If I squinted, I was pretty sure I could see for miles. Or as far as the dim light allowed. “I bet this place will be kind of pretty when the sun comes up,” I mused.
Not that I was planning on sticking around long enough to see it.
Since the moment I realized I might be causing the chaos in the Nassa, I’d been guarding a handful of my thoughts. Now that I was locked safely away where the fates wanted me, I figured it was safe to let them run.
Which brought me back to the question of how long Ishould pretend to be the good dead girl before putting my power to the test. I needed to check on my brother and Lily. If they were okay and safe, I would try to take them to the Nassa. Then I would bite the bullet and find a way to drag my sorry ass back here for good.
I really didn’t want to do that last part. Everything inside me wanted to leave this place and slip back into Hook’s life like nothing was wrong. But somethingwaswrong. That much was painfully obvious from the storms and general upheaval.
The catch was I couldn’t flash to my world from the Nassa. Not with Hook’s magic anchoring me there. I’d tried a hundred times. A thousand, maybe. Eventually, I stopped counting because all it ever earned me was a big old pile of bupkis.
Hook had managed to get us back to the Nassa from my world after the shadow embedded itself inside me, but that had more to do with the fact that the realm had been trying to drag him back there anyway. Nerebis, on the other hand, had flashed in and out of the realm easily enough.
I already knew Hook and his magic were cursed to that place, but what if his power was only limited in the Nassa? If that was the case, logic said I just needed to be outside the limits of his realm to flash to mine. At least, that was how it worked in my head.
But I was hesitating. What if Nerebis or Tenebris were watching me?
It was best to wait at least more than half a minute, right?
A branch snapped to my right, and I jerked around, but I didn’t see anything. Another sound like a cross between a growl and a laugh had me spinning to look behind me.
My breath caught. Not one, not two, but three demons were coming toward me.
Adrenaline rocketed through my blood. When the one on the left, with his nasty green scales and oversized head, growled,a strange rumble vibrated my chest, and another unearthly growl answered the first.
We all froze.
Where the hell did that come from?Three sets of eyes bored into me. Or were they glaring at something behind me?
I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, but it was just miles and miles of empty, crimson-tinted forest.What the fuck?
I backed up a step. Probably not the smartest move when I was squaring off against three hulking demons, but nothing about this place felt right.
Plus, anxiety did weird things to a person. Maybe that was why my pulse was all over the place. But would that also explain why, all of a sudden, my skin was hot and too tight?
What if there are demons here that can fly?I cursed the errant thought and tipped my head to the sky on instinct.
The green demon took advantage of the momentary distraction and launched at me. I managed to tuck and roll in time to avoid his claws, but it was close. I popped back up onto my feet to find the other two closing in around behind me. They reached and slashed, snarled and snapped, but as I twisted and spun to keep them in sight, I realized they weren’t getting closer.
“What? Are you three big baddies afraid of a little human?” I taunted. Again, not the smartest move, but I had things to do. Like trying to figure out how to use my handy new magic to get me back to my world.
The pinkish-red demon, sporting a smaller extra set of arms below the first, hissed.
“Come on, pop tart,” I said.
Why did I call him that? Because the color of his skin reminded me of the filling of a strawberry pop tart. And I was hungry. Go figure.
He shot forward, no doubt expecting me to bob or weave.Fuck that.With a fresh stream of energy pulsing into my muscles, I charged him head on. He was strong, but somehow, I was stronger. I drove him backward, his clawed feet leaving gouges in the dirt.
Pain exploded across my back, and I screamed. It welled up out of me in a rush, only that scream didn’t sound like me at all.
In fact, it didn’t even sound human.
Hot blood spilled down my back, but I could barely feel it through the fury building inside me. It was a truly wild feeling. Animalistic at the core.
I let out a warrior’s cry, and in the stillness of that half-dead forest, all I heard was the roar of a powerful beast.
Holy shit. Was that me?
