Page 78 of Traitor Witch

I surge forwards, carefully catching her dress between my teeth and holding her there as I drag her up to the surface.

We breach the waves in a burst of scales and fur. My roar echoes, but it’s lost in the thunder.

Lightning strikes and I have to dodge, only for another bolt to slam into the water by my tail. The searing pain doesn’t affect my larger body, but it does confirm what some part of me has known all along.

More bolts strike nearby, the closeness and frequency too accurate to ever be considered natural.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise this is no ordinary storm. This is something much different.

This is something more.

I can’t see the ship, but that doesn’t mean anything. I can’t see land either.

I’m a sitting duck out here.

With a sigh, I let my long, forked tongue snake out, wrap around Nilsa’s unconscious body and tug her into the cavern that is my mouth in this form. I haven’t done this since I was a teenager, playing with my friends, but it still works, even though I’ve grown.

I close my jaw around her, knowing she’ll kill me for thiswhen she wakes up covered in slobber, and dive back into the depths that are my home.

Down, far below the surface, the waves are barely noticeable. The lightning is nothing more than a subtle glow above us.

I keep going, my serpentine body propelling us back toward the ship’s last known location.

It takes some searching, but I know the dark shadow of the bottom of theDeadwood’s hull when I see it. The lightning is striking around it constantly, following the ship's path with an eerie accuracy.

The flashes are still following us, closing the distance with each bolt. Close enough to make me anxious, but I don’t have a choice. Nilsa still isn’t moving, and my beast is about to lose it.

I rise out of the water, my height dwarfing the mast as I open my mouth and drop my mate onto the deck beside Kier.

The impact doesn’t do anything. She stays as still as a corpse, but the fae is on her before I can blink, turning her onto her back and sealing his lips over hers, pushing air into her lungs.

It takes three attempts, but eventually she jackknifes upwards, water spilling from her mouth and all over the wood of the deck.

I let out a roar, my relief weakening my mind to the point when my beast can easily wrestle away my control.

Blackness consumes me, just as her eyes fix on my form.

Chapter Twenty-One

NILSA

Leviathan.

They’re supposed to be a myth.

But there’s no denying that enormous sea serpent bending over the ship. Just like there’s no doubt in my mind that the creature is Cas.

I can see it in his turquoise eyes. Somehow, even in this form, they're so expressive. So human.

There’s fear in their depths for the briefest instant, before the human light fades, replaced with a primitive kind of curiosity.

Cas’s beast.

I’m not afraid. Not even when he lowers his head and sniffs me, dripping sea water all over my already-soaked clothes.

My lungs still burn, but the pain is nothing compared to my awe and confusion. If I just reached out, Icould touch him.

But the instant I raise my palm, a freezing cold hand grabs my wrist, stilling me.