“Anyway, I went to help my mom bandage up my dad . . . and I healed him. Just like that. Bullet popped out under my hands, the wound closed up, and then I was doubling over in serious pain, like I’d been shot myself. My mom and dad freaked out a little bit, and when I felt better, I ran away. I was too young to make it on my own though, so I went back home and sucked it up. But people treated me weird from then on. I learned I could only find peace when I was alone.”

“Was this when you were in the Shetlands?”

Zander gave her a nod. “Our neighbors knew we were Shifter—or at least not human—and they didn’t care, but they were powerfully superstitious, especially a hundred and more years ago. They thought I was either touched by the devil or by an angel, depending on the mood of the day. Once I was past my Transition, I lit out to see the world. Which was why I wasn’t around when the rest of my clan was rounded up by the humans.”

Rae heard the bitterness in his voice. “I’m sorry.”

“You and me both.” Zander shrugged. “I got over it.”

“No you didn’t.”

Zander shot her a glance, an unreadable look in his dark eyes. “Sure, I did. Don’t make me out to be a wuss. I’m fine.”

No, he wasn’t fine, but his black stare dared her to say so.

Rain lashed at the window and Zander refocused his attention on where they were going. Waves beat at the boat, trying to drive them into the rock walls that seemed to be narrowing.

“Hold on to something,” Zander said. “This is going to be tight.”

Cliffs closed in on them, surging out of the fog as though determined to squeeze them in half. Rae grabbed the sword and slid it back into the sheath, worried it would fall and get even more damaged.

A rock wall materialized out of the fog and smashed into their side. The impact sent Rae to the floor, the sword flying. Rae lunged for the sword as it skittered and slid across the cabin, almost gleefully, she thought. She scrambled after it. The sword ended up nearly running into the fox that was Miles, until he put out a slim paw and stopped it.

Rae stilled, afraid it would burn him, but Miles only lifted his paw without a sound. Maybe the sword chose who it hurt or didn’t.

The Graveyard wasn’t finished. The boat rocked and pitched, struggling to wrench itself free of cliffs that closed in on either side. Rae remained on the floor, her hand on the sword’s hilt, figuring it was useless to try to get up.

Rocks screeched along the hull with the sound of nails on metal. Rae held her breath, expecting at any second for the sides to crack open and water to come rushing in. The boat would upend and sink like the other wrecks, and they’d be forgotten and stranded, slowly becoming ghosts.

The men locked below would die first. They were Shifter bounty hunters, happy to drag Shifters to their doom, but Rae wasn’t hardhearted enough to wish death on them. At the moment, though, she couldn’t move to get up and help them.

The horrible shrieking sound went on and on, then abruptly ceased. The boat shot out from between the rocks and sped forward, swaying heavily. Rae lifted her head to see Zander fighting the tiller, his muscles working.

“Son of a bitch,” Zander said under his breath.

“What’s wrong?” Rae pried herself from the floor, the sword in her hand, and pulled herself across the rocking wheelhouse to him. She clung to the chair she’d vacated but remained on her feet. “What happened?”

“The tiller won’t respond.” Zander turned the wheel back and forth, flipped switches, then smacked the dashboard. “Either that or . . .”

He trailed off, but this time Rae saw what he saw. The fog was clearing. As it burned off, sunlight shone strongly on the sea, turning it deep blue.

The narrow, jagged-rock passage had given way to a wider spread of water enclosed by more rocks on the other side. Mountains soared in the distance beyond that. The beautiful blue water churned around the edges of the cliffs, becoming luminous white foam. In the middle of the open stretch a whirlpool sucked water down, down, down into nothing.

“So,” Zander said, his lips pale but his eyes wide and sparkling. “This is new.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“You mean you haven’t been this way before?”

Rae’s voice rose with her fear. Zander wanted to turn and comfort her but didn’t dare take his hands from the wheel. There was nothing wrong with the tiller, he realized, as he looked into the whirling water. The undertow was simply dragging them forward, nothing he could do about it.

“I have been this way,” he said, answering Rae. “But this wasn’t here. Must be tidal, or seasonal, or something.”

“Great,” Rae said. “What do we do? Go back?”

Not an option. Zander hadn’t admitted it but getting this far had been a feat of precise navigation that he wasn’t sure he could do again. The fact that they hadn’t broken open like an egg in that narrow passage had somewhat surprised him.

“No,” he said decidedly. “We go through.”

Rae’s eyes widened. “Go through? How can we? You are seriously out of your mind.”

“I know that.” Zander laced his arm around her, pulling her against his side. “Sweetheart, I promised I’d take care of you and get you home all right. I will do that. Do you trust me?” He had to raise his voice over the rush of the chaotic, crashing waves.

“No,” Rae yelled back.

“Hey, I will get you out of here whether you trust me or not. But it would be more fun if you did.” He grinned. “Would make me feel all warm and fuzzy.”

“I’ll give you warm and fuzzy all right,” Rae said darkly.

“Looking forward to it.” Zander scooped her up his body, pressed swift kiss to her lips, and let her go to hang on to the wheel again. “I’m gonna need your help to take us through this. You up to it?”

“Do I have a choice?” Rae demanded.

Zander seized her and kissed her again—it was just so much fun. “No, you don’t. First, I need you to convince Miles to get up off his ass and go over and pilot my boat. I need his senses to steer it through. Piotr’s good, but I need Shifter instincts.”

Zander directed a glance at Miles, who glared back at him. Rae gave Zander another skeptical look but she laid the sword on the windowsill again then turned and went to Miles, crouching down in front of him.