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Max’s soul snapped out of his body as the aircraft lost control, careening toward the ocean at rapid speed.

“Max!”Dallas cried.

Screams ripped into his eardrums?—

And so did the high-pitched shredding of metal as claws tore into the helicopter.

The glass in the cockpit smashed out.

Blood misted Max’s face.

His surroundings spun. He couldn’t tell up from down, left from right. Couldn’t have jumped even if he wanted to.

“Mayday,”a voice chanted.“Mayday.”

The ocean surged up?—

46

The Ocean

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

These low cloudsand squalls of driving rain might be the death of them.

Travis clung to the wet handrail with one hand and used the other to hold onto Jewels, fisting the back of her slippery life jacket to keep her steady, as Malakai steered the speedboat they’d stolen from the docks through the choppy sea.

These were predator-infested waters, and they were out here by themselves. No one else was around, the few other boats he’d spotted having already made it out.

Behind him, the city was steadily growing darker.

He squinted, gusts of wind and rain battering his face, the latter so cold they felt like shards of ice. It was already difficult to see through the darkness and eddying fog, and this damn storm was only making it worse. They were practically blind.

Something rumbled.

It was the portal—opening wide. A gluttonous mouth eager to devour.

A swirling blast of supernatural darkness burst forth. It chased the boat?—

And swallowed their surroundings.

Travis held his breath, his hand tightening on Jewels’s life jacket?—

Slowly, the shadow dissipated like mist in sunlight, allowing them to see once more.

He exhaled. The city still had time.

They, however, were running out.

His pulse pounded like a hammer on an anvil.

Jewels had her phone out, the screen barely visible in the choking blackness. Whatever she saw sent her stumbling against Travis’s side, her wet hair lashing her panic-stricken face.

Her head snapped up.“MALAKAI!”she screamed.

Travis didn’t need to look at her screen to understand why she was losing her cool.

They were down to their final minutes.