Page 23 of Devour the Dark

I spot Roc across the beach in human form.

I exhale a breath of indescribable relief.

He’s got his back propped against a boulder, and there’s something moving on his lap.

Is that a kitten?

“Bloody hell.” I race across the beach. The sand grabs at me, making it harder to find purchase with the soles of my boots.

Roc looks up, seeing me careening toward him. “Captain,” he calls and smiles. He’s bloodied, his shirt torn.

“Give me the kitten!” I screech, heart pounding in my ears.

Roc pulls the little ball of fluff to his chest and scratches at its ears. “Why? Is it a beast I’ve not met?”

“No. You’re…you…give me the kitten before you eat it!” I come to a halt in front of him, kicking up sand.

Roc scowls at me, dusts the sand from his trousers. “Do you truly think so little of me?”

The cat nuzzles his chin, purring loudly. It’s barely the size of Roc’s hand, its eyes big and round and bright amber. It can’t be much older than a month and two.

“Do you blame me for being wary? How many people did you just eat?”

There’s a smear of blood on his face and a splatter of it across his torn shirt.

“Don’t make me count my sins, Captain.”

“I rest my case.”

He cradles the kitten in his left hand and hoists it up in front of him, gazing into its eyes. “Don’t listen to him. I would never eat you.”

I sigh. “We have enough problems. Let the kitten go.”

“Very well.” Roc sets the kitten in the sand and slowly climbs to his feet. “Don’t look so sullen, Captain. That was a quick shift. And now we’re on Neverland and Vane will give me?—”

“He doesn’t have it.”

Roc comes to a stop. “The hat?”

“It’s not here.”

There is no emotion on Roc’s face, but the glint in his bright green eyes tells me enough. He’s afraid.

“Where is it?”

“He said Darkland.”

Roc turns away, his hands on his hips, his head bowed. His shoulders rise with a deep breath and I unconsciously step back, unsure of his state of mind.

This contraption, this hat, was his saving grace, and now we’re even farther away from it. It’ll take us at least six days to reach Darkland. I don’t think I have crew enough to make the trip.

“I can’t go to Darkland,” he says, his back still to me.

“I know it’s a long trip, but?—”

He turns back to me. “The witch wants me to go.”

This is the first time he’s spoken of her directly. When he first shifted on my ship, after we escaped Everland, I thought I saw her face within his dark shadowy form. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. After all, the witch was a specter from my past, a nightmare reminder of what my father had done to me. I thought perhaps her visage was still haunting me.

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