Page 30 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

“It looks like an altar,” Nyxen said, following her gaze.

“If we loop around the lake, we might find another path to it, but then we’ll have to spend the night on the island.

” He knelt, feeling the damp earth beneath his fingers.

The stone path started a couple of feet beyond, underwater.

“I can cross it faster than that. The water doesn’t look like it’ll pass higher than my chest.”

He wasn’t sure. None of them were. The lake was too wide to ascertain that from the bank.

Calla was working out how to convince the others to stand by while she crossed the lake–murky, nasty water was still water , and it would certainly take the edge off even if she didn’t get to wear her skin–when Nyxen, still crouching, reached a hand toward the surface of the water.

He didn’t see it rippling in anticipation, didn’t smell the sudden scent of decay wafting off it.

Calla snatched the back of his shirt, jerking him back.

Too late. A rotting hand shot out of the water and grabbed his wrist. A moment later, a blade sliced clean through it.

Gadrielle, gripping her unsheathed sword, looked down at the severed hand in horror.

Nyxen, too, stared wide-eyed at the seaweed-covered fingers still clawing his wrist. A few breaths later it disintegrated to dust, joining the dirt he laid on.

Calla dragged him away as more hands reached from the surface of the water, slow and grasping.

The lake was crawling with them. They retreated beneath the surface as everyone stumbled out of their reach.

Calla helped Nyxen back to his feet, heart racing. “You okay?” she asked, unable to drag her eyes from the water. It was still, inexplicably, calling to her.

Nyxen rubbed his wrist, wincing. “Just a bruise, nothing to worry about.” He glanced back at the jungle they left behind.

It didn’t seem threatening anymore, but rather like it was keeping a safe distance away from the dangers of the grasping lake.

“I’ve been trying to explain this and the dreams away, but maybe the others were right.

” His voice got quieter, pensive. “There’s no making sense of anything here. Maybe the trees were moving.”

Calla pressed her lips together, nodding in thought, forcing her gaze away from the water.

“We’ll go around the lake, see if there’s a safe path for the altar,” she said finally.

That was their only choice. There was no telling what would happen if they got stuck on the island overnight, but leaving without the clue was not an option.

She was fraying at the edges, and it would only get worse from here.

Next time there might not be a Gadrielle to keep her in check.

“We need to get to that altar.” She felt it in her bones that it held what she needed.

“Move fast and keep clear of the water. Let’s go. ”

With a sharp nod, Gadrielle followed. Nyxen lingered behind, staring at the lake. Calla glanced at what had gotten his attention, doing a double take when she saw Draven approaching the water.

Draven’s face was blank as he walked, as if in a daze. The water rippled. Calla’s skin crawled. “There’s something there,” he said. “It’s calling.”

It was calling. Calla felt it too, tugging at her limbs, whispering sweet release if she’d just let go. She’d assumed it was her selkie side, but she might have been wrong this entire time. Had the craving been this bad back on the Moonshadow?

“Draven!” she shouted after him. “Leave it! Let’s go .”

He didn’t hear her at all.

As Draven’s boot sank in the water with a squelch, Nyxen shook himself out of his frozen state and made to go after him.

Do not let him. That one cannot be saved. Or would you feed the both of them to the lake? What use do these humans serve to you, besides holding you back?

Calla’s hand shot out, grabbing Nyxen’s arm and stopping him in place–her grip vice-like, not to be argued with.

“Don’t,” she said, as if through a haze.

What was that? Was that truly her? Was her heart that dark, that she could think that?

Nyxen shot her a disbelieving glare. Draven kept walking, the water up to his knees. The others watched him with bated breath. “He’s going to die!”

“He’s already dead.” It was Gadrielle this time, her voice a hush as she looked on.

There was nothing else they could do.

Nyxen tried to get out of Calla’s grip, but she didn’t let him.

They all watched as the water made it to Draven’s waist. Then past his belly.

He stopped, his lips moving–murmuring something to the water, to something beneath.

In the next moment, he tilted his head, listening.

Suddenly he turned his face up to the suns and laughed loudly, as if he’d been told a joke.

That was when the hands reached out, gripping his clothes, his shoulders, his head.

They dragged him into the water. Draven went down still laughing.

The laughter turned to gurgles as the water passed his chin, and died off. Only air bubbled up in its stead.

And then everything was still.

Calla let go of Nyxen’s arm. He didn’t move. He just stared.

“We could’ve saved him,” he said quietly, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

After long moments of silence, something shifted in the air, as if a wrong had been righted.

“Look,” Gadrielle said, frowning.

The lake… shrank. In front of their eyes, the water drained, the soil beneath suddenly a dry sponge, impossible to satisfy. In moments, it was all gone.

The stone path lay empty and dry ahead of them.

An invitation.

They looked at each other, a silent understanding passing between them. As they walked along the path, there was no sign of corpses–no sign of Draven. No one talked until they reached the altar in the middle.

