Page 76 of The Dark Sea Calls

The abyss split in two, parting like two hands holding back the water.

The darkness peeled back to reveal my uncle, the Undine King, and several of his most trusted inner circle.

The Undine King cast his empty gaze across the panicked forces of the Merfolk, the coral field bathed in shadow.

Cormac, still holding his trident, panting with exertion from his fight with Tor, straightened and faced my uncle. A series of expressions flitted across his face as if he was reliving several memories. Finally, Cormac reached up and scratched the scar above his heart, no doubt remembering the wound and how he had gotten it.

Though Sídhe were immortal and stopped aging once they had reached majority, the sheer magnitude of years between the Undine King and his entourage set them apart from the princelings around me, making them seem like children.

My uncle scanned his surroundings, searching the crowd for something or someone. Surprise blossomed when his eyes landed on mine, though he hid it quickly. He must have been looking for Liam, only to find me instead.

Ignoring the hundreds of soldiers marching on his city, King Irvine stepped out of the abyss and onto the battlefield—overlooking the golden tridents buried in the sand and the moans of the fallen soldiers with arrows in their backs.

The Sirens settled on the Cruinn castle walls, waiting ominously from a distance.

“Maeve!” My uncle cooed. “Come here. Come home.” He held out his arms.

Cormac swam forward, holding his trident in two hands across his body as a shield. “The Undine wretch is mine.” He snarled. “She pays for her crimes against Tarsainn.”

My uncle kissed his teeth. “And Liam? What of my stepson?”

Cormac didn’t answer him.

My uncle glued his gaze back on the soldiers, focusing on the royal entourage. “Give Liam to me.”

“No,” Cormac bit out.

King Irvine took in the four of us, Tor, Rainn, Cormac, and I. “Am I to walk away with nothing on this day?” the Undine King asked, amused.

“This isn’t your fight,” Cormac snarled.

“But it is.” My uncle took another step forward; the edges of his black robe twisted as if they were made of shadow. “You brought this battle to my doorstep.Youdemanded that I gift you my niece in exchange for my son. King Illfin, you barked like a dog to get my attention, and I can tell you now.You. Have. My. Attention.”

I stepped back, praying they would keep talking. I had to run. I had to escape.

I couldn’t go back.

I took a breath but choked on the water, feeling my chest fail to fill with the needed air. Wherever Cormac had stabbed me was vital, and I wasn’t Sídhe; I couldn’t heal in the ways that I needed.

I took another step, but my uncle’s dark eyes flicked back to me, stopping me cold.

“You cannot escape my magic. It is all around you. It is the dark, the deep, the abyss that you breathe. At the edge of your toes. If I lift my finger, it will swallow you whole.” My uncle grinned. His blank eyes bored into mine. “Not a single Fae on the other side of my abyss will escape. Eventually, it will grow. Fattened from their blood and magic. I’ll swath this lake in my darkness and wipe the slate clean. The Twilight Lake will belong to the Undine, as it was always meant to. And you, Maeve Cruinn, will die.”

I didn’t know what possessed me to speak, but I did.

“How do you expect to hold the lake when you can’t even sit on the High Throne?” I affected innocence. “Will the Undine follow you when you don’t even have what it takes to be king?”

Anger twisted his features, turning them ugly and frightening. It took everything in me not to flinch away. I recognized the expression; it usually accompanied a switch hitting the bare skin of my back. The hatred turned his features into a monstrous mask with no resemblance to the kindly, jovial king he played to his court.

His inner circle exchanged glances. Confusion painting their features.

My uncle lifted his hands, and I felt the temperature drop as his magic poured toward the abyss.

More people were going to die.

I stepped forward, mimicking his pose, pulling at the water, begging and pleading for strength though I could barely stand.

I glanced over my shoulder. “You have to get out of here,” I told Rainn, Tor, and Cormac. “As far away from the abyss as you can. Now.”

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