Page 80 of The Rusalka and Mr. Right

And the only thing to grab onto is the ship that came to rescue me. The one where my lover stands.

A SKULL THE SIZE OFa coffee table suddenly smashes into the rail where I have my feet braced. The boat has cracked going over waterfalls, but I guess it’s a little bit susceptible to demonic forces since the rail splinters and a spiderwebbing crack appears on the deck under his jaw.

“I told her I would eat you whole—soul and all,” Koshchei snarls, big mouth opening wide enough to bite me in half.

“No. Because I’m the knight.Herknight. And me and a huge amount of horsepower are about to rip apart your immortal ass—starting from the top.”

And then I do the dumbest thing I’ve ever done—or most brilliant.

I let him roar, mouth beginning to engulf me as he pulls the ship toward him—and I fire.

Right into the top of his black, bony head.

Skull confetti rains down—and a couple of icky, gunky red eyeballs, too.

And when there’s nothing left grabbing me—I end up in the water, watching black grit dissolve and leave a thick, slimy coating on top of the water.

“Well. Someone better have a clean-up spell,” I say, sputtering and coughing as I swim to the surface. “Don’t want dead demon polluting the Hudson.” My head is swiveling. “Marina? Marina!”

Where is she?

THERE’S A BLACK TIDEgrabbing me. Drowning me in water, the one safe place I have, the only healing refuge a rusalka can freely call her own.

Dark filth sticks to my skin, clogs my throat, and stings my eyes.

I hear his voice in my head, a last gasp.“You would rather die for him than live with me? No. I will take you with me when I go. If the Bone Lord dies—so do all his creations!”

Everything slips away, and I sink instead of float, blind and weighted down.

“You put such trust in him, little pawn. You talked of kings and queens, knights and souls. There’s nothing that can save you from me now. I willalwaysown a part of you.”

Sound goes in and out, even in my head, when I feel a jerk on my shoulders, a frantic clutching around my neck, and I’m hauled upward.

“I got you! I got you, baby, it’s going to be okay.” A hand swipes across my face and clears my eyes.

The sooty grit coating me starts to slough off as Kevin rinses me and wipes me with his own shirt, kisses trailing over my face before landing on my lips and breathing into me.

Air doesn’t want to flow into my lungs, but I manage a coughing whisper. “He’s taking me with him. He owns part of my soul. He says. Always.”

“What?” Kev’s face swims into view, horrified. “No! You’re mine. I’m yours. No one takes you anywhere unless it’s home with me!”

Koshchei’s voice is a snake-like whisper, a forked tongue just tickling inside of my ear. “Tell him you need his soul, rusalka.Not just to bind with. Tell him you need his soul, and see if he’ll save you then. No human willingly trades his soul to a demon unless he’s getting something out of it. And all he’d get is you.”

“Need your soul.” I blurt out the words even if I don’t believe them, even if I don’t want it. I don’t. I don’t want to take that—what will happen to Kevin if I do?

Kev cups my face and looks into my eyes, a crease between his brows as his smile suddenly lights up the shadows ensnaring me. “Well, you can have that, babe. You already do.”

“And you have mine,” I gasp—and then something unstoppers in my insides.

There’s a wailing screech that rips through my body and out of my mouth—and something gray and spectral flies with it. The sky is dark overhead—and then poof!

Sun.

Water.

People pushing Kevin and me toward Manny and Ian, who haul us up on a very pretty fairytale-esque boat.

I don’t feel any different. I don’t know if Kevin does. I don’t know if I’ve been tricked somehow.

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