Page 36 of The Deep End of Death (Twilight Lake #4)

We dove into the Dark Sea, swimming over the underwater river, separated by the ledge of a charm.

The Dark Sea was much deeper than I had expected. Swimming to the ledges overlooking the underwater river took several minutes—though the chasm had looked deceptively close from the surface.

The river moved like a riptide, extending for miles. The sound was a roar the moment we dove under the surface.

The Dark Sea did not welcome me as the Twilight Lake did. It was not playful and eager to please. The Dark Sea sensed my presence with all the patience of a sleeping animal, opening a single eye and warily examining the threat.

I had caught a water-drake before but had no idea how to catch another one.

They were easily three times my size, with teeth as long as my forearm.

“Couldn’t we just... Dive into the river?” Rainn asked. “And hope the Naiad don’t catch us?”

Cormac scoffed, and his crimson red tail flicked with agitation. “We need a guide.” He eyed the fast-moving water. “Or we won’t survive.”

“Bait.” Shay declared, tapping his lip. His eyes flashed a thoughtful grey. “We need bait.”

As soon as we had entered the sea, every fish had disappeared. We were predators.

Rainn flashed a bright grin, flicking his silver hair out of his eyes. In one swift movement, he pulled his arms around his chest and kicked his legs—shifting as his body spun. A grey seal bobbed in the water where Rainn Shallows had floated a moment before.

The seal took off, slicing through the water at high speed.

“Show off,” Cormac muttered, crossing his arms.

“He needs to stir up enough blood to attract a water-drake.” Shay frowned, craning his neck as he searched for Rainn in the dark water.

Rainn was so far away I could no longer see him.

I tasted blood in the water.

“We should follow him.” I chewed my bottom lip.

Shay gave me a knowing look. “We really should.”

Rainn had managed to stir up a school of yellow and blue fish, darting through the crowd and picking up the stragglers.

Every youngling had received an education about edible fish and fish to avoid. Rainn had picked one of the most toxic fish possible. Blood churned the water, leaving it cloudy.

Rainn flashed a sharp-toothed seal smile our way, and Cormac pinched the bridge of his nose.

I could almost hear the Mer-King’s thoughts, though he did not speak them.

There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to ambush a water-drake—a fish larger than three of us together.

I exhaled a breath, feeling the water rush through my gills. The blood was hard to ignore. Even with the stone wrapped in fabric, it pulsed like another heartbeat. I tried to expand my consciousness as I would in the Twilight Lake, but it felt like stretching a forgotten limb.

Had I become reliant on the stone for so long that my skills had rotted, or had the stone made me more powerful—disabling me without it?

My jaw clenched as I searched the water with my magic but came short. I closed my eyes, frustrated as I continued pouring through every drop. The vastness of the Dark Sea pushed back like a grumpy beast.

“Maeve!” Shay called out, gripping my ankle and pulling me down in the water. My stomach flew to my throat, and my eyes opened wide.

I was greeted by a mouthful of very sharp teeth.

The water-drake sailed over my head, and I hadn’t even felt it. I’d been blinded. Made useless.

Shay pushed me behind him, pulling his blade from the holster at his waist. The obsidian edge was jagged, just like the blade he had given me to fight Charybdis.

Cormac let out a raucous laugh, holding his belly as the beast rounded on our group. “Shay! Blade!”

Cormac often used a sword or a trident, but I had no doubt he was equally skilled with a dagger. Cormac swam to us, hand outstretched. Shay passed him the dagger without hesitation.

I’d never seen Cormac Illfinn use magic.

The Mer-King favored using his hands. He was a soldier trained to kill.

One moment, the blade looked almost tiny in Cormac’s meaty fists.

His green eyes flashed, and the dagger grew until it was thinner but much longer.

A harpoon. The edge was sharp, and the weapon was long enough to help him avoid the water-drakes teeth.

“Glamour.” Cormac declared, out of breath from the magic use. “Good for one hit, but that should be all I need.”

The water was silent. The fish had swum away.

Before I could ask where Rainn had gone, a shrill scream echoed from the ledge below.

The water-drake had cornered Rainn, and Rainn had responded by biting its flank, holding on as the beast bucked like a wild horse. The water-drake’s silver body twisted, its blood tainting the water as it stirred up the silt on the ledge.

The two bodies rolled, and the current of the underwater river pulled them dangerously close to the river.

Cormac dove forward, his arm pulled back and his harpoon ready. But he couldn’t make the final blow. Rainn’s body was in the way.

I called Rainn’s name, but Shay and I were too far away.

The water-drake dragged Rainn across the stone ledge, and my Selkie let out a pained scream, finally letting the monstrous fish go.

Cormac speared its belly, the thick flesh broken and leaking ichor into the sea. The water-drake did not make a sound as it struggled, its tail thrashing from side to side before it finally stopped moving.

Rainn flopped back on the ledge, spent and covered in scratches but otherwise unharmed.

“That thing put up quite a fight.” Shay joked though I knew he was worried.

Cormac wiped his brow. “We can only hope that one of the Naiad have seen the struggle and come to investigate.”

I nodded my agreement, my hand instinctively reaching for the stone strapped to my chest.

The stone!

My piece of the High Throne had disappeared. Panic pushed my stomach to my throat as I swam back. My fingers shook as I searched the ledge. I had dropped it, trying to escape the Water-drake.

Rainn shifted from his seal form, rubbing a cut on his face with a wince.

I spotted the stone on the ledge. Balanced on the lip of the chasm surrounding the fast-moving water.

It was close enough. I could swim and grab it before the others realized it was gone.

I wasn’t ashamed of losing it, but I didn’t want them to look at it. Touch it. It was mine.

