Page 38 of The Dark Will Fall (Twilight Lake #5)

Maeve Cruinn

The moment light bloomed on the horizon, bathing the lake in a glow, we set off for Cruinn—following the devastation the Fomorians had left behind as they had trawled from Tarsainn to the Nymph Village, and bypassing the caves, that we had no hope of traversing unscathed.

My shift had been thrown away, and the only clothing I could find favored Nymph fashions.

Rather skimpy and made of animal skins that sucked up water like a sponge.

Though I thought I looked foolish, I didn’t complain.

My belly was full, and clean clothes were hard to come by.

A whole night’s sleep had changed my perspective immensely.

Although I was heading to Cruinn, I had as much desire to go as a lobster walking into a trap; I knew it was necessary.

Balor had taken Tormalugh. My Shíorghrá.

The knowledge that my Kelpie was at her mercy filled me with a fevered need to keep moving. Which Arden no doubt shared, as his mother was in Balor’s clutches as well.

Aside from the bleached coral and odd stillness in the lake, the water remained as it always had, as if it were dying but hadn’t quite realized. Evidence of Balor’s rage had left scars on the lakebed, where the fomorians had risen, and I had no idea how many more were in Cruinn.

As we swam through the Twilight Lake, I couldn’t help but think of the months before.

When Tor, Shay, Rainn, and I had made our way to Cruinn, I had asked them to distance themselves.

To protect them. Instead, it had done the opposite.

I had been naive then, believing Elaine to be what she had always presented herself as. King Irvine’s wife and nothing more.

I had no intention of letting Balor snip my bonds again.

I had no intention of being parted from my Shíorghrá.

I may not have known the depths of my magic then. Balor had quickly neutralized my magic without much effort, but I had other ways to protect myself, and this time, I wasn’t alone.

The lake felt strange. Subdued. It was eager to welcome me, but something clung to the water. The dull throb of an open sore.

As we swam towards Cruinn, it became evident that the fissure outside Tarsainn was not the only break in the lake bed.

The abyss had disappeared after King Irvine’s death, but it had returned in its entirety.

The thick black wall surrounding Cruinn had existed since I had been a youngling. A wall of shadows that had emerged in the wake of my mother’s death.

No one had known why the abyss had formed. Magic reacted strangely to strong emotions. It had been assumed at the time that the collective grief of the Undine had gained physical form to haunt the city's borders.

When years passed, and King Irvine took the throne, the abyss did not dissipate. Though it did not harm the Undine, it cut Cruinn off from the other creeds. Many had assumed it was a boon, such as the Reeds or the Skala Isles.

As we arrived at Cruinn, faced with the abyss that cloaked the trench surrounding the city, I was filled with dread. My head swam, and bile coated my tongue. The shadows were familiar, but not because they surrounded my home.

I had lived in Cruinn and stared at the abyss for years. How had I never noticed before?

My Shíorghrá clearly felt the same way I did.

“Black tears...” Shay Mac Eoin whispered.

“We cannot go through that mist.” Arden crossed his arms over his chest. “It will possess us.”

“It’s not dangerous,” I said, reluctantly. “At least, it has never harmed an Undine before.”

“Fomorians.” Cormac snarled. “How long has Balor been pulling those beasts from the Domhain? Collecting bodies to stuff them inside.”

“The abyss has been here for years .” I stared at the wall of darkness in awe.

We stood in a line, facing an impenetrable wall of shadows. Undulating, with flashes of teeth and claw that I had never noticed before.

Cormac Illfinn, Shay Mac Eoin, Rainn Shallows, Liam Cruinn, and Arden. All of us were determined to get into the city for different reasons.

Arden turned to face me. I hadn’t spoken to the siren, save for a few comments on the journey.

“I accompanied you on this journey because I could not locate my mother alone.” He told me, his face impassive.

I hadn’t asked how he could breathe underwater—I assumed that he shared the same bloodline that gave Shay his abilities.

Arden squinted, looking down his nose at me while simultaneously asking for help. A feat he seemed to have mastered.

“I do not plan to help you in your fight against Balor,” Arden said. “If my mother could not best them, then I would not fare much better.”

“The Fomorians will eat through this world, and then the Tuatha Dé Danann.” Cormac clenched his fists. “They will devour you, and your mother, then follow you to the afterlife and consume your souls there as well.”

Arden’s jaw hardened. “I have to protect my creed. I have left my sirens for too long already.”

