“Because Zander wants to give you a fighting chance.” Rae clenched the keys, determined not to let Carson take them. “I wish he didn’t want you to be out because then I’d know he had perfect confidence that we’ll make it.”

Carson turned abruptly from her and headed for the stairs. “Shit. What has he done to my boat?”

Again, as Zander guessed, Carson gave no orders for Rae to be held, and neither of the guards, one of them rushing to the head to be sick, looked interested in capturing her.

Rae hurried after Carson, clinging tightly to the handholds as she made her way upstairs and out onto the deck. Carson was already in the wheelhouse when Rae reached it, looming right behind Zander.

“This would be easier without you breathing down my neck,” Zander was saying. “Sit down.” He gave the command in a hard voice, an alpha Shifter expecting to be obeyed.

Carson cast his gaze over the controls, looked again at the whirlpool beyond where Zander held the boat, and stamped over to a bench.

“Stay down,” Carson snapped to his men as they came in behind Rae, the one who’d rushed to the bathroom finally catching up. The second man looked a little green, but he nodded and sat on the floor with his fellow, well out of Zander’s way.

Rae took a seat on another bench but she couldn’t stay there. As Zander eased the boat forward, she moved quickly to him and settled in the copilot’s chair. Instead of admonishing Rae to take cover behind him, Zander reached for her hand and closed it in his.

Strength came to her, warming Rae and bolstering her courage. Zander was right—why hide from the world and wait to be captured or die during that wait? Why not face life head on and go out fighting, like Shifters were meant to?

Rae tightened her grip on Zander’s hand, and he shot her a hot smile. Heat twined her heart, wrapping it in tendrils that didn’t let go.

Zander had to release her to pick up the radio and give Miles and Piotr coordinates and directions. When he clicked off Piotr’s protests and secured the mike in its slot, Zander took Rae’s hand again, kissing it briefly.

“Ready, Little Wolf?”

Rae couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face. “Sure am—Big-Ass Bear.”

Zander laughed out loud. “You’re paying for that when we’re out of this. Here we go.”

He throttled the boat forward, the engines throbbing as the vessel moved faster. And faster.

Zander’s fingers bit down but Rae was holding on to him just as tightly. Zander lifted their twined hands high as the boat charged into the clear water and headed straight for the whirlpool.

“Here comes the tricky part,” Zander yelled over the roar of the engines.

He cranked the wheel opposite the spin of the vortex and gave the throttle still more speed. He steadied everything then dragged Rae off the seat and positioned her in front of him. “Hold on to that,” he said, closing her hand around the throttle. “It will try to fight you, but hold it steady.”

Rae nodded, gripping it tightly. Zander had the wheel in both hands now, his body against hers, as they raced toward the whirlpool.

Just as Rae thought they’d plunge straight into it, the boat caught on the whirlpool’s edge. The water shoved them sideways, slingshotting them past the dark hole in the center.

Zander whooped. Rae yelled with him as the boat climbed the waves, their speed rushing them past the cliffs on the other side of the whirlpool, beyond which was open sea.

Rae’s heart beat in exhilaration and the mad joy of it. They’d make it. Zander, the crazy idiot, was doing it. He’d be even more impossible to live with now.

Just as Rae started to join in Zander’s laughter of celebration, the boat swung around and listed sharply into the whirlpool’s maw.

“Shit,” Zander said, exuberance gone. “That should have worked.”

“What do I do?” Rae shouted up at him, her hands locked around the throttle. “Ease back?”

“No.” Zander’s command was harsh. “More power. We need to break free.”

“No kidding.” A flash caught Rae’s eye. “Oh, hey, there goes Piotr.”

Her heart squeezed in relief as Zander’s fishing boat soared away from the whirlpool and into the sunshine, leaving the deadly waters behind. Piotr, Miles, and Ezra were free, heading out to open sea.

Zander spared a glance for it. “Thank the Goddess. Wait, what is he doing?” His eyes widened in rage. “Trying to come back for us?”

“Zander!”

Zander jerked his head around at Rae’s shout to see the mouth of the vortex yawn wider before them. “Give it some more!” he yelled to her. “I’m trying to turn. More, more.”

Rae dragged on the throttle, which was trying to rip itself free of her hands, but the boat was giving all it had. Behind them, Carson snarled and swore but he didn’t move to stop them.

On the windowsill, where it for some reason had stayed put, the Sword of the Guardian jumped. Not with the boat’s movement, but with impetus of its own. It leapt and clattered, then rang, its music shrilling even over the thunder of engines and the sea.

“It’s anxious to stick itself inside us,” Zander said with grim humor. “Wants to dust us and get it over with.”

Rae didn’t think so. She didn’t know how she knew what to do but she peeled one hand from the throttle and closed it over the sword’s hilt.

The ringing soared, pounding at her eardrums with the intensity of a thousand bells. Zander winced, his shoulders jerking.

“Make it shut up,” he yelled. “I want to die quietly.”

They weren’t going to die that day—Rae suddenly knew that. She shook the top part of the sword free of the sheath.

The blade flashed in the sunlight, jerking Rae so hard she lost hold of the throttle. The next moment, the sword slammed itself to the control board. Sparks leapt from the silver blade into the panel then arcs curved down into the vessel itself.

The boat hurtled forward. It flew once around the whirlpool, then at the exact place were they had spun out of control, the boat broke free and sailed hard and fast into the flat water beyond. The momentum sent them past the cliffs and through the passage Piotr had taken.

They shot from shadows into water bathed in sunlight. The Graveyard dropped abruptly to stern, the fog closed around its cliffs, and the sea calmed.