben stopped, and he roared in what sounded like frustration. Seaweed wove up from the shallow water and wrapped itself up his legs.
“I am sorry, fili mou,” Stasia said to Alys. “He is lost now.”
“I saw this.” Alys’s words were hoarse. “The beach. The creature. The first time I dreamwalked with him. I saw this.”
“It was fated.”
The boat sped toward the waitingSea Witch. TheJupiterlisted, cutting a weak circle in the water. TheFearlesscould only limp with its broken sails. Both ships let them pass, each deeply damaged by the liberated sea creatures.
Alys pressed a hand to her aching chest. Her heart split apart. Hot tears gathered in her eyes and she blinked them back, yet a few ran down her cheeks and into the hollow of her throat. She reached for him along the threads that wove between them. All she felt was chaos and brutality.
He was in there, somewhere. He had to be.
Tearing through the seaweed that bound him, the thing that had been Ben tried to pursue, but the jolly boat was too far away. The creature grew smaller as the boat neared theSea Witch.
“Fate?” Alys’s gaze never left him. “Doesn’t exist. There’s only the fight.”
* * * * *