“What you do here today affects your creed as well,” I said hotly. “Do you think Balor will stop once she’s taken the lake?”

Rainn lifted his hand. “She already sent a monster to the Siren Cove.” He said helpfully. “I’d say she considers the sirens her enemy already.”

“You should make a bargain.” Liam Cruinn, who had been silent until that moment, finally spoke. He said the words as casually as if he were discussing choosing what to eat for lunch.

“A bargain?” Arden spluttered.

“You do want us to aid you in rescuing your mother. Don’t you?” Cormac quirked a brow.

“My mother is Nuada!” Arden’s cheeks turned puce. “She is a god of the Tuatha Dé Danann! The Queen of Air and Darkness! How dare—”

I held up my hands in a disarming fashion. “Right now, your mother is a prisoner. If she is still alive.”

Arden’s nostrils flared. “All I need is for you to show me where Balor keeps her prisoners, and I will rescue her myself.”

“Why are we even fighting this overgrown seagull?” Cormac feigned a yawn. “All he can do is fly, and there’s nothing special about a pair of wings underwater.”

Rainn put a hand to his chest, acting as if he were offended. “I thought you only insulted me that way. I didn’t know you went around giving everyone that barbed tongue.”

Cormac narrowed his eyes. “Only if they’re fecking eejits.”

Shay cleared his throat, having walked the length of the abyss and back while we had been arguing. “Arden should wait in the city. Balor will only use him as leverage to get Nuada to do as she wishes.”

We all fell silent. He had a point.

A low rumbling sound echoed under our feet, a shower of pebbles, and the creak of the lakebed moving against its will. The abyss parted, revealing a single straight path to Cruinn.

Balor had noticed our arrival.

We walked through the gap in the abyss, and the lump in my throat refused to leave until we had cleared the darkness—feeling eyes on the back of my neck for the several minutes it took to swim through the gloom.

Despite the argument with Arden, he had surged forward into the abyss first. Leaving us all behind to chase after him.

The moment I stepped into Undine territory, my knees buckled and I struggled to stand. Shay Mac Eoin caught me before I fell to the lakebed.

My hands shook. “I can feel him,” I whispered. “Tormalugh.”

Shay glanced at the castle in the distance. “Is he hurt?”

“I don’t know.” No matter how hard my gills worked, I struggled to breathe. My magic seemed to be rearranging myself inside my body to accommodate my Kelpie and our bond. Tor ?

Maeve ? Tormalugh’s voice was weak.

I startled, and the connection snapped back, leaving my head smarting from the blow.

I couldn’t remember the last time Tor and I had shared a conversation without speaking a word.

I’d assumed it was a fluke, but perhaps my mother had been right.

Balor had done something to our bonds when she had pushed me onto the throne.

I closed my eyes, imagining my hands grabbing the dark threat inside my chest. Tor? Are you hurt ?

He did not answer my question. Where are you?

Cruinn . I told him. We’re coming for you .

Don’t — His words cut off abruptly. I tried to grab the thread again, but it had dispersed into shadow.

I told the others what Tor had said.

“It’s a trap,” Cormac said grimly.

We all agreed, but there was no other option.

One of Balor’s attendants came to get us on the edge of the city limits, but not before it became apparent that the number of Undine in Cruinn had shrunk significantly.

Gouges marked the stone streets, as if Undine had been dragged away, their claws scoring the streets in protest. The unmolested houses were barricaded, and our arrival did not go unnoticed as curtains twitched with more than the lake’s current.

Cruinn had changed. The water was poisoned like iron leaching into every drop. The presence I felt, the playful lake I had grown up with, was gone. Cruinn had been abandoned by the lake’s magic and replaced with Balor’s rage.

Liam showed no fear, although he displayed no particular emotions upon being back in the city. Perhaps it was just that I couldn't read his face as easily as I could with my friends.

Rainn, Cormac, and Shay would have been at the castle already, bursting down the door and into the dungeon if not for the slow gait of the attendant. An Undine with garnet adornments, and a blank expression that unnerved me.

The castle that had been my home for many years, so much so that I could not leave it, felt like nothing more than an old stone tomb.

As we approached the bridge to the courtyard, none of us dared say a word.

A lone figure stood at the base of the castle, dwarfed by the monstrous doors. Dressed in finery, made of a fine weave of netting that floated up like the fins of a beta fish.

She looked every inch the Undine female I had grown up with, simpering smiles and annoyed patience.

Elaine Cruinn.

Balor.