“It drove the mermaid from the lake.” She pointed to the spot where Graeson had burst into a ball of fur. “She was flopping on the shore. All I had to do was scoop her up.”

Flopping meant Harlow had been wearing her fins. Why this time? What made her change for this dive? In order to beach herself, she had been in mermaid mode when she confronted the kelpie. At least this confirmed she had survived the encounter.

“Was anyone else out here?” I swiped my arms through my wispy captor while getting my feet under me. “Did you see anyone with the kelpie?”

“A small girl,” she said in a somber voice. “I sent the umbra to check. She was already dead. I couldn’t help her.”

My eyes crushed shut. That meant Charybdis had claimed its victim in this state after all.

That hairline crack in the Fury’s armor compelled me to add, “If you don’t release me, other girls like her will die.”

“Girls like her will grow up without a father thanks to you and your friend.” Her earlier anger expanded tenfold. “You’re expendable. That’s what the conclave taught me with Jasper’s death. You’re all disposable. You and your friend will die for your crimes, and others will take your place. You’ll be reduced to a name on a memorial wall that your coworkers walk past, seeing but not seeing.”

Vicious snapping noises preceded the splashing of water. No matter how Graeson fought, he was hauled into the lake by the second shadow as sure as if he were captured in a silver mesh net.

“Let him go.” I screamed my frustration. “He wasn’t in Wink. He has nothing to do with this.”

“He cares about you,” she seethed, “and that’s reason enough for him to die.”

Telling her I barely knew Graeson—or Harlow—wouldn’t save them. Letitia existed in a space beyond reality, beyond rationality, where vengeance and pain were the only flavors she tasted and blood was the only way to erase the cosmic debt she had attached to Harlow, and now to me.

“Keep her quiet,” the Fury ordered my personal umbra. “She might have brought more agents with her. We’ll have to handle those too.”

A chill embraced me. “Where are the other marshals?”

“Where all good marshals go when they die,” she said coldly and turned her back on me. “Come, pets. Let’s go home.”

The shadow crammed its wispy fist down my throat until I gagged. I bit down, tasting air. The creature had no blood to draw, no skin to read. I had nothing to mimic. My talents were useless against it.

A gurgled yelp fueled my thrashing. The creature clamped down harder, crushing me in its embrace. Wet snarls were the last thing I heard before the shadow squeezed out my consciousness.

Chapter 10