Page 54 of Captured in Love
One more finger goes up on my left hand.
“Nora blasted that witch away with her spell,” Raphaël says.
I lift another finger on my right hand, then one on my left. “And I killed the witch.”
Four to two.
Nora crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but I did write that note in Egypt to warn you about the wall spikes, too.”
Right. I lift another finger.
“All right, four to three. I’m one ahead, yes?”
Raphaël grips the railing and leans forward. “What of it?”
“I’m really sorry,” I say.
Nora’s frown deepens. “About what?”
I look right into her eyes. “I wish there was another way.”
Levi takes Nora’s shoulder and pulls her away from the edge. “Get back. Put your shield up.”
Raphaël looks as if he might jump into the water at any moment, crouched and ready, a strong opponent for my human form.
But I’m already changing, answering the call of the ocean. I inhale a deep swallow of seawater and let it flow through my gills, restoring my senses.
“Isak!” Nora calls from the deck. “You don’t have to—”
I surge forward and swipe my claws toward the boat.
This is the last thing I’ll do.
Twenty
Nora
A massive cracksplinters the air, and I cry out in alarm.
The boat shudders, bobbing in the water. I flinch away from the railing and instinctively throw up my shields. Levi launches himself at me. His arms close around my shoulders as he curls his body around mine.
I brace myself for another attack, but it doesn’t come. Silence descends on the sea, the waves lapping against the boat. Levi’s breaths in my ear are all I hear.
“Are you two all right?” Raphaël materializes in front of us. “Let her go, he’s gone.”
Levi’s arms slowly loosen around me, enough to let me sit up. Raphaël offers me his hand, and I take it, allowing him to haul me upright. Then we all approach the railing and look out on the water.
Isak is nowhere to be seen, either in dragon or human form. I squint down into the waves, trying to see his big shape lurking below the boat, but there’s no sign of him.
He’s gone, just like Raphaël said.
“What happened?” I ask, turning toward the stern. “What did he do?”
Levi rushes past me and maneuvers himself to see down the hull, leaning dangerously far over the railing. Then he lets out a string of curses. “That fucker. He took out our rudder and propeller.”
Raphaël and I crowd in beside him. I can’t see the damage, but a broken piece of the rudder floats several yards from the boat, slowly carried off by the waves.
I push away from the railing and collapse onto a box of fishing nets. “Well, that’s…”
