Page 152 of By the Flames of Her Fury

“What about it?”

I hovered my hand above his left shoulder for a split second before pressing down. He let out a grunt of pain and flinched away from me. “What was that?”

“There’s a mark here. It’s red, with black lines in your veins.” I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking. “When did this happen?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t even know it was there.”

“Tell me you just got this today.” I spun him to face me, a sickening thought entering my mind.

I didn’t want to be right. I couldn’t be right.

“I—I don’t know.” His brow furrowed. “It’s been sore for a couple days, I guess, ever since...” He let out a breath.

“Since when?” I demanded frantically.

“Since the crypt. My shoulder popped out of place, and I thought that was all it was, but then…” His eyes met mine, and they widened. “Something landed on me. It had claws. I thought I kicked it off in time.”

“Everett, what was it?”

“A shadow wraith,” he whispered.

The water seemed to turn cold as it beat against us. I shook my head as if I could undo his words. “No. No, it can’t be that. Anything but that.” My chest squeezed as I clutched the back of his neck, desperately clinging to him.

“Everett, you’ve been infected.”

74

Vera

For a second, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe or think beyond the black lines threading up his neck, at the way they pulsed beneath his skin like a living shadow. Then I grabbed his good arm and yanked him after me, lugging us both out of the hot springs. Water dripped from our drenched clothes as we trudged down the tunnels.

I nearly ran straight into Tessa heading our direction, towel draped over her shoulder. She let out a curse and jumped backward. “Whoa, what happened?”

“Have you seen Dom?” I begged her. She shook her head. I dragged Everett along, shouting at everyone we came across. “Dom? Where’s Dom?”

“Vera, please,” Everett said behind me. “We don’t need to⁠—”

I whirled on him. “You’re infected.” The words crawled up my throat. “You—you’re going to turn into one of those things. We have to do something.” My voice broke, and before I lost control, I turned back around. “I need to find Dom!”

I was met with several bewildered stares at our water-logged clothes and hair before someone pointed to a room behind a curtain. I flicked my shadows to shove it aside. Dom sat at a desk, poring over a book with glasses perched on the tip of his nose.

Dom glanced up. “Vera, what’s⁠—”

“The guardians of the kingdom,” I said, cutting him off. “The ones the Fates put here. Do you know about the infection they cause?”

Dom’s forehead pinched. “I—well, yes. Stories of them are passed down as a warning so nobody is tempted to flee the island.”

“But have you ever actually met someone who was infected?” I pushed.

Tessa appeared at my side, peering worriedly between Everett and me. “Is everything okay?”

“Tell me, Dom,” I said. “I need to know everything about them.”

He set his glasses down. “I knew someone, once. Years ago, one of our rebels ventured too close to the boundary on the beach. She was bitten by a creature in the water.”

“And what happened to her?” I asked.

“We thought it was an ordinary wound, maybe by a small shark. Until she became infected. Within days, she turned into one of the creatures—a siren. She lost herself.” He shook his head. “She was no longer the woman, but a guardian, intent on keeping anyone from escaping or entering Pyraeth. She was forced to leave us before she tried to lure several of our number to their deaths.”