Page 16 of Devour the Dark

I take the glass and pull myself into a sitting position, slinging it back in one gulp.

Ahhh yes. That’s better.

The alcohol warms my throat and drives away some of the gnawing, never-ending hunger.

He returns to the wingback, some of the tension fading from his body.

He looks impossibly tired.

“How many?”

With his head leaning against the flared wing of the chair, he closes his eyes, inhales through his nose. “Six. We barely made it to the harbor. We’re operating on a skeleton crew and half of those who remain want to throw me and you overboard.”

I laugh.

The Captain sits upright. “It’s not funny!”

“Well, it’s a little funny. Do you even know how to swim?”

He glowers at me. “Of course I know how to swim!”

“Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll keep you afloat.”

He stands abruptly, causing the chair to rock on its wooden legs. “Not even conscious five minutes and already you’re harassing me.”

“Five minutes? So you have been keeping time.”

He goes still.

I meant it as another joke, but the anguish on his face says I’ve gone too far.

He is distressed and he hasbeendistressed.

All because of me.

Rarely am I serious. Not anymore. Not since Lainey died.

But that look…

Like he could cry.

“How long?” I ask him.

His jaw clenches again and he takes a breath. “You’ve been…devouring every ten hours.”

I curse beneath my breath.

“So it is bad?”

“We are not meant to shift multiple times in one day. One shift, one meal, should put me out for at least a day, usually two and we are warned not to devour again for weeks at the very least. Months would be better.”

I glance up at him. “You once asked me why I kept time, why I didn’t just shift and devour at my discretion.”

“I remember.” He swallows. “You told me there was a cost.”

“Yes. It’s not just the recovery period, the vulnerability in being unconscious. Too many shifts and…” I sink back against the headboard and close my eyes. “Too many shifts and a day will come when I can no longer shift back.”

Silence grows thin between us. I have never told anyone this secret. What I am, what Vane is, we are not from this realm. No one in the Seven Isles has had to suffer the consequences of a permanent shift. Of a monster who cannot be stopped.

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