Damian's Assassin

"Hope you can swim when this is over," Talon snarled. He strode by her and slapped her on the back of the head, hard.

She rubbed her head and glared at him, watching as he followed his father in the direction where both sky and sea darkened into blackness. The still air became more charged the closer they got to the center of the storm, the sky darker. She avoided looking down, afraid to imagine just how deep the waters were or how far from shore they'd gone.

What would happen when the Black God righted their world? Would she end up at the bottom of the sea?

Dusty wouldn't be there to fish her out as he had Darian. Her stomach dropped at the thought of him, and her eyes watered. She didn't want to die; she wanted to be with him, even if only during the nights. He cared for her, but she didn't think he'd ever let anything get between him and his duty. If that was all she got, she'd take it. He'd saved her brother, her, the world. No woman would ever be more than second to a man like that, but being the woman who was second in his world sounded better than anything else she'd ever wanted.

Talon barked at her, and she realized she'd stopped walking. Tired, she wiped her eyes, an ache fluttering through her at the lingering scent of Dusty on her skin.

The air grew chilled, and she stopped again. The frozen sea beneath her feet was the color of tar, the black clouds above paused mid-swirl around a pop of blue sky in the storm's center. Frozen in mid-air were fat raindrops, arcing in a wind she didn't feel.

The storm was beautiful and terrifying in its paralyzed fury. She climbed frozen hills of waves through the raindrops, surprised when they popped like tiny water balloons. Before long, she was drenched and chilled, her skin crawling from the bridled charged energy of the storm.

And still the Black God walked. Talon swatted at raindrops ahead of her, and she crossed her arms, shivering. Her eyes went to the angry clouds.

She did not want to be there when the storm awoke! The rain fell almost horizontally, and she hurried to follow Talon as he found a path among the black waves, many of which were taller than buildings. They both lost their footing at the top of one wave and tumbled into a valley, bouncing against the rubbery trough.

"Mortal shitheads! Keep up, or I'll leave you in this dimension!" the Black God barked from atop another wave.