Page 78 of Panther in the Shadows

"So now you die."

The spear launches.

Shadow-walking should save me. My body won't respond. The corruption locks my muscles. Roots me in place.

The spear punches through my left shoulder.

An old injury. One that's plagued me since Spain. That still aches on cold nights and never quite healed right.

Not barely healed anymore. Destroyed.

The corrupted water magic tears through muscle and bone like they're paper. The shoulder joint shatters. My arm goes numb. Then the pain hits. White-hot. Overwhelming. Worse than anything I've felt since my exile.

Down. Hit the deck hard. Blood pours from the wound. The deck beneath me turns red.

Darkness eats at the edges of my vision. The corruption spreads faster now. Black veins racing up my neck. Across my chest. Toward my heart.

Dying. The word surfaces in my mind with absolute certainty.

Somewhere distant, I hear Moira scream my name.

The sound tears through the night. Raw. Agonized.

Then the ocean responds.

The water around us goes still. Completely still. No ripples. No waves. Like the entire Sound is holding its breath.

Power builds. Even through the corruption eating my system, the magic is palpable. Rising from the deep places. From the trenches where ancient things sleep. From the heart of the ocean itself.

A wave forms.

Not like the waves that crashed against the shore earlier. Not like anything natural.

This wave towers over the Sound. Massive. Unprecedented. The kind of wave that swallows ships and drowns coastlines. The kind of wave that reminds humanity why they built walls and why they fear the sea.

Raw power. A sea witch's fury given form.

At its heart, Moira stands on what's left of her boat. Arms raised. Eyes blazing with power. Salt water streams from her hair, her clothes, her very skin. She's glowing. Radiant with magic unleashed. Beautiful and terrifying and absolutely unstoppable.

She's let go of the control she's maintained for a decade. Let go of the fear. The restraint. Everything holding her back.

This is what Moira Flynn really is. What she was always meant to be.

A force of nature in human skin.

Catalina sees it. Understands what's coming. And she laughs.

The sound carries across the water. Delighted. Triumphant.

"Yes!" The sea-walker spreads her arms wide. "Show me what the great Siobhan Flynn's heir can really do! Show methe monster you'll become! This is what I wanted. This is what I've been waiting for. The moment you stop being human and become something more!"

Moira doesn't respond with words.

She unleashes everything.

The wave crashes down.

The world becomes water and fury and magic so powerful it makes reality scream.