Page 28 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Selena

X iane grabbed my arm. “We can’t stay here.”

The pool at our feet thrashed, disturbed from Cebrinne’s steps. I leaned over it, staring into the black. “CEBA!”

The rock beneath our feet shuddered, glowworms swinging in their silk threads.

Xiane yanked, but I whipped my arm away.

Across from me, Aegir faced the darkness as well, poised as though he might jump after her.

Then the walls gushed, the thin trickles of water spurting and rushing, the echo of them panging in my ears.

The cavern floor shook again, lurching us violently left and right.

Xiane took my arm again, but Pheolix grabbed me around my middle, lifting me from my feet.

I kicked like a child, realizing what he was doing. It didn’t matter. He threw me over his shoulder as water erupted from the center of the pit, roaring as it hit the ceiling and rained back down. The pool shifted, overflowing, claws reaching and crawling, clutching the rocks at our heels.

I squirmed out of Pheolix’s grasp, and he skidded to a stop, arms poised to grab me again. But even if I wanted to turn back, I couldn’t. My eyes grew wide at the surge behind us, a vortex swirling and knocking, a river wicked and wild.

We ran the length of the tunnel, the water livid with white, crashing off the walls and ceiling. Gusts of wind pulled my hair, scratching at my eyes, howling in my ears. The spray behind us flecked over my skin, burning like ice. A groan rattled the rock walls as water flooded past our ankles .

Xiane slipped, and Aegir caught her arm, hauling her upright.

The light of our jars bounded back and forth as we pumped our arms, but the shadows bounced as well, growing and shrinking, jumping over our eyes and behind our heads.

Ahead, the tunnel lifted in a steep incline.

Feet pounded to the base of it, Sicia dropping into view.

“What happened?” she shrieked across the wild wail of the rock. Just over her head, the wall crumbled, and she threw herself out of the way as a jagged notch in the ceiling fell. “Where’s the other one?”

“Run!” Xiane gasped out. Sicia turned, and we followed her, scrambling up the rocks.

Water lashed at our thighs, crashing into the incline and dragging us away.

We pushed ourselves out of its grasp, climbing over a short ledge above.

Panting, I turned and watched the water as it eddied, slowly rising in a whirlpool like a vexed predator prowling the edges of its cage.

Pheolix stopped as well, a hand over his heart as he leaned against the wall with eyes closed, chest rising and falling.

Xiane swallowed hard, fighting her own quelling breath. “Fools! All of you. Not you,” she amended in Aegir’s direction.

Like me, he watched the water as it swirled and grew. Something about it calmed as soon as we’d lifted ourselves out of its grip. Still hostile and threatening, but reserved. As though it had drawn a line, offering us danger only if we crossed it.

“Is she all right?” Aegir finally asked. His smooth voice cracked with worry.

Xiane barked a laugh and said nothing.

He sent her a withering gaze, his voice low with warning. “Could she swim through it? Does it overflow to the cave where we entered, or does it drain somewhere else? How long until it recedes again?”

“I don’t know,” she shot back, the words just as icy. She threw an impatient arm. “Hours. A day. I don’t know. None of us have ever violated the water so shamelessly. ”

I sank to the rock, arms around my knees, and felt the prickle of their eyes on the back of my head.

“Selena,” Aegir said, a touch softer than before. “Why did Cebrinne jump in? What are you not telling us?”

Forehead against my kneecaps, I didn’t answer. The image of her launching over the edge flickered through my mind, and a hard lump gathered in my throat, raw and burning.

She wants to die.

The thought cornered me like a pack of growling wolves, teeth snapping from every direction.

She wants to die, she wants to die, she wants to die .

I cowered from it, and in the same moment, wondered how long I’d been cowering.

Because that’s what I always did. Run and cower like a terrified little rabbit in its burrow, shaking beyond the reach of wolves.

I’d known that look in her eyes as we’d walked back from the cliffs on our birthday.

As I ranted over how she couldn’t possibly even consider Theia’s words, her prophecy.

To abandon Cebrinne’s vows, escape to a fishing island, find a human husband.

And Cebrinne had always been reckless, but she’d grown even more so after that morning.

I wished we’d never called Theia’s attention.

I wished we’d never asked for her help. I wished I were brave enough to just stab Thaan in his sleep or poison his food.

To do what I knew Cebrinne could only fantasize about.

But I was still the scared child Thaan had stolen from the docks of Cypria.

Too convinced I wouldn’t succeed without getting caught; too afraid of what punishment Thaan would inflict.

The water lifted, level with the ledge on which we stood. Then stopped. Bubbles spun slowly from the center of it, floating to catch in the corners of the rocks. Popping in silence.

Liquid dropped somewhere.

Aegir glanced at the water then back to me. “Selena.”

“Theia told us where to find the stones,” I murmured. “But not how to reach them. ”

Silence came from behind my back. But I knew they were looking at each other. Tossing thoughts and judgements between them like beggars holding their hands out, demanding their piece of a meal.

Aegir stepped to me, landing in front of my bare feet and lowering to a crouch. “There’s more to it than that. What else did she say?”

Not very much else.

And yet so much.

A child’s birth. A mother’s death. A vow, a marriage, a cordae , each written in blood.

That I would find her, my sister’s daughter, but I couldn’t tell her she was damned until she lost everything—only to send her to some monster only she could find.

She wasn’t even born. She didn’t even have a name. But I wasn’t sure how to keep myself from hating her because I was certain I did. Whoever she was, whenever she came, I was sure I’d hate her simply for making my sister contemplate trading her own life for hers.

I sank my fingers through the roots of my hair, suffering their collected gaze as my thoughts spiraled away from me.

Until Pheolix kneeled on my other side, dropping a hand over my knee and reaching through my arms to find my chin.

He stroked the very tip of his thumb against my jaw, soft as a feather in the wind.

“Come on,” he said when I finally looked up at him. He took my hand, pulling me to my feet. “If I’m a cockroach, so is Cebrinne. They find lost Naiads on the island shore; let’s wait for her there.”

I let him lead me out.

Aegir’s gaze lay heavy across my shoulders as he watched us go.