I felt the current as I took advantage of their distraction.

I reached for the stone. I needed to keep it safe.

I’d almost lost it and the magic it held.

The moment my hand clasped the stone, starlight burst through my vision, stealing my breath. The sensation was heady and powerful. I’d been blind moments before, but as my fingers touched the pitted edge of the Kraken’s eye, I felt everything. Saw everything.

I laughed, lifting the stone over my head, triumphant.

“Maeve!” Rainn screamed my name. He sounded so frightened. It didn’t make sense.

My foot slipped, and I fell into the Wash, still cradling the stone like a newly born.

The rushing water swallowed my scream. A crimson flash filled my vision as Cormac grabbed my wrist, his eyes wide as we were pulled into the Wash.

Everything hurt.

The water was too much. Pushing itself into my eyes, ears, and down my throat, swelling my belly.

I tried to gather my magic. I tried to push back against the ancient presence of the Dark Sea, but nothing gave. The Dark Sea was too big. Too powerful.

I drew my knees to my chest, protecting the stone with my entire body. Cormac tried to hold on, but the water pulled us apart.

I caught his crimson tail at the edge of my vision. As we slammed into each other along with other debris, we suffered our journey in silence.

It was too much.

I gripped the stone, begging it to give me power. My eyes shut tight, and my teeth clenched.

“ Give me the power to end this. Give me the power to save myself!” I pleaded, unable to push the words past my lips, all sound swallowed by the Wash.

Everything went black.

“CALDER!”

Elaine’s face filled my vision, edged with shadows as if looking through a distorted mirror.

Her cheeks were rounder, flushed with color.

Her eyes filled with tears, marking her face with red raw skin.

I’d never seen my uncle’s wife show any emotion save from simpering smiles or anger that simmered below the surface—manifesting as twitching eyelids or flared nostrils.

Even as Balor, Elaine had maintained a superior kind of smugness that made me want to tear her dark hair out of her skull.

“Calder! Wake up! Please!” Elaine begged, shaking me, but I could not move. “PLEASE!”

I blinked. Darkness dragged.

When I opened my eyes again, my mother’s face filled my vision. Her expression was one of love, tenderness, and sadness borne of absence.

“You’re back.” Belisama closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. “ Dadga .”

The Wash spat me out like a mouthful of sludge. I landed in the silt, dirt drifting up from the sea bed. I coughed, my mouth filled with blood. My hand a tight fist around the stone.

It took a moment for my mind to come back; the vision of my mother burned into my eyelids.

I had to go back. I had to know what had happened.

Dagda. My mother had said the name. The God of Gods. The ruler of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Had Dagda come to the Aos Si? Had he stolen a body from someone the way Nuada had?

I shook my head to clear it, unable to lift myself from the sea bed.

I was so tired.

Clothes torn, covered in cuts.

I wasn’t sure how long I laid in the silt before the Wash spat out a Mer. Cormac Illfinn landed by my side, face down and bleeding.

Another moment passed before Rainn and Shay fell out of the fast-rushing water. They must have followed us.

Foolish.

Rainn scrambled to his feet, his head darting from side to side as he took in our surroundings. He cursed under his breath.

Cormac groaned, wiping the blood from his brow. “What?” He grumbled.

Shay winced, holding his side. “Let’s not do that again.”

“The journey would have been better if we waited for the Naiad.” Cormac snapped, rolling onto his back. “I’m missing several scales.”

“It wasn’t my idea to jump into the Wash.” I swallowed the lump in my throat, tasting blood on my tongue.

“I know where we are,” Rainn whispered.

I looked up, examining our surroundings for the first time. A small cavern, dim, save for the glowing algae and the gap in the rocks showing the fast-moving water of the river behind it.

“Where are we?” Shay pressed his hand to his head, wiping the blood from his forehead.

Rainn had crept to the other side of the cavern while we’d been on the floor, rolling and moaning. Rainn leaned forward, peering through the small break in the rock, big enough for a single person.

“The Kraken’s lair,” Rainn whispered.

Cormac swore.

The stone knew. It had brought me here.

“It’s time.” Shay reached out, placing his hand on my shoulder. “We’ll drop the stone in the cave and swim for the surface.”

Something had stolen my voice.

I wanted to argue with him, but I couldn’t.

Cormac and Rainn agreed as they discussed the plan with hushed voices.

I cradled the stone to my chest. The pitted surface of the stone was marked with my blood.

I pushed myself from the dirt and moved to Rainn’s side. He gestured to the crack in the rock, but it was hard to see through the darkness.

When Rainn and I had been cornered by the Kraken before, there had been several ledges and cracks to hide in.

I couldn’t see the Kraken, but that didn’t mean much. The beast was large enough to traverse huge distances quickly. If it sensed us in its home, there was no telling what it would do—even bearing its eye as a gift.

We waited for Shay and Cormac to join us before we squeezed through the crack one by one. Pressed against the slick rock of the cavern.

The stone throbbed in my hands, and it was hard to think. It was too dark to see much at all.

The chasm was deep enough that I couldn’t hope to see the bottom. Without the glowing algae, all light had dissolved, leaving nothing but touch.

Cormac cradled his hands, breathing a ball of faelight into existence. He flung it in the air, and the weak ball of light bobbed for a moment, hanging in the open water of the chasm.

All I had to do was throw the stone off the edge and swim.

But I couldn’t bring myself to loosen my fingers.

The walls of the chasm began to shift, moving as if alive.

The ledge under our feet shook, and stones rained down, floating into the abyss below.

Every inch of the chasm was coated in tentacles.

The Kraken had been here the whole time.