It was more of a stone pillar than an altar, half buried in the ground, moss crawling at its feet. Strangely familiar symbols covered every inch of it, and its top was a smooth, even cut. Somehow Calla knew something used to lie there. Was she too late? Had someone else already found the clue?

At the thought that this had all been for nothing, Calla’s chest tightened. Her breathing came fast.

“Here,” Gadrielle said from the other side of the pillar. She’d been circling it, and now she was crouched down at its back, picking something up. As she stood again, she handed it to Calla. “I think this is what we’re looking for. Or part of it, at least.”

The item was a piece of a stone tablet, not unlike the one Calla already owned. As soon as she touched it, her fingertips skimming familiar warnings spelled in an unfamiliar language, she knew Gadrielle to be right. A piece was missing, though.

“Search the grounds, see if there’s anything else,” she instructed the others, packing the tablet away.

When Aelion drooped in the sky and nothing else was found, they headed back down the path they came.

That was when they noticed the jungle. All the trees were dead. Perhaps they’d always been dead.

At the sight, Nyxen’s face darkened with anger. “It didn’t have to happen like this. We could’ve done more.”

“Nyxen–”

“Save it.” He shrugged Calla off, rushing ahead.

As she watched Nyxen’s back, Calla knew Draven wasn’t the only thing lost on this island.

Aelion hung low on the horizon once their group made it back to the dinghies, Sable’s crew dark silhouettes against the mist at their backs.

They paced back and forth, waiting. Calla could only tell which one was Thorian, the man’s shadow looming over the rest of them.

One of the smaller silhouettes noticed their approach and alerted the others, then started waving enthusiastically.

As Calla got closer and the energetic silhouette’s movements halted, her stomach tied in a knot. A few more steps, and she made out Venn’s features. Once they got close enough to make out the confusion on Venn’s face, Calla’s mouth went dry, and she swallowed, bracing for what would come next.

Venn jogged over, then a little ways past them, peering at the dead, blackened trees at their backs as if his brother might be following at any moment. When nothing moved, Venn called over his shoulder, still staring at the trees, “Where’s Draven? Did he get held up or something?”

Calla momentarily closed her eyes, took in a sharp breath, and shrugged into her captain’s coat. Gadrielle opened her mouth to say something, but Calla stopped her with a shake of her head. This was her responsibility.

Everyone stayed quiet.

Calla approached Venn, setting a firm hand on his shoulder. “Venn,” she said, drawing his gaze. “Draven is not coming.”

Venn frowned. “What do you mean, he’s not coming?”

“He’s dead. I’m sorry.”

A sharp shake of his head, a slight tremble in his voice as his eyes settled on the trees again. “That… No. What?”

She squeezed his shoulder, and let her hand drop. She forced the words out while he was still disbelieving–still willing to listen to her. “There was a lake. It… took him. There was nothing we could do.”

Nyxen’s earlier accusation echoed in her mind as she voiced the last sentence, making it feel like a lie.

It didn’t have to happen like this. We could’ve done more.

Calla shook it off.

Venn heard her, but clearly those weren’t the words he’d wanted to hear.

He looked at the others, silently asking them to contradict her, tell him she was making this whole thing up.

That this wasn’t real. That it was all a joke.

The pirates didn’t say any of that. They looked away, to their feet, at the mist, anywhere but at the hopeful look on Venn’s face.

Only Gadrielle and Nyxen met it head on.

They both gave him grim shakes of their heads.

Venn’s face crumpled, his shoulders slumping with the weight of the news. He took a few quick breaths in succession, and Calla wondered whether he was trying to keep himself from crying, but then she noticed his hands. His fists. Shaking with rage.

His lip curled as he pointed a finger at her. “Where were you ? You were supposed to look after him. After us. How did he just get taken by a fucking lake?”

Calla hated to do it, but she straightened her back, setting upon him what she knew to be a flinty, cold expression.

She’d practiced it so many times in the mirror as a youth.

“Watch it, boy,” she said, standing her ground even as the bigger, taller brother got all up in her face.

“You both knew when you volunteered to come onto this island that there would be risks, and you are both grown men. Save locking you below deck, I cannot guarantee your safety and I never claimed I could.” She let her voice soften, gently grabbing the wrist of his still pointing hand.

“We’re all doing the best we can to look after each other.

Today, our best wasn’t enough. I am sorry. ”

She meant it, but it was hard to believe that when Nyxen turned and walked away with a soft scoff. When Venn’s lip curled in a sneer.

He looked her square in the eye and spit at her feet. “Fuck you, captain . We never should’ve trusted you.”

Venn stormed off, an angry twitch of his shoulder shrugging off any sympathizing touches.

As she met Sable’s gaze, Calla could not tell what her second was thinking. She kept her own expression blank as they set out back towards the ship.

You’re losing your crew, captain. What are you going to do about it?