Page 106 of Cathmoir's Sons

Law sits up, his mouth working. Then he slumps. “Of course, my queen.”

She nudges him with her toes. “It’s not an order, my love. My team arrives in a few hours. I want them to meet Luca so he’s part of everything from the start.” I squeeze her shoulders in appreciation. “And I want Rhodes to be safe. I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to go anywhere alone at present. Maybe Bevington is safe. It’s well-warded. But the wards have been breached before. Better safe than sorry.”

My brother grumbles but nods.

“Rho, please come back as soon as you can,” Caileán says, her tone soft. “Once the shock has worn off, you’ll need to grieve. We’ll be here for you.”

Rho turns and looks at her, his expression crumbling into heartbreak. He shuffles the few steps around Law and sits beside Caileán, wrapping his arms around both of us. “Thank you.”

“Whatever happened, whatever happens, you’re not alone,” she says, burying her face in his collar. “We’re with you.”

He kisses her forehead. “I know.”

The meetingwith Kellan’s team a few hours later is anything but academic. Everyone has an opinion. None of them are shy about sharing them. Lots of the opinions concern Kellan’s glowing blue eyes.

I can’t imagine what they’d make of her crow mantle.

Rho’s observation that it’s harder and harder to tell between Kellan and Caileán is right. The boundary in her mind must be paper thin now. I call her Kellan in the meeting because that’s the name her teammates use. She doesn’t correct me. But I wonder if I’m using the right name as she watches everyone with those glowing blue eyes. She sits regally straight in her chair, her shoulders back, chin up. It’s not that Kellan slouches; she just doesn’t carry herself like a queen. Caileán does.

“How long will it take to get these beacon things in place?” asks Arch, who calls himself the team leader, even though Kellan seems to be in charge.

“Just call them transponders, would you?” Danny, the team’s tech-mage, replies. “Let’s say three days. Less if Kells’ Water mage comes back tomorrow.”

“With Viv’s gills and my Element as backup, we won’t need Rhodes to help place them,” Kellan says. “Two days. We’ll be ready.”

“Viv, how long can you hold the gills?” Arch asks.

“The more I’m transforming, the shorter I’ll be able to hold it. Two of you, an hour at a time. Three of you? Twenty minutes. It’s a drain.”

“Teams of two, then,” Arch says.

Kellan shakes her head. “Three for the first descent. I want Val with us in case Charybdis’ caves are warded. We’ll do three trips of twenty minutes each the first day then let Viv rest. Two trips of two for an hour the second day. That’ll do it.”

The ink mage nods gratefully.

“Other than strong currents, what will we face down there?” Arch asks. “No more shark gods at least.”

Kellan lifts her eyebrows at him. “No shark gods but there are plenty of sharks in the Med. Once the transponders are in place, I’ll create a vibration that will deter most sea creatures from entering our target zone. But something really angry, or really determined, will get through. Danny will keep watch for anything large enough to pose a hazard, but we all need to be on our toes, particularly during the first few dives before the magar’s up. Everyone get plenty of rest. If you’re struggling with the time change, let me know. Luca and I can sing you to sleep.”

There are nods from everyone seated around the villa’s polished wood table.

“Danny, Cami, any luck with the puzzle box?” Kellan asks.

The team’s Seer nods. “We’ve broken about half of the code?—”

“Brute force attack,” Danny interjects. “This code is a beast. No one without a dedicated cracker is going to break it.”

“Rowan’s team has impressive resources; don’t count on them not breaking it. What does it say? Is it coordinates?”

The Seer shakes her head. “It’s a poem. There are some repeated words, which has helped with the hacking.She who weeps. She who sleeps. She who controls the deepest deeps.”

“Just sounds like a description of Charybdis,” Arch grumbles.

“Not the weeping part,” Kellan says. “Charybdis is a creature of rage, not tears. But it suggests what we’re looking for is deep. Viv, how deep can we go with the gills?”

“Your dive to recover Sagoru’s statue is the deepest anyone’s gone that I know of.”

Kellan chews on her lower lip. “Four hundred feet at most.”

---