Page 155 of Disillusioned (A Lay of Ruinous Reign #2)

She sat up, groaning, eager to soak in more of its beauty despite the pressure of warning in her chest. She had landed hard on a mixture of cool stone and warm sand, silted and damp beneath her stinging, scratched palms. Her chains had broken in the fall, it appeared; she stretched and moved her wrists stiffly.

The fog was gone, and something about the way the breeze howled and scraped across the granite under her told her they were very, very high up.

Elbows bleeding, knees scraped, Lilac shifted on all fours and peeked over the nearby edge.

Her stomach dropped. Just an arm’s length away, pristine aquamarine waters trickled in their gentle swell below the jagged cliff edge, footed by a too-small beach shrouded in sea spray, bramble, and peculiar bushes of purple petals and round, blue flowers.

Garin lay beside her, chest rising, coughing as he stirred. He let out a strangled shout and shot to his feet—and was met face-to-face with a hulking shadowed figure whose teeth bared in his periphery.

He yelped and stumbled back, but Lilac caught him, dragging him away from the cliff’s edge with more strength than grace.

It was Lo?g . Under him, Bisousig threaded herself between his hooves.

Lilac seized Lo?g’s reins and tried to tug him toward firmer ground, when Morwenn emerged from behind the horse’s massive flank.

In her arms, she held the limp but stirring form of the Bugul Noz.

Without a second glance, the sea witch made her way to the cliff’s edge, where she dangled the creature’s body.

“No!” Garin reached for her, but it was too late.

The Bugul Noz fell gracelessly into the sea, landing with a plop before a wave rolled over him.

“He did nothing wrong,” said Lilac, the sheer height of the cliff making her dizzy. Garin gripped her arm.

“The sea is his cursed home. He’ll return to Ys, where he will be properly dealt with.

” Morwenn eyes glittered, shards of shell in wet sand.

“This is where I leave you both. You’ve got your steed with you, I see.

How convenient.” She smiled toothily at Garin, her rows of teeth covered in algae.

“That explains the one missing from the cavalry I summoned.”

Garin stiffened.

“Unfortunately, they’re inseparable from their tamers. I would’ve taken him back, but he’d be useless to me. Now, he’s yours. You’ll need him where you’re going.”

Lilac narrowed her eyes, the salt-wind tugging her hair across her face. Her grip tightened on the reins.

“You’ll make your way down to the beach,” Morwenn continued, gesturing toward the jagged descent behind them. “My galleon will collect you there and bring you to Ys.”

Lilac dared peek over the edge again. “There is no galleon.”

“It’s coming,” Morwenn replied. “Just as fate does, sometimes slow but impossible to outrun.”

“No.” Garin’s jaw was set. He uneasily eyed the waves tumbling over the base of the cliff. His voice was low and ragged as he mounted Lo?g with ease. “Let’s go.” He held a hand down to her.

Lilac didn’t need his Sanguine magic to obey. She gave him her hand, and he pulled her up, sitting her in the wide seat before him. “What are you doing?”

“We’re going home,” Garin said decidedly. “Back to the High Forest. I’ve changed my mind.”

Morwenn tilted her head as she stroked its snout. Lo?g whinnied at her, stomping his front legs.

Garin slipped his hands over the reins and tugged them left.

But Morwenn tutted, wagging her finger before Lo?g. “They’re our guests, and we’re going to make sure they get to the island safely. Where the rest of your brethren are.”

As Garin cussed and tried to tug to the right, Morwenn calmly bent, and straightened with Bisousig in one arm, kissing the struggling feline on the head.

The cat swiped, and the sea witch narrowly dodged it; Bisousig then turned in Morwenn’s arms and reached—for them, for Garin, caterwauling loudly.

Ignoring this, Morwenn tossed her hair over shoulder, baring herself, and sauntered past them, trailing her free fingers over first Lilac’s calf, then Garin’s. It didn’t look like it, but Morwenn’s skin was ice -cold. Clammy, like a corpse at the bottom of a cave.

As Garin clawed her off, dread festered within Lilac’s very bones. Her dreams of high cliffs and rocky shores—the towering, glittering palace with its twisting turrets like sea glass she’d witnessed in her slumber… those raging tides. They had been waking nightmares.

Below, the waves had begun to crash against the cliff, tremendous walls of barrelling water. The skies above darkened, and there it was again—the thick blue fog rolling in, obscuring the horizon.

“You’re rather fond of soirées, aren’t you, Your Majesty?

” The sea witch’s deep, husky laughter rumbled from behind them.

“Hurry up, then. You won’t have all day, and the ride to the island is several hours.

” She tilted her head at Garin. “You and my brother are our esteemed guests, and my dark creatures are so looking forward to welcoming the representatives of the High and Low Forests.”

Something began to nag, pull at Lilac’s subconscious again, stronger than fear. This had all gone wrong. The chest—Kestrel’s silence.

The revenant.

The stories were wrong ; this was more than a wayward princess left to drown. Morwenn was worse—was shaped by time, eroded by the forces of the sea. She was older than the Breton thrones, older than the skewed bloodline of Trécesson heirs.

“We’re leaving,” growled Lilac forcefully. She grabbed the reins and tugged herself, but her loyal horse seemed entirely ensnared in Morwenn’s gaze.

“I’m afraid the poor Strigoi is afraid of a little water, my dear Morvarc’h,” she cooed. “I thought that was an old wives’ tale.”

“ Morvarc’h? ” Garin snarled. His arms snagged around her, creating a protective cage, and together they scrambled to dismount—but it was too late.

With a tap on his rump, Mowenn sent Lo?g galloping toward the thin edge of the cliff. Garin contorted his body to throw them off to the side, but the reins they clutched came to life, latching onto them, securing them into place on the saddle.

The creature leaped, sending them plunging toward the crashing maw of sea below.