Page 51 of The Dark Sea Calls

“The Siren Queen is a god?” I whispered, glancing at the door as if our conversation would summon her. I shook my head to clear it. “I don’t plan to stay, but I need to do something before we go.”

Rainn and Tor exchanged another look, but both stepped back.

I left the safety of the corner, feeling the loss of their embrace like a limb chopped off. I rolled my shoulders, summoning the smoke of bravery I wasn’t sure existed. I bypassed the first silvers, walking between the two rows. I refused to look at any of the mirrors for too long. Especially the Cruinn silver. I knew I had to touch the silver to activate its magic, but the hairs on my neck rose as if the opaque, tarnished surface was watching me.

Rainn gathered my plan before I reached the black marble wall on the other side of the room. Though I didn’t think he knew that the dark wall was meant to be a silver to Tuatha Dé Danann, he knew it led to the Kraken’s lair. Rainn opened his mouth to admonish me for what was no doubt a stupid plan before his teeth snapped together, and he decided against it.

I didn’t know if I could even open it. The Siren Queen told me that she couldn’t. That it was a portal to the gods. She has told the story with such sorrow as if she was homesick and unable to return—it began to make sense. She would be desperate to activate that portal if she was a god and couldn’t return home.

Only it didn’t lead to the gods.

It led to the Kraken.

Few things could destroy a silver, but I knew that a rush of water and a few tentacles would put the silvers out of commission, even just for a little while, hopefully long enough to stop the Siren Queen’s soldiers from needlessly dying for my uncle.

Tor and Rainn hung back as I approached the wall, my hand outstretched. “Get ready to run,” I warned as I reached forward, touching the cold hard marble. Its surface was so smooth that I saw my own face in it. For a moment, I felt nothing but frigid stone. Inert.

Something in my chest fluttered. I unclenched my teeth and got ready to shout.

The wall burst like a bubble, and a wall of salty ocean water poured out. It’s roar deafening but nothing compared to the shrill cry of the Kraken.

As soon as I heard the monster’s scream, I was already running through the gangway. Water rained down, filling the thirsty cavern. A shadow cast the room in darkness as a tentacle thrust itself through the portal. I ignored it, holding out my arms for Tor and Rainn to grab as we ate up the distance to the silver to the Reeds.

I looked back, taking a moment to stare at the portal as another red tentacle joined the first. It swiped the silvers on the other side, bashing them against the limestone wall and shattering their ornate frames in a burst of keening metal and raining glass.

Tor used his grip on my forearm to pull me through the Reeds' silver before it was destroyed along with the others. The icy surface swallowed us, and before we knew it, all three of us were thrown to the Kelpie’s kingdom—the Reeds.

It took a moment for my body to acclimate to the water. My feet left the slick stone floor, and the water wrapped around me like an excited pet bounding at my heels. I felt the Twilight Lake in every single drop around me. The miles and miles that had been my home and companion for many years.

My shoulders dropped as if I was boneless. Rainn caught me before my knees met the floor. I looked down and watched my periwinkle scales emerge from my skin. My gills folded out and sucked a lungful of water into my body. My head felt clearer than it had in ages. The dogged thirst that had lived at the back of my throat since I had run from the lake was finally quenched. I licked my lips, wondering how I had felt so thirsty for so long and never noticed.

It took a moment for the world to right itself after stepping through the silver to the Reeds. Tor turned back to the mirror and searched the room for a piece of fabric, finding a tapestry on one of the walls—he ripped it down, paying no mind to it’s value, and draped it over the mirror.

Something about the silver haunted me with its sea-glass frame. It was the twin of the silver I had sat in front of every day and ate lunch with. The one that had once held a happy family inside but had gone quiet long ago. Frowning, I thought of the yellow lights I sometimes saw in the darkness of that mirror and likened it to the golden sheen of a Kelpie in horse form and the way their eyes caught the light.

I shook my head to clear it. Deciding that my questions were for another day.

King Irvine had always spurned the silvers before, going as far as to call them cursed, much like Tor’s father had done. I had never seen him use one until this day.

I brushed my shaking hands down my dress, feeling the fabric drink the lake water and grow heavy on my body. I would need to change soon.

I took my time facing Rainn and Tor, unable to find words. I wondered if I should apologize for my emotional outburst or for unleashing the Kraken.

Life as an outcast child in Cruinn castle had not prepared me for many social situations. I wasn’t sure how far I could take their generosity. How long would it be before I became a burden and had to find my way again?

Tor and Rainn seemed to want to protect me from my uncle, but I didn’t know how long that protection would last if Tarsainn and Cruinn turned their sights on the Skala Isles or the Reeds.

The thought had crossed my mind once or twice—to allow them to use my body in exchange for protection. It wouldn’t be hard. I would enjoy it; I was sure of that.

Perhaps, as Cormac sought to make me his bride for his own whims, I would establish myself as someone needed by both Tor and Rainn.

Another thought crossed my mind. “Where’s Shay?” I asked, thinking about the Nymph amongst the princelings during my capture. “Is he with Cormac?”

Tor and Rainn exchanged glances before Rainn rubbed his hand over his mouth. “Shay has had to return to his village. The elders seek a marriage, and they wish to make a child to continue his bloodline. If the Mac Eoin bloodline does not continue, they must move away from the lake shores. The lake creeds distrust land -Fae in the best circumstances, but if the Mac Eoin bloodline dies, so do the Nymph’s ties to the Twilight Lake.”

“Poor Shay.” I frowned, unseeing as if I could see the path to the shore through the stone walls. “He didn’t want to marry Ilra.”

“And the Mad Queen’s prophecy speaks of all creeds coming together,” Rainn muttered.

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