Page 98 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

I swam as if my life depended on it; though I knew it was a dream, my mind had a more challenging time discerning reality than expected.

Trident clashed against sword, and the shockwave of the two weapons meeting made the water pulse. A ripple rang out miles across the vast expanse that had once been a battlefield.

My uncle never left Cruinn. All his plotting and planning was done from behind the castle walls, protected by the Abyss surrounding the grounds like a moat.

When I finally reached the two men, it was as if they could not see me, as they continued to fight as if their lives depended on it. The sand on the lake floor kicked up and clouded the water, making it difficult to see, but my uncle and Cormac swam up, higher and higher, as they fought like two men with nothing to lose.

“You killed my father!” Cormac snarled, his shout so loud and full of pain that it made my lungs seize.

In his calm and benevolent way, my uncle smiled even as he blocked a blow to the head from Cormac’s weapon. He said nothing in response to Cormac’s allegations.

I couldn’t breathe. Cormac’s father had been killed by guards. He had tried to take the High Throne, hadn’t he?

I was very aware of the fact that whatever I was seeing was a dream.

I didn’t know what to think, feel, or believe, and beyond that, I wasn’t in the habit of believing my uncle to be anything other than an evil bastard. Still, if my uncle had killed the mer-king, he had started the war that had ravaged the lake for almost fifteen years. Not yet defended against it.

“I brought you here to end this madness,” my uncle called back. “I brought you here so that no more of our people have to die.”

“You should have thought of that before killing hundreds of innocent merfolk!” Cormac screamed and raised his trident.

“Just as you killed hundreds of undine.” My uncle parried the blow and hung his head for a moment as if giving up entirely. Tired of the whole ordeal.

Cormac faltered, his hand dropping as he caught my uncle’s stance. There was no honor in dealing a blow to a fae with his head down in what appeared to be mourning.

I screamed, but Cormac didn’t appear to hear me.

Just as I had witnessed hundreds of times before, my uncle used the mercy of his opponent against them. The moment Cormac approached, he jammed the blade up, scoring the skin on the merman’s chest and leaving a scar.

The same scar that Cormac wore proudly across his heart.

Cormac staggered back, his hand clasped over his chest as blood pumped through his fist and dispensed in the water. “I will kill everything you love. Everything you hold dear. I will find every mark you make on this world and erase it. I will take every trace of you there is, and I will make it bleed before I turn it to foam.”

My uncle bared his teeth in a gesture that I never realized I had inherited from him before turning on his heel and swimming away like the coward he was.

My eyes met Cormac’s, and then we woke up.

Chapter 19

Cormac had called a meeting with his mother and advisors before naming so many names that I lost count of the roster.

Rainn woke up after a nap, bleary but alert, as he remained seated and watched Cormac pace while he finished the platter of food on the armoire. Tormalugh stood quietly, with his back against the wall. His entire body was so still that only his dark curls shifted with the dull current of the water. Shay laid back on the bed and closed his eyes, paying no notice to me as I sat by his side, my words bubbling in my throat like a boiling pot of soup.

Cormac had barely spoken, save for asking what had happened while sleeping. While Tor revealed my time in the dungeon, I fixed my eyes on the edge of the bed and drifted away.

I felt Cormac’s eyes burning into my skin, but I couldn’t bear to look at him.

Before long, a steward came to the door and informed Cormac that his audience was ready.

Nothing had been said about the dreams and his waking or how he had come to be ensnared in the weaving in the chasm.

The others gave Cormac a wide berth as if they couldn’t quite pin what had changed with the mer-king but noticed that something had. Even I, who did not know Cormac well beyond finding him to be the most irritating of creatures, noticed that something had changed in him.

I pressed my fingers to my lips, remembering our kiss. I was confident that Cormac did not remember, and if he did, he probably regretted it. I didn’t know how to feel about it all. I knew how Cormac tasted; I knew how his tongue felt against mine and the warmth of his skin under my fingers.

We left the room, following the steward through the castle. Several guards noticed my presence, but their eyes widened when they saw that Cormac was awake. Indecision wracked their features behind their helmets.

As soon as the doors to the throne room opened, a wave of chattering and excitement stopped immediately. The entire room held their breath as Cormac strode forward.

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